From Annatevka to Lynwood

From the "You Never Know, but Sometimes You Do When God Speaks to You through Weird Al Yankovic" files:

Many moons ago, I was chewing on a personal problem. As introverted teenagers are wont, I hadn't talked to anyone about it. But I did talk to God about it quite a bit. Kinda like Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof," constantly, but quietly.

I talked about that problem for a long time. Sometimes it felt like the conversation was rather one-sided. And maybe I was doubtful a bit that God was listening, or that he cared all that much about the problem I was facing.

I was mulling the problem over again at work one day, using the saw to chew through some bricks. And if you've ever been around a brick saw, you know they're loud. But I had a lot of bricks to cut, as as my mind still does, it wandered from the problem to something else. A Weird Al Yankovic song began playing in my head.

And when Weird Al sang the lyric "You're not perfect, but I love you anyhow," it was as if I heard God's voice not in the thunder, not in the whirlwind, but in the brick saw and the lyric and for the first time in months, I felt happy.

That didn't bring an end to the problem. But it brought some much-needed comfort that to this day, at the right time, makes me tear up whenever I hear this song.

It's not the Tab Choir. It's not choruses of angels. It's God speaking to me through the voice of a man straight outta Lynwood.