I wasn’t the kind of teenager to go crazy over buying albums.  Go figure.  I loved music.  I listened to it all the time……but i don’t remember a heck of a lot of Christian radio stations in our town (or should i say “towns” since i lived in so many?) promoting new albums and artists.  I’m not sure what kind of track record Christian radio had in the 70’s.  Were there a ton of stations?  Did people tune in?  Was contemporary music even around?

Anyway, somehow i ended up with a Tim Sheppard album.  I listened to that thing over and over.  I even went and bought the piano book to the album so i could play along.  I don’t remember Tim having a lot of hits on the radio….but his songs were so amazing to me. 

He had a song called Fiddler…..i’ll have to hunt up and see if i can find the lyric to that and post it.   The song i was humming this morning was called “Would You Believe in Me”?  Another really amazing song.

I didn’t know that I was a “writer in training” back then…..but i knew that his lyrics stirred my heart.  It was honest writing, it was real, it said something.  Does that make sense?  So many songs you listen to are nice; they are pleasant to hear and fun to sing, but the kind of songs i really love are the songs that SAY something.  The kind of song that makes my heart beat a little faster because it resonates in my spirit.   As if it was written for me, about me.  As if someone was putting music to my life story.

I’ve never been to Oregon, but i have a feeling that the ladies there are a lot like the ladies of the Georgia district, or the Tennessee district, or the Oklahoma district.  We all lead busy lives, we all can’t really “afford” to take the time off to go to a weekend retreat, but we all know that we need it.  We all go through spiritually dry times in our lives, we all face temptations, we all endure trials and we all need to be reminded that we serve a great, big God.

We all need each other.  We all need a sister to hold our hand.  We all need someone to look us in the eye and ask us how we really are.  We all need to hear that someone else has been through the same fire we’ve been through and survived.

We all need fun.  We all need to laugh till we can’t breathe!  We all need to let our hair down and enjoy a pajama party!  We all need to be reminded not to take ourselves so seriously.  

We all need to experience corporate worship.  We all need to see Jesus high and lifted up.  We all need to hear the testimonies of our sisters.  We all need to kneel at an altar and feel that hand on our shoulder.