Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
God had his hands on me..........
The other night I took it upon myself to go out for a evening run through town. As I was running I was listening to a new EP I had acquired from a band called Least of These. I have a soft spot for bands that I feel like tell it like it is. Just honest to god lyrics about the dirtiness of creation. As I was listening to the record I found myself really enjoying the jams put forth. Then the album got to a last little instrumental part and I was struck by how beautiful the track was and then how even more beautiful the final track was. I found myself surrounded by the love of God in glow of a street light, choking back tears of thankfulness.
I think I forget and maybe we all forget just how unbelievable a payment Christ made for his men who were truly filthy creatures in everyones sight but his own. God has done it all for creatures that were not worthy to even be at his feet.......and yet here we are. I'm blown away for Gods heart for us.
Thank you Jesus.
Every line in this song pulls at me.
"Filthy Man" by Least of These
Filthy man was I who took his walk in stride
Clearly it would take more effort than I had thought
Brought out from the darkest place, and put into the light
God had His hands on me all the time
God had His hands on me all the time
Stubborn man was I who pushed His hands aside
I don't need Your grace I can do this on my own
What a lost man was I, stuck in my own ways
What a lost man was I stuck in my
What a lost man was I who was stuck in my own ways
But I understand the cross, and what its done
Filthy man was I
Stubborn man was I
I think I forget and maybe we all forget just how unbelievable a payment Christ made for his men who were truly filthy creatures in everyones sight but his own. God has done it all for creatures that were not worthy to even be at his feet.......and yet here we are. I'm blown away for Gods heart for us.
Thank you Jesus.
Every line in this song pulls at me.
"Filthy Man" by Least of These
Filthy man was I who took his walk in stride
Clearly it would take more effort than I had thought
Brought out from the darkest place, and put into the light
God had His hands on me all the time
God had His hands on me all the time
Stubborn man was I who pushed His hands aside
I don't need Your grace I can do this on my own
What a lost man was I, stuck in my own ways
What a lost man was I stuck in my
What a lost man was I who was stuck in my own ways
But I understand the cross, and what its done
Filthy man was I
Stubborn man was I
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
A little perspective.......
This blog post was published on To Write Love on her arms blog this morning.....I must say this is honest look at St. Valentines Day as it should be viewed. Hope you enjoy it as I did.
My friend Don wrote a blog about you today and his blog suggests that you used to look a lot different than you do today. He says that you are the product of a poet and that before this poet's pen, you were not a romantic holiday.
i think i would have liked you more back then, whenever that was. The truth is that you really bother me now. i think you bother a lot of people, honestly. You show up every year right after Christmas. You turn the windows pink and you sell your diamonds on the radio and i think i've gotten five emails from 1-800-FLOWERS in the last three days. i'm not sure how you got so much power.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that i don't like love. i love love - i think it's the best thing that happens on the planet. It's the biggest dream inside me. But i bought a lie somewhere along the way. i bought the lie that says i'm not alive if i'm not in love. i bought the lie that says if i love someone but then they stop loving me or they start loving someone else, then i must have no value or power or worth. i bought the lie that says if i'm not in love, then i'm as good as dead.
And if you believe that lie long enough, it makes a giant hole. It makes a hole so big that no one person could ever begin to fill it. Not even a princess. Believe me, i've tried. To fill it with a person, to fill it with beauty, to fill it with all the things you sell.
But i don't think it works that way. Bono says his songs come from a God-shaped hole inside of him. He's my favorite singer and he has a lot of things. He has great stories and a wife and kids and plenty of money. But in spite of all of those things, he says he still has this hole and he says that it's the reason that he sings.
i've been thinking lately that maybe i've confused a girl for God, a different one every year or two, since the first day of junior high. And man, that is a lot of pressure to put on someone, to make them God. That is a ton of power to hand someone. Especially when they're just a person. A person with questions and flaws and pain of their own.
So maybe there's a war, inside of me and for me and maybe my heart is the opposite of small. Maybe it's the opposite of cheap and empty and alone. Maybe it's sacred and enormous and wild.
To make a long story short, i think i've given you way too much power. i let you scare me and i let you name me and i let you tell me what i'm worth.
i don't want to do that anymore.
There are dreams inside of me and those are mine and my guess is that they're there for a reason. But for all the days like now where the dreams are asked to be only dreams, i'm gonna keep getting out of bed. i'm gonna keep living my story. i'm gonna believe that there is reason and purpose, and power in my life. i'm gonna believe that i'm alive inside a story bigger than my pain, bigger than everything missing.
It crossed my mind to try to ignore you, to try to go to bed early and wake up when you're gone. But i changed my mind. i am part of a gang in Florida and we're gonna get together tonight. We're going to open our computers and we're going to choose to believe that words are powerful. We're gonna do our best to tell someone something true. We're gonna ask people not to give up on their stories.
Valentine's Day, i don't hate you. i don't even blame you. Perhaps you did not name yourself. Perhaps you are the product of hundreds of years, hundreds of thousands of broken people and a million God-shaped holes.
The truth is that we're all living love stories.
Peace to you tonight.
jamie
i think i would have liked you more back then, whenever that was. The truth is that you really bother me now. i think you bother a lot of people, honestly. You show up every year right after Christmas. You turn the windows pink and you sell your diamonds on the radio and i think i've gotten five emails from 1-800-FLOWERS in the last three days. i'm not sure how you got so much power.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that i don't like love. i love love - i think it's the best thing that happens on the planet. It's the biggest dream inside me. But i bought a lie somewhere along the way. i bought the lie that says i'm not alive if i'm not in love. i bought the lie that says if i love someone but then they stop loving me or they start loving someone else, then i must have no value or power or worth. i bought the lie that says if i'm not in love, then i'm as good as dead.
And if you believe that lie long enough, it makes a giant hole. It makes a hole so big that no one person could ever begin to fill it. Not even a princess. Believe me, i've tried. To fill it with a person, to fill it with beauty, to fill it with all the things you sell.
But i don't think it works that way. Bono says his songs come from a God-shaped hole inside of him. He's my favorite singer and he has a lot of things. He has great stories and a wife and kids and plenty of money. But in spite of all of those things, he says he still has this hole and he says that it's the reason that he sings.
i've been thinking lately that maybe i've confused a girl for God, a different one every year or two, since the first day of junior high. And man, that is a lot of pressure to put on someone, to make them God. That is a ton of power to hand someone. Especially when they're just a person. A person with questions and flaws and pain of their own.
So maybe there's a war, inside of me and for me and maybe my heart is the opposite of small. Maybe it's the opposite of cheap and empty and alone. Maybe it's sacred and enormous and wild.
To make a long story short, i think i've given you way too much power. i let you scare me and i let you name me and i let you tell me what i'm worth.
i don't want to do that anymore.
There are dreams inside of me and those are mine and my guess is that they're there for a reason. But for all the days like now where the dreams are asked to be only dreams, i'm gonna keep getting out of bed. i'm gonna keep living my story. i'm gonna believe that there is reason and purpose, and power in my life. i'm gonna believe that i'm alive inside a story bigger than my pain, bigger than everything missing.
It crossed my mind to try to ignore you, to try to go to bed early and wake up when you're gone. But i changed my mind. i am part of a gang in Florida and we're gonna get together tonight. We're going to open our computers and we're going to choose to believe that words are powerful. We're gonna do our best to tell someone something true. We're gonna ask people not to give up on their stories.
Valentine's Day, i don't hate you. i don't even blame you. Perhaps you did not name yourself. Perhaps you are the product of hundreds of years, hundreds of thousands of broken people and a million God-shaped holes.
The truth is that we're all living love stories.
Peace to you tonight.
jamie
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