The Friend In The Night

        Most of my life with my dad, I remember him working at a radio station. He pastored a small church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, but the rest of his job consisted of a show he did for our local AM radio station from Midnight to 6 am.
         His show was called "The Friend In The Night". He played Southern Gospel music, held Bible quizzes, and talked his heart out. He was a perfect fit for this job because it combined two of his greatest loves...listening to Southern Gospel music (he was in a band as a teenager called the "Country Cut-up's, and they were good enough to play at the Grand Ole Opry and were on the same night as Loretta Lynn) and talking to people about God. I was 13 and 1/2 when he died and he hosted this show for about ten years. Some of my fondest childhood memories were of going to bed early on school holidays and tagging along to the radio station with my dad. I loved picking out records, grabbing cup after pointy, cone cup of filtered water, talking about my cats, but, most of all, watching him work. He loved his job. Of course, having no supervision while he was on air did get me into trouble a few times. One night my older brother came with me and we went through every last pointy water filter cup within a few hours. We got yelled at for that one. I also remember there was a statue of a dalmatian that stood between the break room and the studio, and I was terrified it would come to life and bite me (I'm pretty sure my brother planted that idea in my head).  My dad was rather concerned one time when he realized I had been absent for more than an hour. I was paralyzed with fear staring at the statue.
         My dad was much more gifted with gab than I am, and I remember him coaching me not to talk so much about my cats dying and more about fun things I did with them. It was true they died, but that's not what listeners in the middle of the night really wanted to hear about. I admit that I'm a bit of a melancholy.
         My favorite memory though is going to be the local bakery afterwards for a creme-filled long John. We hardly ever ate out or had sugary things at home because it made my mom sick, so it was a real treat.
        My mom thought he'd made a mistake when the Mennonite church he'd been pastoring made him choose between being their pastor and working at the radio station because he chose the radio station. She now acknowledges that this was truly a God-ordained appointment (given the popularity of the show and the ministry he had as a result). This was his calling. I try to keep this in the back of my head every time my hubby looks into a new job.  This could be his "radio station". His theme song for the show was "Give Me A Song To Sing At Midnight" by the Kingsmen (I tried to find a sound clip to link to, but the closest I could find was this cover that the Dunneman's did).
        This past weekend our church launched a new series called "30 Days in the Word". I immediately began an internal dialogue with God about how I had no time to add this to the Bible study I already spend 30 minutes a day on plus the 15 minutes per school day that I spend reading to the girls from the Bible. Our pastor had the chair where he does his Bible reading from on stage to show us his place for communing with God. During the sermon, our pastor repeatedly asked "Where's your chair?". I replied in my head about the couch I typically use, but I began thinking about my rocking chair I nurse our baby in. The Holy Spirit reminded me that just that morning I had been wondering if there was something better to that I could do while nursing, burping, and keeping him upright for 15 minutes after each feeding (which helps dramatically with his spitting up and his reawakening when I lay him down). I had been spending a good deal of time on Facebook and Amazon to distract me from how tired I was while I was waiting to go back to sleep. Both tend to stir me up though and make it harder to go back to sleep. Then, I told God my last excuse, "How can I read my Bible in the dark?" and He reminded me of the free Logos app I had on my phone.
         This week, my rocking chair has been my new chair...and I've had no problem adding the recommended reading into my schedule. If you'd like to join me, check out this link for the reading plan.

      It has given me a new Friend in the night. So where's your chair?