criticism

hey, if i was reading this post and someone else had written it, i would think it was terrible. but because it’s me writing it and this is my idea, i quite like how short it is. also it’s hidden message- i like that too. you probably don’t, but then again, that is the point of it...

diffusion

so i made a cup of tea for myself this morning. i watched how the hot water slowly changed colour as the tea-bag fulfilled it’s purpose. and it got me thinking about God, and about when he’s in my day he changes the colour of it. he diffuses into me and i taste better than hot water...

Book Review- Disappointment With God (Philip Yancey)

So I have just finished reading a book that has taken months to finish. It has not taken months because it is boring. It took a long time because it is a difficult book to read and is abundant in difficult conceptual ideas that take time and effort to process. Most of Yancey’s works are intellectual, but I found this one to be his most challenging read thus far.

‘Disappointment with God’ attempts to answer the following three questions:
1. Is God fair?
2. Is God silent?
3. Is God hidden?

To this end, the book is a must-read. I have never had these questions so well answered, and his wise and calculated answers I will carry with me through life. Yancey does something very interesting and for a large part of the book, turns the tables and writes on what it might be like to be God, and even on God’s disappointment with man. This revealed to me God through history and certainly gave me a greater (even poetic) understanding of God, my father, the lover of my soul. Along the way, my desire to read the Old Testament prophets peaked and I started to appreciate new things in books like Isaiah and Lamentations. At one point in time, the book even became very intellectual in a scientific way and discussed the linearity of time and time and it’s relativity and what that means to us and to God.

In true Yancey fashion he explores all angles of an argument (even ‘disappointment without God’) often throwing himself in the deep water of the argument and writing his way back out onto solid ground.

Yancey, my hero.

the road home

in 2004 and 2005, i was involved with an organisation called j-life. we were based on a farm outside heidelberg called camp eden. it was during these two years that my faith in the Lord Jesus was cemented and when i made much personal progress and started taking concepts such leadership and devotion seriously. God worked wonders in my life.

whenever i come back to the campsite i am always excited to be in this place of memories and to a place when somehow God seems more available to me even though it’s probably me being more available to him.

the farm house is at the end of a 9km dirt road. whenever i drive the road it is different. there are always new tracks being formed and new holes in the ground that were never there before. sometimes when it has been raining, it is a very slushy drive. other times when it has been sunny, it can be a very bumpy ride. but every time is different.

it’s like my path to God is always different. Or it’s like God’s path to me is always different. There are always new ways to enjoy the company of my Father. There are always new discoveries that await me.

the road is not generic, but the road leads to God and i know where the road starts...

James 4:8... ‘come near to God and he will come near to you.’

offline

Even though technology so often works so well for us, we often find that sometimes it is able to work against us... and when it is working against us, we find that it can be rather effective at totally de-railing us. Sometimes I feel as though technology has built a highway over a dirt-road and that’s all smooth-driving until the introduction of tarmac means pot-holes, when before potholes were never a problem. So right now my internet is down- as you may have guessed from my very revealing title of this post. But an even greater tragedy than an offline connection is that fact that I don’t even need to be online. Technology has created a need that technology can’t satisfy. Now to catch the next train to somewhere I’m not planning on going...

twofold releases 'touch without feeling'

ok, so as far as possible i always like to try and keep different parts of my life separate. like my varsity life is seperate from my music and my music blog is separate from my personal blog. for those who don't know, i'm in a band called 'twofold' and our blog is at www.twofoldmusic.com.

but this week was a special one, and it has caused my music excitement to spill over into more personal affairs. i am afterall one person with one heart and so there's bound to be spillage.

so this wednesday kerri, chris and i locked ourselves in a room at our church and decided to work on 5 tracks for a demo EP... it was hard work and rather frustrating, but i was actually surpried at how nicely it came together on the day. by 2pm we had done numerous takes for 3 songs that still was going to need much editing and cutting and pasting, but we were making progress at least- and so when our heads were pounding little too much to bear anymore, we took a walk to mc donalds and had a breather and got some fresh air... you know- as i'm bloggin this i realise that it's actually quite boring if you weren't there. so i'm not going to make it interesting. so let me tell you the highlight for me:
at about 5:20pm chris had to leave and i was still really keen to record 'rain' cos that is the most asked for recording... so just before packing up, kerri and i did a 'straight take'... that is we recorded vocals and guitar at the same time from start to finish. the track you hear on twofold's facebook page has had no post-production. and to me, it's beautifully vulnerable because of it.

check it out...

being ok alone

So I'm not sure about this one at all, and I think that by me writing this post, I will ultimately contradict myself, but I'm going to blog what's on my mind anyhow...

I'm at the Mugg and Bean in Greenstone. I was going to meet a friend here but then he couldn't so i took my mac out and bought some wi-fi megabytes on my kulula card, to pass time. After checking facebook and the twofold page to see if anyone has said anything I looked up the super 14 fixtures to see how many games i would be able to fit in this weekend. and then I ran out of things to do. It seems that the to-do list shrinks considerably during the holidays!

at about this time- after finishing my first cup of coffee i started to become slightly smug at the fact that i was sitting all on my own and was ok with it-- you see, i have always subscribed to the fact that everyone needs to be okay with spending time on their own. ie. they have to be comfortable with their own company. In my mind, i take it as far as if people can't be alone for very long then they got issues.

so i was getting smug... very proud at how well i was being alone. until i realised just how many distractions are around me... let me list them:
- the TV showing me live rugby (waratahs v cheetahs)
- the coffee in front of me
- the table's conversation next to me that is abundantly interesting
- facebook (which is like being surrounded by 20 people anyway)
- my moblie (from which i have sent 2 text messages already)
- my waitress (her name is Janet and everytime she comes over i keep her chatting for as long as possible)

hm. this alone time is actually just one big distraction that i love. it's the joy of company without the effort of communicating. whoa.

which brings me to an interesting conclusion. my only REAL alone time is with Jesus. when i'm putting my mind on His things. when i'm creating space for him rather than filling up space for me.