Five years from now?
Haha! Boy, I love this.
Original image by Diana Walker for Time.
This song depresses me. It exhibits how much religion has failed and fallen short of the truth. People think it’s about the Pope and praying to Saints and about rules. Apologies to anyone who abides by these things because it’s not my intention to have a stab at you.
But it’s for anyone to know, everywhere, that the longings and ideas of this song are not new feelings or thoughts. Actually, God felt and thought He should be one of us, a slob like one of us before we knew we needed him to be.
So it was fulfilled. Jesus was human; “a little lower than the angels, a little higher than the animals”. And Jesus was God, sent to show Himself to the rest of us.
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
(Isaiah 53:10-14, The MSG)
If you’re anything like the rest of the world who helped make Joan Osborne’s song a hit, then this is for you.
Happy Easter everyone!
♥
[video]
/New York Mornings is the second act in my playlist ‘Paris Nights/New York Mornings’ based on the song by Corinne Bailey Rae.
I exported it specifically for a friend a few months back and I just thought I would publicly share my love for the Big City.
You can download it here.
No [time or need for] annotations for this one, but here’s the track list:
1. “Flamenco Sketches” - Miles Davis
2. “Chi-Chi” - Charlie Parker
3. “When I Fall In love” - Miles Davis
4. “Here To Stay” - Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald
5. “Moonriver” - Henry Mancini
6. “Empire State of Mind II” - Alicia Keys
7. “New York State of Mind” - Billy Joel
8. “The Only Living Boy in New York” - Simon & Garfunkel
Who remembers the annotated playlist I made almost 2 years ago entitled ‘A Flying Romance II’? This one: http://chichigirl.tumblr.com/post/1080067446/a-flying-romance-ii
Taking inspiration from one of my new favourite bloggers, Miss Moss, and her regular dose of music mixes (which I’ve been downloading and playing avidly lately), I found the perfect way to export and share this most beloved, European holiday playlist.
Download it here.
Rumi Neely rocking it atop Mount Bonnell, Austin.
Sigh. Texas nostalgia.
[video]
[video]
“The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.” (Eph 1:23, The MSG)
In a related turn of phrase that I read recently from a pastor in NYC,
“The world is not a distraction from our cause, it is our cause.”
Do I, you, we really believe it? We inherit everything on Heaven and earth because we are the family of the only kingdom there truly is. The church is not its own conservative, daggy subculture, peripheral to mainstream, glorified standards of living and ways of generating success.
Subvert your thinking. Subvert everything you’re seeing and see that God’s plans are like this massive iceberg, and right now we’re here on the water’s surface, believing in the mass and greatness of what’s just underneath.
Yes it’s true, most people haven’t tapped into God’s order and will look to the tip and believe it to be the highest attainment. But we are told, taught and given surmounting, ancient and everyday evidence to know better. We are taught not to climb up but to go deeper.
This is why we, the church, “turn the world upside down”. Because in actuality, it is currently being displayed upside down. And we live, breathe and continue to believe in the right way up until all anyone can see is the right way up.
Oh and by the way, it’s kind of like this too… (just sayin’)
