Foy Vance – Gabriel And The Vagabond
In stores now!! Get out there and buy it!
You can order it on HMV or Amazon. Have already pre-ordered mine, but was so cool to hold a copy in my hands in HMV Belfast today! So get over there and buy it!
Today I got to go to my amazing church at home, and hang out on the North Coast with these super-fun people… Phil, Ali and Ross. That’s us chillin’ (quite literally!) at the Giant’s Causeway.
Much fun!
I still think about him all the time.
What am I supposed to do here?
Previous posts:
[Got this idea from Jim, thanks!]
Some things I’m reading / doing / loving today:
“shed
the hidden secrets of
your troubled journey”
From “Teach Me How To See” by Andrew Jones
Still loving Ryan’s (and friends’) ideas about Christmas.
Daley Hake’s photography…. my word can I please be as talented as you?
“I would rather write her a song, because songs don’t wait to resolve. Stories ask for endings, but songs are brave things, bold enough to sing when all they know is darkness.”
The To Write Love On Her Arms story
“God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”
Matt 5:9
Jamie gave a fantastic message at church on Sunday about our calling to be peacemakers. We looked at Matt 5:39-41.
Jamie shared how there are 3 responses to violence: passivity, violence, or Jesus’ way.
He talked about how in each of these instances, Jesus made both the other options look silly. In that culture, you couldn’t hit someone on both cheeks without implying equality. If someone took all your clothes, the shame was on them, the one who made you naked. If you walked more than one mile with a soldier, they could be flogged for potentially causing an uprising. Each response is calculated, not violent or passive, but creative and disrupting.
“Violence is for those who have lost their imagination… We need more of the prophetic imagination that can interrupt violence and oppression.”
[Shane Claiborne]
Walter Brueggemann coined the phrase prophetic imagination. I think that is what Jesus is doing in this passage. Finding ways to take peoples mind off the violence all around us, and remind us that there is a better way. I think our world needs more people who will dare to use their prophetic imagination to change the situations around us. It wont be easy… we look for the quick-exit plan… there is none with this method that I can see. It will take work. But isn’t it worth it? I fear we give up too easily on situations that could be pacified if only we worked harder.
Nothing will ever come my way that You won’t see me through…
I won’t find a love like Yours in all the earth
I finished off Shane Claiborne’s book The Irresistible Revolution today. Boy does that guy challenge me.
Will post some thoughts later when I process them a bit more, but until then heres a few brief quotes to mull over:
“How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday?”
“I saw a clearer glimpse of Jesus in this leper’s eyes than any stained-glass window could ever give me.”
“Following Jesus is simple, but not easy. Love until it hurts, and then love more.” (Mother Teresa)
“If you have two coats, one of them belongs to the poor.” (Dorothy Day)
“When we look through the eyes of Jesus, we see new things in people. In the murderers, we see our own hatred. In the addicts, we see our own addictions. In the saints, we see our own holiness.”
“We live in an age in which people, when they hear the word Christian, are much more likely to think of people who hate gays than people who love outcasts.”
“If we are crazy, then it is because we refuse to be crazy in the same way that the world has gone crazy.”
You just gotta see this to believe it!
Pop by Connor’s blog and leave a comment when you’ve seen it!
The curtain falls, down she goes
So long worth
All the applause seems beautiful
It’s got a hold on her
She whispers, “I’ll go home”
And then she’s reminded
That she doesn’t know where that is…
Thought I belonged
But I know I don’t
Thought I had love
But it is not enough
An aching inside speaking to me
How could I feel like this
So aimless
[Bethany Dillon – Aimless]
Foy Vance… my word.
Every single time his music does something to me. There is this thing in his music which leaves me feeling peaceful and disturbed at once. Like Gabriel and the Vagabond. There’s this beautiful story of hope in the midst of despair. Beautiful guitar music overlayed with words of challenge and hope.
It is easy to walk past people every day. To be disconnected. Thinking that their lives do not affect ours. It’s not true. There are people who are desperate for hope all around us. They’re on our doorsteps! There are so many people who are longing to be brought back to life. All it takes is a step in the right direction. This is as much a post for me as it is for you (as are all my posts, incidently). I need reminded of this regularly, because I forget it so easily.
We are called to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we’re called home.
We are called to gently whisper hope in the ears of vagabonds.
(Also: Supporting Foy last night was The Fortunate Sons… an amazing Glasgow band, who sound quite like the Dave Matthews Band. Check them out if you ever get the chance.)
Gabriel and the Vagabond :: Single released Dec 18th. Go buy it!
Recent Comments