“And whatever it was that ye’ve done to be here, It’s the sum of yr hopes yr despairs and yr fears, When the last ship sails.”

Oh these lyrics from Sting’s the Last Ship, yah… I just left the theater, New York City Metropolitan Opera, I bought the ticket way back in November – just snapped up front row of the balcony for inexpensive, and just for me… ohh I love to see Sting and I saw this musical when it first came out on Broadway. And wow, it’s an experience, it’s a thrill, it’s a Holy Spirit chill when they talk about eternity, death, crossing both into death and saying the cross prayer (in the name of the Father and the Name of the Son and the name of the Holy Spirit)- yes in all three and the work that they’ve done… I love Holy Spirit chills… ( and you should have seen the cross projected on the ship)…

And I love that I got here and everything…

And yes, the musical was very moving. And I love the lyrics…

“Oh the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers, The noise at the end of the world in your ears, As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea, And the last ship sails.”…  “And whatever you’d promised, whatever you’ve done, And whatever the station in life you’ve become. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, And whatever the weave of this life that you’ve spun, On the Earth or in Heaven or under the Sun, When the last ship sails.”

Now, now, here’s the interesting dilemma, which is not really a dilemma, but an observation… (Spoilers ahead)…The woman to the left of me had never seen it and didn’t know the music. And she REALLY enjoyed it, we had a very nice conversation. And the woman to the right of me saw the original version ten times and knew all the music (and trust me the changes from the original version to this version are so dramatic, including to make the whole show less dramatic…)… and they changed the characters, weird rewrite but it worked, and it’s a little crazy to have the OTHER guy get the girl, and oh well, but hey, it’s Sting, who wrote it, and he has all the privilege to change whatever he wants… so the woman to the right of me, I could completely relate and we did all of our complaining and our comparisons and whew!

And then, and then the third lady in line with me on the way out said she was ready to come back and see it tomorrow…

In other words you can’t please everybody, and if you have no expectations, you can enjoy a show that you don’t know is changed, and if you have LOTS of expectations and think it should be done the way it was done, then you have a chance to be disappointed… interesting, huh? 

I enjoyed the show very much and again, I think Sting has the ability to change if he wants… 

But it isn’t that a dilemma for us in life, we expect certain things, we expect the lights to turn green when we want them, we expect the train or the bus to come when we want them. And we expect the Lord to help us with what we want… and we are in different stations of life…

Perhaps, the best station in life for us to be is just grateful… and SPOILER ALERT: God wins, Jesus comes again, and we live forever in the love grace forgiveness of our souls…

I am grateful to be an observer of life as well as a participant… and as we say so many times: we’re gonna have to trust the Lord in everything…

Everything… keep believing… keep moving…

Blessed…

AMEN!