100X watched, still great

My first GIF

Catherine, from her and K's short film

Cat's about to leave/arrive

Everyone's leaving for their first year of college. My niece went yesterday. So this means I have license to be pretty sappy and emotional and sentimental for a while.


All the kids who graduated in 2011 are making facebook statuses --wistful paragraphs with the people tagged who they're going to "miss SOOOO much" sprinkled throughout.

Here's my kid's status:

Now there are some who would comfort me and say, "It's good she's ready to go! You want them to fly!", and I guess I should spin this as positively as possible.

But herattitude doesn't hurt me the way they think it does. Because I think I understand that it's not just me she's leaving.

Reflection:
You move your family, looking for safety and high-rated schools. You pray, you hear nothing. You crave a fresh start, the time is ripe, and so you go.
And later, too much later to do anything about it, you wonder: Would diversity of many kinds (not simply racial - also economic, religious, even personality drive) have been better for your kids? (Diversity of *any* kind...at all?)

You make all kinds of decisions that have far-reaching, deep impact on your kids. You make them in a hailstorm, half blind. You make them without the input of another person who is completely, on a DNA cellular level, invested in your kids. (Thank God for my mom, she's as close as it can get to that.)
And again, later -- too late to divert -- you realize you were wrong sometimes.

Reflection:
She contended with many things. She is startlingly perceptive, and sometimes it seems to me that people's motives are just laid bare before her. Naturally, she struggles with cynicism.
I want, I pray, if I could I'd will this: She'll realize that those things made her, not limited her. She'll realize that she was lead by love the entire time. She'll choose joy.

And truthfully, I'm glad she's not the type whose status is full of cliche and empty promises to stay in touch.
She's spending time with the people who matter to her. Anything she's telling them isn't being done with twitter or facebook, it's with real conversation. And I'm one of those people.

Overheard

This morning, I overheard this conversation between two security guards in my building. One was an older man (1), the other younger (2). The topic was marriage.

(2): I love being married.

(1): I've been married 18 years now.

(2): That's good.

(1): 18 years, that's right.

(2): Yeah, I love it. Everyday. It puts me at *ease*, you know?

(1): Yep.

It seemed ingenuous - they were just talking. It amazed me.

Playlist

Minimize Youtube, wear headphones, and instantly improve my attitude about work.

Getting through my day, one song at a time:

Visions of you - Jah Wobble

House of the Rising Sun -- Sinead (cool cover!!!)

Strawberry Swing - Coldplay

Nightswimming - REM

Sweetness Follows - REM

((NOSTALGIA TIME))

Nothing Compares to U - Sinead

Ordinary World - Duran Duran

Save a Prayer - Duran Duran

If you were here -- thompson twins

Love Vigilantes -- New Order

Every Little Counts -- New Order

Three Days - Jane's Addiction

Classic Girl - Jane's Addiction

Love is Alive - Gary Wright

Sundown -- Gordon Lightfoot

Down on Main Street - Bob Seger

verdi cries -- 10000 maniacs ((this is so beautiful it makes me start crying))

carry on my wayward son -- kansas

linger -- cranberries

prayer for you -- texas ((THIS IS A GREAT SONG))

life's what you make it -- talk talk

getting over you -- david guetta ( (there's no getting over this song for me))

love the way you lie - eminem

------

she's a beauty -- the tubes

your love -- the outfield

Elf, Forrest, and Jesus

A friend on facebook sent me a message about the movie Elf:
She was reading John 8, and it hit her that Buddy was like Jesus...there's more. I'll edit this if she gives permission.

For now, I'll say that I admit I'd never thought of Buddy the Elf as a Christ type, but I was thinking about it, and one of his qualities stood out clearly: He's loving. He's ingenuously, unconditionally, completely loving. The way he responds to a father who abandoned him, a boss and coworkers who are mean to him, and everyone who doesn't understand him -- it's always love.

It reminded me of my first pastor and his wife, who recommended Forrest Gump for the same reason. Jenny couldn't handle that kind of love (maybe she didn't think she deserved it?), but even after she abandons him and comes back, he accepts her fully. Love. My first pastor's wife, Sue, said that maybe the only way a film could get away with showing that kind of radical love was to house it in a mentally challenged person...(or maybe a naive elf?)

A friend of a friend was dying from cancer, and was a bitter person because of things that had happened in a church she belonged to. She told my friend, "I hate God!! Jesus, well -- Jesus is good. But I can't stand God."
I think people always kneejerk respond to this kind of statement with a lesson on the trinity -- I probably did when I heard this story. But I never will again. A person very close to me said this same idea recently. Because I know more about this person, I have more understanding:

They feel like certain things that they've had to endure were allowed by God (they're correct..he had the power to stop all of them, and he didn't). So God allowed her to be hurt.
And Jesus is the one who feels our pain fully...hurts when we do...he can, because he actually knows what it means to be human. So he's the one whose comfort is meaningful.

This person understands the concept of the trinity (as the dying woman probably did)....She's not having a lapse in theology. She's in pain. And one member of the Godhead didn't prevent this pain, and another is trying to comfort her through it. So her statement makes sense to me.

So for right now, I'm trying to think, in addition to the conventional WWJD wisdom: What would Forrest do? What would Buddy do?

5 Reasons Why this was the Best Sermon Series I've Heard this Year

1. The abundance of Scripture

There was Scripture read, referenced, even recited. The cool part: unapologetically.

(Explanation: My church is sensitive to those who might be new to church or uncomfortable with church. Sometimes, this has taken the form of almost apologizing when a lot of Scripture is used in a sermon. Our pastor will prepare us in advance, like a teacher might if they're giving an involved lecture, and they're worried they might lose some of the students to boredom. It's funny, because when he says that, it's usually a signal for me that I'm going to really like the sermon. For this sermon, there was never that pre-emptive apology, and I was glad! Besides the fact that this pastor is a really gifted and engaging communicator who casts a wide net when he preaches anyway, it's compelling simply because it's the Word of God, given fully and in context.))

2. The back-story given

The first week, the text was Isaiah 6 (which starts, "in the year that King Uzziah died"). We were given Uzziah's history, so we interpreted the passage in light of that life. (Uzziah started well, finished poorly)

The second week, we were given theories on when Paul may have had that vision/revelation he refers to in 2 Corinthians 12. It was in Acts, when he got stoned by the crowd in Lystra.

Sometimes the thing that really hits you is something hidden in these back stories, so I love when sermons include them. Plus, I learn something new.


3. The overall definition of Worship

We were encouraged to 'Focus on the magnificence of God' -- I needed to hear this. I need to hear it again and again. Magnify God. Focus off of self, on Him.

He added to this, too -- he ended with the part in Romans that talks about offering our whole self as a spiritual act of worship. But the initial definition was good for me, because I've been so far off.


4. Communion.

We don't take communion often, because of the size of our church (I think.) But today, the church was as full as ever, and maybe it was a logistical challenge, but it really didn't seem that way. They added a worship song, and you made communion an extension of worship. They let you take it at your own pace, so you could prepare privately, and take when you were ready.

5. The preeminence of Jesus, the exclusivity of Jesus was proclaimed with clarity and strength.

It was a really powerful moment. He spoke verses from Romans, and ended with the verse in Hebrews that talks about Jesus being the radiance of God's glory, and the exact representation of His being.
It was one of those times when I feel like cheering as if I'm at a game, and we just scored.

You can listen here

Romain Gavras part 2

Riveting for the full 9 minutes. You'll wish it was longer.

Romain Gavras

Lucas showed me this video, and now I want to see everything this film maker has done. Just watch it.

All the things I know right now, if I only knew back then

This is David Guetta -- he's kinda a DJ, I guess -- features Fergie. The guy soloist is Chris Willis, who I googled and learned that he's a gospel singer (YEA) and the fun guys are LMFAO.