Prophetic Musings

LaShawn Barber has an excellent question today in relation to the Fox News reporters that were released after their "conversion" to Islam.

Christians, what would you do if some maniac held a gun to your head and asked you to deny Christ or die? Would you deny the Savior?

Interesting question. I would like to think that I would not, but until you are in that situation you have no idea. I have a wife and kids who I am the sole supporter of. I would do anything possible to not leave them alone. With a gun to my head though, who knows. I only pray I'm never in that situation.

I'm not even going to attempt to say I understand what went on in New Orleans last year during Katrina. I will say that I think the rest of the Gulf Coast got hit worse (by the hurricane, important distinction) and has not received nearly the press coverage but that's an arugment for another day. Paul over at Wizbang has an incredibly damning writeup on what actually happened with one of the levee breaches. I'll tease it by giving you a single quote from near the end of his article.

Katrina saved probably over 50,000 lives.

It's an absolute must-read.

Just thought since I haven't posted in a while, I would catch up on what's happening here.

• I start graduate school on Monday! I'm pretty excited about it, though I'm not exactly sure how I got in. I'm headed out there Saturday for an orientation and I can't wait to get started. I'm putting this on public record that my intention is to get a 4.0 at Tarleton State.
  
• Collette and I are having a blast teaching the youth class on Sunday mornings. We just started a new curriculum and I can't wait to get there each week, or even to go over the lessons during the week before.
  
• I'm playing in the worship band on Sunday mornings, which is the most I've played in front of people...well, ever. It's great though, and I feel like I'm at least getting better as a guitar player. I'm not Hendrix, but I'm better than I was.
  
• We've started school with Ashlee. We are homeschooling her right now and it's going really well. The curriculum we are using is from Sonlight and we're happy with it. She is very much my daughter as she wants to do more math. We've started giving her two assignments a day on it and she still wants more.
• Collette had her gall bladder taken out a couple weeks ago. She's doing fine now and is back to normal.

That's about all I can think of. I'll (again) try to post more in the future.

It's been awhile since I posted one of these. It's been awhile since I posted anything, other than my rant earlier. I think I need to post something a little more uplifting. Another of my (horrifically short) Music and Meaning series.

This song is by Delirious? and is from their 2004 album "World Service". I just picked this up the other day because I've been listening ad nauseum to their 1997 two-disc set "The Cutting Edge" from when they first started. I attached on to this song and really love it. That means that people in church, home group, or youth had better be prepared to hear it themselves. Anyway, let's see the words.

Here I am, humbled by your majesty,
Covered by your grace so free.
Here I am, knowing I'm a sinful man,
Covered by the blood of the Lamb.

Now I've found the greatest love of all is mine,
Since You laid down Your life, the greatest sacrifice.

Majesty, Majesty.
Your grace has found me just as I am,
Empty-handed but alive in Your hands.

Here I am, humbled by the love that You give,
Forgiven so that I can forgive.
So here I stand, knowing that I am Your desire,
Sanctified by glory and fire.

And now I've found the greatest love of all is mine,
Since You laid down Your life, the greatest sacrifice.

Majesty, Majesty.
Your grace has found me just as I am,
Empty-handed but alive in Your hands.

Singing Majesty, Majesty.
Forever I am changed by Your love,
In the presence of Your Majesty, Majesty.

We're singing Majesty, Majesty.
Your grace has found me just as I am.
And I'm nothing but alive in Your hands.

Just typing it is soothing. Martin Smith and Stu Garrard have to be two of the best songwriters on the planet. All of their songs have such a depth of spirit and creativeness of lyric that it's impossible not to exactly picture what they are depicting. The songs are simple, yet complex. Easy to learn but hard to forget.

This song is praise, simple and straightforward. God is the author and recipient of our love. This song just pours out that love back to God. My favorite phrase is "Empty-handed but alive in Your hands." I bring nothing back to God but my love for Him. Sometimes that's hard for me to do (for an example, go to the post right before this). I get angry with God sometimes. I don't understand in the long run why things are beneficial to me when they happen. It's part of being "Sanctified by glory and fire" referred to in the song I guess, but I wish it weren't so painful. If God wants to give me an object lesson, how about rolling back the eastern sky and writing it out for me. Maybe send some old dude down from a mountain with it written on stone tablets? OK, looking back, that didn't work too well either.

I just love the simplicity of the song. It's more great stuff from Delirious? and I will warn you to expect more of their music in this series. However, I think the next one is going to be from a more traditionally secular band. Not hard to guess who it will be, but I'll keep you in suspense. If you're reading this far. Which is a sure bet that no one has noticed this last sentence. Which means I should stop.

...but I need a place to vent and here it is.

I'm alternating between all of the following moods:

    * angry
    * depressed
    * sad
    * frustrated
    * borderline postal

Why, you may ask? (No, nobody asked. I'm going to say anyway. I'm going to make you care about my sad, pathetic little existence.) My wife needs to have her gall bladder removed. We don't have insurance to cover this. (See where I'm going?) It's going to cost around $5,600 to have it done.

I'm frustrated because I just got a bonus from my office. We used it to pay off bills that we have incurred over the last few years. I'm trying to do the responsible thing and pay off all these things that have accumulated and get us out from underneath the crushing debt that we have. Collette can't get a job because by the time we paid for daycare for the kids, anything that she made would all be gone, plus some. We haven't been able to tithe for quite a while because most of our money is gone before I get my paycheck. We usually live off of about $400 a month, which is tricky for a family of four.

I'm sure anyone that reads this is thinking "why do you have all that debt? Just stop living outside your means." We have. Unfortunately, we're still living with debt incurred years ago. The frustrating part about it all is that every time we think that we're about to top the hill and get our finances straightened out, the hill moves underneath us. I just got some extra money from work that we paid off other bills with, and we were going to get our car fixed and do a couple other things with the financial aid money, but alas, that won't happen. I'm not trying to make a sob story out of it, that's just what I'm feeling right now. If the tone of the this seems a little more irritated than usual, that's why. My sense of humor tends to get a bit caustic in these situations as well.

Oh well. Just posting to vent. No comments needed.