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God's providence
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Ever since our hymn jams with Josh and Natalie came to an end, I hoped so bad to find the same sort of passionate people to join Weien and I in a freeform music group. I never imagined that instead of another violinist and a cellist, it would be two random guitarists plus anyone else wanting to join us in the future after they spotted us unofficially playing our hearts out in one of the busiest hallways of COD :D
The school paper quotes me saying probably the most disgustingly sappy thing that's ever been printed. But, it's true. It's ALL TRUE XD. They didn't mention what music we were actually playing, though, which was the best part -- pure improv! I was surprised we were able to sound even half-way harmonious, but it worked because the guitarists knew how to stick to a meter and specific sets of chord progressions.
I wish you could all understand the joy of playing with people and playing for the people, especially in an informal setting like that.
Bliss :3
Certain routines I've recently added into my schedule have really helped. Mostly I find myself wandering off to be alone in nature every chance I get ^^. More will be said about that, maybe.
God's work
Sunday, April 16, 2006
For Easter, my church built this beautiful bridge that spanned the width of the stage, surrounded by flowers and shrubbery and some kinda sweet lighting/paint job on the floor to indicate a river underneath. The idea was to have anyone wanting to begin their relationship with God walk across as a symbol of committing to faith in Jesus. I remember my doubts. "It's gotta be scary enough to raise your hand during the prayer with everybody's eyes closed, but getting up and walking across that bridge with everybody watching you?"
The sermon was a simple one with stories about bridges and the basic information people needed to know about what God was offering them, with an Indiana Jones clip and a testimony, and then the invitation, where we sang a mix of the traditional hymn "Just as I am" and the contemporary song "Jesus I come."
It seemed like about 10 or so came to walk across during the early service, the first of those being this little boy with his mom, which was a wonderful sight. I was unprepared for the next two services however, in which tons and tons of people got out of their chairs and came solemnly down the aisles—a line actually formed around the stage as we switched to different hymns and cried and smiled. It was one of the most amazing and spiritual things I'd ever seen, as I looked into the faces of the people coming forward from where I sat in the orchestra, and tried to catch a glimpse of God working in them. They estimated that 200 people walked across the bridge in the second service alone (probably half of that being the friends/family of those coming forward, but still shocking for my 1,500-seat church of the apathetic rich suburbs in the middle of America).
After that, those already believers were invited to walk across as an affirmation of their faith, and I did so, reflecting upon many different things as I did and feeling this sense of God's power that made me feel better in many different ways. I can only dimly perceive that glory, but what glory there was today!
God's love
Monday, April 3, 2006
I had a really encouraging conversation with John the other night. An excerpt:
John: consider the case of the newly married house wife
John: she slaves away all day
John: in the kitchen
John: preparing what she hopes to be a delightful meal for her husband
John: but somehow everything goes wrong
John: and her husband arrives home
John: the steak is well done
John: he likes it medium rare
John: the cake is dry
John: almost stale
John: nothing came out right
John: she feels like a miserable failure
John: but how does he feel towards her?
John: did he marry her because he thought she could cook well?
John: no
John: he married her because he loved her
John: not for what she could do for him
John: (cook, etc...)
John: but because of who she is
John: he loved her
John: not her cooking
John: now consider our case before God
John: we are born sinners
John: and not only that
John: but we have an enemy who is out to get us
John: he does everything he can to make us fail
John: God sees this
John: and loves us still
John: he loves us not because of what we can do for him
John: (what can we really do anyway?)
John: but because of who we are
John: because of who he has created us to be
Victoria: thanks for everything you've said, John
John: i enjoy thinking about these things :-)
John: it's therapeutic :-)
Victoria: they're hard for me to really understand
Victoria: the part of love that's more than chemical signals in the human mind
John: :-)
John: who created those chemical signals?
John: and why?
John: it was to demonstrate his love to us
:) I have way too many things to blog about. Maybe later.
Carley: Hey, it's really cool to hear that your family is making use of Daily Success. Thanks for the encouragement -- I'm afraid my blog has been somewhat of a confused and pessimistic nature as of late, but stick around and, by God's grace, I'll eventually get to the point where I seriously have only inspiring and wonderful things to report ^^.
Weien, Mr. Garlic, Harrumphing Man, Gabbler, and other assorted friendlies: my goodness you're (if I may say it again) the FUNNIEST PERSON I KNOW XDDD~ LOVE YUU
Ag: Thank you for inviting me to awesomely awesome things ^_^ you're the best. I really can't wait till you come back. Take care of yourself till then!
Unfair: Oh come on, that was only like a week longer than the usual XD
PJ: I am going to call you and we shall do something cool, soon! <3