rejoice & lament

Josh Garrels came on shuffle on a long run through autumn-streaked mountains yesterday...

Learn this lesson well, my friend

There's a time to rejoice and lament

Every season will find an end

All will fade and be made new again

Standing on the rocks of the railroad tracks

Feet calloused, eyes open, sun beats on my back

As I gaze upon the unseen winds

And they are wandering, whispering

Wisdom that's eternal

From the heart to the mind

To the hand to the journal

Now the kernel of the seeds in the cleft of the rock

And it's watered by the winds

Having power to unlock and

Stop the clock of chronological logic

With its homogenized systems

That are dead and can't dodge it

Being deaf to the voice of the Almighty One

Spirit illumines the dark like a fire

Revealing the way that was hidden but is higher

Now we must travel on the wings

That will never grow tired

Of searching the mysteries of God

I said Father the feathers of my wax wings

Fall away by the rising of the sun

And I have descended when I was undone

And I will ascend when your Spirit comes

Because what's been done and overcome

Cannot be stopped by the power of any human

Like the number of sand we will stand

And we will fall, all

In the face of an eternal call

But those who call on His name

In the midst of the pain

In the guilt and the shame

And the world full of blame

And all the bloody stains

From the unjust gains

I learned all men suffer the same

Because we're wayward sons

And all our jokes betray

Our foolish hearts and our selfish ways

But if we would turn to the Father's grace

We would never be the same

This is an unseen land of a devastated soul

That's prepared in contemplative silence

For the mighty working hand of an unseen Lord

To come restore this land from its violence

I said walk another mile

Stare across the fields of grain

This is how the prophets train

Learn this lesson well my friend

There's a time to rejoice and lament

Every season will find an end

All will fade and be made new again

- a reversed thought process & valley of vision

This morning in Evangelism Jennifer Barrick spoke in our class...a few years ago the Barrick family was hit head-on by a drunk driver going 80 miles per hour. Miraculously, all four of them survived. Jen was in a coma for a few weeks, and when she woke up she, although having suffered massive brain damage & motor skills, she remembered every Bible verse & praise song & woke up speaking of God's goodness...her Mom talked about how after that night their lives have drastically changed- and physical social acceptability is so invaluable compared to how they're able to glorify God & share the gospel with so many now.

TAKE THAT, SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY!

Here's their website:

http://hopeoutloud.com/index.html

Also, in a conversation Caroline & I had last night she told me about how a friend of hers wrote to her about feeling gawky & awkward frequently. Her reply- JESUS WAS AWKWARD. what?!?

-He hung naked in front of huge crowds on a holiday weekend.

Really.

And we are concerned for how we're viewed by people.

Not that it isn't important to measure our actions-

in Acts 5:14 it describes Peter & other believers --

"the people held them in high esteem."

So, in news of social acceptableness, I didn't do so awesomely today, since i gathered colossal amounts of leaves from gutters & drew ridiculous caricatures of people on Microsoft paint.

Point of this post, though: to UPSET the STATUS QUO FOR JESUS' NAME.

& Now for reformed-ness, some valley of vision

(future hubby, we can read this together on a picnic! ;)

THE PRECIOUS BLOOD:

Blessed Lord Jesus,

Before thy cross I kneel and see
the heinousness of my sin,
my inequity that caused thee to be
"made a curse",
the evil that excites the severity
of divine wrath.
Show me the enormity of my guilt by
the crown of thorns,
the pierced hands and feet,
the bruised body,
the dying cries.
Thy blood is the blood of incarnate God,
its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought.
Infinite must be the evil and guilt
that demands such a price.
Sin is my malady, my monster, my foe, my viper,
born in my birth,
alive in my life,
strong in my character,
dominating my faculties,
following me as a shadow,
intermingling with my every thought,
my chain that holds me captive in the
empire of my soul.
Sinner that I am, why should the sun give me light,
the air supply breath,
the earth bear my tread,
its fruits nourish me,
its creatures subserve my ends?
Yet thy compassions yearn over me,
thy heart hastens to my rescue,
thy love endured my curse,
thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.
Let me walk humbly in the lowest depths
of humiliation,
bathed in thy blood,
tender of conscience,
triumphing gloriously as an heir of salvation.

(The Valley of Vision pg. 74-75, unknown author)

the premise: reformed journals & social acceptableness.

hullo, very small slice of the pie chart that represents the number of people who might so happen to read this sometime. i'd also like to throw out RIGHT NOW that i read a lot of hyperbole & a half & i love it & allie brosh is awesome & she inspired me to actually blog & i'm not as creatively hilarious as she is. however, I know she needs Jesus...so i be prayin for her. yep, so i confess to partial plagiarism because i'm adapting her writing style. not as good with microsoft paint as she is, though!

awhile ago i was facebook chatting with the friend-boy (something we only do every quarter century or so, because, unlike me, he isn't a facebook addict...) & the conversation was much too bland, so I injected what i considered a hilarious clever suggestion-

me: "can we get a pet chinchilla & then when it starts smelling up the house & we can't afford to buy food for it, then we can turn it into a bathmat."

friend-boy: "erm...no, i don't think that'd be socially acceptable."

which got me thinking-- how many other ideas do I have or things do I do that aren't "socially acceptable"?

-it was when i found myself taking off my shoes on my walk back from classes ('cause of blisters, because I HATE SOCKS) or when i put peanut butter on hamburgers or introduced myself via pick-up line to the girl in the cafeteria line & she just looks at me strangely.

the day after wearing my hello kitty flannel pajama shirt to class, I resolved to be more socially acceptable!

So, instead of eating lemon juice class packets in class because I'd missed breakfast, I calmly chewed a piece of Orbit. Instead of introducing myself via pick up line, I segwayed (sp?) into it much more conventionally....well, almost. If paraphrase quoting Disney movies is conventional.
Mulan: "I see you have a sword...so do I. They're so...manly..."
"I see you have an I.D. card...so do I. They're so...college student-y..."


I shall carry on!

Also, more to come on reformed girl journal. For now, I'm just gazing wistfully at my tulips & thinking about John 17, augustine, & the total depravity of my heart & how much I need the blood of Jesus in every moment. praises up for grace upon grace from our good God, amen? AAAMMEEEN!!!!!!!!!

<3,

em

p.s. do I look socially normal nomming on that apple? ;)