late night am radio

Every Tuesday I drive down to Orlando for classes as Asbury Theological Seminary. It's about a two hour drive. Typically I bring a couple of Podcasts with me to listen to as well as some music. For some reason, on my way home, I really enjoy listening to talk radio or Podcast sermons or something along those lines. Maybe I'm old, oh well, but talk keeps me up better at night than music, even loud music, which tends to lull me to sleep. And I'm driving from 9:00 to 11:00pm, which for me is late driving.

Anyway, after a while, the AM dial starts to go all static and I end up flipping around out of boredom (usually after I've grown tired of Podcasts). This has grown into a nerdy little hobby the past few weeks as I had forgotten that at night the AM band goes a bit crazy and signals bounce all over the place. In the past three weeks I have come across the following stations with pretty clear reception:

700 WLW - Cincinnati
870 WWL - New Orleans
1030 WBZ - Boston
1500 WTOP - Washington D.C.
750 WSB - Atlanta

I don't know why but I think this is really cool. Now I flip around trying to see which cities I can catch an AM signal from. I've tried to think about why I really enjoy this past the novelty of saying I listened to an AM station out of Boston, and I think it's being, potentially anyway, the only one to listen to that station where I am. Almost like I am privy to something that no one else knows about. So it's this 10 or 15 minute moment (usually the signal fades after a bit) where I am hearing something no one else nearby is and I'm not actually in Florida. I'm cruising along the interstate in Massachusetts or D.C. or something. Maybe it's just something different.

So that gets me thinking about how we almost always want something different than what we have and how we sometimes want something that no one else does. And I think, for the most part, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Our desires give us goals and a little piece of the world that is just ours gives us a sense of uniqueness. But it can also lead to discontentment and disillusionment (not that listening to weird AM radio stations leads me away from God, this is metaphorical at this point). If I am always looking for something different and mine and mine alone then I miss out on a lot. So when Jesus teaches about faith being like a mustard seed, I have to realize that I may want more faith, but it is not an overnight thing. Contentment with the journey that I am on is key to my sense of purpose and fulfillment. And if I think my faith is mine and mine alone, I'm going to have a hard time rectifying that with the mustard seed analogy as Jesus describes the seed growing into a towering plant that provides shade and rest for many. So my faith is not just about me and it is not something I can just toss out and trade for a new one if I want to experience a real relationship with God.

So in my wanderings around the radio dial, I enjoy the moments of discovery of a new city. But I also realize that at the end of my journey is not Boston or Washington D.C., but my home, where I belong.