{"id":341,"date":"2020-04-08T10:50:35","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T17:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/e-votional\/e-votional-april-8-2020\/"},"modified":"2020-04-08T10:50:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T17:50:35","slug":"e-votional-april-8-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/e-votional\/e-votional-april-8-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"E VOTIONAL APRIL 8 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC <\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm 96:1 O sing a new song to the Lord. <\/em><\/p>\n

On September 18, 1979 the Swedish pop band ABBA came to Portland, Oregon, where we were living, and where I was serving as pastor of Westminster Presbyterian church. I didn\u2019t know it then, but I realize now that ABBA was one of the greatest pop bands in history, selling over 360 million records. You all know \u201cMamma Mia,\u201d \u201cDancing Queen.\u201d and \u201cFernando\u201d.<\/p>\n

In every city on their North American tour they found children to sing one song with them. It was \u201cI Have a Dream.\u201d I don\u2019t know how it happened but their producer got in touch with the director of our children\u2019s choir at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Winner Mercer, and asked her if the children would sing with ABBA . My daughter, Amie, was 9 years old then, and she didn\u2019t understand that she would be on stage with four singers who had taken the musical world by storm. (By the way, her parents got free tickets to the concert, tickets that were selling at a handsome price!)<\/p>\n

Stay with this thought for a moment while I refer you to a study by the British Academy of Sound Therapy called \u201cMusic as Medicine.\u201d According to this study it only takes 13 minutes of listening to music to experience decreased negative thoughts, peace and contented feelings, and the ability to sleep better. The best music for relaxing has a slow tempo with a simple melody and no lyrics. And it only takes nine minutes of music to feel an uplift\u2013ideally songs with driving rhythm, fast tempo and positive lyrics.<\/p>\n

In my previous two E Votionals I have talked about laughter as a stress reliever, how a Mayo Clinic study reveals that laughter can relieve tension, release endorphins, and free our minds from negative thoughts. I said in those E Votionals that God loves a good joke, and now I would add, loves a good song.<\/p>\n

Turn off the news on t.v. and turn on some music which you love. Sit down, close your eyes, and let the music wash over you. Laughter is the best medicine, and music is not far behind.<\/p>\n

And now for a treat, listen to one of ABBA’s most inspirational hits, \u201cThank You For the Music\u201d sung by Agnetha Folkskog.<\/p>\n

Cut and paste in your web browser<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0dcbw4IEY5w<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are the lyrics:<\/p>\n

I’m nothing special, in fact I’m a bit of a bore
\nIf I tell a joke, you’ve probably heard it before
\nBut I have a talent, a wonderful thing
\n‘Cause everyone listens when I start to sing
\nI’m so grateful and proud
\nAll I want is to sing it out loud
\nSo I say
\nThank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
\nThanks for all the joy they’re bringing
\nWho can live without it? I ask in all honesty
\nWhat would life be?
\nWithout a song or a dance, what are we?<\/p>\n

So I say thank you for the music
\nFor giving it to me
\nMother says I was a dancer before I could walk
\nShe says I began to sing long before I could talk
\nAnd I’ve often wondered, how did it all start?
\nWho found out that nothing can capture a heart
\nLike a melody can?
\nWell, whoever it was, I’m a fan<\/p>\n

So I say
\nThank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
\nThanks for all the joy they’re bringing
\nWho can live without it? I ask in all honesty
\nWhat would life be?
\nWithout a song or a dance, what are we?
\nSo I say thank you for the music
\nFor giving it to me<\/p>\n

I’ve been so lucky, I am the girl with golden hair
\nI wanna sing it out to everybody
\nWhat a joy, what a life, what a chance<\/p>\n

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing
\nThanks for all the joy they’re bringing
\nWho can live without it, I ask in all honesty
\nWhat would life be?
\nWithout a song or a dance what are we?
\nSo I say thank you for the music
\nFor giving it to me<\/p>\n

So I say
\nThank you for the music, for giving it to me<\/p>\n

Prayer: Thank You, God, for the music, for giving it to me. Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC Psalm 96:1 O sing a new song to the Lord. On September 18, 1979 the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-votional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriapresbyterianchurch.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}