by emma | Apr 16, 2008 | Music
Ryan sent me a copy of the new Cobalt Season album, Fragile Iconoclast, which is launched on Friday. I’ve been listening to it all day today, and it is stunning. I’m gonna write a better review of it soon, but on first listen my favourite song is You & I. It’s an incredibly vulnerable song about pursuing ideals and being let down, about realising our limitations and yet still striving after ideals.
You can have a listen to a couple of the new tracks on their Myspace, but you should definitely order the CD/DVD – Travis from The Work of The People filmed the recording process, should be an interesting DVD!
Wanted to post the lyrics to You & I, because I am lovin’ it right now…
I’ve reached the end of my rope
Once again
And now and then
I find myself drifting
Hoping that you’d send me some hope
Or drop a line
Tell me I’m fine
Tell me I’m going somewhere
Oh, but as it stands just now
I sure don’t know
Which way to go
Which way is certain
And that’s thing with certainty
It’s got it’s hooks in me
Just won’t let me be
Let me be
BUT YOU AND I
BOTH ARE LOOKING FOR
AND WANTING SO MUCH MORE
THAN WE MIGHT EVER SEE
And if I saw that star
Shining bright
Walking at night
You know I’d run as fast as I can
And I’d send you a clue
Of what to do
So you won’t feel
Like I do
CAUSE YOU AND I
ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR
AND WANTING SO MUCH MORE
THAN WE MIGHT EVER SEE
They said, “Son, just let things be”
Oh, just let it be
And I used to be the one to point at hypocrites like me
But how the tables turn, how quickly this heart cannot feel
And I’ve grown tired of these memories, I’ve grown tired of these dreams
And I’m sick of hearing my own voice about things I’ll never be
And I need someone to renew my hope in a world I cannot see
As I open up these calloused hands thinking I might be set free
Set me free
[You & I by The Cobalt Season, from Fragile Iconoclast]
by emma | Apr 11, 2008 | Travel
Off to Glencoe for the weekend to celebrate this ones 21st birthday. Rather excited about hanging out with this group of folks – about 30 of us heading away – and the potential for some dusk/evening wide-angle landscape light painting fun…!
by emma | Apr 10, 2008 | Books
Recently I read This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley, pastor at Imago Dei in Portland. (A huge thanks to the lovely friend who purchased this off my wishlist for me!) I’ve been meaning to blog some thoughts from it for a while, and thanks to Kate’s prompting, that day is today.
McKinley’s book is a very readable, straightforward look at the kingdom message Jesus presented in the Gospels – and by straightforward I mean, he talks about what it would look like and how it would impact us if Jesus really meant the things he said. Things like, become like little children, or about not pulling out the weeds lest you pull out the wheat too.
One of the aspects that I found most challenging was thinking about how to become like little children. How can I learn from kids? Rick talks about how they are exploring this at Imago Dei through Learning Labs, and encourages us to think outside the box and allow children to teach us. Play with kids in the dirt and learn the basics again: God is big. God made worms.
“I think it announced, in the strongest terms possible, the revolution of Jesus – that it was here, authentic, costly, and worth everything. Every welt and lump and scar on Paul’s battered body announced the beautiful reality of the kingdom of God.”
Rick talks about this idea of strategic suffering, and its the other major thing that struck me. I go so far out of my way to avoid suffering if at all possible, but the disciples, and many modern day saints, are living lives of strategic suffering. What would it look like if I put your needs above my comfort? If I really stuck my neck out for you? I reckon my life would look a lot different to how it does now.
A few more quotes I like…
“When Jesus talked about the kingdom, He never talked about us building it or advancing it. Never. He said, “The kingdom is…” He simply invited His followers to see it, embrace it, believe in the unfading reality of it.”
“Relevance comes from relationship – it means we matter to someone, he or she matters to us, and we both know it.”
“We’re finding that the genius of the kingdom is nearly always in simplicity. We keep asking: What’s the need? And how can we meet it simply?”
“To be human is to live with loose ends, with people and in a world of loose ends, feeling you’ve been made for perfection but knowing you can’t get there on your own.”
Holly was reading this too… want to balance out my view?
by emma | Apr 9, 2008 | Everything Else
A mix of things from the last few days:
- My phone gave up the ghost today, and I had to go get a new one. Read: I manually had to transfer ALL my numbers from one phone to the other.
- Vicariously attending Q through Scotts‘ liveblogging. This is one of the two conference that I really want to attend someday soon – take note!
- Enjoyed spending Monday night talking with Holly over a bottle of wine. Deep chat.
- Booked my flights to Uganda yesterday – leaving 24th June, back 11th August. Coffee morning at my house in N. Ireland on the 19th April if you’re around?
- Managed to get to housegroup last night for the first time in two months.
- Reading SEED magazine (HT: Ben)
- Found this amazing project: ReCapture
- Off to Sarah’s birthday celebrations later!
by emma | Apr 8, 2008 | Words
“A faith without some doubts is like a human body without antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic.”
[Tim Keller]
HT: Scott
by emma | Apr 7, 2008 | Photography
On Saturday night a few friends came round to mine for some pizza, desserts and so on. I had a really lovely evening spending time with friends, being reminded that I have some of the most incredible friends around. There was one point I was kinda just sitting in a corner taking it all in: to my right, a conversation on missions and Eastern Europe/Russia; straight in front of me, a conversation that I didn’t understand about philosophy; to my left, Fran geeking out with my camera, and more general conversations.
Having Fran around allowed me some more freedom to play with the camera stuff. We tried some light painting: a lot of fun! We’re both taking some tripods and camera kit to Glencoe next weekend, and may have to do some more light painting experimentation!
More images in this set on flickr.
Bloggers present: Holly, Fran, Lyndsey, Reuben.
by emma | Apr 5, 2008 | Social Justice
A day late, but better late than never…
Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. The blogosphere has been awash with comment and tributes. Suffice to say, I have a lot of respect and admiration for the life of MLK, he is someone whose words inspire me deeply. I’m going to let his words outlast mine…
“The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. How much longer must we play at deadly war games before we heed the plaintive pleas of the unnumbered dead and maimed of past wars?”
by emma | Apr 5, 2008 | Everything Else
Sorry about the blog silence this last week! Spent a few days hanging out with my best friend when she visited Glasgow earlier this week. Was great to enjoy some silly banter and have long, deep chats late into the night…
The rest of the week has consisted of catching up with a few people, job hunting, writing, and talking about coffeehouse ideas a lot. Few folks coming round for a pre-term (for them!) dinner and generally banterous evening. No doubt pictures shall follow soon.
Lots going on in my head. Someday soon there shall be a deluge on the blog front…
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