C.S.Lewis and Anberlin.....

So. Perhaps you know both of the names in that title. I am very fond of both. C.S. Lewis has the most wonderful knack for putting unshakable truth into simple, yet deep words. Anberlin has been a favorite of mine for almost as long as Lewis. I enjoy their honest, poetic songwriting, how each song tells a story, and each time I listen to them, I notice something that escaped me before, whether musical or lyrical. Oddly enough, I almost never like their CDs the first time around, but by the third or fourth listen, it has grown on me immensely, worked itself irrevocably into my brain.

C.S. Lewis wrote a book called Surprised By Joy, about how earnestly we seek for joy, not just happiness, not a thrill, but the bittersweet ache you get when a beautiful scene creeps up on you, or when a song or book strikes some deep vein. I forget what hymn it's from, but "Deep calling to deep" describes it pretty well. He talked about how we chase these glimpses, and the medium they come through, hoping to be satisfied, only to find when we look so hard, the joy is gone. I can identify with that, having been enchanted with many things in looking for joy, only to be let down. Lewis points out that when we find Jesus, the source of all joy, these glimpses are put perfectly in perspective because we finally know where they come from. What does this have to do with Anberlin I hear you thinking....(just kidding. I can't read thoughts or even broad hints)

I saw them at First Ave not too long ago, and besides the noise-happy adrenaline I've lately been deprived of, not having gone to a concert in months, I came away soberly encouraged by several of their songs. I am not sure what it was that made the meanings stand out, except that perhaps when a song is sung with others, with a band, it gains some dimension not found when you listen to your IPod or sing in the car. Maybe you know the songs, maybe not. Here they are.

-Hello Alone, from Cities.
This is at first listen a depressing song. Honest, but depressing. Yet a few of the lines struck me. Singing "Are you ever coming home?" resounded with the desire I sometimes have that Jesus would just come now, conquer, end all the darkness that sometimes seems overwhelming. ""Do you care at all/do you care at all/DO YOU CARE AT ALL?" suddenly revealed itself to be a central question. You cannot be a Christian unless, by the grace of God, you care. Apathy is not an option, though we all fall into it. Caring what happens to eternal souls is one notch below caring about God, though I often forget it. Lastly, the ending line "From a lesser known I'm here, and there's hope/There's hope" was immensely encouraging. Belief in God may be scarce in some places, yet that does not change the fact that he exists, and he is good, even when alone seems to be the only thing greeting you.
-The Unwinding Cable Car, also from Cities
This one speaks for itself. "This is the correlation between salvation and love/Don't drop your arms/With quiet words I'll lead you/In and out of the dark....Don't soon forget/Grace marks your heart." It was lovely to be reminded I am loved. By the Creator of the universe, no less.
-Inevitable, Cities (just a stellar album...)
Beautiful song. "I want to be your last first kiss....Lying here beside you with arms and eyes open wide.." Not staring at each other. Lying side by side staring at something greater. Monogamy is not the boredom or fundamentalism our culture wishes to convince us it is. It encouraged me to hear 400 people sing this song whole-heartedly, even if not all of them fully understand or accept its meaning. I was suddenly very grateful that Anberlin wrote such a song.
-The Resistance, from New Surrender
This was all the more powerful seeing that it was the night before the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. "Speak for yourself/You paper tigers/ Too late to make demands/When you've got a riot on your hands....Voice for the voiceless/With every common man engaged" It has been said countless times, but truth bears repeating. We live in a world full of injustice and pain, whether inflicted openly in the genocide of civil war or dictatorship, in reducing people to animals through quiet discrimination and ostracism, or under cover of pretty-sounding words in the name of women's rights. The abundance of it does not give one an excuse not to fight it, rather the opposite. In the end, it is a paper tiger, and it will fall, in this world or the next.

P.S. Stats on abortion I didn't know. Since 1973, 50 million children are dead in the United States alone, over 1 billion worldwide. Minority women make up a fourth of the women in the U.S., yet 57% of abortions are minorities. For every four people that exist, one does not, due to abortion. Forgive me if I harp on this. People are killed in all stages of life, in war, disease, murder, whatever else, and it is no less wrong. Yet it rankles in my brain that people would have us believe it should be legal to kill our children.
P.P.S. Oh yeah, and thank you Anberlin for so faithfully giving glimpses of truth and beauty in the dark. Methinks Clive Staples (is that not a wonderful middle name? No wonder he wanted to be called Jack...) would have liked you.

"lalala CHICKENS!"

I have no idea why, but I have a terribly hard time blogging about anything that isn't serious. They say you write the way you think, but I think about silly, nonsensical, random, weird things all the time. But as some wise and probably dead person said " A little nonsense benefits even the wisest of men" And seeing that I am not the wisest of men (duh I'm a woman :) or even a relatively wise woman, I think I probably need more nonsense. So here goes.
-It is unspoken law in the Biros household that "CHICKENS!" is a decently acceptable answer to almost anything. Or " lalala".
My chickenish mother just called me and lovingly admonished me to get my butt off blogging and do my geometry. They say if you hated algebra, you will love geometry. So here goes. Perhaps more nonsense later. This was fun maybe I'll make a habit of it. -Chickie Baby (That is one of my many nicknames)

Does this beeswax belong to you?

Rosalie Grace Carlson is one of my dearest friends. She is very far away right now and I miss her terribly. Perhaps you can relate to this, perhaps not, but I am starting to think that the best friends are those who are enough like you to force you to face yourself, and at the same time different enough to give you a better view of God than you had before.
One of the things Rosie and I agreed on was this: It is none of your beeswax to try and change anyone based on your own feelings, resentments, or wishes. For one thing, it is impossible. For another, the minute you depart from God's Word and start trying to change someone because something about them bugs you, you have ceased to pay attention to God's work in yourself. Don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying we should not confront and encourage one another to seek God better, only that we must do it based on God's Word and through his grace and leading.
I fail at that. When I take my eyes off of God and what he is doing in my heart, and look at what I think he should be doing with the kid sitting next to me, I am no longer within my own beeswax.
My mother tells me nearly every day "Mind your own!" Today I realized that doing that does not only make life easier for others and me less of a pain, it frees me to live for an audience of One. Which equals loving Him more, which equals loving people as He would, which means another paradox. Living solely to conform myself to God shows Him to others, in far clearer ways than my own strength ever could.

P.S. Please critique. I don't mind, really I don't. I won't sue you. Good grief, that sounds so American. But then, if the shoe fits.....I always think of Lucy from the Peanuts when I say Good grief. now i'm really rambling and my punctuation has flushed itself as a result. keep your noses clean. (that means behave yourselves.)

Why I Knit In Church

It keeps me from throwing things.
Don't take that too seriously.
; /

CoPy anD PasTe

I love copy and paste. Highlight, push two buttons, leave it as long as you want, and when you have a blank spot to fill from cyberspace, hit two more buttons, and up pop the little black letters or whatever, fresh as lemons. I wish life was like that. I wish I could just paste over my mistakes, change my heart as easily as I change that page.
It doesn't work that way, though. Life is more like the way my dad used to have to white-out on a real typewriter. Stick the little strip in, go back to where you were, hit each button again, till the powder covers up what you did. Or, more realistically, since yesterday is far away (Yes I know the line is "yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away" but I don't care if Lennon turns in his grave.) more realistically, the mistakes still stare at me from the messy pages, and I am forced to realize again that only God can make the words that follow worth the typos.

P.S. In case you haven't looked out the window today, it's snowing. Just a bit. And even though I know long cold winter follows, I still run to the window.

Think?

So. I am not old enough to vote. I will miss it by a month. But I have this to say, for better or worse, to all of you who can: Before you vote, think for yourself. Don't buy into everything you see on TV, hear on the radio, or see on a poll. When you watch or listen to the news, you are seeing only what they want you to see. They choose every picture and video clip that's shown, every word they say, and everything you don't see, which is, I think, more important. Don't rely on what a politician says, look at what they do, what they vote for. Think through what they propose to do with your country. Their intentions may be good, but what are the consequences of their actions?
One last thing, with which you may or may not agree, but think about it anyway. Do they protect the unborn? I know that's cliche, but if they don't, then what makes you think they'll protect you? There is very little separating you from helplessness, and that little should make you stand up for those who are.

Writing down before it floats off...

So I think I shall write down my reaction to the DG conference before it disappears. Or rather my paraphrase of it. I don't take notes well because it ends up being my own opinion. Anyhoo, here goes. The entire conference was on the power of words and the wonder of God. Lovely. .. Bob Kauflin: What Happens When We Sing?
What happens when we sing is that our hearts are awakened. Music is a heavenly thing. It existed in heaven before the world was made. The angels worship God with music. It has great power, but like all influential things, it can be misused. When we put music to words to worship God, it moves our affections powerfully. The purpose of worship is not necessarily to play the most progressive, avant-garde or "hip" music possible, it is to direct your heart to love God more. That's not to say that it should not be relevant, or artistic or beautiful, but it is not just music for music's sake. With regard to music written by Christians that is not for corporate worship, the sky's the limit. Oh and probably the Bible too. :)

Mark Driscoll: Arresting Attention
If you have never heard Mark Driscoll, I will only tell you one thing. He is not a comfortable preacher. He'll offend you a bit. Or a lot. However, there is a biblical way to offend people, and that is partly what he did. He pointed out that Jesus was offensive. Jesus lambasted hypocrites. He despised deception. This was not for his own amusement, but so that his sheep would see their foolishness and not catch the disease. There is a place for strong language, for sharp humor and in-your face truth. The world has plenty of nice, easy-to-swallow religions, but Christianity is not one of them. We worship a homeless guy who was murdered. That is slightly offensive and weird to most people. His session was so packed that I would just recommend you get it off the DG website and listen to it. Here's my favorite quote: "People have taken the fun out of fundamentalism. "

Daniel Taylor: Grace and Story
Stories are what we interpret our lives through. I'm sure you can remember vividly the stories you read as a little kid. Stories imput either truth or falsehood. They are never neutral. Kids today are story-deprived. Instead of A Christmas Carol , they get Dora the Explorer. If you like Dora, I'm sorry. I don't. All humans need a story to live in, and we are happiest when we are not the center character, but are important and insignificant at the same time. Figure that out.

Dinner break came about here, and I have to tell some small random bits that were excellent. My family went to Brit's Pub on Nicollet for a nibble. We took Heidi Brinkmann and Mr. Horn, and I have to tell you that Brit's Pub serves the best calamari I have ever eaten. Downright heavenly with a little humorous fellowship. As we walked back on Nicollet, we saw this great blob of white ahead of us. Someone had put detergent in a fountain, and the snowy white suds were all over the sidewalk and street. Yes, we had a foam fight. I wish I had pictures. But my favorite was when we got back, and walked in as the singing was starting. As I listened to those thousands of people singing together, I had a small glimpse of heaven, of every tribe and people and tongue on earth, from all of history, singing.
Paul Tripp: The God Who Speaks
God spoke the first words, and we are like him in that we also speak or communicate in some way. Words have great power and great consequences. They can kill or give life. On this earth, your words have a beginning and an end. You spoke your first words, and at some point, your words here will cease. Who will rule them? What effect will they have? Another quote: "There is nothing that comes out of the mouth of a drunk that wasn't there in the first place."

John Piper: The Language Nobody Knows (this was Sunday morning)
Can you be eloquent for God's glory? Or does skill with words just eclipse the truth? He compared the speaking styles of George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards as an example. Whitfield was so skilled with words and so pleasant to listen to that a man once said he just enjoyed listening to him, and cared nothing for what he was actually saying. That is a fearful thing, to be preaching the gospel and be so eloquent that you lose God in your words. I did not get to hear the end of this one, but my family tells me Piper ended by saying that yes, you could use eloquence in a good way, in fact, that it could be of great use to faith, though it should never be an end in itself. Quote: ( this isn't Piper's, but he mentioned it and I forget whose it was.) "No one can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save."

So long
-Lulu