Lite Brite made me cry

Here is the video that Claire and I are currently watching a lot. We like it for different reasons:) DCB is amazing, check it out!

What's Good about Good Friday?

There can be no joy of Easter without the pain of today; no resurrection without death. Here is some of the text of my favorite sobering hymn for today, expressing our depth of gratitude; I fell in love with this text in college a decade ago. It was written 1000 years ago by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. For those of you taking notes, I would like this to be sung at my funeral.


O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

My Shepherd, now receive me; my Guardian, own me Thine.
Great blessings Thou didst give me, O source of gifts divine.
Thy lips have often fed me with words of truth and love;
Thy Spirit oft hath led me to heavenly joys above.

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

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Greater Things are Still to Come!

Well, our time in the Northwest has come to a close, we are about to pack up our car and head south, beginning our 10 day road trip to our new home in TX. We went out with a bang, attending the World Tour of Passion in Vancouver last night.

I came up with JJ and Lisa Sunday. It was special to hear how their transition to life in Canada has been. Change is always hard (I know, I am facing it imminently) but it can be life-giving and fruitful and surprising in its goodness. I stayed at their charming apartments and borrowed their car (thanks guys!) for yesterday. When I got downtown to GM Place I met lots of other volunteers, who'd flown up from California, Nashville, Texas, Minnesota and elsewhere to give back to a group that has given so much to them. It was cool to hear other people's stories that aren't too dissimilar from my own. God impacted us hugely through Passion in some way, so here we are to bless the next generation of students...

The two gals I got to know best were both divorced moms. I got to pray over them that greater things are still to come in the unfolding of God's grace in their lives, even if their stories have looked quite different than they would've imagined. There can not be a resurrection without a cross. The cross is painful, but it leads to hope and true life.
I also prayed over these unassuming students, who would fill this empty arena, that God might impact them in a powerful way, as he has us over the past decade.

It was special to see the line of students forming 3 hours prior to doors opening! An arena security guard was baffled by this, "uh, they know they can't get in yet, right?" Yep, yep they do. It was so great to have a concentrated time of prayer for Vancouver and the northwest with people from all over the place.

Staff prayer time, I love the hearts of all the people in this room who have blessed me the past decade. It was fun to serve them the last night of my decade in the northwest.

The view from our volunteer lounge, pretty special. I will carry this night with me for a long time.

Woah...

So I have a little good story. Last night I attended a princess... Of course I didn't know it at first. She was in my "special guest" section at the Passion World Tour in Vancouver. I asked her how she knew Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin, and she said she'd flown to Manilla, Philippines for another tour stop with her mom, and that Louie had wanted to meet her mom. Great, I said, why did he want to meet your mom? Oh, she's very special... Cool, what does she do? Oh, she stays at home. Hmm, not getting anywhere, I changed the subject.
Later I found out that her dad is the richest man in the world and where she grew up is the largest home in the world. Intense. And really awesome to know that all the earthly riches in the world (literally) do NOT COMPARE to the riches of Christ. Amen. The princess and her delightful posse of 10 were all about worshipping the God of grace- and the anthem of Tomlin continues to ring through my ears, as the only thing capable of bringing ultimate satisfaction, "Your grace is enough for me."

ROAD TRIP MUSIC- what do you like?!

Let's hear it, come one, come all! Our trip from Seattle to Texas in 2 weeks is 10 days long, which means we really need some new tunes- we can't listen to John Mayer the entire time... What are you listening to these days, or what do you love for car trips?! Please give us some ideas!

Mandy Moore, my inspiration?

Soon to have a graduate degree in hand, I like to think of myself as intelligent, so I don’t even know how to start this blog. I’m just gonna throw it out there: I like movies made for teenagers. Or younger, even. When Los is home, we spend money on more intellectual, or fast-paced, suspenseful, etc. genres of movies. Usually. Actually, we had free tickets last winter that I used, dragging him to see Enchanted. He endured it like a champ, that is love! Not gonna lie, I cried. I don’t know what it is, but every time he leaves, I go to my neighbor’s houses and borrow all kinds of cheesy, sappy movies that we usually would never watch together. Chick flicks galore, and things like Princess Diaries and Bring it On. I mean, what?
I almost feel like writing this is some kind of confession, but it’s laughable. It seems incongruous with the rest of my personhood- but I love movies like this! I remember a couple of years ago, I went with Kathleen and Mallory Cummins to see 13 Going On 30. Mallory was the age the movie was geared toward, yet she sat there with an embarrassed/incredulous look on her face while her mom and I cried! Ha!
My new favorite is Chasing Liberty, a couple of years old, but I just watched it this week for the first time. And then I may or may not have watched it four more times... Come on, I was multi-tasking! I’ve already confessed my slight infatuation with daughters of Presidents. I mean, if I’m never gonna be one, I would at least like to meet one. But so far the closest I’ve come to actualizing that dream is watching movies about First Daughters.
The movie is shot in Prague, Venice, Berlin, London and D.C., some of the world’s most awesome cities. I went to Prague before it was a big deal, in 1999; and it is so gorgeous! I went to the ballet Swan Lake there, a memory I won’t soon forget. In Chasing Liberty Mandy Moore and the guy (my new fave Brit, Matthew Goode) have a cool scene watching an opera from a rooftop. I think I’ve only been to the Opera once, in Vienna, Austria- and that was just because everyone else was doing it. But I’ve never really been into it. So Mandy Moore’s character inspired me to learn about opera some, and to try going to a couple. I learned that Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco’s operas all have some interesting performances coming up. I figure I should experience Puccini and others’ creations in person rather than on YouTube or Wikipedia, which is what I have done this week. So anyone up for some culture, holler at your girl. Or if you have more chick flicks to recommend, you could holler at me as well☺

And p.s. to all closet Mandy Moore fans, her new album sounds cool, she collaborated with awesome people like Lori McKenna, The Weepies, Chantal Kreviazuk, and a guy who produced John Mayer.