blog one another

Advent

Come, thou long expected Jesus
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

The first Sunday of Advent usually sneaks by me because I associate the Christmas season with December. But this year I was reminded by a friend's Facebook status. Later today I will get out our Advent candles, and in the evening follow our homegrown ritual which I outline here.

Christ will come again. In the meantime, there's plenty of work to do, eh?

Twenty Years

Here's a new song that was triggered by hearing an old song:
Twenty Years

This is my second GarageBand recording. I think that when I used Pro Tools, I spent a lot of energy focusing on the minute twiddling (and not knowing quite how to twiddle). GarageBand seems to be unlocking my creativity by letting me focus on the music instead. In any case, this is a big leap from one song every two years!

Worship service FAIL

This is for any of you who have ever worked on producing a worship service:

Roman Holiday

I am a sentimentalist, a romantic at heart. How is it, then, that I had never seen Roman Holiday before this evening?

This movie has so much going for it, especially the exquisite use of silence. And as opposed to some movies where the actors are used to doing things big so that it will be visible on stage, this movie features things done small. How can Audrey Hepburn, with so little motion, convey the sequence of thoughts going through her character's head?

The kids enjoyed it as well, judging from the laughter that ran throughout the movie. But for an incurable romantic like me, it was utterly amazing. You can quote me: "Jon says it's even better than Donnie Darko!"

Come together

from 52 to 48 with love

How I voted

"Country first"? Sorry, that kind of chauvinism turns me off. World first. A lot of this comes from my background of growing up overseas as a missionary kid. A BBC poll shows people around the world favor Obama (49%) over McCain (12%). I think they are tired of the USA acting like the stereotypical American tourist. We all share this place, you know? Humility is more powerful than arrogance.

Christian way to vote?

Our girls go to a Christian school which shares its campus with a church. Picking up Erin today, I had Trevor count the number of "Yes on 8" signs on the campus while I concentrated on driving. He reported twenty-two. 22!

The problem I have with this is that it communicates that there is a "Christian way to vote," ignoring the fact that there are Christians on both sides of this or any other issue. And I don't mean just conservative evangelicals vs. "those liberals who don't believe the Bible." Ignoring for the moment how unfair that characterization is, let's stick to Bible-believing, Jesus-is-the-way Christians. You will find such people on both sides -- and this is true of just about any political issue you can come up with.

This is similar to the idea that there is such a thing as "a single Christian worldview," which missiologist Charles Kraft refutes. Sorry. No such thing. So please, don't declare a particular worldview "biblical" and vilify opposing views as "unbiblical". Can one take a stand an issue but maintain humility? I think so.