Why I like "Be Still my Soul"

The song of the day today is.....

NOT "Be Still my Soul".

It is a song called "I Then Shall Live" by Gloria Gaither that has the same melody.  We sang this song in the El Paso community choir one year (well, two years, actually), and it had a big impact.  When I first heard "Be Still my Soul" (when I came to college) and it had the same tune (also an important Finnish national song, incidentally), I instantly warmed up to it.  Here are the lyrics to "I Then Shall Live":

I then shall live as one who’s been forgiven;
I’ll walk with joy to know my debts are paid.
I know my name is clear before my Father;
I am His child, and I am not afraid.
So greatly pardoned, I’ll forgive my brother,
The law of love I gladly will obey.

I then shall live as one who’s learned compassion;
I’ve been so loved that I’ll risk loving too.
I know how fear builds walls instead of bridges;
I’ll dare to see another’s point of view.
And when relationship demand commitment,
Then I’ll be there to care and follow through.

Your kingdom come around and through and in me;
Your power and glory, let them shine through me;
Your Hallowed name, O may I bear with honor,
And may Your living Kingdom come in me.
The Bread of Life, O may I share with honor,
And may You feed a hungry world through me.
Amen. Amen. Amen.

Happy Sunday.

The song of the day...

...is "You Created" by Caedmon's Call.

Here are the lyrics, because the picture is confusing:

"Who is like unto the LORD our God who dwelleth on high?...

You created nothing that gives me more pleasure than You

 And You won't give me something that gives me more pleasure than You."

 

Good lyrics, but/and they are food for thought for an over-analyzer. "You created nothing that gives me more pleasure than you, and you won't give me something that gives me more pleasure than you"?  It seems like the second line is unnecessary given the first line.  If nothing is created that can give me more pleasure, than how can it be given to me?  It does not exist. 

I thought of a few possible answers to this question...none of which were probably the author's intention, so I will spare you my interpretation.  But it is good food for individual thought. Enjoy. :)

Happiness is.....

FALL!

And all that that entails.

Gorgeous colors + PERFECT weather + the smell of straw + wonderful friends + the warm glow of a camp (or is it bon?) fire + the crunch of leaves under your feet + the crunch of a s'more under your teeth + hayrack rides in the moonlight + the sight of golden fields ready to be (and/or being) harvested + the taste of pumpkin + (these are not fall-specific...) the smell of fresh-baked bread + tea parties in little playhouses (literal tea parties...no politics here...) + a big, playful dog who will let you give it a big hug and muss its fur around like crazy + ....oh....all sorts of things...

Now for those who prefer more visual modalities...

Farm Day II, at Amber's parents'  :)

Now I need a drumroll (no pun intended??) from the Drake family, please.......

Grandma's rolls!!  Yep, pretty much kicking myself for not trying to make them before now.  The shape turned out kinda goofy on a few of them, but my mouth didn't seem to mind. :)

...And I didn't even have pictures from the two weiner roasts the last two days.  Plus, to top off this perfect fall weekend, there is another day of it tomorrow!  Thank you, Chris Columbus, for deciding you would probably not fall off the Earth if you ventured this direction.  Your laughter in the face of danger and great mockery has given public school children, teachers, and bank employees everywhere cause for cheer.  We owe you one.  Next time you're in town, I might give you a thank-you roll.

(C'mon, if Christopher Columbus showed up on your doorstep and asked for a roll, you'd give him one too.  Even if they were Grandma's rolls.)

Good times...

...So happy for Sprout in her new home. :)

 Sprout quote in this moment: "I feel like a felon."  As Amber said, I wish all felons held up pictures of covered wagons. :)

So perfect...

And now for another pic stolen from Syd's camera.  This is us at the playground we (er, most of us?) worked on.

(not in the same clothes we worked in)

Definitely a successful weekend. :)

(i heart ms paint)

AND...who's to say we aren't?  :)

 But we still anticipate, Lord willing, a WONDERFUL weekend visiting our Sprouty-Sprout in Athens.

We would appreciate your prayers for....safe travels and an edifying weekend. 

Write-y mood

I am in a very write-y mood today.  I just need to focus in on a topic or two to write about. 

We're studying Timothy in our girls' Bible study right now.  Tonight was 1 Timothy 2. 

v.1: I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

My first thought when I read this was, am I praying for all men?  Not that I think that's what this verse is telling us to do...clearly we don't know everyone so it is difficult to pray for all men without some ridiculous, sweeping generalization like, "I pray for everybody!" (Maybe that isn't ridiculous...?)  But, rather, is everyone I know getting prayer?  Is there someone I could pray for that no one else is praying for?  So after I read this I asked God to open my eyes to think of people I had interacted with that day who could maybe use a prayer.  The friendly, mustached custodian at school, the farmers I drove past on the way home, our principal....I don't know.  It was a good reminder.


And yes, this is 2 posts about prayer in a row, and I am writing this right after I said that tip-tapping a blog post about prayer while I could be praying is sort of silly.  So, you know, as a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool to his folly?  (That is me a lot.)  At least I am lying prone on my bed this time instead of supine, so I'm not contradicting everything I said in my last post...

In other news, well, it's been a busy few weeks.  The Sunday School Camp-Out was this past weekend!

:)  :)  :)  :)  :)

(Thanks for the pic, Syd)

It was delightful.....of course.  Speaking of prayer, it was a very good weekend, and we hope our relationships with the Sunday School kids continue to grow and prosper. :)

Mmmmmk.  G'night.

Being helpful

Often, when someone in need is on my mind, and I don't have the energy to spend time with that person or act in a hands-on sort of way, I think to myself, "Well, I could at least sit here and pray for that person.  That would be the least I could do..."

But really, that is backwards thinking.  Praying for someone would be the most I could do, provided I was praying sincerely...and not as an excuse to sit around... And by praying for the person, my love for the person would probably increase, and subsequently, my desire to act would increase. 

In conclusion, praying for someone is not the least I could do, and I should stop thinking so.  That being said, I cannot pray or act very effectively while I am lying supine on my bed, laptop on stomach, fingers tip-tapping a blog post. I should pray more often...and lie supine on my bed less often.

So, ta-ta. :)

How to Say No

...This is NOT a tutorial.  If it were, I would be the last person on Earth who should give it. It is more of a question.  Granted, sort of a rhetorical question.And please, spare me the speech pathology cracks... Yes, I know how to vocalize "No"... But When should I say No.....and, occasionally, Why should I say No?  That is the question.

Erica once gave me a book entitled, When I say No, I Feel Guilty... or something like that. :)  Good stuff-- I should dig it out again.  But I don't have trouble saying no when I really want to; it's more an issue of discerning when I should want to say no,  but don't. 

Where am I going with this?  Well, this week was really busy.  And I did a lot of extra-ish, social-type things, as usual.  I didn't regret doing any of these things.  The only other thing I would have been doing would probably be sleeping, and who needs that?  (Just kidding...oh, how I do love sleep.)  But what is my purpose and/or motivation in doing these things?  If I get more sleep, would I be more effective in my job?  Thinking of the 50 kids I'm serving at school, would I be of better use to them if I took a couple evenings off from the social schedule?  Most likely.  And that will probably come.  But for now, it seems like there are still some young'ns that need to be trained up just a bit more in certain YG traditions (i.e. PERKINS) before I bow out to focus on other things...and there always seems to be some family function back home on the weekends that I should make an appearance at...  So I'm treading some murky waters right now, trying to figure out my role and how I am supposed to be fitting into God's plan RIGHT NOW.

Someday, I might say no.  When it's necessary.  But for now, I'll probably just keep being a sucker. :)  For a little while, at least.

Turning....

On Sunday afternoon, I got to hang out briefly with one of my favorite groups of people, which I call “UIYG 1”.  It was super fun to see everyone.  Some things never change, and some things do.  This simple little thought gave me simultaneous hope and sadness for the seemingly imminent morphing/scattering of “UIYG 2” in the next year.  And “UIYG 3: The Next Generation”, is upon us…which is good to see.  Mostly.  I mean, it is good.

I went from that little gathering to my parents’ house, where I had similar thoughts about another one of my favorite groups of people…..my family.  A few things never change, but most things do...  

Shortly thereafter, I felt a strong urge to bury my head under a blanket somewhere.  From dislike of change... or from the usual over-stimulation of seeing 8 ridiculously adorable children running down a picturesque green hill wearing matching homemade capes that say "Super Cool Cousins"?  You decide. :)

Either way, having a hyper-nostalgic personality can be really exhausting at times...

New year, new beginnings

It's official.
Now that I am working in schools, I will officially never think of a year as beginning in January and ending in December.  It's August to August all the way.  And who can blame me?  School years start in August, years of my life start in August (my bday was yesterday), and big things just always seem to happen in August...mostly due to all those other transitions. 

But anyway, yesterday was my birthday, and I was once again reminded of how very blessed I am.  Some people go through life with no one.  They die; no one notices.  They die; someone may notice...no one cares.  They CHOOSE to die because no one cares.... And the depressing list could go on.  Sometimes it's hard to believe there are people out there like that.  Especially when I could say the word and have at least 20 people (probably more) willing to help me with any problem at any given time.  I mean that as a testimony of the awesomeness of my friends and family...not by any means because of my merits or powers of manipulation or something... I am constantly surrounded by the world's best kind of people.  I really mean that.  You all were bright spots in what otherwise would have, frankly, been a mediocre day at best.  Sort of an odd day at work (although work is going great in general), frustrations with the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation (cue Stepford-hair lady and her mound of paperwork), and car issues...  But it was a great day all around.

Awesome dinner at the Ribeye with all-star lineup of guests: My parents, G&G Drake, Melissa, Craig, Jeff, Jamie, David, Pat Drake, Amber, Tina...I think that's it.  It was super fun.  And then Melissa made TWO delicious cakes that we ate back at the Dojo.  Many of them had never seen our beloved Dojo, so that was cool.

Then I was feeling somewhat emotional last night....not really sure why.  I guess it's bound to happen from time to time.  And then I had sort of a funny dream (in retrospect).  It's going to be lame to tell about, but I'm going to try anyway.  Basically, it was just about the Drake cousins all going on some trip somewhere (in modern day)...and then there was, like, a flash, and I heard a little voice behind me shouting "Hey guys, wait up!  Wait for us!"  And I turned around to see a 4-year-old Craig and Monica running up behind me, Craig waving his arms...  And I was filled with this powerful, nostalgic energy that caused me to wake up in tears... about 4:45.... and I maybe was not able to get back to sleep after that.  So, I dunno, for whatever reason, it's been sort of a strange couple of days.  Not bad though, just a bit different.

We chalked the quad tonight for freebiblenow.org.  15-ish people showed up to help chalk!  About 3x more than usual!  Things are changing....the world keeps spinning.... as it really should. :)