Better Days

In August of ’06 I received a CD in the mail – Better Days by the Robbie Seay Band. I am not totally sure why I had ordered it. Somehow and somewhere I had seen a recommendation and took a chance. I had it in the player of my car and it had probably played through once when I got into the car after receiving a phone call from my wife, Dottie.

She was in Miami for a routine breast examination at a clinic because her doctor was uneasy with the results of the yearly mammogram. Dottie had been told it’s probably nothing but the doctor thought it would be best to have a particular clinic in Miami examine her. Dottie’s call confirmed that the doctor at the clinic had found a lump – and I had one in my throat.
As I began to drive the title tract came on…

“First of all, thanks for listening to our song,
We hope this finds you driving in your car,…”

The words of the song flowed like a friend speaking to me as I clicked repeat time after time on the drive home.

“…Grace has found me,
Shaken up my soul,
Grace will follow,
Where ever you will go,…”

Never really said much about the song or the CD but I think Dottie thought it odd that the CD remained in the player for several weeks. I know my son did. I would let the album play through but each time Better Days came up I would replay it several times.

“…Here come better days
And here come better days,
Better days, and a better place I know.”

And through the weeks that became months, after each appointment and consultation where we were told by doctors, “I am sure that we will not need to …but let’s check just to be sure. The song became a friend and a rock to set my anchor as I believe God spoke to me through the song – Better Days – I knew it would be alright in the end.

“…Listen to me now for grace, oh grace, is calling…”

Through two operations, the learning that Chemotherapy was not an option but a requirement, as was the eight weeks of daily radiation treatments necessitating a 75 mile drive after teaching a sixth grade class all day.

“…Breathe out and breath again,
Know that life is hard,
But it's worth breathing…”

I believe that God speaks through His scriptures, in dreams and visions, from the “still small voice” but also through a song. The song was playing on the evening we learned that an operation was necessary, and after the first operation while I drove to the pharmacy to get some prescription filled.

“…Green grass, and I'm laying in the sunlight of you,
And the wind is moving through the trees ushering you,
And the better days you bring, the better places found,
Feasting at your table I am overwhelmed, …"

It was not the song but the presence of God that comforted me, but he used the song. How many times did it play, I don’t know but it spoke to me of hope and a future.

“…I lift my glass drink to love and never gave up,
Clouds pass fading into memories gone,
And all I'll show life is life, and love is.
What else could there be?”

Indeed God speaks once,
Or twice, yet no one notices it.
“In a dream, a vision of the night,
When sleep falls on men…
Job 33:14

I believe God spoke to me and I am thankful he did.