The Gospel According to The Bee Gees

John Lennon once sang, "Nobody told me there'd be days like these, strange days indeed..." and I believe it.  Its kind of a catch phrase, or something you say to someone to tell them that its been "one of those days"... you know, when you ask someone, "You ever have 'one of those days'?"

I want to preface this by saying that my "one of those days", when put into perspective, is diddlypoop... my friend MZ had her husband struck in the face by a car last weekend.  Painting in a parking lot of his restaurant, he was hit by a car.  I won't go into details, but I will say he's beat up pretty bad.  I saw both of them today and she's exhausted, having spent most of her week at the hospital, and he's in constant pain from what the doctors are having to do.

Then you have Kristi, the wife of Andy, who is the middle school pastor at Valleydale Church (an sbc fellowship, natch).  Kristi's brother was hit by a car in Tuscaloosa a few days ago.  And this morning, they took him off of life support. 

So... my issues and daily grumblings mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

But truly, Mr. Lennon, no one told me there'd be days like these... well, that's not true.  Anyone who's read Scripture will tell you that there are always days like these.  Strange days indeed.

Because of MZ's absence, I've been at work by 435 in the morning every day this week, but I'm not complaining... usually that puts me off of work by mid-afternoon.  Well, Tuesday morning, I woke up a little later than I wanted... I am out of the shower and walking out the door at 430, but this day I woke up at 430.  I did that "disoriented, staring at the clock, trying to figure out what is going on and what time it is and what I'm supposed to be doing" thing when you wake up at an abnormal time.  Skipping my shower, I didn't get to work until about 450, almost 5am, and it threw me completely off.

I spilled coffee grounds all over my sandwiches.

I dropped my tray of sandwiches all over the floor.

One of our registers went down.  Again.

One of our girls got her schedule mixed up and was really late.

I got confused on the order I was supposed to be putting in.

And I really, really, REALLY wanted a shower.  Seriously. 

So, I'm standing at the bar, making drinks, steaming some soy to go into a venti no water no foam 6 pump soy chai, and contemplating.  Well, I guess I wasn't contemplating, it was more of a "well, this is just great, this day is turning out to be a real winner, gee whiz..." in the most mental sarcastic tone I could muster. 

The music that plays in the cafe is hard to hear when you are behind the bar.  Sometimes you hear it, sometimes the noise of steaming pitchers mixed with blenders mixed with the general ambiance of a Starbucks cafe at drive time can prevent you from hearing anything happening out in the cafe, regardless of the fact its a few feet away.

Well, on this morning, I heard something.  Namely, I heard The Bee Gees.  Starbucks has this "Opus" series, which for each artist represented, is a collection of their most famous, best and sometimes most powerful work... I actually own the Marvin Gaye Opus, and its quite good ("Can I Get a Witness" is remarkable).  Currently, we are selling The John Lennon Opus and now, The Bee Gees Opus, and to support it, there is a Bee Gees playlist with "Stayin' Alive", "More Than a Woman", "Islands in the Stream" and the song I heard overhead at this moment... "How Deep Is Your Love".

And for some reason, it made me think of God.  It made me think of our Creator, the One who loves us.  Me.  And as the chorus played, and I thought about my morning as a whole, it suddenly didn't seem that bad.  I thought to myself, "God, how deep is your love, how deep, is your love, how deep.... is your love.  I'm living in a world of fools, breaking me down, when they all should let me be..."  The "na na na nana" played, though that didn't seem as fitting.

How deep is Your love, God, how deep is Your love,
How deep is Your love.
Cause we're living in a world of fools, breaking us down.
When they all should let us be.
I belong to You, not me. 

I believe in You. You know the door to my very soul.  Your the light in my deepest darkest hour, Your my Savior when I fall, and though it may not seem that I care for You, You know deep down inside I really do.  And every day You show... How deep is Your love, God, how deep is Your love...

And somehow, through the shrill voice of Barry Gibb, things were a little better.  Sometimes I just need a reminder.

Strange days, indeed.  Strange days indeed.