Unconcluded thoughts on art and beauty
I open wide and soak it in, the full moon just coming white and misty from behind the clouds, or hanging its enormous full-blazed orange…
music
Sunday morning playlist
Here is a list of the songs that keep me going these days, from widely diverse styles. You don’t have to like them.
A Christmas hymnsing
Confession: I never, ever get my fill of the Christmas carols. For this reason, one of our new favorite-of-favorite holiday traditions is inviting friends in for a hymn sing. Each year, our local community enjoys a Christmas concert at 4:00 on a Sunday afternoon—and we’ve found that in the evening afterwards, very few of our friends have other …
Communion Sunday
Confession: I love communion. I wish we had it every Sunday like Catholics. The Lord Jesus is everywhere in our world, and touches us in a million different ways; but I like to think there are a couple of places He will never miss, a couple of intimate graces that always lead straight into His …
On child prodigies
Confession: I have edited and re-edited the draft for this post multiple times with a view to make it gentler, but instead, it comes out bolder and more passionate each time. I will stop now before it gets worse! I guess I need to admit I care about the issue more than I thought… and …
Owning home
Confession: I can’t help but wonder if it is this way for everyone— if the sound of singing at your own church on a Sunday morning is deep comfort and healing like the smell of your own home and the feel of your favorite blanket. We returned to sorrow and joy interwoven: birth and healing, …
Ads & ventures
Confession: I’m discovering unpleasant things about Pandora. I love Pandora. I hate its ads. Yes, I know I could upgrade to ad-free listening for just $9.95 per month! I’ve heard the pitch twenty times; not biting. But get this– When I listen to Kings Singers or High Kings radio, I hear ads for great cars and …
Invitation to a songfest
Confession: This morning as I knead the bread dough and hang the too-many pairs of jeans on the line in the sunshine and remember the friend going into surgery for breast cancer, this song is giving me chills. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin… He is so good. When I sing these …
Mennonites and music
Confession: Sometimes I love being Mennonite. This is not a popular thing to love nowadays, and I confess I don’t love it always. Sometimes I do. Our congregation has been working for some time on hammering out what we call our “covenant”—our statements of faith and practice. This spring we had four issues at hand: …
S & G again
Confession: Whatever you think about Simon & Garfunkel, you have to admit the genius. They spun words into dark and silver threads. I have squandered my resistance For a pocketful of mumble: such are promises All lies and jests ‘Til a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest… …All my words …