The Storm's Call

This song is an attempt to imagine what it must be like for those who survived the huricane Katrina.

In response to nature’s forecast the little girl began to pack
Her mom said to take what she treasured most and put it in a sack
Now she stood in twisted rubble with the breeze in her hair
Gazing at where her room once was where she forgot her teddy bear
Tears streamed down her face as she recalled her faithful friend
Lost somewhere in the ugly mess she would never see him again

The rain fell, the wind blew, the floods came and washed all dreams away
So broken, so crippled, and nowhere a sign for the light of day
This calling to wake up and rebuild your life all anew
Is so that this time you build it on Him who will hold you

Roaming through his neighborhood the boy couldn’t understand
That this was where he grew up and knew like the palm of his hand
He couldn’t even find his school where all his friends were made
It was all just a memory now and made the poor boy afraid
Everything he knew, everything he was had vanished in the air
What is yet to be is uncertain and what was, now was no longer there

The rain fell, the wind blew, the floods came and washed all dreams away
So broken, so crippled, and nowhere a sign for the light of day
This calling to wake up and rebuild your life all anew
Is so that this time you build it on Him who will hold you

LINES

For me, today school has officially began again and summer is now over. (sniff)
As I looked back on my busy summer I found an interesting isue that I thought was worth blogging. To better understand my thinking you need to hear about my personal summer.

This summer, I got my first job (imagine that! at the age of 18). My awesome friend, Nathan Eikenberry, got me a job where he works painting and cleaning dorm rooms and moving students in. God is awesome! This job was ideal for me! I got to spend time with a bunch of growing Christians, non-Christians, and weak Christians in a hot, humid, not air conditioned dorm. We spent many hours working hard, sweating, and stinking up the place together with our BO.

When I say "weak Christians" I'm probably being judgmental, but in my observance of their actions I find that it's very hard to say that they are serius about and growing in their relationship with God. They say they are saved and they go to church but there is something different about the way they view life and the way I think it should be viewed. The main thing that stood out to me was how they were constantly pushing what I thought was the moral and immoral devider line. They listened to music that I thought was pushing it. They talked in flirtatious ways that I thought was pushing it. They touched each other in ways I thought was pushing it. Being around them just made me wonder what encourages them walk the railing? Do the crashing waves of consequence below not intimidate them?

I suppouse I feel more intimidated by those waves because of the way I've been raised. My parents have always made the consequences of disobedience and rebelion severe enough to make me never want to do it again. I slowly learned to stay away from the line. In our minds we develope the theory that there is a line we must not cross in order keep our relationship with Him in tact. The question we as humans tend to ask is, "Where is the line? How far can I go before I'm in sin?" And we ask this so that later we can walk over to it and see how far it goes. Our flesh desires the other side of the fence. Our flesh wants to be as close to the other side as it can be. The problem with doing this is that we can easily fall over the edge and into the sea of sin if we aren't careful.

Eventually I realized that not only do my friends need to find the answer to this problem but so do I! I often find my self just like that one guy on the Virizon comercial saying on the cell phone, "Am I sinning now? Good. Am I sinning now? Good." There is no way this is real devotion to my God! In Hosea 6:6 God says, "I do not want your sacrifices--I want your love; I do not want your offerings--I want you to know me." God is saying that it's not all about doing the right thing, it's about getting close to God! If we make that our focus than we will do the right thing! Our relationship with God is so much more than seeing how much fun we can have without crossing the line! Let's not dwell on the railing! Let's dwell in God!

I could take more time and write a lot more about this topic but I think it would be awesome to make my blog a discussion center! If you guys have anything to add on to this--for or against my posistion--give it to me and maybe we'll grow in our walk with God together!

Another Day

I struggle to lift my head
I just want to go back to bed
But the sun faithfully shines again
Wish these worries I could leave behind
Wish that trials I would never find
But the sun faithfully shines again

Could it be that this is more than just another day?

We've been given this day to show what we're made of
Another chance to truely live our lives
We've been given this day to show what we're made of
Another opportunity to shine...
And make a difference

Back into earning some green
Back into sensless routine
But the world continues to spin
Life is getting oh so repetative
Life is waisting all of the time I give
But the world continues to spin

Could it be that this is more than just another day

We've been given this day to show what we're made of (literally, yeah)
Another chance to truely live our lives
We've been given this day to show what we're made of (literally, yeah)
Another opportunity to shine...
And make a difference

We've been given this day to show what we're made of
And I'm not talking about the dirt we were formed from
We've been given this day to show what we're made of
And I'm not talking about the evil we were deformed from
We've been given this day to show what we're made of
I mean the hands that created us, and is molding us, and will carry us to the end