Going Old School - Coleridge and Beethoven

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?  Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.  Galatians 1:10

The grass whithers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.  Isaiah 40:8

I didn't read Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner until I was in college, which I regret.  I wish I had read it sooner, because it had a staggering effect on me when I read it.  Reading Galatians today I immediately thought of this line from that poem.

Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

Lost at sea and dehydrated beyond comprehension and here we are surrounded by water.  There is just one problem, if we drink the water it not only won't satisfy us, but it will leave us thirstier than before and sick and ultimately will be fatal.  This is what I am doing when I try to satisfy myself with things of this world.  I can enjoy this world and the things in it, but when I turn to those things to satisfy my ultimate wants and desires, they may temporarily satisfy my thirst, but ultimately I want more than what these things can offer.  I spent so long turning to temporary things to provide me with my self worth, but ultimately, there is only one path to complete restoration and that is knowing and loving the Lord. 

Today and every day I am thankful...

21. That I can turn to the Word of God and be fulfilled.

22.  For works of art like Coleridge's poetry that enhances my appreciation of the gospel

23. For Delta State University and how unique and special it is.

24. For a date night with Harper Ann and Tatum Krutz.

25. For the kindness of strangers who are patient with a table full of kids when we are out to eat.

26.  That we live in Cleveland in a town where it is very hard to go anywhere without meeting a familiar face

27. For clearance Valentine's candy the day after love day.

28.  For the friendships I made in college that have withstood time and distance

29.  That I have one of the kindest and most thoughtful mother's to grace this world.  One who goes to the trouble to make her grandson a bicycle license for finally learning to ride a bike and pick up butterfly stickers for her granddaughter and send them cards in the mail to brighten their day. 

30. For Ludwig van Beethoven

Lots of Love and Bob Dylan

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. - Romans 12:9-10

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. - Romans 3:23-26

I am thankful for a God who loved perfectly and has sent his Spirit to buttress and edify me when I stumble and continue to point me back to the Cross and the ultimate display of love.   Knowing his love for me on this day of love reminds me how I should love others.

Today I and every day I am thankful...


11.  For God's perfect example of what it means to Love

12. For my marriage and God's presence in my marriage and for a silly holiday providing an excuse to remind each other that we still love one another.

The idea that ‘being in love’ is the only reason for remaining married really leaves no room for marriage as a contract or promise at all. If love is the whole thing, then the promise can add nothing; and if it adds nothing, then it should not be made. The curious thing is that lovers themselves, while they remain really in love, know this better than those who talk about love. As Chesterton pointed out, those who are in love have a natural inclination to bind themselves by promises. Love songs all over the world are full of vows of eternal constancy. The Christian law is not forcing upon the passion of love something which is foreign to that passion’s own nature: it is demanding that lovers should take seriously something which their passion of itself impels them to do...But, of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense — love as distinct from ‘being in love’ — is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God. They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else. ‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. it is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.

C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

 

Happy 11th

This is one of the many reasons I love my fella

13. For Harper Ann's desire to march to the beat of her own drum. 

Notice that everyone else is clapping and participating, meanwhile, in Harper Ann land...

14.  For the sisterly bond that I can see forming between these girls

15. For signing day conversations with Jonathan

16. That my kids have a good dentist

I was cleaning the bathroom the other day and found myself trying desperately to remember what day it was I asked Holt to help me put the groceries away

17.  That Jonathan had such a good hunting season and that it brings him so much joy and that it is only a few months long

Jonathan got me some jewelry this season

18.  That Jane Cannon's personality is and has been such a happy one

19.  that Holt is old enough to help me keep an eye on Jane Cannon - for example, the other day when I heard him say, "Jane Cannon, how did you get up there?" 


 20. For Bob Dylan

Ash Wednesday and Levon Helm

rend your hearts and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
-  Joel 2:13   

The cross of ashes made by the priest was my reminder that from dust I came and to dust I would return.  It is also a reminder that I am alive in Christ.  It is amazing that God can take a wondering heart, constantly failing in faithfulness and redeem it.  Lent is not a test of my faithfulness by way of my abstention, but is a wonderful reminder of Christ's faithfulness on my behalf.  He humbled and degraded himself and did all that I could not do, and rejoiced in the return of this wretched sinner.  If that doesn't rend my heart and simultaneously bring it great joy, nothing will.   

Today I am thankful...

1. that Christ has my heart and has made it new.

2. that I had the relationship with my Grandmother that I did and that she prayed for me so well

3.  that in the past year I have seen prayers answered, just as they were asked

4. that it is not an election year

5. that I have liberal, libertarian, and conservative friends who love the Lord and remind me that politics are not the alpha and omega

6. that yesterday when I picked Holt and Harper Ann up from school Holt held the door for her and Harper Ann offered to share her leftover snack with him.

7.  for our family time in the big bed reading with my kiddos

8. for Holt's tender heart and what a wonderful big brother he is to two slightly self-centered girls


9. for our supper club group and the genuine laughter we have shared

10.  That my mama refused to let me buy that Mariah Carey CD and handed me The Band's greatest Hits instead, thereby fostering my love of the late great Levon Helm

The Stations of the Cross

I walked from one carving to the next in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Good Friday when I was 16 years old and was moved to tears.   I had been baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church one year before and felt like I had wasted the past year.  I was not a "good Christian"  and I was still heavily burdened with the guilt of sin.  My salvation was still unfinished and I had not yet been introduced to the freedom of Grace through Christ.  It would be a few years later on a bench swing on the Delta State Campus that I would hand my life over to Him and rest in the comfort and security of his Grace.  I remember both of those days very clearly.  I am so very grateful for the sweet little lady walking the Stations of the Cross with me that day who gently squeezed my shoulder for comfort and for Jennifer Findlay the RUF intern who had the courage to ask me hard questions that led to my tearful conversion at 18.   I went from feeling like I had to prove to God that I was good enough for him, to realizing that my salvation was complete in him.  

Lent has changed for me.  Lent is no longer a time of begrudging abstinence from some arbitrary enjoyment but is now a time of rejoicing and repentance in the finished Glory of the Cross. Those 14 stations and the 40 days leading up to Easter are a reminder to me of the cost of my sin and my unworthiness, but also a reminder of God's unfathomable love, the joy of communion with him, and ultimately that my purpose is to love and glorify him.  So, as I did last year I will try to fast from negativity and focus on God's blessings and relish in Christian Hedonism - for His Glory. 

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. - Romans 6:5

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, but as for today, Happy Mardi Gras!