I was talked into it...

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In a market dimly lit.

I am a little nervous about posting song lyrics. I think if anyone who reads this is annoyed by it I shouldn't perhaps. But I like this band. And this song. It is so curiously written. And it makes me smile.

"the bird that plucked the Olive Leaf
has been circling like a record never-ending in my mind
where the needle's worn the grooves too deep,
and scratched the wax that's blistered from the heat besides
so from any movement in the room-
if my cat walked by the arm skipped!
but to my surprise, my interrupting cat improved
a sound already so severely compromised

the needle's worn the grooves too deep

I'm a donkey's jaw on a desert dune!
beside the bush that Moses saw
that burned and yet was not consumed!
she's the silver coin I lost,
I'm the sheep who slipped away
we pray the fingers crossed
but you listen patiently anyway

I wrote a little song for you
with a melody I'd borrowed put to words that didn't rhyme
to repeat what you already knew
as the stones thrown at your window tapped a syncopated time
you kept a distance out of fear you'd break
but what good's a single windchime, hanging quiet all alone?
the music our collisions would make
is a sound that turns the road-that-leads-us-back-home
into Home.

the music our collisions make!

I had a rusty spade but I'm not the fighting sort!
if I was Samson I'd have found that harlot's blade
and cut my own hair short!
then in a market dimly lit I come casually to pay
you see my coins are counterfeit
but accept them anyway

so spare me your goodbyes,
your waving-handkerchief-good-byes
given my tendency to err so on the sentimental side
I'll spare you my goodbyes,
the truth belongs to God,
the mistakes were mine"

- mewithoutYou


Oh curse those mistakes! I am such a hindrance to myself and this song reminds me on the last line that even I cannot make the truth anything but God's

Number one stunner.

So lately I have had a few conversations with friends about how we were brought up in our predominantly southern baptist churches to believe that our one greatest mission on this planet, as people who believe in God and Christ, is to convert other people.

I am beginning to hate this.

I mean, it is pretty awesome when you talk to people about the God you love and who loves you and they start seeing that your love is true. And they start wanting it.

That is beautiful.

But this should not be our first desire...

We are called first to love.
Not to convert.
Not to Enlist.
Just love

Yes. In loving someone, you may help them gain a relationship with God.

But our purpose is just to love.

We have heard and hear people saying we have to "further the kingdom of God"

But if you look at how Jesus talked of the kingdom of God. He said it was already here. Already at hand. We don't need to build it.

Jesus said the basis for our faith, the commandment everything hinges on, is "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength."

And joined with that, a supporting clause, is "Love your neighbor as yourself"

We are to Love as God loves us.

But first and foremost, we are to Love God.

Goodness Gracious

I would like to start with a statement.

Grace is something I have never understood.

There I said it. It has never been "amazing" to me. Until recently. Welll. In the past year. I did not understand the concept of grace. I never considered myself graceful. Haha. But. You see.

We are living by and through grace.

Every breath is given freely. By the amazing-ness of grace.

The due payment of our disobedience is death.

We all have disobeyed.

Yet. Without a request and in the face of refusal , God has given us life.


Through his grace.