Contrasts

I love contrasts... I just returned from a walk by the lake. The sky was awesome! The clouds were slate grey with the bright yellow sun piercing through... there were patches of blue with the whitest clouds skidding across with incredible speed. There were actually waves with white breakers on our little lake which is usually so calm... The power of the wind was such that my youngest son felt like he could "lay on it"... there were towers of spray lifting from 5 to 7 feet way out on the center of the lake... we actually felt some spray on the shore... the wind is dying down now but the sky still has that incredible drama going on... brilliant sunlight poking through the rents in the darkest clouds... I love the beauty in that... the juxtaposition of opposites, darkness and light.... it stirs something within me. We had heard that there was a tornado warning so watching the action of the elements wasn't without some excitement/trepidation.... We found a ditch near the greenway in case we saw a funnel cloud actually form.... the force of the wind made walking into it a little challenging... it felt great to have such a physical force impressed upon you... I don't know what it is about the power in something invisible, like the wind that suggests mystery... we are always so amazed when we see the limbs or actual trees blown over after one of these windstorms... I wish we could have captured a few pictures of the sky and whitecaps to share... but I am grateful to have experienced it with David and two of my children. Hope you could experience some of the wonder of it as you read.

A Call to Consider

This morning I "discovered" that two persons of the Trinity are interceding to the Father for me... I ended my last blog with "pray for me" and now I discover that it has already been done by the Ones most qualified to do so... wow!

I also heard these words: What does it mean to "listen to the Spirit" as opposed to "seeking an experience with Christ"?

I'm not sure and long to consider the depth of this truth....

I wonder if the latter is more of my arrogant demanding of God (yet again) and a vastly different orientation towards my relationship with the Trinity. I was mulling this during the service (As the truth of these words sunk deeper into me) and we sang a line in a song that created a dissonance in my soul. It felt wrong... I marveled at how I could hear truth only moments before (something I hadn't considered as too terribly different or "off base") and then recognize the lie in the words we were singing. The song is entitled "Captivate Us" and I know it is a favorite of some of the members of our worship team. I felt prompted to raise this question to our group... "Should we perform this song?" It seems to me that there are so many ways in which lies permeate our lives... that we ought to carefully consider that which we "promote" when we are gathered together through our words... and our songs.... I struggled most of the day with how I was to offer these words... do I just email Tim and the elders... do I just send it out on email to the whole group? What does it mean to be a priest together with all of you?

The line in the song that struck me was "devastate us with Your presence falling down" which seems in line with the sentiment of asking for an experience with Christ (and that demand)... there were other words such as "draw us closer" which hit me as impossible/not in line with what is true if the words "Christ be in me" are the truth.... 

I think we need to consider what we are saying we believe and look at what is true and when these things don't line up we ought to at least acknowledge the truth of this... I do feel that language is limited and the expression of an individual at a place in the journey is valid, but as for me... I can't sing that song anymore... and wonder if we should take it out of our collection?