Some how I've found myself in no less than three choirs in the past month. I haven't dealt with this much music is years. And I love it. I love the passion of the directors and the choirs I'm singing with, too. Ah, the surprise of North Texas arts culture will never cease to amaze me.
In one choir we're singing John Rutter's Winchester te Deum. This is my prayer of thanksgiving in my time of transition:
We praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship Thee and the Father everlasting.
To Thee all Angels:
to Thee the heavens and all the Powers therein.
To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim cry with unceasing voice:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Hosts.
The heavens and the earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory.
Thee the glorious choir of the Apostles.
Thee the admirable company of the Prophets.
Thee the white-robed army of Martyrs praise.
Thee the Holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge.
The Father of infinite Majesty.
Thine adorable, true and only Son
Also the Holy Ghost the Paraclete.
Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
Thou having taken upon Thee to deliver man
didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
Thou having overcome the sting of death
didst open to believers the kingdom of heaven.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God
in the glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge.
We beseech Thee, therefore, help Thy servants:
whom Thou has redeemed with Thy precious Blood.
Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in glory everlasting.
Lord, save Thy people:
and bless Thine inheritance.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Day by day we bless Thee.
And we praise Thy name forever:
and world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day to keep us without sin.
Have mercy on us, O Lord: have mercy on us.
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us:
as we have hoped in Thee.
O Lord, in Thee have I hoped:
let me never be confounded.
20 September 2011
23 July 2011
What We Take for Granted
As I prepare for my last class on the Greek New Testament this summer, I am reading Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman's The Text of the New Testament: It’s Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. Ed. 4 (Oxford University Press: New York) 2005. And I'm completely in awe as I read about all the people who worked so steadfastly to preserve out scriptures before it was so easy to do. I mean, I even cut and pasted the name of the book and have already retypes three words that spell check caught for me. With that said I want to share a thought from a long sleeping saint, Cassiodorus. Because of people like him, we have the scriptures available today.
This also makes me think of our friends all over the world who are laboring (perhaps with a lot more technological help) to create a written text in the over 20,000 languages without the Scripture.
"By reading the divine Scriptures [the scribe] wholesomely instructs his own mind, and by copying the precepts of the Lord he spreads them far and wide.
What happy application,
what praiseworthy industry,
to preach unto people by means of the Hand,
to untie the tongue by means of the fingers,
to bring quiet salvation to mortals,
and to fight the Devil's insidious wiles with pen and ink!
For every word of the Lord written by the scribe is a wound inflicted on Satan. And so, though seated in one spot, the scribe traverses diverse lands through the dissemination of what he has written."
Amen.
This also makes me think of our friends all over the world who are laboring (perhaps with a lot more technological help) to create a written text in the over 20,000 languages without the Scripture.
"By reading the divine Scriptures [the scribe] wholesomely instructs his own mind, and by copying the precepts of the Lord he spreads them far and wide.
What happy application,
what praiseworthy industry,
to preach unto people by means of the Hand,
to untie the tongue by means of the fingers,
to bring quiet salvation to mortals,
and to fight the Devil's insidious wiles with pen and ink!
For every word of the Lord written by the scribe is a wound inflicted on Satan. And so, though seated in one spot, the scribe traverses diverse lands through the dissemination of what he has written."
Amen.
29 May 2011
Music has a power
Today, as I was studying for Greek, a piece came on my play list that took me back to a little place called the Oasis outside of Vienna. There, refugees from all over the world come to hear about and worship Jesus as the son of God, drink and eat really sweet chai and cake, and just talk like normal people in various cicles divided by language groups. The sermons were usually translated into 4 or five major languages. It sounded like heaven to me: Farsi, Russian, German, English...
I will never forget the little 12 year old boy who sat at the piano and played the piano while people talked after the service. His family had to even leave his music manuscripts behind, but his fingers remembered their homes on the keys. He played Mozart, hymns, and this Yann Tiersen piece:
http://youtu.be/H2-1u8xvk54
Now, when I hear it that all comes back. my conversations with him in German. the commuter train through the darkened vineyard covered hills. and my dear friends who took me there, weary from the weight of their love for people they weren't sure how to help.
I will never forget the little 12 year old boy who sat at the piano and played the piano while people talked after the service. His family had to even leave his music manuscripts behind, but his fingers remembered their homes on the keys. He played Mozart, hymns, and this Yann Tiersen piece:
http://youtu.be/H2-1u8xvk54
Now, when I hear it that all comes back. my conversations with him in German. the commuter train through the darkened vineyard covered hills. and my dear friends who took me there, weary from the weight of their love for people they weren't sure how to help.
17 March 2011
Girl Seeking Next Step
After so many updates (via my Facebook group) over the past two years, I have kind of unplugged for the past month. I think that part of that had to do with the fact that face to face conversations and phone calls are a lot easier, now that I'm Stateside, for many of my friends. But, more so I think it is because Limbo is not fun to write about. I'm not sure where I'm going; what I'm doing. I keep busy to some degree, but not really plugged in to the life I hope to lead.
Regardless, I think that having some kind of record of my life, even now, is good for me. So, I've decided to share an edited version of an e-mail I sent to a professor that kind of explains me as I stand today in simplified terms. For those who know about my talks with my alma mater as well as my beloved previous employer, I still am leaning that way, but until they accept me and I'm sure that is the way I'm going, I am seeking out all options and listening for that voice to say, "this is the way, walk in it."
Dr. --,
I am currently searching for my future educational options, and found the class listing for the cultural anthropology program at the ----- University website interesting, even inspiring. But, I am curious as to whether I would be a good fit in such a program with my history and interests.
My undergraduate was in music. I received a BM in vocal performance from UTK in 2004 but I realized before graduation that I was more interested in the performers than the performances themselves. My growing faith and interest in how people experience God in urban contexts led me to New Orleans and seminary. I received an MA in missiology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary which combined conservative theology with anthropology, where I especially focused on ethnography and non-traditional church models.
I recently returned to the States after two years in Austria where I worked for an organization where part of my job was to do some cultural research on the student population of Vienna's universities for a leadership mentoring program they hope to develop. This term solidified my interest in post-industrial societies and importance of intercultural relations. I believe that many of those in the Christian community of "missions" now condemn humanity's imperialistic tendencies but have little knowledge of how to do good and follow our faith without dragging our idiosyncratic cultures with us. I wish to be an advocate and trainer for improved understanding and trans-cultural communication practices within that small community.
The unfortunate divorce between secular and faith-driven approaches in cross-cultural exchange have harmed the methods of well meaning Christians and excused bigoted practices in the name of a God who is depicted in the Bible as both meta-cultural and interacting within various cultures. I wish to seek out theories and implement best practices that others interested in human cultures have to teach me, including secular communities. But, I fear that because I am honest about my agenda - to apply the knowledge gained to better communicate what I believe is universally salvific in a way that is meaningful within host cultures' existing paradigms - my work would not be taken as serious or helpful in the secular community while I'm learning those skills. I also recognize my limited education in cultural anthropology in my previous studies may also effect my learning curve.
So all this to ask: Is there a place for me in your school, or would you suggest another route to improving my cultural research and trans-cultural communication skills?
Once again, kudos to the intriguing mix of classes within your degree program that seem to engage current global issues that anthropology speaks to as well as more specialized, classic academic research.
Thank you, etc.
Regardless, I think that having some kind of record of my life, even now, is good for me. So, I've decided to share an edited version of an e-mail I sent to a professor that kind of explains me as I stand today in simplified terms. For those who know about my talks with my alma mater as well as my beloved previous employer, I still am leaning that way, but until they accept me and I'm sure that is the way I'm going, I am seeking out all options and listening for that voice to say, "this is the way, walk in it."
Dr. --,
I am currently searching for my future educational options, and found the class listing for the cultural anthropology program at the ----- University website interesting, even inspiring. But, I am curious as to whether I would be a good fit in such a program with my history and interests.
My undergraduate was in music. I received a BM in vocal performance from UTK in 2004 but I realized before graduation that I was more interested in the performers than the performances themselves. My growing faith and interest in how people experience God in urban contexts led me to New Orleans and seminary. I received an MA in missiology from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary which combined conservative theology with anthropology, where I especially focused on ethnography and non-traditional church models.
I recently returned to the States after two years in Austria where I worked for an organization where part of my job was to do some cultural research on the student population of Vienna's universities for a leadership mentoring program they hope to develop. This term solidified my interest in post-industrial societies and importance of intercultural relations. I believe that many of those in the Christian community of "missions" now condemn humanity's imperialistic tendencies but have little knowledge of how to do good and follow our faith without dragging our idiosyncratic cultures with us. I wish to be an advocate and trainer for improved understanding and trans-cultural communication practices within that small community.
The unfortunate divorce between secular and faith-driven approaches in cross-cultural exchange have harmed the methods of well meaning Christians and excused bigoted practices in the name of a God who is depicted in the Bible as both meta-cultural and interacting within various cultures. I wish to seek out theories and implement best practices that others interested in human cultures have to teach me, including secular communities. But, I fear that because I am honest about my agenda - to apply the knowledge gained to better communicate what I believe is universally salvific in a way that is meaningful within host cultures' existing paradigms - my work would not be taken as serious or helpful in the secular community while I'm learning those skills. I also recognize my limited education in cultural anthropology in my previous studies may also effect my learning curve.
So all this to ask: Is there a place for me in your school, or would you suggest another route to improving my cultural research and trans-cultural communication skills?
Once again, kudos to the intriguing mix of classes within your degree program that seem to engage current global issues that anthropology speaks to as well as more specialized, classic academic research.
Thank you, etc.
09 January 2011
Lessons
I was talking to a younger friend of mine and she shared with me that God is always giving her the same testing. She is learning to pray "Your will be done" and trusting God to do better than she can pray for. I told her she is right, that all of life is one big lesson of learning to trust and stay close to God. It may look different, but we never out grow the Gospel. We never stop needing God's grace to make it through the days because he wants us to stay close to him.
The last half of the past year God has given me an ongoing surge faith like I have never experienced before; not from anything of myself, but faith from God for God. God's faithfulness overwhelmed me and things began to click as people came to me wanting to know more about the Bible and how to live a life fully turned toward Christ. The more I needed him, the more God seemed to be near and active at every moment. I saw how my life can be totally used to build up the Kingdom.
Then lately, and especially in the past week, the weaknesses and the immaturity of my work has hit me. I push when I should love and pray. I try to have the perfect words. Then other issues arise and I have no words and I'm not even sure of the right response. All the same, I try to be the expert. I forget to listen to the Spirit and what people really need - which is not me preaching even if people ask for advice.
And once again I realize that I need God. I need to be filled with the Spirit to make it through the day. My identity and my needs need to be met in Christ so I don't feel the need to prove something or to fix people. When I'm filled up in the Spirit he heals people. It wasn't me, it was him all along. I want more of him and less of me.
A girl in my home group said something I can't get it out of my mind. We were discussing Acts 5 and I asked why the people in my group would be afraid to join the new Jesus following that we just read about. They mostly talked about fear of rejection and judgment because of the incredible things this group of people were accomplishing compared to their lives. We talked about this for while and how amazing it was that normal people were all of a sudden doing impossible things because of the power of God. Later the discussion leader asked, how does this passage affect your view of your life? One of my girls said that she kept thinking of the people who trusted so fully in this power that they left their loved ones out in the dusty street in hopes of them being healed. She wanted that kind of trust; that kind of faith.
While I was thinking of my own answer, I wanted to be the kind of person who is so full of God that my very presence brings healing. I want to be such a reflection of God that I would be worthy of strangers laying their lives on the line for the hope I bare. But first, I need to be the one who trusts so fully that I will let go of what I hold most dear, believing that God will heal and redeem that which I will put in his path.
So, that is where I am today.
The last half of the past year God has given me an ongoing surge faith like I have never experienced before; not from anything of myself, but faith from God for God. God's faithfulness overwhelmed me and things began to click as people came to me wanting to know more about the Bible and how to live a life fully turned toward Christ. The more I needed him, the more God seemed to be near and active at every moment. I saw how my life can be totally used to build up the Kingdom.
Then lately, and especially in the past week, the weaknesses and the immaturity of my work has hit me. I push when I should love and pray. I try to have the perfect words. Then other issues arise and I have no words and I'm not even sure of the right response. All the same, I try to be the expert. I forget to listen to the Spirit and what people really need - which is not me preaching even if people ask for advice.
And once again I realize that I need God. I need to be filled with the Spirit to make it through the day. My identity and my needs need to be met in Christ so I don't feel the need to prove something or to fix people. When I'm filled up in the Spirit he heals people. It wasn't me, it was him all along. I want more of him and less of me.
A girl in my home group said something I can't get it out of my mind. We were discussing Acts 5 and I asked why the people in my group would be afraid to join the new Jesus following that we just read about. They mostly talked about fear of rejection and judgment because of the incredible things this group of people were accomplishing compared to their lives. We talked about this for while and how amazing it was that normal people were all of a sudden doing impossible things because of the power of God. Later the discussion leader asked, how does this passage affect your view of your life? One of my girls said that she kept thinking of the people who trusted so fully in this power that they left their loved ones out in the dusty street in hopes of them being healed. She wanted that kind of trust; that kind of faith.
While I was thinking of my own answer, I wanted to be the kind of person who is so full of God that my very presence brings healing. I want to be such a reflection of God that I would be worthy of strangers laying their lives on the line for the hope I bare. But first, I need to be the one who trusts so fully that I will let go of what I hold most dear, believing that God will heal and redeem that which I will put in his path.
So, that is where I am today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)