Have you ever answered the question: "What's your favorite music?" In my opinion that is one of the most difficult questions to answer. If it were to happen to me, that someone ask me that question, the scene would go a little something like this:
"What's your favorite music?"-Random Character
"Well... I like James Newton Howard, Bing Crosby, Sovereign Grace Music, Regina Spector, Enya, Hans Zimmer, Idina Menzel, Danny Elfman, Kate Rusby, Lecrae, Trip Lee, Jai, Rich Mullins, Michael Card, Yo-Yo Ma, One Republic, Alan Menken, Anonymous 4, Dion, Hillsong United, Wavorly, Patrick Doyle, Run Kid Run, Quidam, Damien Rice, Phil Wickham, Harry Nilson, Shane & Shane, Rufus Wainwright, Kendall Payne,-"-Abigial
"Truly you have a dizzying fondness for music."-Random Character
"Wait till I get going! where was I?"- Abigial
It is true... YOU CAUGHT ME! I'll admit it. Just stop accusing me, you can get that long bone-y finger out of my face. I'll admit it... I am obsessed with music.
I'm not a musician. While I truly love to sing, I've never been able to play an instrument. I don't have the patience, discipline, endurance, and devotion it takes to learn one. Oh that patience, discipline, endurance, and devotion I so admire in musicians. Music is a life long occupation; once a musician, always a musician.
As I've written once before "Music opens the little treasure box we all carry, called emotions. It searches deep within the box to pull out the most shiny object there and runs wild with it.". To express,- what words cannot express- man uses music. Music makes us feel what we've never felt before. It inspires us, perhaps in ways we will never know; by music we fly, live, savor, dream, and imagine without even leaving our comfy arm-chairs.
Music is such an amazing thing. Ponder this for a moment: one of the longest and best known books of the Bible is made up of songs and poems! God gave man music to reflect His glory. God gave man Music to praise and worship Him. God gave man music to unite us.
Music is a way of fellowship and unity. A room of a thousand men can be filled with five hundred and one different conversations, but as soon as the music starts, one thousand voices joined together in song become one together in praise and worship for The One True God.
What a wonderful gift God has given us! Like a man whose family buys him a lawn mower for his birthday and when he gets it, he mows every lawn of his family members. Let us, like said man, use the gift God has given us to bless him in return. "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, bless the Lord!"
"I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music."-Psalm 101:1
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
What We Have Seen
Pink, purple, baby blue, red, and orange, were the colors of the sunset tonight. like an invisible volcano which erupted, sending up a river of purple and pink water that rolled violently over giant smooth boulders in the sky, until it faded up into the great blue void . It was all mixed together perfectly in a brilliant burst of intelligent design. It was too beautiful to be real, yet too perfect to be fake! The sky was all clear save for the purple river of clouds that sprang up from the volcano, as if the clouds had been aligned just right to display the majesty of God.
I sat in awe of the amazing creation that lay vast before me. Beauty. wonder, mystery. I thought of heaven. I sat in awe of God, who was revealing himself to me through a sunset, I thought how much more awe I will be in when I reach the end of this life, and go on into eternity.
I wait eagerly for the day when I may know God. God, the creator of every sunset. God, who brings the stars. God, who sent his Son to bear my sin, take the wrath I deserve, and credit his righteousness to me.
In all this, rests my hope.
I sat in awe of the amazing creation that lay vast before me. Beauty. wonder, mystery. I thought of heaven. I sat in awe of God, who was revealing himself to me through a sunset, I thought how much more awe I will be in when I reach the end of this life, and go on into eternity.
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. -John 17:3
I wait eagerly for the day when I may know God. God, the creator of every sunset. God, who brings the stars. God, who sent his Son to bear my sin, take the wrath I deserve, and credit his righteousness to me.
In all this, rests my hope.
Instant Cherry Pie and Gold Dollar Coin Society
Recently, I have been reading a spectacularly fantastic book by C.S. Lewis called THE WEIGHT OF GLORY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and what I mean by recently is I bought the book two years ago and have been reading it ever since. Sometimes it just sits on my shelf for months other times it lays in my hands as I flip slowly through the pages. Well the other day -somehow- it ended up in my book bag.
So as I sat at my desk, trying hard to not listen in on other peoples conversations, I decided to read. The next chapter in the book just so happened to be 'The Inner Ring'.
As I sat there at my desk surrounded by classmates, I got lost in the words of this great theologian. Whether we are in them or admiring them from the outside, Inner Rings are all around us. No matter how pointless or troublesome an Inner Ring may be, we strive and consider it a privilege to be in them.
In one part Lewis writes " 'Charles and I saw at once that you've got to be on this committee.' A terrible bore... ah, but how much more terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons but to have them free because you don't matter, that is much worse."
We see so often the affects of the Inner Ring. My father and brothers often talk of their work place and for the longest time I never understood why! It seemed so boring and pointless to talk about work at the dinner table. Alas, now I understand. It isn't really pointless chatter at all! Every small piece of information which passes between these men has deep significant meaning to it. Perhaps it does not matter to them that no one else cares, why should they? It is not they that are so intimately Involved with this Inner Ring, known as Lake City.
To be involved in an Inner Ring means some form of importance. You know the feeling. Let's say you're on the decorating committee at church, and on one Saturday afternoon no one can find the green ribbon that wraps around the banister. How fickle this seems to the custodian whose cleaning the loo, or the secretary who came to unlock the door, but to all on the committee it is a great matter of importance... Indeed, indeed it is so important.
You can sign up to be on the decorating committee, you can get a job at Lake City, or you can sit by some one in class and still be excluded from an Inner Ring. It takes hard work, effort, and commitment, to get in any Inner Ring. Even after you've acheived all that, you may find yourself stretched, shrunk, wiggled, and pushed till you've finally conformed to the empty space within the Inner Ring. Once there I challenge you to ask this question 'Am I content here?'
Yet, Lewis points out another matter of much importance. "The difference is that its secrecy is accidental, and its exclusiveness a by-product, and no one was led thither by the lure of the esoteric, for it is only four or five people who like one another meeting to do things they like. This is friendship. Aristotle placed it among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ring can ever have it."
There is a difference between friendship and Inner Rings. No one will ever stretch, shrink, wiggle, or conform to fit in a friendship. One shouldn't have to! I challenge you to notice these Inner Rings that surround us, flee from them, and strive for friendships instead.
So as I sat at my desk, trying hard to not listen in on other peoples conversations, I decided to read. The next chapter in the book just so happened to be 'The Inner Ring'.
As I sat there at my desk surrounded by classmates, I got lost in the words of this great theologian. Whether we are in them or admiring them from the outside, Inner Rings are all around us. No matter how pointless or troublesome an Inner Ring may be, we strive and consider it a privilege to be in them.
In one part Lewis writes " 'Charles and I saw at once that you've got to be on this committee.' A terrible bore... ah, but how much more terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons but to have them free because you don't matter, that is much worse."
We see so often the affects of the Inner Ring. My father and brothers often talk of their work place and for the longest time I never understood why! It seemed so boring and pointless to talk about work at the dinner table. Alas, now I understand. It isn't really pointless chatter at all! Every small piece of information which passes between these men has deep significant meaning to it. Perhaps it does not matter to them that no one else cares, why should they? It is not they that are so intimately Involved with this Inner Ring, known as Lake City.
To be involved in an Inner Ring means some form of importance. You know the feeling. Let's say you're on the decorating committee at church, and on one Saturday afternoon no one can find the green ribbon that wraps around the banister. How fickle this seems to the custodian whose cleaning the loo, or the secretary who came to unlock the door, but to all on the committee it is a great matter of importance... Indeed, indeed it is so important.
You can sign up to be on the decorating committee, you can get a job at Lake City, or you can sit by some one in class and still be excluded from an Inner Ring. It takes hard work, effort, and commitment, to get in any Inner Ring. Even after you've acheived all that, you may find yourself stretched, shrunk, wiggled, and pushed till you've finally conformed to the empty space within the Inner Ring. Once there I challenge you to ask this question 'Am I content here?'
Yet, Lewis points out another matter of much importance. "The difference is that its secrecy is accidental, and its exclusiveness a by-product, and no one was led thither by the lure of the esoteric, for it is only four or five people who like one another meeting to do things they like. This is friendship. Aristotle placed it among the virtues. It causes perhaps half of all the happiness in the world, and no Inner Ring can ever have it."
There is a difference between friendship and Inner Rings. No one will ever stretch, shrink, wiggle, or conform to fit in a friendship. One shouldn't have to! I challenge you to notice these Inner Rings that surround us, flee from them, and strive for friendships instead.
Monday, October 18, 2010
What Come's First, Ought be Remembered
Today was a day of firsts for me.
Today I got my first Mid-Term Exam back. Twas the first time I talked to a guy named Sebastien. Twas the first time I nearly fell asleep in French class. It was the first time I left my math test confident My score would be high. the first time I turned in a job application. And it was the first time I drove across the large Blue Parkway bridge.
I felt perfectly silly! I was the only one on the whole bridge- the speed limit was 35- there I was, slowly ascending up the awkward lonely bridge, in my little Malibu, feeling very alone, yet very independent!
It was the first time I had ever crossed this bridge, as I wrote earlier, and I was alone. (Note: alone above) it felt weird not having seen one of my many siblings do it before me, I had no one there to instruct me, no model to follow. (Note: independent above.) In that moment I realized that the only person I could rely on now, was Christ! My family won't always be there to do things for me or show me how they ought to be done. No matter what! Christ will always be there- guiding my steps.
God be praised!
Today I got my first Mid-Term Exam back. Twas the first time I talked to a guy named Sebastien. Twas the first time I nearly fell asleep in French class. It was the first time I left my math test confident My score would be high. the first time I turned in a job application. And it was the first time I drove across the large Blue Parkway bridge.
I felt perfectly silly! I was the only one on the whole bridge- the speed limit was 35- there I was, slowly ascending up the awkward lonely bridge, in my little Malibu, feeling very alone, yet very independent!
It was the first time I had ever crossed this bridge, as I wrote earlier, and I was alone. (Note: alone above) it felt weird not having seen one of my many siblings do it before me, I had no one there to instruct me, no model to follow. (Note: independent above.) In that moment I realized that the only person I could rely on now, was Christ! My family won't always be there to do things for me or show me how they ought to be done. No matter what! Christ will always be there- guiding my steps.
God be praised!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A Picture Of Art
Well I've done it, I started a blog. Something I told myself I wouldn't do untill I had a world of exciting things to write about. Alas here we are: me writing, you reading.
I've always loved reading different blogs. I enjoy reading random ideas of life from someone else's perspective- that's what to blog means I think .When someone tells you "I blog." really what they mean is, "I post random views, opinions, and happenings about my life on the internet, check it out!" This is not a bad things by any means, on the conturary, I believe to be an art.
The idea of art, is to make a picture of some sort. Pictures are made up of ideas, views, lies, promises, lines, curves and histories. They are most often inspired by a vision, a truth, a feeling, or the sheer genius we call imagination. When inspired humans will find anyway they can to exress the picture that is in them. I wish ot write about three ways of doing so.
First, there are those whom we call artists, they make pictures through drawing, molding, or painting, they create wild, vibrant pictures for all to see. These pictures stick in our heads, sometimes they grow into stories, sometimes they even inspire us.
Second, there are ones we call, musicians. Musicians make pictures through music, by throwing a number of notes together, and clashing several different types of instruments, and creating a pleasant little tune for all to hear and wonder at. Music has the devine ability to stick in our hearts, Indeed, this is art.
And then third there is a group of people who are called writers. With words, a writer can create the most powerful form of art. When a writer has a picture in his head, he will use words to form phrases sentences, paragraphs and pages, placing each word right where it belongs to make the picture in his head, look the same in yours.
These are just a few ways of expressing pictures. And while paintings and sculptures are very lovely and wonderful in their own way, they will never amount to the art of music. Music opens the little treasure box we all carry, called emotions. It searches deep within the box to pull out the most shiney object there is and runs wild with it. and while this is a powerful form of art, you will hardly ever hear one say "That song changed my life". No indeed, the art that changes lives the most is writing. We read; beliefs and views of the author either affect us or become our own. Reading can shape our thoughts, it can change our hearts, and mold our minds.
At least, that's my opinion.
I've always loved reading different blogs. I enjoy reading random ideas of life from someone else's perspective- that's what to blog means I think .When someone tells you "I blog." really what they mean is, "I post random views, opinions, and happenings about my life on the internet, check it out!" This is not a bad things by any means, on the conturary, I believe to be an art.
The idea of art, is to make a picture of some sort. Pictures are made up of ideas, views, lies, promises, lines, curves and histories. They are most often inspired by a vision, a truth, a feeling, or the sheer genius we call imagination. When inspired humans will find anyway they can to exress the picture that is in them. I wish ot write about three ways of doing so.
First, there are those whom we call artists, they make pictures through drawing, molding, or painting, they create wild, vibrant pictures for all to see. These pictures stick in our heads, sometimes they grow into stories, sometimes they even inspire us.
Second, there are ones we call, musicians. Musicians make pictures through music, by throwing a number of notes together, and clashing several different types of instruments, and creating a pleasant little tune for all to hear and wonder at. Music has the devine ability to stick in our hearts, Indeed, this is art.
And then third there is a group of people who are called writers. With words, a writer can create the most powerful form of art. When a writer has a picture in his head, he will use words to form phrases sentences, paragraphs and pages, placing each word right where it belongs to make the picture in his head, look the same in yours.
These are just a few ways of expressing pictures. And while paintings and sculptures are very lovely and wonderful in their own way, they will never amount to the art of music. Music opens the little treasure box we all carry, called emotions. It searches deep within the box to pull out the most shiney object there is and runs wild with it. and while this is a powerful form of art, you will hardly ever hear one say "That song changed my life". No indeed, the art that changes lives the most is writing. We read; beliefs and views of the author either affect us or become our own. Reading can shape our thoughts, it can change our hearts, and mold our minds.
At least, that's my opinion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)