Streams in the Desert

It's been a rather reflective, pensive time for me the last several weeks. Part of it has to do with the time of year—I'm predictively pensive mid-January through mid-February. Part of it, I just figured out, has to do with sorrow. Sorrow minus despair, mind you. I've tended the last couple of years to invest in relationships a bit more, and I have found that there is a kind of somber sorrow that comes with "bearing one another's burdens" that tends to sober me. There's not so much of a mulling mood as a strengthening of resolve, a focusing of concentration, a clarity of purpose. These are the (few) times when I actually practice what I preach to friends and "take care of myself so I can better take care of others". I tend to get more work done in a shorter amount of time, freeing me up with a little more time to lend an ear or a hand.

Streams In the Desert is quickly becoming a favorite quiet time companion since it was given to me by a dear friend this past December. This evening I read the January 20th entry which shed some light on this year's annual time of predictable pensiveness, so I thought I'd share a bit of it here. The things in bold are the things that jumped out to me, the things that made me voice a deep sighing, "ahhh":

January 20th
Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. —Ecclesiastes 7:3

When sorrow comes under the power of Divine grace, it works out a manifold ministry in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths in the soul, and unknown capabilities of experience and service. Gay, trifling people are always shallow, and never suspect the little meannesses in their nature. Sorrow is God’s plowshare that turns up and subsoils the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If we had never fallen, or were we in a glorified state, then the strong torrents of Divine joy would be the normal force to open up all our souls’ capacities; but in a fallen world, sorrow, with despair taken out of it, is the chosen power to reveal ourselves to ourselves. Hence it is sorrow that makes us think deeply, long, and soberly.

Sorrow makes us go slower and more considerately, and introspect our motives and dispositions. It is sorrow that opens up within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it is sorrow that makes us willing to launch our capacities on a boundless sea of service for God and our fellows.

We may suppose a class of indolent people living at the base of a great mountain range, who had never ventured to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains; and someday when a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, it turns the hidden glens into echoing trumpets, and reveals the inner recesses of the valley, like the convolutions of a monster shell, and then the dwellers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the labyrinths and unexplored recesses of a region so near by, and yet so little known. So it is with many souls who indolently live on the outer edge of their own natures until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within that were never hitherto suspected.

God never uses anybody to a large degree, until after he breaks that one all to pieces. Joseph had more sorrow than all the other sons of Jacob, and it led him out into a ministry of bread for all nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, “Joseph is a fruitful bough…by a well, whose branches run over the wall” (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to widen the soul. —The Heavenly Life

Trans Siberian Orchestra

A friend gave me a Trans Siberian CD a few years ago and I was hooked from track 1. I've always had this thing for classical instruments being used in rock songs. Call me sentimental or progressive or whatever you want to call it, but I love merging worlds and merging mediums. Throw in a little creativity, a whole heck of a lot of talent, a light show so bright one needs sunglasses for a few numbers lest your eyes tear up like you was cuttin' an onion and you've got yourself the TSO.

Tonight's TSO performance has been long anticipated. Well, since last year really when I splurged and bought myself an individual ticket for the fourth row. I had never been to anything so showy in all my life. Still haven't. I say showy, but I insinuate classy.

This year I took my father so that he could appreciate the uniqueness with me. I took a few pictures with my camera phone and attempted a short video clip. But genius me forgot to take my phone off silent so there is no sound. Grrrr! And I thought it was such a brilliant idea too! Oh well, at least you can appreciate a bit of the dramatics if not the music. MERRY CHRISTMAS!



Disclaimer: Amateur footage. May cause nausea!

Rest

“Rest: the sweet sauce of labor” —Plutarch

“Sleep, silence's child, sweet father of soft rest, prince whose approach peace to all mortals brings Indifferent host to shepherds and kings; sole comforter to minds with grief oppressed”
—William Drummond

Blue Q Ranch

"Established in 2004 by former Charlotte Panthers quarterback Kerry Collins (who now plays for the Tennessee Titans), Blue Q Cattle Company is located in rural Montgomery County. Kerry learned the cattle business from his father-in-law, who ran a purebred cattle herd in nearby Monroe. With over 1,000 acres in Bermudagrass blended with Matua Bromegrass, Blue Q is one of the largest purebred Angus cattle operations in the area. With over 300 purebred brood cows (and growing), Blue Q is a wonderful cattle facility and farm."


http://www.ncacaa.org/2007mtg/NCACAAtours.html
Photos by Debbie Roos, North Carolina Cooperative Extension.

AFC South Champs!

These are a few of my favorite things.......

Collins In Flight


Cheers to our Offensive Line!


Albert's a steamin'


Smash and Dash


Griffin's Interception


They could hinder on occasion, but they couldn't stop #5


AFC South Division Champs

Logic

So knavery puts on the face of justice; hypocrisy and superstition wear the vizard of piety; deceit and evil are often clothed in the shapes and appearances of truth and goodness. Now logic helps us to strip off the outward disguise of things, and to behold them and judge of them in their own nature. -- Isaac Watts in his book Logic

The Promise

"Is His promise only a dream?
Is it in our dreaming that we glimpse the fullness of His promise?"
--Frederick Buechner, The Son of Laughter

John Stott on Psalm 42-43

...Each stanza concludes with the same refrain (42:5, 11; 43:5). In it the psalmist speaks to himself. Talking to oneself is popularly said to be the first sign of madness. But on the contrary, it is a sure sign of maturity--though depending on what we are talking to ourselves about! Here the psalmist refuses to acquiesce in his condition or give into his moods. He takes himself in hand. Firstly, he questions himself: "Why are you downcast, O my soul?" His question includes an implied rebuke. Secondly, he exhorts himself: "Put your hope in God." For God is worthy of our trust. Thirdly, he assures himself: "For I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." His double use of the personal possessive "my Savior and my God" is highly significant. He is reminding himself of his covenant relationship with God, which no fluctuating moods can ever destroy. --John Stott

Psalm 42-43

Psalm 42

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
"Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?"
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
"Where is your God?"

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.


Psalm 43

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Acapella Tribute to John Williams