within, without the battles raging on

I confess the things, I am afraid of
Thorns and danger just around the bend
I pray for tongues of fire and bands of angels
To come and circle ‘round me like a fence

Chorus: I lift my eyes to the hills,
where comes my help?
I lift my hands, empty hands
I can’t help myself, can’t help myself
No, I can’t help myself

My enemies surround me like an army

Within without the battles raging on
I pray the spirit would be strong and mighty
For courage through the night until the dawn

Oh trust the lord, my soul and all that is in me
Oh trust the light to show my darkest parts
With wounds of truth and love, a friend who has known me
A fool would keep his secrets in his heart

honor for shame

johnny's cashin' all his chips tonight
boots for bare feet, drums for dead beats

johnny's dumping all his pills in the river
burlap for silk, honey for milk

oh to be chosen, oh to be the one
oh to be forgiven, oh to be home

mary's coolin' all her red fever
love for perfume, water for wounds

mary's holding all of her children
honor for shame, blessing for pain

won't You carry me
like You carried them?
won't You carry me?

[The Emporiums, "Carry Me"]

turning men's wandering eyes towards first causes

"You, young man, who understand this language and to whom the heroes of the mind seem mysteriously to beckon, but who fear to lack the necessary means, listen to me. Have you two hours a day? Can you undertake to keep them jealously, to use them ardently, and then, being of those who have authority in the Kingdom of God, can you drink the chalice of which these pages would wish to make you savor the exquisite and bitter taste? If so, have confidence. Nay, rest in quiet certainty.

If you are compelled to earn your living, at least you will earn it without sacrificing, as many do, the liberty of your soul. If you are alone, you will but be more violently thrown back on your noble purposes. Most great men followed some calling. Many have declared that the two hours I postulate suffice for an intellectual career. Learn to make the best use of that limited time; plunge every day of your life into the spring which quenches and yet ever renews your thirst.

Do you want to have a humble share in perpetuating wisdom among men, in gathering up the inheritance of the ages, in formulating the rules of the mind for the present time, in discovering facts and causes, in turning men's wandering eyes towards first causes and their hearts towards supreme ends, in reviving if necessary some dying flame, in organizing the propaganda of truth and goodness? That is the lot reserved for you. It is surely worth a little extra sacrifice; it is worth steadily pursuing with jealous passion."

[A.G. Sertillanges]

how long will you hide from me?

Rains, how they fall

On the righteous and the wicked
Without reason
that my eyes can see.
And grace, how it falls
As it will, as He wills it
Without counsel, as he wills it, free.
For the good
Hurts so bad, pain and tears are my food
For the good…
Lord how long, Oh how long
Will you hide from me?
Will you hide?

"Eighty-Eight" by Sandra McCracken

Listen to the song here.

princes and prisoners

Check out my friend Rachel's song "All Cedars"! The lyrics are based on the same psalm where I got my title for my blog. :)

Here are the lyrics:

from the earth
sea monsters and all deeps
fire and hail, snow and clouds
storms performing at his word
mountains and all hills
fruit trees and all cedars
beasts and all the cattle
creeping things and fowl

from the heavens
in the heights
all his angels, all his hosts
sun and moon
all stars of light
heav’nly bodies of the night

princes and all judges of the earth
young men and virgins
old men and children
all oppressed, all hungry
prisoners, the blind, the lowly
righteous and all wanderers
fatherless and widows

praise

he has lifted up
a horn of salvation for us
and we will not remain silent
beholding creator-savior, amazed
loosened tongues and opened mouths
the sound of praises rushing out
how could we keep quiet?
all creation, your creator praise

all princes, all prisoners
all stars and all cedars

true blessedness

"As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!' But he said, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'"

Luke 11:27-28

phantoms in the early dark, canaries in the mines

ghosts and clouds
and nameless things
squint your eyes and hope real hard
maybe sprout wings

[the mountain goats]

men.

Darrin Patrick - Church Planter from Acts 29 Network

no greater burden in all of life

"I have come to the conclusion that we have no greater burden in all of life than our own inflated egos. No outside force has the power to betray and mislead us the way our own egos do. Pride talks us out of forgiving and steers us away from risking. Pride cheats us of intimacy, because intimacy requires transparency. Pride is a slave driver like no other, and if it can't drive us to destruction, it will drive us to distraction. Think about the madness this one little trait can cause:

If we can't be the most attractive, at least we can be the best at something.
And if we can't be the best at something, we can at least be the hardest working.
And if we can't be the hardest working, we can at least be the most congenial.
And if we can't be the most congenial, we can at least be the most noticeable.
And if we can't be the most noticeable, we can at least be the most religious.
And if we can't be the most religious, we can at least be the most exhausted.

And it never ends, because big egos insist on our being a 'the.' Not just an 'a.'"

[Beth Moore, from So Long, Insecurity]

i want to love you until the end of the line

Great Lake Swimmers, "Ballad of a Fisherman's Wife"

a stronghold for the oppressed

"The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,

 for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you."

Psalm 9:9-10

this pain pours the sweetest wine

There's a hand reaching out for you, quieting your anxious mind
There's a voice like a wind in the trees, if you turn it you'll find
Oh, la la la
There's a book and I look inside on the pages there I see
It's inscribed with a crimson hue, but the name is not yet me
So, I say, la la la la la la
There's something beautiful
Something beautiful
There's something beautiful coming 'round
There's a branch and I'm grafted in
Like a grape on the truest vine
Born to be bruised, I've been crushed and abused
But this pain pours the sweetest wine
I sing la la la la la la la
One bright morning when this life is o'er
I'll be fine

the sum of a million little things

"Holiness is the sum of a million little things — the avoidance of little evils and little foibles, the setting aside of little bits of worldliness and little acts of compromise, the putting to death of little inconsistencies and little indiscretions, the attention to little duties and little dealings, the hard work of little self-denials and little self-restraints, the cultivation of little benevolences and little forbearances."

- Kevin DeYoung

when grace has left me

"What, then, am I to hope in, what am I to put my trust in, but in the great mercy of God alone, in nothing but the hope of heavenly grace? I may have at my side good men, devout brethren, loyal friends; I may have holy books or beautifully-written treatises, sweet-sounding chants and hymns; but it's little help they can give me, little spiritual zest, when grace has left me and I am alone with my poverty."

[from The Imitation of Christ]

chocolate, chocolate, AACK!

My niece Lucy as my sister as Tina Fey as Liz Lemon as Cathy

you know, some girls are bright as the morning and some are blessed with a dark turn of mind

Now I see the bones in the river

And I feel the wind through the pine

And I hear the shadows a-calling

To a girl with a dark turn of mind

[Gillian Welch, "Dark Turn of the Mind"]

subversive

"Plus, it's very subversive to wear a bow tie. You can't imagine how jolly everything is."

[from "Clown" by Chelsey Minnis]

Read entire poem here, and then smile. :)

be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions

When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city?"

"Do you huddle close together because you love each other?"
What will you answer?
"We all dwell together to make money from each other"? 

or "This is a community"?

And the Stranger will depart and return to the desert.
O my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

 

If humility and purity be not in the heart,

they are not in the home:

and if they are not in the home, they are not in the City.

 Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws?

She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would forget.

She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft.

She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts.

O Father we welcome your words,
And we will take heart for the future,

Remembering the past.

Our age is an age of moderate virtue
And of moderate vice

When men will not lay down the Cross
Because they will never assume it.

Yet nothing is impossible, nothing,

To men of faith and conviction.
Let us therefore make perfect our will.

O God, help us.

[from "Choruses from 'The Rock'" by T.S. Eliot]

green Caroline

"Suwee" by Mountain Man

I've probably listened to this 50 times in the past two days. The video is weird and awkward, but the song is beautiful...

for our good always

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

[Deuteronomy 6:20-25]