Lyrics, I Thought

While grading today I pulled out some old tunes from my college days - Alan Parson's Project - good stuff!  One of the songs really hit me - seemed to be speaking to a situation I'd dealt with since that time - lyrics I hadn't seemed to catch before:

"Nothing's good that uses bad;
The beat goes on and it drives you mad.
Scornful thoughts that fly your way
You should turn away -- 'cause there's nothing left to say

"You gave the best you have to give;
You only have one life to live;
You fought so hard, you were a slave
And after all you gave there was nothing left to save."

Well, I didn't get it quite right, but it buoyed my spirits while grading nonetheless - and it gave me a new perspective on a difficult time, so it's all good!

Here's a link to the actual lyrics of Alan Parsons Project's "Nothing Left to Lose:"

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/alan+parsons+project/nothing+left+to+lose_20005402.html

Prayer

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

... Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

This is Immanuel

On Christmas day, a humble girl
gives birth to hope for all the world,
this is Immanuel.
How awesome and mysterious,
the Lord of heaven draws near to us,
this is Immanuel.

The hands that once split night from day
now feebly clutch a blade of hay,
this is Immanuel.
Majestic king, now small and weak,
the Word of God must learn to speak,
this is Immanuel.

This is our God, seen by our eyes,
the love of the Father made known in Jesus Christ.
This is our God, worthy of praise,
the love of the Father revealed on Christmas day.

The shepherds come and bow to him,
the Lamb who takes away our sin,
this is Immanuel.
For God has entered time and space
to show the world his endless grace,
this is Immanuel.

Immanuel, Immanuel. Our God is with us now.

On Christmas Day
By Matt Osgood
Luke 2:16; Luke 2:7; Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23

I Need More

I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be

More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out...

...all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
It's gotta be

More like falling in love

(from More Like Falling in Love by Jason Gray)

More Than Your Eyes Are Seeing

This past week I really needed something to get me through. I feel called to my work, but this first year in a tenure-track position has surprised me, a veteran teacher of 23 years, with the level of intensity and stress and exhaustion I'm feeling.

When I got into the van Wednesday morning and turned it on, the radio came on too, and I heard the voice of a child reading Isaiah 40:30-31:

Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Then, as I pulled into the parking lot, a song was on in which there was a line that caught my attention, so I stayed to listen to the whole thing and was really ministered to by it:

Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing.

I need to remember that "life is so much more than what my eyes are seeing" - but it's hard sometimes to break through the layer of stress and exhaustion to find the reality of that - but I'm trying to remember - and I sure needed to hear all of the above on the day that I did.

I Sing

We're doing our family devotions in a rather unique way, I think - using a book that contains the history of hymns, the scriptures that inspired them, and the stories of their authors. Tonight we focused on the hymn I Sing the Mighty Power of God. Now I can't stop singing it! It was inspired by Jeremiah 51:15:

He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

I sing the mighty power of God,
that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained
the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at his command,
and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord,
who filled the earth with food,
Who formed the creatures through the Word,
and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed,
where’er I turn my eye,
If I survey the ground I tread,
or gaze upon the sky.

There’s not a plant or flower below,
but makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
by order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee
is ever in Thy care;
And everywhere that man can be,
Thou, God art present there.

Who Am I?

Who am I? that the Lord of all the Earth
would care to know my name, would care to feel my hurt?

Who am I? that the bright and morning star
would choose to light the way for my ever wondering heart?

Not because of who I am, but because what You've done
Not because of what I've done, but because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow
a wave tossed in the ocean, vapor in the wind
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord You catch me when I'm falling
and You've told me who I am
I am Yours

Who am I? that the eyes have seen my sin,
would look on me with love and watch me rise again?

Who am I? that the voice that calmed the sea,
would call out through the rain and calm the storm in me?

I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow
a wave tossed in the ocean, vapor in the wind
Still you hear me when I'm calling,
Lord You catch me when I'm falling
and You've told me who I am
I am Yours

Words and Music by Mark Hall

Photo by ham.cereal on flickr

Sanctus Real

It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
All I can do is surrender

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Re-evaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow your will
or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is you want from me
I give everything I surrender...

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly
Something heavenly

It's time to face up
Clean this old house
Time breathe in and let everything out

(lyrics of WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING by Sanctus Real)

PS Happy Birthday Dad! :-)

Power of Paradox

It seems I've imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to man
He must have seemed out of His mind

For even His family thought He was mad
And the priests said a demon's to blame
But God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane

We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
And we in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
And so we follow God's own fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable
Come be a fool as well

So come lose our life for a carpenter's son
For a madman who had died for a dream
And you'll feel the faith His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam

So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Have the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see

So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

-- Michael Card "God's Own Fool" Scandalon (1985)

The Final Word

I LOVE words. I put a lot of words up here for all the world to see. I have long phone conversations with friends. I write VERY long emails, as anyone who corresponds with me can tell you! Sometimes I have important things to share; sometimes - OK, let's be honest - a LOT of the time I'm using my words to complain or just hear myself talk. I heard a song today that really resonated with me - my love for words - and my realization that I very often use too many words for things that don't deserve so many. The most important thing that was ever said was just one Word.

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard.
When the Father’s Wisdom wanted to communicate His love,
He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

And so the Light became alive
And manna became Man.
Eternity stepped into time
So we could understand.

Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.

(Michael Card, 1988)

From John 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Art of Your Face

I find the lyrics to this song by Michael Card so inspiring and wanted to share them. They challenge and inspire me to truly live and to live truly. I hope you'll enjoy them.

Life is a song we must sing with our days
A poem with meaning more than words can say
A painting with colors no rainbow can tell
A lyric that rhymes either heaven or hell

We are living letters that doubt desecrates
We've the notes of the song of the chorus of faith
God shapes every second of our little lives
And minds every minute as the universe waits by

The pain and the longing
The joy and the moments of light
Are the rhythm and rhyme
The free verse of the poem of life

So look in the mirror and pray for the grace

TO TEAR OFF THE MASK,
SEE THE ART OF YOUR FACE

Open your earlids to hear the sweet song
Of each moment that passes and pray to prolong
Your time in the ball of

THE DANCE OF YOUR DAYS

Your canvas of colors
Of moments ablaze
With all the is holy
With the joy and the strife
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life.

I find all of Michael Card's work very inspired, very inspiring, very meaningful and very scriptural. These lyrics, of course, are much more powerful WITH the music.

If you're interested you'll find this song on his album Poiema

My Prayer

Fill Thou my life,
Oh Lord my God in every part with praise . . .

So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;

So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free
But all my life in every step
Be fellowship with Thee.


(Horatius Bonar, 1866)

Laughing on Glory's Side

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace, and laugh on Glory's side, and
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live!

It's hard to believe it's been two years today. We're missing you Dad and thinking of you, but we know you've flown to Jesus and are laughing on Glory's side!

"Untitled Hymn" lyrics by Chris Rice 2004

Held (לחיים)

לחיים

“The Problem of Pain” is one of the most compelling arguments atheists have against belief in God. It goes like this: “If God is all-powerful He can keep suffering from happening; if He is all-loving, He would want to do so. The Holocaust occurred. A tsunami in 2004 killed 230,000 people. Child abuse, spousal abuse and elder abuse are rampant. Thousands of innocent children die every year of cancer. How could an all-powerful, all-loving God allow this? There must not be such a being.”

“The Problem of Pain” impacts Christians as well. There are some who have an underlying sense that faith, good works, and prayer give an element of protection to them. When hit with REAL long-term suffering – truly appalling suffering – an endless nightmare of suffering - the sound of silence from God - no forthcoming good outcome and no rescue, believers of this type are entirely bewildered. In their state of shock they may still spout platitudes because it’s the only thing they know how to do, meanwhile undergoing an internal spiritual death. Even for those with a deeper, more realistic faith this level of suffering can shake life, self and belief to the core.

Many books have been written on “The Problem of Pain,” and they contain good thoughts, ideas and approaches, but none really adequately address the issue. There is no answer to be found here, but the issue can and should be faced and dealt with honestly as it is in the lyrics below (Christa Wells 2001):

Two months is too little;
They let him go.
They had no sudden healing.
To think that Providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling!

Who told us we’d be rescued?
What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares?
We’re asking why this happened to us
Who have died to live, it’s unfair!

This is what it means to be held
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive;
This is what it is to be loved and to know that the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held.