For moments when one is stuck in traffic...or on a train...or anywhere

Casting Crown's Life of Praise has been my "train song" ever since my first few months in Japan. My roommates and I would get up and hustle towards the Kawasaki train station, joining the sleepy business suits in jammed train cars as we rode to language school. One roommate and I would each put a headphone of her ipod in one of our ears, and it would sometimes feel like we were the only happy people on the entire train, smiling at each other and drinking in the reminders of God's character:

You are awesome, God of the nations

Lion of Judah, Rock of the ages,

Alpha, Omega, Worthy of all praise...

On particularly-packed days, we would try not to twitch to the music and almost inevitably end up stifling giggles at our failed attempts to model the somber looks of our exhausted fellow travelers.

I don't ride trains so much anymore, but found myself on one heading to Koriyama this past Thursday morning and put on the familiar song as the train wound its way up the mountains. The scenery was breath-taking--glistening snow on chiseled peaks, expanses of open plains--and I found myself swaying back and forth, my whole heart wanting to sing along with the words of praise.

Then I found myself thinking of those days on the trains from Kawasaki...precious moments of praise in the middle of the heavy burdens carried around us. A lot of "track" has been traveled in the five years since we started praising God on the trains...

And it struck me Thursday morning again (how quickly I forget!) that the location is anywhere. The time is always. The people around us don't have to join in.

You are awesome, God of the nations

Lion of Judah, Rock of the ages,

Alpha, Omega, Worthy of all praise...