Jesus as the truth gets far more attention than Jesus as the way. Jesus as the way is the most frequently evaded metaphor among the Christians with whom I have worked for fifty years as a North American pastor. In the text that Jesus sets before us so clearly and definitively, way comes first. We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get to the truth of Jesus as he is worshiped and proclaimed. The way of Jesus is the way that we practice and come to understand the truth of Jesus, living Jesus in our homes and workplaces, with our friends and family. (Eugene Peterson)
LIV.UR.LYF
I’mma keep it cool and I’mma do me
It is what it is and that’s how it’s gonna be
Until I get there. Until I get there.
Yeah, I got flaws, I know I’m not perfect
But all the ups and downs will soon be worth it
When I get there. When I get there.
(Lupe Fiasco - Till I Get There)
It’s Friday! Another day to get things done! GET AFTER IT!!!!!
I am hiding from some beast
But the beast was always here
Watching without eyes
Because the beast is just my fear
That I am just nothing
Now it’s just what I’ve become
What am I waiting for?
It’s already done.
(The Bravery - Believe)
Wanderin’
Well, now, in this world of wonders, there are things a man must see
There are trials he must know and there are troubles he must meet
He must stare in the eyes of evil and know that he is free
Til the good Lord calls, keep on wanderin’
(Justin Townes Earle - Wanderin’)
Nothing seems to matter when listening to classical music. Notes arrive in the crowded rooms of your head and heart and almost immediately begin shoving the millions of “guests” - to do list tasks, worries, ambitions - out the door.
My dad traveled around the world quite a bit when I was a boy. His return home meant a few things - long football passes in the yard, foreign currency, and CDs. Music CDs. Back in the day, airlines gave out classical music CDs on their international flights. Dad always brought them home and I always listened to them. Actually, the full disclosure is that I DANCED to them (I also played baseball every day so back off!). Bach, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky were obvious, but I learned about all kinds of composers - Wagner, Brahms, Liszt, Saint-Saens, Holst, Copeland, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Strauss. And then there was a Russian CD one time: Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Balakirev, Cui, and Rachmaninoff. As weird as it is, I loved listening to classical music as a boy.
This particular piece is prelude No. 6 from Rachmaninoff’s Opus 23 (which is a set of ten preludes for solo piano). Unfortunately, the video picks up about 1/4 into the actual piece, but I think seeing Van Cliburn play this live, visibly nodding his head in agreement with the music at certain parts, with original audio from more than 50 years ago, at least partially makes up for it.
Seeing Van Cliburn so young back then makes me think about the fleeting nature of youth. Some day - sooner for some, later for others - we’ll die. And when we do, I’m hoping so much that life in the City of God in the New Earth has things comparable to or, even better, far exceeding the beauty of something like this. And that we’ll be able to enjoy them forever without all the bad things in this life. What a gift this instrument known as the piano is to human-kind! Even though I have no idea how to play one, I’m incredibly thankful to those who do!
Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people…then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good. It isn’t wrong for an actor to want to act his part as well as it can possibly be acted, but the wish to have his name in bigger type than the other actors is a bad one…What we call “ambition” usually means the wish to be more conspicuous or more successful than someone else. It is this competitive element in it that is bad. It is perfectly reasonable to want to dance well or to look nice. But when the dominant wish is to dance better or look nicer than others - when you begin to feel that if the others danced as well as you or looked as nice as you, that it would take all the fun out of it - then you are going wrong.
“
| — | C.S.Lewis |
in the past couple weeks, i’ve been trying to figure out why music and writing and art are so powerful. i don’t imagine i’ll be able to really understand while i live. but it’s interesting to think about.
people that like to write have one great goal - to get what’s INSIDE of them to the OUTSIDE. great writers have an ability to FEEL something about life and they’re able to SQUEEZE themselves and turn their hearts at different angles to find out exactly what’s there. how can feelings become words?
even better writers can take those thoughts and express them in language that is beautiful. beautiful thoughts plus beautiful language is what separates people that like to write from writers.
cloaking arrogance in the language of humility makes someone arrogant and disingenuous. should have just stuck with arrogant.
i’m not pro-war and i’m not anti-war but….iraq and afghanistan. all of this because four planes flew into three buildings and a field in pennsylvania?
i wonder if an american walking the streets of kabul or baghdad is viewed in the way arabs are here.
when i was 22, i watched cnn as images of “shock and awe” lit up my tv screen. i literally cheered with my friends as flashes of light and echoes of impact came through the little electronic box.
but now i’m sad about it all. back then, it seemed we were the big winners. now i mostly believe everyone lost.
