His eye is on the sparrow

Psalm 40:1-5 Tree of Life

I've been absent from the pen (err, keyboard) and writing and thinking about things on this blog. However I must say it's refreshing to feel the weight of burdens lifting. Next week I'll say goodbye to being a graduate student for good when I defend! It's been such a journey to even consider going to school- and what to study- and where! And to apply, and be accepted, then to make it through it...I haven't pondered it that much because God opened up an incredible job! My unemployment was short and sweet, and I've been pushing to finish up this last step. I'm seeking and praying for His grace next week...and even tomorrow... knowing "his eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me...I can sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm freeeeee...His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me!" (the old spiritual, sung by Abigail Wasburn, play count 45 in Itunes)

Science would be impossible

"Science would be impossible without the truth of the Christian worldview" -Justin Holcomb, from the Resurgence on "Why Science Needs the Christian Worldview".  It's a short, clear article that makes 9 arguments of how nature and our human experience point to God. Without from the world's functioning as a rational, uniform and 'fit together' sort of place, studying nature in a systematic way (a.k.a. science) would have been pointless. 

In fact the presupposition that we live in a designed place and can study it because it is consistent (not random) occurred because of a Christian worldview of a Creator designing all that we see (and don't see). Think of our friends Mr. Newton, Mr. Da Vinci, Mr. Galileo- though their thinking got them in trouble in their day, it also came from this worldview. 

Today science assumes nature has a rational order but takes God out of the picture and, in some cases, mocks those who believe in God or an intelligent designer. These 9 reasons encourage my timid, fearful self who can feel insecure about being a Christian in science. I hope they challenge someone who would be opposed to a Christian worldview and start a discussion, too.

But for you

Conditional

Fearing

the Son
Promises of the

Sun Rising 

in Goodness

Perfection

Rightness

Healing

Helping

FREE

Joy

Leaping

Dancing

Fearless

Fullness

Skipping

Singing

Overflowing

Child-like

at last.

Joining in with the whales and stars

Poems and thoughts from Louie Giglio, 9/22/2011 @ The DesiringGod National Conference

"This world is messed up at an amazing magnitude." -LG

Crying.
Sing a new hallelujah.
Reach across the table.
Reach across the ocean.
Reach to my neighbor.
Can I, when I don't know what to say?
When she has hurt me so much?
When I have done this?
May your blood drop into the hard soil of her heart,
soak in,
break up the clods,
so roots can sink in,
yes, so
gospel roots can sink in and
grow.
and flourish.
Tears that sing of his faithfulness.
Tears that sting of brokenness.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Worship happens wherever God is.

The ripple effect of Grace.

We are not all here at our leisure
But under the mandate of the grace of God.

The Universe's primary function is to 
give 
praise to
God. 
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"Wrecked, and not put back together in a simple form or fashion." -LG


Whoa is me, I am lost.
Wrecked, deep. Done.

Wrecked by sinful condition
Searing grace of God
To hear the question
"who shall we send?"
"Send me."

Light steps
miles- coming quietly
never still and shining
brilliant, wading deep in the
song of glory to the one who sees

Who reaches down                       this city
Unconditionally                             this day
Who breathes                               this family
Sets in place                                 this body
People for this time.

the community

“A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community; and the community includes the soil, water, fauna and flora, as well as the people.”  - Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949 (Via Friends of the Mississippi River, pic from National Wildlife Foundation).


Oh, Aldo. Sometimes he just hits the spot. I've got the broad community of soil, water, fauna and flora on my mind as I just returned from a refreshing weekend with new friends; folks who are passionate about Jesus and restoring creation. It was a privilege to spend the weekend in Northern Michigan at Au Sable (and to be a member of the Grad Fellows program this year) and to get into deep conversations about research, outreach, physics, networks, and of course, porcupine poo. Hurray for snow- hikes and cross country and a night of broom ball under the nicest pole barn I've ever been in! I'm brimming with thanks to our Creator, who designed us for rich fellowship like this! I feel reinvigorated to fight for the things that preserve communities, as Aldo says, and I'm thankful to know other fighters-- to be reminded I am not alone. Praise to the one who made this wondrous world and cares deeply about all of its inhabitants. 

Merry Christmas

What says Merry Christmas Better than a Broccoli lute?
Big Broccoli Ocarina:Angels We Have Heard On High (by Heita3)

Division/Never Let Me Go

Nameless guilt

hangs over every lyric.

She acknowledges,
and yet another

would not touch it, living on the cusp

raging wanton lust against a burning front.

All I can think of; peacock feathers, fireflies

proof in my mind.

But his, besides

is the love of his lover, the acceptance, the forgiveness

the conscious-numbing divide.

Perhaps it is all too well

Christmas is a reflection of the fall

a draught of religious fantasy

combined with consumerist orgy.

Failed market systems still sell well.

I’m sorry.

I’m so sorry.

I’m sorry that this brokenness leads to vengeance.

I’m sorry your turning has hardened your heart’s yearning.

I’m sorry that I am a poor ambassador, and the steeple’s door

has clanged shut

Shutting you out.

A love letter of judgment.

Bent,

un-condescendingly,

When the One you ought to know condescended so breathtakingly.

He humbled himself, taking on Flesh.

And, to the point of Death.

He it is, I yearn, for you to know.

This Christmas I pray His love would be shown.

to you.

So your P.h.D. theories

would tremble beneath

the weight of His glory.

So your excuses and bitterness

would melt

from the heat of His brilliance.

So your distance and this divide

would be bridged by His Coming.

Blood-shedding Love rumbling across the centuries
“born for such a time as this” and yet has never heard.

This Christmas I pray for providential hearing.
Not just for him, but for all divided from Him.