It was 20 years ago today...

George Herbert - The Pulley

I can't say I was looking forward to reading this dusty old book for school. I have the heart of a poet, but neither the skill to write it or many times the mind set to read it. I actually prayed before opening this book that God would prepare my heart and my mind to receive these sacred old poems and was so surprised when I attempted the shortest one that God answered my prayer. It is so beautiful I was moved to tears.

The Pulley

When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
Let us (said he) pour on him all we can;
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honor, pleasure;
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone in all his treasure
Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness;
Let him be rich and weary, that at least,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.

Note: Title: The poem transfigures the legend of Pandora's box, from which were released all man's woes, leaving only Hope behind.

;) mark driscoll

;)

doug and bob

Island Quest Whale Watching

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the wall came tumbling down!

A Note to our Readers: We have ended TimesSelect. All of our Op-Ed and news columns are now available free of charge.

Thank you American Express!

Yippee! The only sad part is that Kristof is on book leave. Oh well, I will have to be content with his archives!!

Mac User help please!

The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship has an upcoming class taught via Mac Chat and we want to record it digitally - anyone know how to do this? There has to be some internal recording available, even if there is special software needed. Please help! I will begin the research, but it would save so much time if you already knew the answer! Thanks!

Magnify + Light = Fire

My good friend Anj just posted this and I need to sit with this part some more and didn't want to forget it:

On Saturday morning, in the Powell House library we sat in early worship, and I shared with him my lectio divina for the day. It was from the book of Luke –Elizabeth saying to Mary, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” A piece of Mary’s reply, the bit that spoke to me, was “My soul magnifies the Lord.” In the margins of this bible, I wrote “My soul makes bigger the Lord. My soul makes the Lord visible.” Then I wrote “ Magnifying + Light = Fire.”

Thank you Anj!

I shall miss her.

“Why does anybody tell a story?” Ms. L’Engle once asked, even though she knew the answer.

“It does indeed have something to do with faith,” she said, “faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

Madeleine L'Engle - 1918-2007

Update: My good friend Dan Wilt says it so much better: "I can't wait until I remember how to walk on Water."
Madeleine L’Engle: In Memoriam

I'm going to Hollywood

Well, I don't really have a ticket (yet) but the documentary I was in 1000 Journals is finished and has been invited to compete at the AFI Fest in LA from November 1-11. I was hoping it would be at the TTFI, but no such luck.

It feels totally weird though. People I don't know watching part of my story, a very intimate part I might add, in a large room with popcorn. Life is strange and getting stranger, eh?

I'm trying to figure out how I can get out there - our student budget really isn't made for Hollywood premiers, flights to LAX and the like, but it would be cool to be part of that crowd.

UPDATE: Cool article on the films at the Festival this year: The Envelope AFI Unveils Initial Lineup

Into the opening sea

I Want to Free What Waits Within Me

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear
without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,
but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

Source: Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, Ranier Maria Rilke

via Inward/Outward

Carried away

An Innate Violence

There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence ... [and that is] activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence.

The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.


Thomas Merton