My Fair Lady

"with a little bit of luck" profundity:

"they're always throwing goodness at you,
but with a little bit of luck
a man can duck"

interesting to think about in terms of common grace...

I can't believe I'm such a slacker

it's been AGES since i last posted!

well, let's see, what have you missed?

i have read a lot of books.

i have hung out with a lot of students.

i have made serious progress on my Pauline epistles class

i have attended a derek webb tweet-up - with about 250 other twitter fans.

i have gotten sick. and gotten better. several times. (they say your immune system gets stronger after a while. i'm hoping it's been a while.)

(it was never swine flu.)

i have to a taylor swift concert with my brother and his friend ryan in dallas.

i have been rained on a lot.

good stuff, right?

andrew peterson plug

...i believe He is the Christ
Son of the living God

all i know is that i was blind and now i see
that though i kick and scream, love is leading me
and every step of the way His grace is making me,
every breath i breathe, He is saving me...

resurrection letters, volume II is a brilliant piece of work - the songs are good (some of them are better than good), but together the album is stunning. lyrical and musical motifs are woven throughout (as andy p is wont to weave). right now, this portion of "I Believe (The Good Confession)" is what is stuck in my head, especially the line "every breath i breathe, He is saving me." knowing andy p's body of work like i do, i think what he is getting at here is not that Jesus needs to keep saving me all the time, but that my need for Him and His grace is ongoing. i need Him now as much as i did at 5 years old when i "prayed the prayer," but i also HAVE Him now as much as i ever have or will.

we never stop needing Jesus. we never outgrow the Gospel.

[also, i just bought north! or be eaten today and started it. looks to be even better than it's predecessor.]

Don't Waste Your Life

A Tribute to My Awesome Father

taylor swift has a precious song on her new album about her father that my brother pointed out pretty well describes our dad, who is not only the greatest earthly father i know of, but also happens to be one of my best friends in the world. i have been listening to this song almost as much as i've been listening to the aforeposted "abide with me."

i wanted to share it with you. (it's been hard for me to think of stuff to say here, in case you hadn't noticed, but i have been wracking up the lyrics, so maybe that will help my brain get going with more original stuff to say.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Day

i'm five years old, it's getting cold,
i've got my big coat on.
i hear your laugh and look up smiling at you.
i run and run past
the pumpkin patch and the tractor rides -
look now! the sky is gold!
i hug your legs and fall asleep on the way home.

i don't know why all the trees change in the fall.
but i know you're not scared of anything at all.
don't know if snow white's house is near or far away,
but i know i had the best day with you today.

i'm thirteen now and don't know how my friends
could be so mean.
i come home crying and you hold me tight
and grab the keys.
and we drive and drive until we find a town
far enough away,
and we talk and window-shop till i've forgotten
all their names.

i don't know who i'm gonna talk to now at school.
but i know i'm laughing on the car ride home with you.
don't know how long it's gonna take to feel okay,
but i know i had the best day with you today.

i have an excellent father;
his strength is making me stronger.
God smiles on my little brother -
inside and out, he's better than i am.
i grew up in a pretty house and i had space to run
and i had the best days with you.

there is a video i found from back
when i was three:
you set up a paint set in the kitchen and you're
talking to me.
it's the age of princesses and pirate ships
and the seven dwarves.
my daddy's smart and you're the prettiest lady
in the whole wide world.

now i know why all the trees change in the fall.
i know you were on my side even when i was wrong.
and i love you for giving me your eyes, staying back and watching me shine,
and i didn't know if you knew, so i'm taking this time to say
that i had the best day with you today.

Add to the Beauty

thanks to the AMJ tour i was finally introduced to the wonderful sara groves. some artists, i find, you just have to get acquainted with live before you get all ramped up about their stuff. sara seems to be one of those for me. but wow - and i mean WOW - am i ramped up about her stuff now.

great lines include:
+ "redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
calling out the best of who we are" ("add to the beauty")
+ "i see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor
i see the man with a passion come and kickin' down that door" ("when the saints" - ahem, GO IJM)

i love music. i especially love music that resets my affections to be more like God's affections.

Bon Jovi & Politics

when i run, i usually listen to music, and the other day after palin was chosen to be mccain's running mate, "you give love a bad name" came on my ipod shuffle. i was struck by its appropriateness. if they have a presidential race 2008 karaoke night, obama should so sing it to palin.

i'm particularly thinking of lines like "you're a loaded gun, there's nowhere to run, no one can save me, the damage is done."

obama is going down - taken out by a mom with a sharp tongue and a sharper mind.

Brills, Yo

there's a lot more where that came from...

on an entirely different note that my post from 8 minutes ago...

ampersand is awesome. i would go get it if i were you.

gotta love derek and sandra.

I Bake

for you to moo...

they're here, ladies and gentlemen. eat your hearts out. or go get your own. or download them on itunes. or something.

Lo and Behold!

Ashley and me, the auditioners from Uptown Church

Ok, this is from the line out front. We had to show up sometime between 5 and 6 in the morning to get in line... and wait. We were out there until 8ish. It was a LONG time, and Charleston is so freakin' humid that we were all pretty nasty by the time we made it inside. Thankfully, we were lucky ducks - the A/C was going full-throttle inside the coliseum.

Ashley, Julie, and me (Julie came as Ashley's tag-along)

We had registered already, and when we registered they gave us tickets with seat numbers on them. So once we got inside on Saturday, we split up to find our seats. the concession stands were open all day, which was good because when the day starts at like 4, you are hungry for lunch at like 10 am. Anyway, where we sat was what determined our audition order, but first came all the group things and announcements. We had to sing our group song ("Let's Get It Started" by the Black Eyed Peas) about 10 times, some a cappella, some with the music, once with jumping during the chorus. It was a good way to keep in mind that American Idol is first and foremost a television show, and only secondarily (very secondarily) a talent show. Which is fine.


There were an awful lot of folks there. Supposedly there were somewhere between over 8,000 and over 9,000 people who auditioned. The coliseum seats 14,000, and we certainly were concentrated, as you can see by comparing this picture with the one below it.


This was the basic set up. Thirteen, then twelve (they cut one) tables and booths were lined up like this. When your section was "on deck," you filed down to the floor and were divided into groups of four. Each group of four was sent to a line in front of one of the booths, and you got called up one by one to sing. The judges put up a hand when they wanted you to stop, and they usually gave you between 15 and 30 seconds, though I saw more and less done. Sometimes they stopped you after 5 seconds. Sometimes they asked you to sing another song. Or two. And then sent you home. Very rarely they sent you on. And the fact that there were people singing all around you definitely wasn't helpful to your performance - singing under plenty of pressure.

Leonard, Holly, Maddie, and me

This was my group of four. None of us made it past the first round. People with my level of talent were a dime a dozen - from a human perspective, it was sheer luck -} which judge(s) you got, what they were told to look for, when you hit them in the LONG line of folks, what you picked to sing, whether your smile annoyed them, how outrageous you were, etc. It was fun though, and I'm really glad I did it. I might even do it again... :-)

Auditions

hey y'all! well, we didn't get our wish - i didn't make it to the second round. the judge did let me get through about 30 seconds of "he's a tramp," which counts for something since she had no problem shutting people up pretty quick. to be honest, i'm not sure she was allowed to let people through at all. there were supposed to be two judges at each table, but there was only one at ours. and she hadn't let anyone through for at least an hour. and she was in a generally bad mood.

i had intended to give you the full play by play, with pictures, but blogger won't let me upload pictures right now. so you'll have to wait.

hopefully it won't be long.

it was worth it, though - i enjoyed the experience, and though it was thoroughly exhausting, i'm glad i did it.

And the Verdict Is...

we're going with he's a tramp and there's your trouble. :)

this is so weird.

i'll let y'all know how it went when i get back. i'll take good notes. : )

So

i haven't decided yet what i'm singing. some possibilities are the following: he's a tramp, there's your trouble, some days you gotta dance, findin' a good man, landslide, the first cut is the deepest, and leave the pieces. the decision is mostly dependent on the opinion of my friend sarah. and whim.

i thought i'd fill y'all in on my fall schedule. the real semester starts in about a week and a half, and i'm really excited about my slieu of classes. and that will probably be evident in my posting very shortly, so you'd best be apprised of what exactly i'll be rambling about.

Mondays 1-4 Greek II (Dr. Mike Kruger is my favorite professor so far, and i get to take him twice this fall)
Tuesdays 8-12 Intro to Pastoral and Theological Studies (Dr. Douglas Kelly)
6-9 Gospels (Dr. Kruger again)
Wednesday 8:30-10:30 Intro to Preaching (Dr. Richard Belcher)
Thursday 6-9 History of Christianity I (Dr. Donald Fortson)

then during the week of fall break, i'm taking this lovely week-long class called The History of Philosophy and Christian Thought, being taught by RTS-Orlando professor Dr. John Frame. doesn't that sound like wayyyyyy too much fun to be legal?

i have decided to stop titling things unless i have a really rocking title in mind. i cannot count the number of times i have not posted because i couldn't come up with a decent title. i have since decided that this is stupid.

i think a part of my brain is dead. i haven't had a good joke on here of my own invention in soooooo long i'm starting to worry me. "like the cheese." - do they get any better than that? i miss the days when my wit was keen and my fingers quick, like butter on a bald monkey.

that one was for rex and ruth ann, neither of whom read this blog as far as i know.

it's weird living in charlotte. people talk about different things. maybe it's because i'm now an "adult" who listens to local talk radio as she runs errands, but it seems like the local news is more dramatic here. jim black, who apparently was the speaker of the nc house, was sentenced to like 63 months in federal prison for a weird, chiropractic, civil version of simony. (63 months? how random is that!?!) i mean, this stuff doesn't happen in texas... probably because if it did, someone would pull out a shotgun and the federal prison would have an extra slot for international drug cartel lads.

has anyone noticed the plethora of fantastic movies out this summer? who wants to buy me movie tickets??

i joined the folks over at rocksmyfaceoff.net. yay.

sandra and derek's baby was born july 4, and his name is rhodes. you can see a pic on sandra's peg board page at rmfo.

Hi

after friday night's campus-wide dance party, i was incapable of developed thought. then i went to raleigh with a friend to visit her family. so i'm now resuming the hymn series. can't believe easter is so close! this is my favorite time of year.

oh, btw, check out psalm 112, particularly vs. 6-8.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
beneath the cross of Jesus i feign would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty Rock within a weary land,
a Home within the wilderness, a Rest upon the way
from the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day.

upon the cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
the very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
and from my stricken heart with tears two wonders i confess:
the wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.

i take, o cross, thy shadow for my abiding place.
i ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face,
content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss.
my sinful self my only shame; my glory all the cross.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
isn't that just so beautiful? i love that we are confessing the "two wonders" together: that is so healthy! it's not "boy do i suck" or "yay i'm a child of the King, holy and dearly loved" - it's BOTH. at the same time. always. isn't that cool?
i also love the line "i ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face," because that kind of solidarity and joy in the Lord is what i want. so precious to be so deeply rooted in the "rich and free" love of Christ.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
come, Thou Fount of every blessing - tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
praise the mount, i'm fixed upon it, mount of God's redeeming love.

here i raise my ebenezer; hither by Thy help i've come.
and i hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God.
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

o, to grace how great a debtor daily i'm constrained to be!
let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.
prone to wander, Lord i feel it; prone to leave the God i love.
here's my heart, o, take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
another gorgeous hymn and one my RUF minister is pretty much obsessed with, so we sing it alot. i love the cause and effect connections drawn in this song: the never-ceasing "streams of mercy" veritably shout out, "you need to praise God for this!"
and we (the Church) should totally be "fixed upon" the "mount of God's redeeming love," which is wayyyyy bigger than mount everest and wayyyyyyyyyy cooler than mount rushmore. reminds me of "Thy Mercy" - "Thy mercy, my God, is theme of my song, the joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue."
in case we don't all know what ebenezers are, they are monuments constructed in the old testament to memorialize a time God powerfully showed up and provided what was needed. i believe the first time that word appears in the bible is when the israelites cross the jordan into the land of canaan and God has them build an ebenezer to remind them for all time how far and through what He'd brought them. what's interesting is that this was intended to prompt children to ask their parents about the big heap of rocks... the story was meant to be told over and over again. no hiding what God has done under a bushel or anything like that...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
this last one is an andy peterson song (again, i know). it's a cool one: Jesus is the cowboy-gunslinger-hero and who gets kicked the heck outta dodge? the "wages of sin," of course! (added my notes in brackets cause with this song it's easier that way)
High Noon
high noon in the valley of the shadow, [battle/dueling time; psalm 23: '...of death']
when the deep of the valley was bright, [because of Who's there]
when the mouth of the tomb shouted, "Glory!
the Groom is alive!"
go on, you wages of sin;
go on, don't you come back again:
i've been raised and redeemed;
you've lost all your steam to the Victor of the battle
at high noon in the valley,
in the valley of the shadow.

now the demons, they danced in the darkness
when that last ragged breath left his lungs,
and they reveled and howled at the war that they thought they had won.
but then, in the dark of the grave, the stone rolled away,
in the still of the dawn on the greatest of days

it was high noon in the valley of the shadow,
when the shadows were shot through with light.
Jesus took in that breath and shattered all death with His life. [how cool is that!!!!]
go on, you wages of sin! go on, don't you come back again:
i've been raised and redeemed;
you've lost all your steam to the Victor of the battle
at high noon in the valley
in the valley of the shadow.

let the people rejoice.
let the heavens resound.
let the Name of Jesus, Who sought us
and freed us forever ring out.
all praise to the Fighter of the night
Who rides on the light
Whose gun is the grace of the God of the sky.

high noon in the valley of the shadow
when the shadows were shot through with light
when the mouth of the tomb shouted, 'glory!
the Groom is alive!"
go on, you wages of sin,
i said, go on, don't you come back again:
i've been raised and redeemed,
all praise to the King,
the Victor of the battle
at high noon in the valley,
in the valley of the shadow.

all hail the power of Jesus' Name...

The Silence of God

this is an andy peterson, both his most controversial and one of his best songs. i think i will leave it to stand on its own with one thought: i intentionally juxtaposed it with yesterday's laden with guilt and full of fears.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Silence of God
it's enough to drive a man crazy, it'll break a man's faith,
it's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane
when he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
and heaven's only answer is the silence of God.

it'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart,
when he has to remember what broke him apart.
this yoke may be easy, but this burden is not
when the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God.

and if a man has got to listen to the voice of the mob,
who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got,
when they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross -
what about the times when even followers get lost?
cause we all get lost sometimes...

there's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll
in the hills of kentucky, all quiet and cold,
and He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a stone,
all His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone,

and the Man of all sorrows, He never forgot
what sorrow is carried by the hearts that He bought.
so when the questions dissolve into the silence of God,
the aching may remain, but the breaking does not.
the aching may remain, but the breaking does not
in the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God.

Passover Us

this is an andy song which i conveys important truths, particularly for us covenant theologians. the continuity between old and new testaments - in short, between God's plan throughout the course of history - is so beautifully seen in the exodus, among many many other places. this song is from andy's christmas cd, behold the Lamb of God. andy does alot of fun things in the beginning of the cd with recapping OT history. it's a good one.

Passover Us
well, we all remember moses on the banks of the river;
he said, 'pharaoh, you've got to let my people go.
you don't want me to have to tell you this ten times over -
denial ain't just a river, you know.'

well, we all remember pharaoh, he just wouldn't do it.
so the plagues came upon egypt one by one.
his heart was hard and the other nine just couldn't move him,
so the last was the worst, the death of the firstborn sons.

o, but the Lord, He gave to moses a word for the people:
He said their firstborn sons would live to see another day.
'put the blood of the lamb on the doorway and death would pass right over.'
that night all the children of israel prayed.

they prayed, 'Lord, let Your judgment pass over us;
Lord, let Your love hover near.
don't let Your sweet mercy pass over us -
let this blood cover over us here.'

so the years went by and the people they whined and they wandered,
and only sacrifice atoned for the sins of the land.
so you see the priest, he placed upon the holy altar,
the body of a spotless lamb.

and he prayed, 'Lord, let Your judgment pass over us;
Lord, let Your love hover near.
don't let Your sweet mercy pass over us -
let this blood cover over us here.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the brilliance of this song is awesome. the overall conversational form of the lyrics reflects the tradition (biblically mandated, of course) of retelling the story of what God did. every year, like clockwork, the youngest child at the table would ask the oldest man at the table why this whole passover thing was being done, what it meant. "we all" would remember things in this conversational way.
obviously, the foreshadowing that the sacrifices provide to the sacrifice of Christ is extremely vivid. the blood on the lintels, the sacrificing to "atone for the sins of the land," - these things are given to God's people as a promise.
being washed in the Redeemer's blood means for us the end of sacrifices.
kevin (my campus minister) preached an fantastic sermon tonight. he talked about genesis 15, when God Almighty makes His covenant with abraham. God tells abraham that he needs to be faithful, obedient, and good, and God will be with him and his offspring forever. they go through the traditional covenant-/treaty-making ceremony, splitting animals apart, passing through the pieces, and swearing that if a party refuses to keep their side of the bargain, that same tearing apart shall happen to the unfaithful party. but God passed through the pieces for both of them - for Himself and for abraham. as kevin said tonight, the law was never intended by God for our salvation. justification by works - good luck with that. what is amazing - utterly amazing - is that God visits the curse, the being torn assunder, upon Himself.
amazing love! how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!

Mary Picked the Roses

this is an andy song originally written by rich mullins before he died. i love the simplicity and profundity of the message. Jesus is the Source of everything - He is the Alpha, not just the Omega - and in Him all things hold together.

Mary Picked the Roses
mary picked the roses, early in the morn
mary picked the roses, as the day was being born
mary picked the roses to smell their sweet perfume
mary picked the roses; Jesus made them bloom.

joseph carved a table from a piece of wood
joseph carved a table, well it was his livelihood
joseph carved a table where kings could sit to eat
joseph carved a table; Jesus made the tree.

i write songs, these songs i sing.
and i'd have none if not for Him.
and i know whence came the tunes
because Jesus made the roses,
Jesus made the roses bloom.

i will soon be leaving, i will soon be gone.
i will soon be leaving, but i leave for you my song.
though this life is fleeting and time is no one's friend,
i will soon be leaving -
Jesus never ends.

i write songs, these songs i sing.
and i'd have none if not for Him.
and i know whence came the tunes
because Jesus made the roses,
Jesus made the roses,
Jesus made the roses bloom.

Lent Is Coming...

whatever shall we do?

i'm thinking of a repeat of last year's task, limiting it (no re-doing hymns from last year) and expanding it (not just hymns). thoughts?