a few more years shall roll

i’m off to pittsburgh for a few days. no april fool’s joke here. i get to go to a conference, and see my brother and sis-in-law.

we sang this hymn of martin luther’s yesterday. it has become one of my favorites over the past few years.
our hymnal does not include the 2nd and 3rd verses, which add even greater depth to the text, explaining the necessity for the death of Christ.

1. Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands,
For our offenses given;
But now at God’s right hand He stands
And brings us life from heaven;
Therefore let us joyful be
And sing to God right thankfully
Loud songs of hallelujah!
Hallelujah!

2. No son of man could conquer Death,
Such mischief sin had wrought us,
For innocence dwelt not on earth,
And therefore Death had brought us
Into thraldom from of old
And ever grew more strong and bold
And kept us in his bondage. Hallelujah!

3. But Jesus Christ, God’s only Son,
To our low state descended,
The cause of Death He has undone,
His power forever ended,
Ruined all his right and claim
And left him nothing but the name,–
His sting is lost forever.
Hallelujah!

4. It was a strange and dreadful strife
When Life and Death contended;
The victory remained with Life,
The reign of Death was ended;
Holy Scripture plainly saith
That Death is swallowed up by Death,
His sting is lost forever.
Hallelujah!

5. Here the true Paschal Lamb we see,
Whom God so freely gave us;
He died on the accursed tree–
So strong His love!–to save us.
See, His blood doth mark our door;
Faith points to it, Death passes o’er,
And Satan cannot harm us.
Hallelujah!

6. So let us keep the festival
Whereto the Lord invites us;
Christ is himself the Joy of all,
The Sun that warms and lights us.
By His grace He doth impart
Eternal sunshine to the heart;
The night of sin is ended.
Hallelujah!

7. Then let us feast this Easter Day
On Christ, the Bread of heaven;
The Word of Grace hath purged away
The old and evil leaven.
Christ alone our souls will feed,
He is our meat and drink indeed;
Faith lives upon no other.
Hallelujah!

i recently watched the film Luther, and the line about Luther’s hymns being a reason the reformation spread unstoppably in Germany struck me. theology, the gospel distilled into verse–these hymns are treasures. i hope i never stop singing them!

“I, Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of music grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ! I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God. The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them…. In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits… Our dear fathers and prophets did not desire without reason that music be always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and psalms. This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God. However, when man’s natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace. A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.”

my cute neices and nephews!

these are the UNO card sharks, otherwise known as Mason and Grace. Grace doesn’t really play, but she sure likes to have some cards in hand and throw them done with force occasionally. Mason on the other hand, kicked my tail in UNO a few weeks ago.

I took a picture of Briannah and her knitting, but that didn’t turn out so well.

Here’s one of Mason, Exley, and Grace on Mason’s birthday.

And, the newest addition, Pierson, is a little butterball of good humor. He smiles and giggles at everyone and anything! (except the camera, in this case)

Dies Irae! Dies Illa!

It’s hard to believe that I’m singing the Mozart Requiem this Friday evening, but the time has come. Only one dress rehearsal left, and I still don’t have the Osanna section down.

Come if you’re anywhere close to Philadelphia–the concert is free and will be phenomenal (even if I don’t get every note right–it’s not about me, people!). It’s at Tenth.

I don’t usually write about relationships. In fact, I don’t think I have in my year of having a blog. But, I was talking with a friend last night about relationships, and knowing about “the one.” In thinking about dating and figuring out if the person is “the one” she realized that when we talk to married couples who say “I knew this was the guy/girl I was supposed to marry from that first day, or by the second week/month/whatever” it makes perfect sense. They have the enormous benefit of hindsight. They’re married, so of course the person was the one. The giddy feelings early in a relationship turned into the reality of love. And, that (do not get me wrong here) is wonderful!

But what about relationships that don’t work out? Do they talk about those? Were there not some of the same initial feelings? Why else would you have gone on the second date or continued the relationship for several months? Because you thought the person was worth knowing, because you saw something in them that you were attracted to (whatever your list of qualities might be), because maybe, just maybe, you thought they were “the one.” Or, you weren’t sure, and you thought it would be worth giving a chance, because you didn’t really buy into “the one” theory anyway.

ps. my vision is really bad. even my hindsight isn’t 20/20.

i get to see all my siblings this weekend–even if it’s only for Saturday afternoon, it’s still exciting!

I was going to title this post “it’s been a while” and then I did a quick google search on that, and realized that everyone and his sister starts their post that way when they haven’t posted recently.

No apologies.

Since I last wrote . . .

1. I found out my brother Mike and his wife Robyn are expecting a baby, due in early September.

2. I am definitely going back to the Middle East this summer. July 15-26th. This will be a future entry, I trust.

3. I’ve seen a fun movie Bride and Prejudice, an adaptation of Austen’s work by the same director of Bend It Like Beckham. It’s a light and fluffy homage to Bollywood and Austen. I highly recommend it.

4. I’ve helped cater three large dinners, and attended a financial planning seminar. Did you know that Jesus talks more about money than heaven and hell? I did not. I don’t come to the conclusion that money is therefore more important than those things, however. Do you have a written budget? I’ve gotten a little away from doing that over the past few months, and it really makes a difference. It’s a good test of my discipline to watch where my dollars are going each month, so I’ll be pulling out a new excel sheet this week.

5. Despite the craziness of my work schedule, I’ve managed to get to the gym more than usual. This is in no small part because my roommate Sarah joined my gym, so I have a buddy to go with. It’s amazing the difference that makes—she even makes me try new machines.

6. I’m deep into practicing for Mozart’s Requiem, which my choir is performing on Good Friday evening. That’s March 25, in Philadelphia, for all those who’d like to come. It’s free, and should be a great evening of music.

7. Oh, and my bible study switched to a new songbook, which includes lots of the indelible grace hymns, as well as some other good newer songs. There are still a few poorly written songs in there, like the one I just couldn’t bring myself to sing last week. “Draw me close to you. Never let me go. Etc. etc” No reference to why in the world I’d want to be drawn near, and no acknowledgement of the fact that He will never let me go and that He’s already drawn me near. In fact, I don’t think the song really mentions God at all. I could sing it about my boyfriend just as easily—well, only if I had one, I suppose. Digression—the point was that the change in songbook was primarily a positive one!