I love Spotify - my current jam is Springsteen’s The River album.

Music has been something that over the years, has connected me to my kids. When we share playlists - the music we love transcends time and age. I loved the moments when they were growing up and they discovered an artist or a song and shared it with me, only to find nostalgia flooding my mind… because it was an artist or song from my own coming of age.

I would say things like, “The Police did this first” or “Ya’ll this is The Cars”. I loved when they discovered the music that had been my own discovery decades before. I also loved it when they introduced me to something…Sleeping at Last, Bon Iver, City and Colour, and so many more.

The family Spotify plan was and is some of the easiest money to spend. No regrets. It keeps us connected through our music. And you know you can learn a lot about someone from their Spotify playlist!

Here are some of mine: 

• VKE loves these - mostly seventies and eighties - 80’s were my decade - some good current.

• Bruce Springsteen - Name the album it’s there.

• Stuff for good times - My son Seth created this but it’s awesome so I kept it - Halsey, City and Colour, Bon Iver, and more.

• Good - Created by Seth but now I claim it

• More of that Good - Again Seth - and it IS more of that good so I kept it too

• Infinite Indie Folk

• Indie Worship

• YAHWEH - Literally songs with Yahweh in the title - Chris Tomlin to U2

• Breakfast, Mixed Emotions, Boys Aint S—t, Soulmate, Live Aid from the Eiffel Tower, Gungor Archives, and Sound of Silence are all go-to playlists.

These aren't all of them but you get the idea. There’s everything from Quiet Piano to Queen, Stevie Nicks to Steam Powered Giraffes to Steven Curtis Chapman. Yes, I'm eclectic.

But something jumped out at me one day when pulling up my playlists - Stuff for Good Times, Good, and More of that Good. Trust me great playlists on my Spotify, but not how I want to approach life.

There is a saying I would give my children when they were young "Good, Better, Best" - They knew what this meant. Often when faced with a decision or a choice - there may not be a "bad" choice. We may have to choose between a good response, a better response, or the best response. Choose the best. What is the best choice not just the good choice?

If you are like me,  I want that "Stuff for Good Times".  Quick results please and thank you. Quick painless results are even better, thank you.

Sometimes our gauge for God's will has centered on how good we feel, how little we have to sacrifice, and the absence of suffering.

I am learning that the way of suffering is sometimes ultimately the necessary and best way. I am learning that God’s best for me can be hidden in the pain. Christ humbled himself still further and carried his obedience to the extreme. Suffering was part of His best plan for us all.

Today I want the best plan God has for me. Even if the best is the painful process shaping me. God is Good. It is who He is. It's not that He is good because I feel good about my circumstances. He's not good because good things are happening to me. God's Goodness transcends my circumstances. He is Good because He won't leave me in my current state of spiritual need and character development.

He will continue to write the songs that define my life so that I will be a playlist of encouragement, forgiveness, compassion, sacrifice, and generosity. If I will but yield, He will continue to write the magnum opus of my life, until Christ is reflected in me, and my words, deeds, and even intentions are founded on humility, justice, service, and Love.

Lord today, when I am faced with good or more of that good, empower me to choose that which is the best. Help me to trust in Your Goodness. Even if that process is painful. Orchestrate my life so that there is less of me and more of You.

Selah