The Fear of God.

I heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago. There are days that it fits exactly how I feel at times about the world we live in, but I love that it ends on a redemptive note. And, thanks to 10-hour shifts at work and not enough sleep, this song has been stuck in my little brain all day.

"Dear God, why should I think You’re good in a world that’s falling apart?
The flags and lies, picket signs raised high, the endless enveloping dark
Now here we sit, drifting further from You, two thousand years on their way out
Now here I am, as I’ve grown to know You, still haunted by my fears and my doubts
Just a man, just a vapor, just a waste of your space
All the good that I’ve done is in spite of myself
I’m not sure that I can look You in Your face when I finally set foot in Your kingdom

Dear God, what went wrong? We hate ourselves, we hate our brother
We so desperately want to find our way, and all You say is "love one another"

And little babies starve to death, emaciated, out of breath
Unfaithful wives make vows untrue, husbands beat them black and blue
Junkies vomit in the streets, writhing, twitching in their skin
Sell themselves to die some more, rotting from the outside in
Parents steal the innocence from their children, scared and shaking
Drink away the guilt at night, brings quiet to the endless aching
And evil men boast on TV, swimming in a sea of wealth
While misery beds honest men, and lonely people kill themselves
And everyone cries out Your name, as the world is raped by selfishness
And no one knows the way to heaven, we only know the emptiness
And the storm it rages in my heart, and the endless empty roars in my ears
My world is coming all apart, I’ve no strength left to dry my tears
And through it all I hear Your voice, breaking my heart, breaking my will
Calms the storm inside my soul as You whisper "peace, be still..."

You place Your hands around my heart, You quiet the emptiness in me
A king that kneels, a God made a servant, You set the captives free
You wait for me, a wretch of a man, no record of wrongs do You keep
You are comfort when I mourn, You are strength when I am weak
Jesus Christ, the king of kings
Though we ache, though we cry, never break, never die
We sing of His great love again and again
And His love reigns forever, and forevermore
Forever and ever, Amen." --(Josh Dies)

New ink.

Thanks James!

Oregon....

...was amazing.

I'm quite sure my life won't be the same.

Warm, fuzzy quote of the week.

"Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks... A good night sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace." --Frederick Buechner

Tiffy.

It would've been your birthday today, sweet girl. I miss you.

Happy vegetarian birthday to me.

This month marks my sixth year of being a vegetarian. I'm happy about that.

Just thought you should know.

Yay for health.

:)

Observations.

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." --Anne Lamott
I heard this quote two times yesterday, at two completely different occasions, and it's stuck with me. I think it's because I have grown tired of this "us vs. them" mentality in our little Christian circles. Everything has become this giant culture war, segregating our lives and this world into either "secular" or "Christian" categories. We demean and most often challenge those who share opposing views like it's our right to do so. Meanwhile, the marginalized and broken people of this world are benefiting from this....how? What is all of our rhetoric and judging accomplishing?


Just a few thoughts.



In other news, I met a rather terrific boy from Oregon last week. :) Although it looks firmly attached in the photo below, my face has been blessed off.