Tuesday, October 5, 2010 9:41 PM
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I've been meaning to write in here for a while but I keep forgetting to or putting it off because I'm afraid I won't have anything profound or interesting to say.
But if I'm ever going to write in here, I'm just going to forget about that. So here's a little blurb on what I've been thinking about tonight..
I was reading one of Mike Donehey's Over & Underneath journals (the 4th chapter in case any of you have them). Throughout the chapter he kept mentioning snow and how it acts like a symbol of God's grace and redemption, making things new and clean (I assume he wrote this entry sometime around Christmas). At the end of the chapter he asks a question.
"Is Christ a means to an end or an end in Himself?
In other words, this Christmas, if you could get everything you wanted, I'm talking snow, family, maybe a 70" plasma screen, if you could have no more pain and no more crying, streets of gold, angels in the sky, or a castle on a cloud; if you could go to heaven and receive relief from your guilt, healing from your diseases, and safety from your enemies, but you couldn't have Christ, would you still have everything you ever wanted? Would you be happy?"
That question really hit me hard, because if I'm really totally honest with myself, if I take a step back and look at my motives, why am I worshipping Christ? Why am I serving Him? Is it because I want a better life and following Him is ultimately going to give me that? Is it because I want to experience eternal life in heaven and escape the punishment of eternal damnation?
Not that wanting those things are wrong in and of themselves.
But the question is do I really value Christ for WHO he is? Or am I, maybe even without realizing it, using Him as nothing more than a means of getting what I think is best for my life. Because at the core, that's just selfishness. He is the only thing, the only person that deserves our worship. Not the "stuff" with which He blesses us. Not even the eternal life he gives us. Just Christ Himself. We are so focused on stuff that we use our Savior as a means for getting that stuff. Sometimes it's so hard to see past this life. (Even now as I've been writing this blog, I checked my facebook twice to see if I had any notifications.) Distractions are everywhere, and it's hard to focus all of our attentions on the only One who deserves them.
After reading Mike's blog I remembered seeing this video of Aaron Gillespie. He basically says something similar about his experience in Uganda.
Friday, July 30, 2010 7:11 AM
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Me + Megan Megan was at YAHS 3 previous years, and she was my suitemate the first year she came. She was my roommate this year!
The girls in my suite before the Julie Ann Smith concert L-R Ellie, me, Catherine, Megan
Gian, me, Kevin, & Catherine
Catherine and I on the seesaw with Kevin..it was slightly terrifying...
Kevin and I
Me, Catherine, and Ellie
Me, Ellie, and Megan
Waiting backstage before my solo
My suite! We did a parody of Tik Tok on the skit night and Catherine drew little stars on our faces... lol
My suite again..day before the last at the solo concert
Chilling inside harp covers...and eating popcorn
My harp ensemble group!
Our little fireflies group :P I MISS THESE GUYS!
photo credits to Kim, Megan, and Catherine in addition to myself
Well to my horror I found out that Esterlyn's album Lamps and their ep are available for free download on noisetrade.com. And I already the EP a couple weeks ago :/ It was nice to get Lamps free, but I still spent a few bucks on the other one... oh well.
Anyway, go to noisetrade.com and it should be on the 3rd or so page of top downloads.
Pretty much most of you who are reading this blog have already heard my ranting and raving over the EP "This Is A Redemption Melody" by Brothers at Sea, but if not, get it here.
Check out the purevolume.com pages for Deas Vail, Paramore, He Is We, The Starting Line, Anberlin, Joywave, bla bla bla. Search your fav artist in there and chances are they could have a free download.
Daytrotter.com has some free stuff too (live recordings). Just go there to read about what it is. There's some Mat Kearney, Paper Route, fun., and etc.
Owl City's music video for Vanilla Twilight was released today:
Tuesday, March 2, 2010 6:51 AM
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It seems like I always keep writing about music in here, but that's ok. Recently I just discovered this band called Esterlyn. They're a Christian indie band. Their first album, Lamps, has some great pop rock songs on it. They've also released an acoustic EP.
Here's their music video for "We All Need" (ignore the weird ringtone ad at the bottom, lol.)
I also bought Tenth Avenue North's new single "Healing Begins" today. It's not drastically different from their older songs, but you can definitely hear that either they've grown as musicians or it was better-produced, or both. I love the acoustic guitar & bass throughout the opening of the song, and the bass in the 2nd verse. It sounds really good (my dad would probably call it choppy, but I love the sound, lol).
Lyrics: (I wrote them down just from listening so if they're wrong forgive me :P)
Saturday, February 6, 2010 8:07 AM
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I keep forgetting about this thing. I think it's time for a new post. I mentioned the song "The Truth" by Relient K a couple posts ago... I thought I would write something about it.
Matt Thiessen: "This song was written as a kind of parable using the Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe as an example of when Lucy went into Narnia for the first time, she comes back, and nobody believes her, because it was such an incredible thing. It's kind of the same with our faith - sometimes it's hard to believe that this magical day happened where Somebody died and all of a sudden the woes of the world were gone. And, you know, you have to trust the Word of God that that's what happened."
I thought it was a neat comparison. "This is so unnerving, I know You've never lied to me before." Lucy's never lied to her siblings, but what she tells them is so amazing that they have a hard time believing it. In a similar way, it's overwhelming to think that Jesus would die for us, completely undeserving sinners. Apparently, The Truth (along with their other song, In Like a Lion) was supposed to be included on The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe's "Music Inspired By" album. So when Matt found out that the song wasn't going to make it onto the album, he changed the words so that they fit a relationship with God. One of my other favorite lines in this song is, "But I'll just have to accept that my mind is so inept, and the only thing that's left for me to do is to trust You." We're constantly trying to figure out how God works, but our minds will never be able to fully grasp everything about Him. As my mom said, if He was really so simple that you could understand everything about Him, He wouldn't really be God.
On another note, I really enjoy Matt's vocals in this song. Give it a listen!
Lyrics:
And I've collected all these thoughts And I'm dying just to lose them And if Your words are true or not I'll die trying to prove them But I'll just have to accept That my mind is so inept And the only thing that's left For me to do is to trust You
Convince me Because I really need Your help Oh convince me Because I can't see this for myself
I'll put the emphasis on the evidence Begging for the proof Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth
This is so unnerving I know You've never lied to me before But the things You're telling me I can't yet believe Yet can't ignore But I'll just have to accept That my mind is so inept And the only thing that's left For me to do is to trust You
Put the emphasis on the evidence Begging for the proof Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth Attempt to place our lives into Your hands Confide in what You'll do Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth
It's a world full of cynics Who say to stay alive in it You gotta stick with what you know But the soul is always aching For the heart to start taking A chance by letting go
So let go Let go Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth Attempt to place our lives into Your hands Confide in what You'll do 'Cause sometimes when you're trying to sleep And all your doubts and your faith don't agree it's 'cause Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth
Saturday, December 26, 2009 3:53 PM
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can you believe it? haha
Anyway, I just wanted to post a couple photos. For Christmas/my birthday as an early gift my dad gave me CS4. Here's something I did while messing around with it earlier with a photo I took in Georgia 2 summers ago.
original photo: pretty blah and nasty looking.
after editing the levels, vibrance, selective colors, contrast, curves, and so on:
10:13 AM
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I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
Check out this video of Switchfoot's "We Are One Tonight"... I thought it was one of the most creative videos I've seen in a while!
(It's funny because I think the band members have a few cameos in the video. At 2:24 you actually see Jon and Chad. And I'm pretty sure that Jerome is the hitchhiker at 1:40)
Some stuff I've been listening to a lot lately: Good Morning Planetarium - Falling Up The Closer We Are - Danyew On Fire - Switchfoot So, In This Hour... - The Rocket Summer The Truth - Relient K
Right now on iTunes you can get 17 songs (including ones by Britt Nicole, Danyew, Future of Forestry, Philmont, FM Static, and a bunch of other great artists) for 2.49 in the Fall 2009 Sampler (here). Pretty good deal if you ask me...
