Mixed Tapes

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been going back to some of my old music. It is amazing how one song can hold so many memories! I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that some of those songs made me wish for the “simpler” times in life.

I remember Sunday nights as a kid sitting on my bedroom floor. I had my pink boom box on and I was waiting anxiously for America’s top 40 countdown to come on the radio so I could tape record (yes…tape record) my favorite songs. After capturing all of them on the blank tape, I’d listen to them over…and over…and over…and over again.

I think the first tape I ever had was either the soundtrack to Beauty and the Beast or by Mariah Carey. Then came the Cranberries, Fugees, and K’s Choice as I neared teenager land.

And then… CDs were born.

I was stoked! You mean I can hit a button, move to a number, and it will play the exact song I want without fast forwarding or rewinding it?!?

It’s amazing the time and energy I put into recording or rewinding tapes just to get to one song I liked. The patience and the accomplished feeling I had after the mixed tape was finished could not be compared.

I wonder if we all had to sit and wait more often, would we feel more full and accomplished? If things weren’t so “immediate” would we appreciate them more?

I believe so.

So if you are in a season of waiting, try to look it as “glorified mixed tape creation.

You’re sitting on ready, finger on the record button, but waiting for God, the DJ, to move.

Sure, some people’s favorite song might come up faster than yours. Maybe you have to stay up all night to get it (or 5, 10, 15 years). Oh, but the satisfaction at the end…none can be compared.

That is where I want to be. I want to stay excited in the waiting process. I want to be ready, set, and hopeful…

Are you waiting for something? Can you find joy in the waiting? Let’s get our fingers ready, y’all.

I think our song might be up next…