God is not silent

God speaks. I think that is one thing I will never be able to deny. He speaks through the Bible, and through the Holy Spirit, and through the stars in the sky, and through the broken image in each one of us. It's SO amazing when you realize how near God is, especially in His Word.

I'm on my way

Well, I need to restart this blog, and really get it goin' again, so I will be trying to blog more regularly. First, here's some big news for those that haven't heard or that I am not in regular contact with. I have been accepted to the U.S. Peace Corps, and am bound to go to Jamaica on March 17th, 2009 (So, no big St. Patty's celebration for me next year).

This is very exciting for many reasons:
1) I have dreamed about doing the peace corps since I was a sophomore in high school (about 10 years...crap) ever since my sister did it.
2) I feel very strongly that this is the direction that God wants me to go in for my life. I have no idea how He will use me while I'm there, especially as limited as my witness will be due to my being a government employee and all, but I am excited and confident in my calling thus far.
3) It's the first step in the big picture that I'm starting to formulate/be led in for my life. No plans mind you, just ideas so far. More on that later, but this will be an immensely valuable time both in the experience and the far-reaching impact it will have in my life and hopefully the lives of others.
4) It has been almost two years that I've been stuck in America, and I need to get out, so in a way, this is long overdue.
5) The very nature of the Peace Corps is helping people, and that's always exciting.

In the meantime, I'm doing a quarter of seminary, and working till the end of the year, and then I'll detail my plan/idea for the 11 weeks of the new year before I leave in another post.

On a final note, I've gotten so many comments both in person and on facebook, about my "new look" which is really the old look before I decided to look like John the Baptist, and it's been really encouraging and fun. You can see the pictures on facebook. Pretty hilarious, actually.

I'm old, but still pretty diverse

Today I spent the first half of the day at folklife festival, and the second half at a Demon Hunter concert. It is the greatest contrast I have possibly ever subjected myself to in the course of a single day. At DH I felt so old , the kids and the culture. The metal seems a little too loud, and at the end of the night I was tired. I let out a big yawn during the encore. And the moshing these days is even more violent, it seems. Too intense for me. Now adays I am all about the experience of the live music. When you can FEEL the music in your bones, and KNOW it's beauty...There's redemption in that. And it's such a holistic experience, it blasts all 5 senses and can be experienced spiritually as well. I love music so much...I wish I could make it. Someday...

Art as Imagery

Today on the bus I listened to "Tourniquet" by Evanescence and I am amazed that anyone who listened to it would ever think that the band was a "Christian Band".

The Opening

Now is the shining fabric of our day
Torn open, flung apart, rent wide by love.
Never again the tight, enclosing sky,
The blue bowl or the star illumined tent.
We are laid open to infinity,
For Easter love has burst His tomb and ours.
Now nothing shelters us from God's desire,
Not flesh, not sky, not stars, not even sin.
Now glory waits so He can enter in.
Now does the dance begin.

~Elizabeth Rooney

#1 Seller

"Because it's so scatterbrained, and has virtually no charts or maps, I am really quite surprised the Bible sells. Perhaps it's those lovely and colorful maps, which puzzles me because they aren't even current." ~ Don Miller