Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands.
All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands.
For it's only in Your will that I am free,
For it's only in Your will that I am free,
Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
Copyright © 1990 Word Music / Adm. by Copycare.
I went to a confirmation service yesterday for two of my friends from CU, and this song was sung there, it really touched me again (I love this song so much) and sometimes you forget these amazing, simplistic songs that mean so much. By simplistic I mean that the words and phrases are repeated, but they mean so much, and have such a vast amount of meaning to me. Just helped me to get out of my rut that I'd created and fall at the feet of the Creator God.
In my small group today we were looking at Romans 12, and being sacrifices; this is our spiritual act of worship. In some versions the word spiritual has been replaced with true or reasonable. Meaning that for what God has done for us, in sending his Son to die for sinful humankind, the least we can do for Him is to fully worship Him and lay down our lives (and actively keep laying our lives down-[we are LIVING SACRIFICES] that means we can get off the altar at any time, we must keep getting back on).
We are only free in God's will; we sing this, but do we actually fully understand or appreciate the meaning behind it? What does it mean to be free in God's will? To our minds being free in someone else's will is a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it?
Monday, May 15
Saturday, May 13
Pondering
I was reading a poem on a friends blog and a line of it really hit me:
WHO AM I?
I'm normal Joe unique.
I'm a crucial nobody.
A vital nothing
Bog standard precious.
A backwater special task force.
I'm a run-of-the-mill winner
A finish the course loser
I'm significantly minute
I'm an everyday miracle
I'm typically original
I'm limited eternal
I'm an off-the-peg one-off
Standard fare gourmet
A naturally supernatural
Fully grown halfling.
I'm an unknown celebrity
A hero in my own story
A line in His-story
I'm one of, and one-in six billion me
A nonenity V.I.P.
That's all and everything I am.
- written by Rob Lacey (and read at his funeral)
The line that really struck me was, 'A line in His-story' I don't know why, but it did. I suppose I like reading, and knowing that I'm a line in God's story really touched me, he cares about me, about what I'm doing, where I'm going today; who i'm going to meet, who i'm going to talk to. How I'm going to react when something that God knows is good (or bad) going to happen. How it will affect my life, the things that I choose to do today. Or similarly the things I don't choose to do today.
Suppose its just something to think about.
WHO AM I?
I'm normal Joe unique.
I'm a crucial nobody.
A vital nothing
Bog standard precious.
A backwater special task force.
I'm a run-of-the-mill winner
A finish the course loser
I'm significantly minute
I'm an everyday miracle
I'm typically original
I'm limited eternal
I'm an off-the-peg one-off
Standard fare gourmet
A naturally supernatural
Fully grown halfling.
I'm an unknown celebrity
A hero in my own story
A line in His-story
I'm one of, and one-in six billion me
A nonenity V.I.P.
That's all and everything I am.
- written by Rob Lacey (and read at his funeral)
The line that really struck me was, 'A line in His-story' I don't know why, but it did. I suppose I like reading, and knowing that I'm a line in God's story really touched me, he cares about me, about what I'm doing, where I'm going today; who i'm going to meet, who i'm going to talk to. How I'm going to react when something that God knows is good (or bad) going to happen. How it will affect my life, the things that I choose to do today. Or similarly the things I don't choose to do today.
Suppose its just something to think about.
Tuesday, May 9
Lewis Carroll
"We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known, we have only to follow the thread of the heroic path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world." Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
I came across this quote and thought that it was relevant regarding research, we are searching for things that are sometimes outside of our capabilities to find, but we end up searching for it, and find something that we didn't know about ourselves. At the moment I am researching Lewis Carroll, and totally shattering the previous awe-inspiring, praise-worthy Alice in Wonderland, as the writer is a drug- taking paedophile (taking nude pictures of young girls). I mean I know that through this research a lot of writers took drugs and were paedophilic; in the sense that we would class them as that now, but its just weird that in those days it was just hidden. I mean I suppose it is hidden now, until someone finds out about it, but it can be tracked down so much easier what with the government locating where we all are, and our buying habits, where we go on holiday etc. People knew about Carroll's love for and towards children, but rather than facing it and dealing with it as an issue, some of the evidence was destroyed (out of 13 diaries 4 were burned and those four would have shed light on the relationships with Alice -Carroll's muse to Alice in Wonderland- and we would not have to be speculating about what was in these volumes) but there you go, thats research for you, like the labyrinth, sometimes we can come to a dead end, but other times things are opened up for us to see and to be lead by.
I came across this quote and thought that it was relevant regarding research, we are searching for things that are sometimes outside of our capabilities to find, but we end up searching for it, and find something that we didn't know about ourselves. At the moment I am researching Lewis Carroll, and totally shattering the previous awe-inspiring, praise-worthy Alice in Wonderland, as the writer is a drug- taking paedophile (taking nude pictures of young girls). I mean I know that through this research a lot of writers took drugs and were paedophilic; in the sense that we would class them as that now, but its just weird that in those days it was just hidden. I mean I suppose it is hidden now, until someone finds out about it, but it can be tracked down so much easier what with the government locating where we all are, and our buying habits, where we go on holiday etc. People knew about Carroll's love for and towards children, but rather than facing it and dealing with it as an issue, some of the evidence was destroyed (out of 13 diaries 4 were burned and those four would have shed light on the relationships with Alice -Carroll's muse to Alice in Wonderland- and we would not have to be speculating about what was in these volumes) but there you go, thats research for you, like the labyrinth, sometimes we can come to a dead end, but other times things are opened up for us to see and to be lead by.
Wednesday, May 3
Groups
When I was travelling back to uni on the saturday just gone I was watching the people that were getting onto the train and I couldn't help but notice that there were two very distinct types of groups.
The first group were obvious to spot; they were footie fans coming back from a match. Mob mentality and all that, you could pretty much write a psychological essay on it! They were quite intimidating and rowdy, we had to have the British Transport Police on the case, and they actually rode with us on the train to Liverpool. (There were about 40-50 fans)
The other group was a total antithesis to the 'mob' they were communicating without speaking; only actions and it was quite a sight to see these groups of people together. The other group I am talking about was a group of people that were deaf, and communicating with sign language. It was so strange just seeing the two groups and noticing similarities and major differences between them.
The fans were shouting, singing and talking to each other loudly, they all had something important that they had in common; the support given to a local team. I finally understood what people mean when they say that football can be a religion to some people. They talked with such a passion, and zeal, I almost felt ashamed to be standing with them; being a Christian and feeling that if I had tried to start talking about God in my life, I would probably start feeling guilty about taking up people's time etc.
The other group had an important link to each other too; and that was the need to communicate. The ironic thing was that each of these groups were exclusive; the football fans were the only people that truly knew what went on on the pitch that day; other people might have been able to get the score off of the TV or something, but they had that shared experience that only they fully understood. This was so similar to the people that were hard of hearing; they were an exclkusive 'club' too, and only they could understand their conversation (unless you knew sign language, but its the same for the other group; you would have had to have gone to the match to fully understand why they were acting the way that they were).
It just hit me at that moment, the contrast and the similarities. Of two lots of people that were so different, yet the same.
The first group were obvious to spot; they were footie fans coming back from a match. Mob mentality and all that, you could pretty much write a psychological essay on it! They were quite intimidating and rowdy, we had to have the British Transport Police on the case, and they actually rode with us on the train to Liverpool. (There were about 40-50 fans)
The other group was a total antithesis to the 'mob' they were communicating without speaking; only actions and it was quite a sight to see these groups of people together. The other group I am talking about was a group of people that were deaf, and communicating with sign language. It was so strange just seeing the two groups and noticing similarities and major differences between them.
The fans were shouting, singing and talking to each other loudly, they all had something important that they had in common; the support given to a local team. I finally understood what people mean when they say that football can be a religion to some people. They talked with such a passion, and zeal, I almost felt ashamed to be standing with them; being a Christian and feeling that if I had tried to start talking about God in my life, I would probably start feeling guilty about taking up people's time etc.
The other group had an important link to each other too; and that was the need to communicate. The ironic thing was that each of these groups were exclusive; the football fans were the only people that truly knew what went on on the pitch that day; other people might have been able to get the score off of the TV or something, but they had that shared experience that only they fully understood. This was so similar to the people that were hard of hearing; they were an exclkusive 'club' too, and only they could understand their conversation (unless you knew sign language, but its the same for the other group; you would have had to have gone to the match to fully understand why they were acting the way that they were).
It just hit me at that moment, the contrast and the similarities. Of two lots of people that were so different, yet the same.
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