paper cd case

Need to mail a CD or DVD?
Envelopes and bubble mailers are expensive.
Just origami it.

Mailed a photo DVD this way yesterday.
I hope it gets there safely...

[via]

seize

maybe God works in seasons
and this winter He has made
you a snowfall covering dead branches

even if spring must come to melt
you away, know that you have helped
make coldness bearable

sigh...

...life is frustrating. All the worse when one has to face the music alone.
Well...not alone, but yeah....alone.

the mountain of fear and the mountain of joy

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded; "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

-Hebrews 12:18-24, TNIV

longish term project

On a recent road trip, my friend's iPod queued up some music that I had recorded with some friends a few years ago. We recorded it on my equipment but I had never gotten a copy of the CD. The raw files are still on my computer, but I don't have the software to listen to it anymore. I had actually completely forgotten about it, but hearing it again sparked a tiny flame of motivation in me.

I have been half heatedly dredging up some of the better stuff I've written over the last couple years with the intention of doing more serious recordings. A good chunk of that stuff has appeared on this blog as quick webcam videos. It's going alright, but I go back and forth between being pleased with a track and hating my singing voice. Recording and mixing are very time intensive processes that tends to bring out the critical perfectionist in me. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping to have a CD full of material finished eventually. Fingers crossed.

living together

"We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness, by His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is not what has been given us enough: brothers, who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ? Thus the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together- the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ."

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

may your voice

May your voice cry bodily out of my chest
May your tears fill my eyes for your children oppressed
May your feet carry me 'till I come to your rest
May your light illumine my inky darkness

I was led to the garden, I knelt there and wept
And I shook like a leaf in a rainstorm
And I heaved my sin up
Against your forgiveness
For who am I but a seed amongst thorns

It caught on the cross in whose shadow I crept
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, I long for your rest

-Isaac Watters