When I see the original colors from 1903, I hear Dana Carvey doing his Grumpy Old Man character from SNL…
“In my day, we only had eight crayon colors…and we liked it!”
Still, this is pretty cool!
Click the link below to get the full experience – “mouse over” the 2010 colors to see their creative, yet hard-to-remember-and-oft-confusing names! Oh for simple red, brown, orange, … days!
Ever read the Bible with an MS Excel or mathematical mindset?
I read these familiar passages today:
=IF(my_people=”humility+prayer+seek_Me+repentance”, hear_forgive_heal, uproot_reject_scorn)
=IF(me=”(take_yoke+learn_from)God”, rested_soul, distress)
=IF(me=”serve_money”, 0, serve_God)
Sometimes being a nerd can be fun…
…though looking at them this way doesn’t make them any easier to live!
Several weeks ago, I shared Matt Redman’s song “Endless Hallelujah” during the offering time at church. The song has quickly become one of my favorites from his new 10,000 Reasons album [iTunes].
One thing that gets me each time I listen to the song is the phrase:
“Ev’rything as it was meant to be“
In the context of the song, it’s:
When I stand before Your throne
Dressed in glory not my own
What a joy I’ll sing of on that day
No more tears of broken dreams
Forgotten in the minor key
Ev’rything as it was meant to be
The thing that challenges me in regard to that phrase is the frequent difference between how I feel or expect “things to be” and how God would have them – in His position as Sovereign Lord in my life.
Quite often, miles and miles separate the two…
…and my version of my “story” is without adversity or challenge.
With certainty, God has promised a life with, as the song’s chorus declares,
No more tears, No more shame
No more sin and sorrow Ever known again
No more fears, No more pain
We may enjoy a foretaste of that on earth, but the reality of a life like that – life “as it was meant to be” – will only come in heaven.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
— Revelation 21:3-4 (NIV)
Maranatha!
A year ago, my dad and his wife died in a car accident. Then and now: it hurts.
A person I’d loved my entire lifetime and another I’d only known less than a year were tragically gone…
I’ve been and still am: angry, confused, bitter, regretful, sorrowful, apathetic, depressed, broken, … many things.
I’ve grappled with the knowledge that others have lost loved ones as well, often thinking to myself, “who am I to think that I am any different.”
I’ve asked “why?” too many times to count, knowing that I’ll never know the answer to that question this side of heaven – for we read:
“Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
I Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)
I believe clarity will come…
…and yet, at the very moment it does, it probably won’t matter.
For, as the song Soon expresses:
I will be with One I love.
With unveiled face I’ll see Him.
There my soul will be satisfied.
Soon and very soon
Maranatha!
I find this funny, sad, and frustrating at the same time…and am thankful that we are not doing any of these songs tomorrow.
[YouTube link]
my wife gets credit for finding this one.
City-dwellers! Soon, those frantic searches for a bathroom will be a thing of the past! Gotta go? All you’ll need to do is fire up that smartphone and launch your CLOO’ app!
“CLOO’ is a community of registered users who choose to share their bathrooms and make city-living easier, while earning a small profit.”
[Vimeo link]
“I run in the path of Your commands,
for You have broadened my understanding.”
Psalm 119:32 (NIV)
Funny how we sometimes read the words, but comprehend them differently:
“I sit comfortably and complacently alongside the path of Your commands,
satisfied with my limited understanding of You, Your ways, and Your purpose for me.”
Psalm 119:32 (HP*)
[or, maybe I’m alone in this observation…]
*”Hearer’s” Paraphrase
[YouTube link]
This “Praying Mantis” or Mantodea emerged last night from a bush in our backyard after I gave it a good watering…
Interesting fact: The scientific name Mantodea comes from the Greek words μάντις meaning a prophet, and εἶδος for form or shape. (Source: Wikipedia)
“Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.”
Psalm 119:111, 112 (NIV)
may this be true in me, o Lord…
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