Living Fragrance

Finding a song

A couple of years ago my parents gave me a gift that I have greatly treasured ever since. It's my very own Lutheran Hymnal.

To be honest,  a decade or so ago I would have gladly traded in a hymnal for a few worship CDs full of new songs. You see, I was raised in a traditional church, but had grown to appreciate more free forms of worship, due in large part to my parents' involvement in the charismatic movement of the 70's and 80's. Once out of college, I was quick to join a church that valued the free flow of the Spirit, and all things new. But I cannot tell you what a comfort it has been at times when my faith has stretched thin to be able to open the pages of this book and find anchor-points of truth: songs and prayers that are imprinted in my memory from childhood, expressions of faith that have been on the lips of my parents and grandparents and so many ancestors that have gone on before in the Lord.

I am so glad to live in a time when there is such an influx of new songs in the Church. I recently commented to a friend that just as God's beauty and reality is seen in creation, I see testimony of his existance in the songs that come forth from the hearts of his people. It feels almost miraculous to hear a new worship song.

My dad is a wise man; his words of inscription mean so much to me. Sometimes we need to borrow from the songs of brothers and sisters in the Body - both past and present - to discover the songs that are written on our own hearts. 

Not Forgotten

Not Forgotten, by Twila Paris:

When you think your dream is dying
He has not forgotten you
When your body aches from tryin'
He has not forgotten you

When you worry for tomorrow
Even though the sky is blue
See the sun is shining
He has not forgotten you

When July feels like December
He has not forgotten you
When it's painful to remember
He has not forgotten you

When it seems you can not win
And there is not much left to lose
He has got a plan
And He has not forgotten you

He is faithful
He is with you
He is listening
He is love

If your tired flesh has squandered
What your spirit would have saved
And your aimless feet have wandered
Far from all you truly crave

Turn and run toward your Father
Do not wait another day
See His arms are open
And He is calling out your name

And hope will spring eternal
In the homes of those who know
That loving arms will follow
Every where we go

And even in the darkness
His promises are true
Keep this in your heart
He has not forgotten you.

Kingdom Comes

Kingdom Comes, by Sara Groves:

 

When anger fills your heart
When in your pain and hurt
You find the strength to stop
You bless instead of curse

When doubting floods your soul
Though all things feel unjust
You open up your heart
You find a way to trust

That's a little stone that's a little mortar
That's a little seed that's a little water
In the hearts of the sons and the daughters
The kingdom's coming

When fear engulfs your mind
Says you protect your own
You still extend your hand
You open up your home

When sorrow fills your life
When in your grief and pain
You choose again to rise
You choose to bless the name

That's a little stone that's a little mortar
That's a little seed that's a little water
In the hearts of the sons and the daughters
The kingdom's coming

In the mundane tasks of living
In the pouring out and giving
In the waking up and trying
In the laying down and dying

That's a little stone that's a little mortar
That's a little seed that's a little water
In the hearts of the sons and the daughters
The kingdom's coming

Speak: Burgundy Shoes

We wait for the bus that's going to Bangor
In my plaid dress and burgundy shoes
In your red lipstick and lilac kercheif
You're the most pretty lady in the world
Sun

The bus driver smiles, a dime and a nickel
We climb on our seats, the vinyl is cold
"Michelle ma belle", the song that you loved then
You hold my hand and sing to yourself
Sun sun
Sun sun
Sun sun sun sun

Sun sun sun sun
Sun sun sun sun
Sun

The leaves are green and new like a baby
Tulips are red, now I don't miss the snow
It's the first day I don't wear my big boots
You hold my hand, I've got burgundy shoes
Burgundy shoes, burgundy shoes
Sun

~Burgundy Shoes by Patty Griffin

Not sure what this is about? See my first Speak post.

I love Patty Griffin

Can you see why? Enjoy!

ht: Patty's MySpace page.

Adding to the beauty

"This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful." ~ Sara Groves

Sara Groves is an artist that I have been listening to a lot lately... and loving. I downloaded some songs from her newest album (Add to the Beauty) after hearing about her awhile back, and then my sister-in-law sent me home from our joint vacation with her Conversations CD. My husband put it well when he said that Sara's songs are melancholy, but not negative. And as such, I find they resonate with me. Sara sings truth, and sings it well, in my opinion.

From her MySpace page, on our incredible privilege as Kingdom people:

Every Thursday night for the last 44 years, my grandparents have gone to the Federal Medical Prison in Springfield, MO, a facility for sick or terminally ill prisoners, to hold a Bible study with the inmates. As a rule, Grammie and Granddad never ask the men why they are incarcerated; they just talk, listen, and pray with them. It is to me my favorite image of my Grammie, who in her mid 80s, is small in stature, and is usually a very quiet person. When she identifies a new person in the group, she crosses the room with determination, learns their name and makes sure they feel welcomed. Grammie and Granddad have taught me with their lives, their marriage, their work, and their service what it means to add to the beauty.

God has invited us, as mere human beings, to add to the beauty of his plan and creation. Unbelievable. The Kingdom of God transcends politics and policy, nationality, gender and race. It transcends the way we do church, and makes us a real live body of believers. It gives us the ability to be very different and still bear with one another. It gives us the power to extend the same kind of grace that has been extended to us, and to love each other with a love that never fails. The very real kingdom of God calls out of us, its inhabitants, beautiful art, creative lives, and redemptive work.

Adding to the beauty is for all of us: homemakers, businessmen, clergy, car dealers, bowling alley attendants in the everydayness of the kingdom we are invited to be brilliantly beautiful, all of us moons with no light of our own, invited to shine.

And last night - a concert date with my daughter to see an old favorite who is also perennially beautiful and inspiring!

Christina's World

"I Will Bring You Home" Michael Card

Though you are homeless
Though you're alone
I will be your home

Whatever's the matter
Whatever's been done
I will be your home

I will be your home
I will be your home
In this fearful fallen place
I will be your home

When time reaches fullness
When I move my hand
I will bring you home

Home to your own place
In a beautiful land
I will bring you home

I will bring you home
I will bring you home
From this fearful fallen place
I will bring you home
I will bring you home

Kite Song

Thanks to my friend Cindy for introducing this song to me.  It’s a sweet balm.

“Kite Song”

Patty Griffin

The Sunday after

There was laughter in the air

Everybody had a kite

They were flying everywhere

And all the trouble went away

And it wasn’t just a dream

All the trouble went away

And it wasn’t just a dream

In the middle of the night

We try and try with all our mights

To light a little light down here

In the middle of the night

We dream of a million kites

Flying high above

The sadness and the fear

Little sister just remember

As you wander through the blue

The little kite that you sent flying

On a sunny afternoon

Made of something light as nothing

Made of joy that matters too

How the little dreams we dream

Are all we can really do

In the middle of the night

The world turns with all of its might

A little diamond colored blue

In the middle of the night

We keep sending little kites

Until a little light gets through

“Why are you so downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  Psalm 42:5, 6a (NIV)

Photo:  John and Lisa Merrill

Certain signs of grace

On the David Crowder Band's recording A Collision there is a striking song called Wholly Yours.  I think it expresses beautifully the relationship between God's divinity and our depravity.  While we stand in awe and declare Him to be holy, we must recognize our worth in being wholly His, even as there may be brokenness in our lives.  This is the reality in which we live our lives here in this present age, and it is a reality that is sometimes hard to come to terms with, don't you think?  Especially when we want more than anything to be like the Beautiful One we behold.  Here are several lines from the song:

I am full of earth.  You are heaven's worth.  I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity.  You are everything that is bright and clean, the antonym of me.  You are divinity.  But a certain sign of grace is this:  From the broken earth flowers come up pushing through the dirt.

I take great comfort in the "flowers" that God allows to pop up in my life.  Many times it seems like my view gets all filled up with my shortcomings and failures, and sometimes it takes a good while before I turn my eyes back toward God and His beauty. But when I do, He not only fills me with the knowledge of His sufficiency, but also mercifully lets me see fruits of His goodness in my life.  I see His grace in  my husband, who tenderly tells me again how much he loves me; I see it in my children, who often fill our home with happy songs of praise; I see it in so many friends and loved ones, who bring kindness and light to my life in countless ways.  And occasionally God lets me see evidence of His grace toward me through the knowledge that He has used me in Kingdom purposes.  What an amazing thing, I say.

Our God desires that we find our peace and confidence in the covering He provides for us in Jesus' shed blood.  For all of us need His covering to fill up the gaps in our lives.  We can fearlessly declare with the song writer,

So here I am, all of me.  Finally everything.  Wholly, wholly, wholly... Yours.  I am full of earth and dirt and You.

And we can also have every confidence that God is not leaving us alone in the areas of our brokenness.  He is actively transforming us day by day into the image of His Son as we submit everything to Him.  And we can know with certainty that we will one day be like Him through and through, for we will see Him as He is.  This is His promise.

Broken and inadequate

In my welcome post I used the phrase broken and inadequate to describe my musings.  I actually stole borrowed these words from a quote inside the CD cover of A Collision, the most recent recording of the David Crowder Band.  I thought that whoever wrote these things (most likely Crowder) stated quite well what is like to try to bring expression and creative response to God's eternal mysteries. 

"...for the past two years we have ended most nights in concert with the following statement:  'when our depravity meets His divinity it is a beautiful collision.'  This recording is about that collision.  It is the collision of our fallen state and our Maker's transcendence.  It is a rendering of our mortality and eternal life.  It is about the tension that exists in the living of life, here, where the sky meets the broken earth.  It is about a tsunami in East Asia.  It is about a sunrise over Hiroshima.  It is about too many who know intensely what pain the word "cancer" holds and the words of my friend whispered in my ear, "It's okay.  None of us are getting out of here alive you know."  It is about victory.  It is about the joy that comes when blood tests return and a miracle is announced.  It is the hope in a rescue that has come, the hope in a rescue that has found us, and the relentless hope in a greater rescue that is still coming - one that has not yet arrived but is no less present.  This music, broken, improper, and inadequate in it's response is rooted in that hope.  The Kingdom of Heaven is here and now and coming." (emphasis mine)

In this season of my life I've been mulling over this paradigm - what it means to live in a kingdom that is both "already" and "not-yet."    I must confess I visit this theme in my thoughts many times each day.  These aspects of Christian truth seem to be taking me quite a while to process and wrap my mind around.  (Patience please, friends... I'll probably be fleshing out my questions sometimes as I write here in this blog.)  But this recording has gently ministered to me along these lines.  The musical styles are varied and a bit obscure, but the themes touch a deep place in my heart.  I think it is a beautiful work and say kudos and thank you to the David Crowder Band.