Mark Katrick faith column: Breaking down the message of 'The Thirty-Third of August'

My favorite genre is and always has been folk music. From the moment I heard the melodic harmonization and strumming of Peter Paul and Mary emanating from my sister’s bedroom, I was hooked.

If I had to pick a favorite folk singer, it would be Joan Baez. This singer, musician, songwriter and social activist performs and records songs that still touch my heart and soul.

In a song from one of my albums of hers, “Blessed Are,” Baez stretches the calendar by adding extra days to the month of August. “The Thirty-Third of August,” written by Mickey Newbury, is a song about growing older, gaining perspective and the paths we choose.

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This past February, you and I were able to add an extra day to our month. So what did you do on Thursday, Feb. 29? I checked my calendar, and there was absolutely positively nothing written down. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything. (I know, I know, that’s a double negative. Let’s just say it’s an exclamation point!)

It is more than likely I began my “bonus” day in contemplation and prayer, then reading a devotional and writing in my prayer journal. After that I probably read or reread a column or sermon draft. If I was on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday rather than a Monday, Wednesday, Friday sequence, I worked out at the YMCA. In between, I fed and brushed my two cats and whatever places happen to be their cat beds, got out their toys and played with them.

Then I spent time reading the monthly selection for my church’s Book Club. Then I watched a combination of news and sports, HGTV and Hallmark movies or tuned into SiriusXM.

The lyrics to “The Thirty-Third of August” speak to the choices you make or don’t make and the paths you chose or don’t choose:

“When you feel there’s no salvation/ And the band’s packed up and gone/ (try to see) things you don’t understand.

“When a thousand voices are screaming in your brain/ And outside it looks like rain.”

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This is an invitation to listen for one voice that calms the stormy sea, who stretches out his hand and says, “Be calm.”

Things are never as good or bad as they seem. Just take it one step and one day at a time. The Spirit of God will not let your Christ-initiated, Christ-inspired thoughts, words and deeds be defiled.

Live every day like it’s Feb. 29 or Aug. 33, a bonus opportunity to touch hearts and souls by living, learning and growing in the grace-filled and universal love of Jesus.

Mark Katrick is a pastor and spiritual guide.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mark Katrick faith column: 'The Thirty-Third of August' offers hope