Month: December 2011

exhausted by joy

(First, I must admit that I’ve only just now recovered from a very colorful verbal exchange with my computer after it lost this entire post into the unknown cybersphere. As I go back and try to remember it, I can’t help but think it’s a little ironic.)

I have so many plausible excuses, really I do!
Chasing after early morning 2-year-old squeals and filling the night with laughter, for starters.

There’s something about Christmas that won’t let me sit down and spell it out, blog style. The rumble of excitement as family exchanges gifts with the lengthy explanations from every giver, the soaking in of silly faces with people who live too far, the together-ness that makes memories on it’s own… This joy can be exhausting!

It’ll park your eyes at a willing, wide-open stance. It will put dances into your toes. It will make you “poke the bear” until the bear revolts with a playful roar.

It will fill the air with delicious, contagious laughter that (I’m sure) seeped out from under the old wooden doors at my parent’s house and warmed the night trees.

Exhausted by joy.

I wonder if C.S. Lewis would say we are as likely to be exhausted by joy as we are surprised by joy. Well, I submit that it is so.

I wonder if Mary and Joseph were exhausted by joy. I wonder if, when Mary finally gave in to sleep, she felt more than just relief that her vagabond pregnancy had ended. I wonder if Mary’s soul was so full of joy at the coming of the Messiah that her heart got tired.

I wonder if receiving blessings and naming them in thanks can bring a good kind of exhaustion – one that wearies your bones into a prayerful posture.

I wonder at this beautiful Gift.
Christ, our Substitute for the debt our flesh owes.
Christ, our Provision for an eternal abundance of joy.
Christ, our Hope.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

it’s a good, good morning

I just wanted to send this off before the day runs away from me.

Christianity Today named Love & War & the Sea In Between by Josh Garrels Album of the Year for 2011. You owe it a listen. Oh, and you can download the whole album for free on bandcamp.

Nothing like a good soundtrack for naming blessings today. The tree outside the window, begging for snow, the slightly sore muscles after a workout, the Christmas gifts I’ll be packing up before I head to southwest Iowa after work today. All gifts, these.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0

Let Us Not Forget

The story is not just about a babe in a manger.

This babe would pay it all – the price of our sin.
The babe would have crimson stains so that we would be washed as white as snow.

This is the babe we celebrate. This is the Christ child. This is Emmanuel, God with us.

Advent: God With Us from The Village Church on Vimeo.

Let us not forget, for He did not forget us. He engraved us on the palms of His hands.

let LOVE fly like CRAZY

Posted on by Caroline 1

let the winter come

A fan favorite
Tilt-A-Whirl

“Let the Winter come, for it is the only path to Spring.”

Still recovering from the intellectual and spiritual shock of One Thousand Gifts, I’ve jumped into another book where wide-eyed wonder has center stage.

When I read, “This book does not go straight,” in the preface of N.D. Wilson‘s book Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl, it was like meeting someone for the first time who also happens to love imagination stations, homemade musicals, and the back issues of Real Simple.

It was almost too good. Wilson writes, “This book is built on that pattern [a car on a Tilt-A-Whirl] – spinning small and spinning big – and follows the earth through the seasons of one orbit.”

YES!

Someone finally admits this is all craziness and we have no choice but to step in and delight in the madness that is music and look reverently for the Conductor of it all.

This morning as I sat in church and listened to the message from Luke 2:1-20, I marveled that God chose to make the birth of the Messiah known by a stunning display of musical genius.

Can you imagine how this announcement would put all our cute little refrigerator photos to shame? A celestial choir in perfect harmony filled the sky with a music too pure for words, too perfect for description.

But, the announcement never made it to all those houses and all those fridges who expected to know of such an event.

God orchestrated the single best (and only) opening night production of, “Messiah has come to earth!” for a group of humble shepherds out in the fields, away from the city and the noise. There was no billboard, just the heavens collaborating in great joy – an indescribable gift for every one of the senses.

We are wrapped up into this mad story of cosmic romance where nothing makes any sense. Unless, of course, we hear the song of the angels. Unless we believe that our filthy, desperate lives can be redeemed. Unless we allow our eyes to travel upward and focus in on the grand production of the universe, orchestrated by its Creator to announce the coming of Life and a way out from misery and into great joy.

If you have been audience to such a performance, to whom are you now declaring this message – this production that now lives inside your heart as a follower of Christ?

For we are surely singing in glory with the angels that Hope has come down. And this Hope will not [can not] disappoint.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Related articles
Posted on by Caroline 4

the blessing and the mess of it

How is it that the political push for presidency has made a mad rush at the Advent stage?

I have friends – good friends of mine – who have reasons and schpeels and thoughtful arguments about who I should support in the next election. After being out of US politics for three years (not that there wasn’t plenty going on in Honduran politics to keep me occupied), walking around inside its borders feels like another case of the blind leading the blind.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful.

I’m thankful I don’t have to worry if the policeman pulling me over is legit.
I’m thankful there aren’t men with large guns guarding every fast food restaurant.
I’m thankful I can open my Bible in a coffee shop.

But, it’s not perfect.

Liberties, freedoms, greed, possibilities, money, truth, defense, cause… sin – the blessing and the mess of it are mixed together like a good, Midwestern casserole and sometimes it’s hard to tell what ingredients were thrown in.

Reminds me of the human condition – the blessing and the mess of it.

We’ve got people occupying Wall Street because there’s a bunch of money they don’t have.
We’ve got people marching in support of our troops, who are marching in other countries.
We’ve got people rallying to bring those troops home – for good.
We’ve got people protesting abortion clinics and people protesting the elimination of them.

We’ve got a bunch of sinners in this country, can you believe it? I don’t know how that happened.

Wait, yes I do. And I know the way to redemption. His name is Jesus.

God knew, before the foundations of the world, that we would make a mess out of His perfect Creation. He knew we would kill our brothers and hate our neighbors; that we would spit in the face of His provision and throw away manna like it didn’t just fall miraculously from the sky. He knew and He still provided a way.

His name is Jesus.

Nowhere in history can we see a glowing story of human victory over evil. Nowhere in history have we ever been able to redeem ourselves or pull ourselves out of the deep, dark pit called evil with our own strength.

There is a way.

His name is Jesus and God planned that He would be born into the blessing made mess called Creation, so that He might restore us into right relationship with our Creator.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

God, come and be with us. Show us the way into beautiful. Come, disperse the gloomy clouds and put death’s dark clouds to flight. Bring the brilliant light of salvation.

Jesus is the only way to truly see beauty in the blessing and the mess of this life.

Posted on by Caroline 0

this & that

What a week.

So many thoughts. So many reasons to give thanks.

Here are some links for laughter and thinking and love.

Senior Citizen Flash Mob This is a group of elderly folks who think they can have fun, too. I gotta give ’em props for the effort. It reminds me of the documentary Young at Heart – but less cool. You should definitely watch the documentary if you haven’t seen it!

As sad as it sounds, how we googled in 2011 is an interesting litmus test of our priorities and it turns out we are all mixed up (big surprise).

Christopher Hitchens died. This outspoken atheist passed away from cancer in Houston and it just might be the perfect time to reflect on some of the beliefs (yes, atheists have beliefs too) he held onto so tightly.

Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens

The Gospel Coalition calls the Coming Catholic Ad Blitz “among the largest religious media blitzes in U.S. history.” This campaign is one calling Catholics to come “back home” – to find their local parish and learn (or re-learn) what it means to be Catholic. This fascinates me. I wonder what your thoughts are?

Its been said, “If you don’t expose your secret, your secret will expose you.” This article by Rebekah Lyons called, “What’s Your Secret?” is refreshing as it looks at the secrets we bury down deep and the relief when they are uncovered.

Well, it’s a short list and I’m processing so much these days – taking in the beauty of everyday, reading about grace and gratitude and moments. I’m trying to step in to every moment thankful, as I read through One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

It’s painting the world in beautiful hues.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 2

what if life was a program

So, I woke up groggy today – the kind of groggy that takes a few groans and stretches to successfully escape morning’s clinging clutches.

Walking around in this new slightly-less-nomadic skin has it’s beautiful charms and strange discomforts. My clothes are folded frumpy in a sweet smelling wooden dresser, my suitcases sit empty in the closet, and my car eddie is almost a local on these streets.

Settling in feels like crawling out of an old skin – one that knew many houses and couches and faces in this in-between phase of transition. I might have become a little addicted to “never a dull moment” and “expect the unexpected,” even if it meant never having a routine. Continue reading →

Posted on by Caroline 0

spinning around inside a story

Not that long ago, I watched the film Tree of Life with some friends and promised myself that I would give it the mental attention it deserved. These are the notes I had to work with:

So… when I finally got around to writing about the film, it was too big to smoosh into a single blog post. I pushed it to the place cobwebs creep in my mind and agreed it was something to “come back to” when it didn’t feel like the philosophical dump truck unloaded on my brain’s front stoop.

Yesterday, the Tree of Life found it’s way through the cobwebs by way of another film – a bookumentary. Notes from a Tilt-A-Whirl has been on my “to do” list for an impressive long while. My motivation to see this “idea film” greatly increased when the time on my iTunes rental was running out. Last night, I finally found some kindred spirits who would commit 51 minutes to run after an author’s ramblings. With the storytelling fervor of Donald Miller and cinematography resembling Rob Bell, N. D. Wilson takes you through each chapter of his book, “Notes From a Tilt-A-Whirl” in a way that simultaneously appeals to your mind and your heart. With Creation as his backdrop, Wilson wrestles through topics like philosophy, academia, suffering, and why every person should view life as an art appreciator.

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl Movie Trailer from Gorilla Poet Productions on Vimeo.

In the hours after Wilson closed his last chapter, I realized why I appreciated the Tree of Life. It wasn’t for it’s overt declaration of Truth or it’s objective dealing with the meaning of life. The most valuable message was one of beauty.

The world is a beautiful place. Scarred, true, but oh-so-beautiful.

Once one makes this admission of beauty, there are more questions to answer.
Where does it come from? Does it always win? Why does it lose? Do we control it? Who decides what beauty is? How many beauties are there – just one kind?
(C.S. Lewis dealt with this subject masterfully in his book, “Abolition of Man” when he discusses the miseducation of children)

All these questions, bound together by the tension in the nature vs. grace conflict, demand resolution. Whether Tree of Life sufficiently answers these questions never concerned me, because I was too busy being impressed by the way beauty and tragedy were communicated so clearly.

But, last night, as we watched Notes From a Tilt-A-Whirl around my 13 inch Mac laptop screen, I marveled that there is more beauty. We were never meant to be satisfied merely admiring the beauty of the Ultimate Artist. We are meant to live the beauty – to interact and understand and breathe the beauty. We are meant to do what is impossible through the One who makes impossible things happen (see Ephesians).

We are meant to look at what has baffled philosophers and tormented academicians and take in all the beauty of Truth with the humble reverence of a child in the dreamiest of castles.

The castle is very much real – there is no use arguing otherwise. We waste much time and miss much beauty by arguing its existence.

More to come… meanwhile, watch the film so I have more people with who I can process its merits!

Related articles
Posted on by Caroline 1

the precious mystery

Dietrict Bonhoeffer Stained Glass,St Johannes ...

“The lack of mystery in our modern life is our downfall and our poverty.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am more than a little inspired by the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Last year, I dove into the pages of his biography by Eric Metaxas and started referring to him as “my friend Dietrich” (see posts here and here and here). Okay, it did get a little out of control, but it’s hard not to be affected by this man’s life.

Fast forward to yesterday, when this book appeared on my bed – right smack dab in the middle of Advent season (an early Christmas gift from my aunt and housemate).

I flipped frantically through the pages last night – not wanting to miss anything, but wanting to get on track with the advent calendar days.

Week Two: Day One is titled, “Respect for the Mystery.”

I suppose my fascination with mystery has something to do with my reflection on Chesterton recently, or maybe Klosterman’s observation that the mystery of faith makes people nervous.

I love mystery.

Bonhoeffer writes,

“We destroy the mystery because we sense that here we reach the boundary of our being, because we want to be lord over everything and have it at our disposal, and that’s just what we cannot do with the mystery.”

mystery…
there we reach beyond the boundary of our being
there we traverse in lands where our control holds no power
there we sojourn as mere mortals in a place overflowing with otherness

Mystery lies hidden amidst the grid of everyday traffic and underneath the steady steps of time. Where we are constrained by our senses, mystery breaks rhythm and sets a new pace of possibilities.

Ah, yes. Mystery holds the beautiful, unexplainable, impossible story of God being
born.

The I AM of the days of Moses became a babe in a lowly manger.
The God who will one day ride on the clouds, shining like the sun at the trumpets call was ushered into the world with the sound of farm animals accompanying His humble arrival.
The Messiah, our only hope of salvation, emerged from a womb and filled His little lungs with earth air.

This is not science fiction – this is Truth, wrapped in mystery.

Oh, beautiful mystery!

In a letter to Bonhoeffer, Maria von Wedemeyer penned these words in 1943,

All that is Christmas originates in heaven and comes from there to us all, to you and me alike, and forms a stronger bond between us than we could ever forge ourselves.”

Mystery.

How are you watching this mystery thread through your life this Advent season?

let LOVE fly like cRazY

Related articles
Posted on by Caroline 0