Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions. All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:
“He is good;
    his love endures forever.”
Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.

• 2 Chronicles 5:11-14

The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No worker of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again.

• Revelation 18:22

A couple of week’s ago, I wrote a quiz, and, in the notes, I talked about my son’s new job.  Now that he has been both a choir director and an orchestra director at a middle school for a couple of weeks, I can talk about it a little.

When he arrived, he took a tour of the classroom.  There were no pieces of music anywhere.  Someone had cleaned out all the cabinets and the desk.

Then he looked at the orchestra instruments.  One of four basses was functional.  The cello’s and viola’s were less than 50% usable.  And he has yet to find the first violin.  As classes started, he found that the advanced students had their own instruments.  So, he had one class that he could actually teach.

He borrowed some violins.  He borrowed a ton of string music for beginners and intermediate.  And he started learning how to find music online.

He has found ways to get to know the children that are not even in his classes.  He has found ways to connect with many of the different cultures within the school, children from several different ethnicities and backgrounds, from nearly every continent and a variety of island nations.

I could go on, and I may in future posts, but he left a very caustic and stressful situation behind.  He is now in an area with a much lower crime rate and a principal that likes his ideas and will back him as long as there are no disciplinary issues.

And he is at peace.

No music to sing from.  No instruments to play.  And he sees challenges instead of catastrophes.  I told him as I was thinking of what to write:

God’s hand is in this.  Now he can shine.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.