Hope is Rising

Here are the lyrics:

I’ve lost all my earthly optimism
That it’s all gonna be alright
That the good will win this fight
Somewhere between youth and disappointments
The dream became despair
The love became a lie

Just now
I’ve reached the end of my line
Just now
I’m too tired to keep on trying

Chorus:
Hope is rising
It’s a sunrise for the end
Hope is rising
And it’s breathing for me again
Hope is rising
Hope is rising again

Soon beneath the roses I will lie
All the memories of my days
Gathered to the sky
Soon every work will find its worth
And all my strength returned
To the water and the earth

Just when I reach the end of my life
Just when my eyes dim out the last light

Repeat Chorus 2x

From the sorrow
From the fear
From the lost and from the tears
From the darkness
From the pain
From the fallen
From the graves

I never had expectations that I would have utopia for life, but I certainly have had some idealistic expectations for life that have proved, well, idealistic.  As a kid, teenager, and then as a young adult I witnessed and experienced enough pain to realize suffering is a part of life.  I have not even experienced a fraction of the pain that others have experienced or are experiencing, but nonetheless, I’ve had my own pain and am having my own struggles with as the song says “fear”, “lost”, “tears”, “darkness”, “pain”, and “disappointments”.

As I listened to this song, I was reminded of my own mortality. I will lie beneath the flowers one day. What will be said of my life?

I need hope to rise more in my life.  If you have some hope, give me and others some.

Didn’t mean to be all dramatic, but it’s where my head is right now.  I actually have a very good life, and I have many blessings to be thankful for.

1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

What am I focused on?

In thinking about the scripture above, I was considering how Jesus knew what he was to suffer. What if he focused on the pain and agony that he was to suffer? What if he focused on the people who loathed him? I think the story would have have turned out very differently.

The writer’s perspective is that Jesus focused on the joy set before him. He did not focus on his current set of circumstances and become self-absorbed. He endured.

So, as our focus becomes fixated on Jesus, his life, the example he left, and victory he experienced, there is the potential to become less self-absorbed and have greater clarity of mind.

“We really have less to fear in these days from the positively evil than from the multitude of good things that overcrowd our lives…Each human life is a field of limited area.  No one life can contain everything.  Among many good things we must be continually choosing the best.”

Well, that’s where I’m at.  Trying to choose the best option when presented with options.

See you in 7 months.

I downloaded this song the other day, and I can’t get it out of my head.  It’s called The Problem by the group  Downhere.  I guess it’s not the most uplifting song, nonetheless, I like it!

Here are the lyrics:

There’s got to be some reason
for all this misery
A secret evil corporation
somewhere overseas
They’re pulling strings,
arranging things
It’s a conspiracy

Or what about the ones who
shape the course of history?
What if we petitioned for one
grand apology?
I’ll write to my prime minister
You, write your president

Everybody’s wondering how
the world could get this way
If God is good, and how it could
be filled with so much pain
It’s not the age-old mystery
we made it out to be
Yeah, there’s a problem
with the world
And the problem with the world
is me

Some will say the devil
and his legions
They put us in a headlock
of submission
But they lost all power over me
A long, long time ago

And since I was a kid you know
I’ve caused a lot of hurt
And no one ever taught me how
to put myself first
It came so very naturally
But I’m not a prodigy

So I will look no further
than a mirror
That’s where the offender hides
So great is my need
for a redeemer
That I cannot trust myself

No, I cannot trust myself
I dare not trust myself
So I trust in someone else

The sooner you can sing along
The sooner you can sing this song
The happier we’ll be
The problem with the world is me

In 2009, I want to become more aware and grateful of God’s involevment in my life.  I heard a thought that described worship as becoming more aware of God’s presence.   That’s my desire, to be fully awake to God’s voice in every area of my life.  The Prince of the Power of the Air has a very dominant voice and influence in my life at times.  I surrender to the direction he dictates, and thereby, fill my life with the “cares of this life”.  So, this new year, I pray that God will help me be more aware of His voice and allow Him to be the greatest influencer in my life.

I woke up this morning with Romans 6:11 - Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I want to consider the voice that would fill my life with “the cares of this life” dead, and be fully alive to voice of truth and life.

Happy New Year!

LeRon Shults, formerly a professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary:

From a theological perspective, this fixation with propositions can easily lead to the attempt to use the finite tool of language on an absolute Presence that transcends and embraces all finite reality. Languages are culturally constructed symbol systems that enable humans to communicate by designating one finite reality in distinction from another. The truly infinite God of Christian faith is beyond all our linguistic grasping, as all the great theologians from Irenaeus to Calvin have insisted, and so the struggle to capture God in our finite propositional structures is nothing short of linguistic idolatry.

Made me think regarding absolute truth.  What is absolute and what is just language making something absolute?  It made me also think about John 18:37-38 -

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

The quote also made me think of speaking in tongues – could we possibly be using an infinite language to communicate with an infinite God?  Whoa.  (Does “whoa” count for speaking in tongues?  Kidding.  Sorry.)

My great post for 3rd quarter.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8616c1559ab4221b3910

Life is busy as normal, but we’re all healthy and doing well.  I’m grateful for all the blessings in my life.  I have a wonderful wife, amazing children, a loving family, and loyal friends.  I’m blessed.

So what does  that have to do with a Seinfeld clip?  Nothing!  I thought this was a funny clip though.  I love Newman – I kind of resemble the guy…I’m Newman and George in a blender!  Sheesh.

Perhaps next time I’ll post something more meaningful.