Roll on, Silver moon

This weekend SSU hosted it's second "SSU Celebrates the Arts" weekend performance art showcase. I was the Master of Ceremonies, as well as the closing act. I sang three songs about various stages of love. Infatuation style idealizing was in there, heart breaking "where did it all go wrong" type stuff, and a surprising amount of "I'll stay by you/when times get rough I will fight for you" music. I know that I have been turning corners in the area of love/trust. I have struggled with trusting God, and in turn loving God fully. I have been surprised by my own attitudes as of late, in that I have been more in love with God than I can ever remember, despite not having any sort of mind blowing experience of His goodness, or some unique kind of blessing. He has just been the focus of my love in a way that He never was before. I am starting to realize what a "captured heart" feels like. He has captured my attention through ordinary life. I never saw that coming. But think about it. Say, like, a young teen-aged boy is in the hall at school, no passion, no love for anything. Then the cute girl walks by, says hello, even sits down for a minute, then walks off to class. Suddenly BAM the boy has passion, desire, something to seek. How much more if the God who is love walks by.

If you ever drop your car keys into a river of molten lava, don't go after them. Trust me, they are gone.

Andrew, I just read your "God with low standards" thing. Very nice. I think of Jesus' views concerning sin. Please allow me to paraphrase: The typical Hebrew way of thinking was "I shouldn't murder, and I haven't so I am good." Not having killed someone, they were outside the sphere of culpability for that sin. Then along comes a Pharisee who tells them, "No, if you have even thought of killing someone, that's bad, because God knows your thoughts!" The Pharisee re-drew the lines so that average people would be inside the sphere of who qualifies as a sinner, but he himself would still be outside it, setting up a holier-than-thou relationship. Then along comes Jesus who says "If you have been angry with someone this is the same sin as if you had murdered them." In other words, the sphere is even bigger, and we are ALL inside it. He has the lowest standards of them all, in this sense. He died for us while we were yet sinners. Amazing.

Still Swingin' (not like that Puddle!)

Once upon a time there was a big God. One day that God decided to create a boy who was taller than most of the other boys. This made buying clothing and driving certain vehicles more difficult. But the big muscles that come with being tall and big made this boy a sledgehammer swinging machine. Then one day the boy got to put those skills to the test against a smaller, but crazier boy who had some pretty big muscles of his own. Tall was victorious, and the smaller boy grew a complex. He tried to strech his legs by riding motorcycles all day. He tried to stretch his spine by accelerating his car much too quickly, but he couldn't get taller.

God Bless you Steve.