immanuel

"God with us... eternity's sonnet, heaven's hallelujah... the song of the redeemed"

-charles spurgeon

i'll suggest another song of the redeemed- "little drummer boy." i remember as a kid thinking this song was kinda silly, maybe because of the excessive drum beats. but now when i hear it, i'm disarmed by the last lines.

i played my drum for Him *drum beats*

i played my best for Him. *more drum beats*

then He smiled at me *and more drum beats*

me and my drum.

the boy gives all he can, which he feels isn't much ("i am a poor boy too... i have no gift to bring"), & Jesus SMILES. it serves as a reminder that He came to redeem us, fully, which includes delighting in us. we're not saved by a cold, detached being who just does what's needed & then disengages. and when we thank Him with our lives, by offering whatever our equivalent to drum-playing may be, He enjoys us & the gift. how motivating to play on, as meager a thing as we might think we're contributing.

merry christmas!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lasUhPa07w

cake

i should really be making some. it's been a while since i've baked & posted the outcome. maybe a dessert for when my uncles visit after christmas...

but for today, cake lyrics. from "sick of you"... the lines below echo the frost poem (see last post).

every shiny toy
that at first brings you joy
will always start to coy and annoy...
every piece of land,
every city that you plan,
will crumble into tiny grains of sand.
every thing you find that at first gives you shine
always turns into the same old crime (same old crime!)

and i can't decide if the repetition of "same old crime" is haunting or amusing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi9MLL8QOY0

2 minutes, 27 seconds into it... yeah. eerie. (two people in bunny costumes doing cartwheels. also, eerie.)

GREAT lines. the song, as a whole, is a little cruel & i wouldn't sing it to anyone &/or love the idea of having it sung to me. but the point seems to be, what is the point? which again, begs the question, what will remain? what's worth investing in? all i can say to cake, & to myself, & to my 3 readers, is:

"praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, & into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. this inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. in all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls" (1 peter 1:3-8).

thank you, awesome Father, for your gift of redemption that never loses its shine.

robert frost. sigh.

i had a college professor who wanted to school us the in the real robert frost. during our study of frost, he asked how we felt about the quintessential frost lines "i took the [road] less traveled by...& that has made all the difference." most of us felt it conjured positive emotion based on a decision the speaker was content with. but professor said, in context, it seems the speaker's indicating a sense of loss & possibly regret over not having chosen the other road. he recalls the divide in the yellow wood & makes his assessment with a sigh.

professor further supported his argument by showing us the bleaker, lesser known poetry of robert frost. the one about the end of the world ("fire & ice," which professor found hilarious), & another about how things inevitably lose their luster.

this lecture, circa 1998, came back to me the other day when i was in the car half spaced out, half listening to coldplay. there's a song on prospekt's march that touches on the idea that everything that glitters isn't gold. i'm not saying coldplay was inspired (or depressed) by the poetry of frost, but the lyrics sound kinda like frost's "nothing gold can stay" (below).

nature's first green is gold,

her hardest hue to hold.

her early leaf's a flower;

but only so an hour.

then leaf subsides to leaf.

so eden sank to grief,

so dawn goes down to day.

nothing gold can stay.

and from coldplay's "lost"- "every river that i tried to cross, every door i ever tried was locked, & i'm just waiting 'til the shine wears off." i resonate with the poem & song, but not in the fullest sense. i agree w/frost. nothing here, even of the highest material value, will remain. everything in its present form will fade away. which informs our affections & drives our goals.

"come, buy and eat! come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. why spend money on what is not bread, & your labor on what does not satisfy? listen, listen to me, & eat what is good, & you will delight in the richest of fare. give ear & come to me; listen, that you may live. i will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to david... seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near" (isaiah 55:1-6).

even from the book about life's vanity, with its numerous references to our fleeting pleasures & meaningless toil, the final word is "remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, i have no pleasure in them" (ecclesiastes 12:1).

just as i am.

ginny owens has an album of hymns that i must purchase before day's end. i think my two faves are "just as i am" (below) & "it is well."

http://www.ilike.com/artist/Ginny+Owens/track/Just+As+I+Am

also, diving bell & butterfly update. there's a raw quality to the way bauby relays his experiences at berck in france, the hospital he lives in after stroke. but not so raw that he comes across as completely callous. medical professionals & old friends treat him differently b/c of his new appearance, his confinement & inability to speak. but what's more hurtful to him than uncomfortable looks, or the awkward conversations that whirl around him, is what's said behind his back. he refers to the gossipers as vultures looking to pounce on him the moment tragedy has hit. they call him a vegetable. they express disdain for his new condition. they strip him of his humanity.

motivated in part by hearing about some of these comments, he begins to write a monthly update on his life at berck. in response, numerous letters pour in. letters from new admirers, & from old friends breaking their silence. the deluge of support afforded by the correspondence heartens bauby & seems to revive him as often as they're re-read. "i hoard all of these letters," he writes. "one day i hope to fasten them end to end in a half-mile streamer, to float in the wind like a banner raised to the glory of friendship.

it will keep the vultures at bay."

WWPD

this picture of kobe bryant shows him doing something cool whilst about to fall. sometimes, one falls down & it's humiliating 'cause there's not really a good reason. and in these great crises of life, i like to ask the pressing question, what would pedro do? pedro's been guiding me ever since i discovered his inveterate employment with South of the Border. i figured if he's worked at such a multi-faceted yet low-budget "highway oasis" for so long, surely he has some conventional wisdom for the rest of us.

so i'm at a meeting last night & have to get up for some water about an hour and a half in. discussion about serious stuff ensues as i stand to get my water. i failed to check on whether or not my feet had fallen asleep due to being seated in the same position for 1.5 hours. i stand up for about half a second & then collapse on the floor. also, i moaned something indiscernible. this was not due to a twisted/broken ankle or some gloriously painful injury. i wanta say it was because i was embarrassed when i realized why i had fallen. so everyone was a little worried at first, then mostly laughing when i explained what happened. what would pedro have done in the situation? laugh at himself. get up & get the water. then offer to repeat what happened for more laughs. and he would tell the story later with some really amusing embellishments. i didn't do the third thing (or the fourth thing yet), but i think on a scale of 1 to 10, pedro would give me about a 7.

on another, less embarrassing subject, i'm reading the diving bell & the butterfly. more when i'm finished. but for now, suffice it to say it's been wonderful to get more descriptive detail of some of the anecdotes depicted in the film (see 11/15 post). i'll go ahead & recommend because 1, i'm kind of obsessed with jean-dominique bauby's story, and 2, it's very well-written, meaningful, thought-provoking, colorful & honest.