Omnivorous Attentiveness.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
-Psalm 19

“Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.”

-G.K. Chesterton

I've heard it in the silence

Seen it on a face

I've felt it in a long hour

Like a sweet embrace

I know this is true

It's calling out to me

It's the child on her wedding day

It's the daddy that gives her away

Something beautiful

-Newsboys, Something Beautiful

"I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The
sun was shining outside and through the crack at
the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From
where I stood that beam of light, with the specks
of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in
the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black.
I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.

Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my
eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture
vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no
beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny
at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the
branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd
million miles away, the sun."

-C.S. Lewis, Mediation in a Toolshed

The moon is a sliver of silver

Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop...

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands!

-Rich Mullins

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
-Psalm 139

The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them;

it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.

These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire;

but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers.

For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found,

the echo of the tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.

-C.S. Lewis

I’m smellin’ coffee, birds are singin’ just outside
Here comes Your mercy streamin’ in with the morning light

-Chris Rice

"WAKE UP, O SLEEPER!

RISE FROM THE DEAD,

AND CHRIST WILL SHINE ON YOU!"

-Ephesians 5:13

So today I see that God's signs and wonders have not ceased. It is as clear as, nay, it IS the noonday sun. It is the bird's song, the spider's craft, and the expanse of the ocean. Yet, for all their beauty and majesty they do not fulfill. They do not give satisfaction, rather they produce inconsolable longing. As Lewis said they are "echos of a tune we have not heard". They are signs hurrying us on our way to their Creator.

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."

-Romans 8:22.

Now I KNOW why the wolf howls! I KNOW why the trees bend and the earth cracks! Why the oppressed cry, and the lonely search for an embrace! It is because we see and long for you EVERYWHERE, and don't even know that we do! You alone can satisfy...oh God...show us your glory.

-James

Palm Beach, Flordia today:

The average age in palm beach is 74. It is were men got to die well. To die in comfort.

Palm Beach, Ecuador January 8th 1956

Where a group of men went to die well.

"He is no fool who parts with what he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompensed with what he cannot lose."
-Jim Elliot

Allow or cause?

Does God allow or cause suffering and injustice? And more importantly how does he feel about it?


For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;

for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.
To crush underfoot
all the prisoners of the earth,
to deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
the Lord does not approve.

Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
-Lamentations 3:32

a little improv.

For many people (not all) music is the thing known in the present life which most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity.
-C.S. Lewis

One person's world is tearing apart
One person's life is about to start
In the life of the great and fallen
Lord God, You alone are sovereign

Do you ever write something, forget that you wrote it, read it later and then feel like a genius?

Well I wrote something down and I can't figure out if this is my thought or a quote from someone else...I googled it and nothing came up so maybe I did...anyhow...here it is:

It seems to me that other than Jesus, there is nothing like pain that brings us closer to the Father, and flowers compassion in our hearts.


regardless of the writer, in my experience, I have found this to be true.


-James

Twilight

Twilight…there is obviously something explosive about it. There are scores of of statistics that I could post, but I think the more powerful testament to it's infection of our culture is probably someone you know...or maybe even you. We all know someone who has at least read, if not obsessed over, the book and the characters. However, the fans are not what I'm pondering here so much as the first book and it's substance. (was that the word "substance" in reference to Twilight? *gasp*)

Ever since the book came about (I was actually aware of and familiar with the story about a year before it exploded) I have often wondered what qualities the book possessed to captivate not only younger teens, but grown women as well. Over the years I have had discussions with fans, read reviews, and yes, even read portions of the book. The following are themes that I have picked up during this time. My goal in this post is to highlight a few things from the book and then talk about it. Nothing extravagant.

Of the many enigmas I stumbled across in the Twilight franchise, perhaps the most surprising to me was that it not only has appealed to younger ladies, but older ones as well. One of the series' most avid fan sites is twilightmoms.com. It was created by and for grown women, many with families of their own. Here's a quote from one of the "twilight moms"

"Twilight makes me feel like there may be a perfect world where a perfect man does exist. Where love can overcome everything. Where we can live forever with the person we love."

This brings me to the most intriguing (for me at least) part of the Twilight saga. Edward.

Just mentioning his name makes boyfriends across the nation groan. This glittery 106 year old teenager has been every dudes bane since the proliferation of Twilight. Yet I don't think it was his sparkles or very old age that captured the heart of so many readers. Edward is described in the book as being charming, polite, determined, and…very good looking. He loves Bella and considers her safety and well being his top priority in life. Bella, who has a few family issues, is welcomed not only by Edward but his family as well…oh…and he's a vampire…the vegetarian type.

Stephanie Meyers (author) often details Edward's qualities, and doesn't seem to mind bringing them up multiple times. Instead of growing or expanding the world around Bella, Meyers seems to retract into a single point: the experience of being loved by Edward Cullen. Yet for all the hypnotic repetition the story gives Edward and his faaaabulous ssskin, He is not the primary character…that position belongs to Bella.

The whole story is told from the view of Bella Swan. She's our "point of view" character, the one with whom readers have gone on the emotional journey which they described with words like "obsession" and "addiction".

So the question becomes: is this purely a feminine fantasy or is something else being imaged here? As much as I dislike Twilight it asks vital questions like does a perfect love exist? Do we need someone who intervenes and saves us from death? Do we as a people find ourselves enamored with stories where we are chosen, loved unconditionally, adopted into a family, loved into eternal life? Do we often need to find our identity in something greater than ourselves? These concepts aren't just fantasy, for the Christian, but reality in our relationship with God. These ideas: being more than human, never leaving (nor forsaking) and a wild, untamed love are constructs of a Christ-like allegory. There is of course one problem. Edward is a fictional character that can ultimately do nothing for the reader.

After reading the book, one Twilight fan comments, "I have no desires to be part of the real world now. Nothing I was doing before holds any interest to me. I do what I have to do, what I need to do to
get by and that's it. Someone please tell me it will ease up - even if just a little. My entire world is consumed and in a tail spin."

It seems to me that ladies across the nation have found a fictional outline of what their soul is longing for, but despair because they know not of any corresponding individual in reality. As old as the human race is and for all the advances we've made with feminism, there is this core in the readers that want to be the object of affection and to be loved by someone who is perfect. They want a love that can last forever and overcome everything. I think there's something in women irregardless of creed or belief that actually responds to the undercurrent of this narrative because it rings with a Truth. The Truth that Jesus Christ is the immortal, supernatural, unending, ever present, lover and guardian of our souls.

-James




p.s.
I couldn't resist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSn5rs70Rc&feature=player_embedded