Merry Christmas!

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But Long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make yourself at home
Please make yourself at home

Bring your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to hear us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around you
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

Narahari

A little gem in my iTunes library, courtesy of my good friend, Wade, is the group Aradhna. They mix Indian classical music and Western music with beautiful Hindi and Sanskrit texts to create some of the most hauntingly gorgeous worship music I have ever heard. I would strongly encourage you to check them out at www.aradhnamusic.com. Anticipating the celebration of Christmas, this song sends chills through my body...a sense that I will never really understand who God is until I see Him face to face and that Christmas is something so glorious that I have only begun to comprehend. Enjoy!

Jaya Deva Jaya Deva Narahari
Victory to God, Victory to God, the Man-God
Jaya jaya Deva Jaya Narahari
Victory, victory to God, Victory to the Man-God

You are the blossoming of eternal knowledge
in all of its abundance
You are the reflected, transcendent form of the Infinite One
You are the child of the fair virgin, and yet Ruler of the Universe
Full of beautiful qualities, and yet far beyond all we understand

You are the radiant jewel in the assembly of the learned
You destroy our fears, rebuking the Evil One
You dispel our cares and remove our suffering, forever serving
And all your works shine with holiness

You, who have offered yourself up, suffering agony,
humiliation, and disgrace
The sacrifice of your life, destroying the poison within me
And you, who are the Desired One, my Beloved
The delight of my heart, you sooth my vision
And you, Victorious Crusher of Cruel Death

All Who Are Weary...

With only a jury, take-home exam, and paper to finish up, my mind is already on vacation. So I've been thinking...how can I recharge and refocus and catch the vision again? How do I come back not thinking I just wasted three weeks of my life on facebook, but instead having a clear purpose for 2010? Here's my plan:

-Work out
-Read fiction
-Play MarioKart and Wii tennis
-Play piano just to play it...and guitar
-Paint
-Engage in good conversations
-Laugh a lot
-Meditate on scripture
-Pray...listening as well as talking. sometime I forget that part.

What's yours? :)

Let's go to Narnia....

Something about a good story wakes up your heart to dream, to believe that there is, in fact, something much bigger. That there is much adventuring to be had, people to be met, and thrills to be had. That we are part of a grand story that has been unfolding since the beginning of time...mmmmhmm.

Broken Cisterns

Here we are at the end of another blessed week...this is not exactly how I was hoping December would be. It has been far too full of school and not nearly enough of things I want to be doing...like painting, reading, playing guitar, making snowflakes, writing, loving on people, and talking to Jesus. (and everything on that list we made in the last post.) But really, that's not even the problem.

The problem is, I expect these things to give me life. And they do. To a point. I expect people to give me life. Yet, I sometimes leave even an incredibly fun night feeling let down. There are INCREDIBLE people in my life, but for me to expect them to satisfy my soul's deepest thirst is wrong. I like feeling approved of. Wanted. Challenged. Loved. None of these are illegitimate desires; if we didn't have them, we would cease to be human.

I think of the words of Jeremiah:

"My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

My problem is that I keep running to broken cisterns. Even the very best things in my life cannot hold life-giving water. Not the way my Father in heaven can.

The good news is Christmas is a celebration of the Living Water now available to the world. The God who breathed life into Adam came and walked among us. Jesus came to bring life in abundance. In Him, there is water that will quench our deepest thirsts. And this is worth all the parties in the world.

In Christ, I am whole. I am complete. I am ALIVE.

Drink up, my friends.

Things That Are Good for Our Souls. By Sarah and Jacintha.

-Starbucks at Christmas
-Eric Whitacre
-Jesus
-guitar at night
-sunsets
-stars
-rocky beaches
-young children
-finding a really good pair of jeans
-demolition derby
-street hockey
-candles...especially floaty ones
-Waffle House
-a cup of exotic coffee
-when a huge group of people start dancing at once
-Charlie Brown Christmas album
-sitting in the back of a pickup truck going at least 50 mph in back country roads
-running barefoot through really soft, green grass
-quinceanaras
-flowy skirts/dresses
-an epic musical moment
-Per Broman
-jazz cello (cello itself.)
-Glen Hansard
-a really good game of hide and seek in a large building at night
-fireflies
-sitting by a fireplace/bonfire
-peanut butter/sunbutter
-skiing
-deep, passionate, engaging conversation
-whatever this music is
-Esperanza Spaulding
-the idea of Ernest Hemingway's books never selling again
-autumn leaves
-each other