deep
And this here is a profound statement. Prove me wrong. ;)
(I shall be archiving my other blog over here soon, and then will probably join the millions of bloggers at the wonderful task of cross-posting)
Of greatest importance (cross-archive)
--C. S. Lewis
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You Love The World by Keith Green
I want you here with me,
But you've been keeping other company,
You can't sit still, it's plain to see,
You love the world and you're avoiding me.
My word sits there upon your desk,
But you love your books and magazines the best,
You prefer the light of your TV,
You love the world, and you're avoiding me.
You used to pray, you were so brave,
Now you can't keep even one appointment we've made,
Oh I gave my blood, to save your life,
Tell me, tell me, is it right?
Will you leave me here alone again tonight?
Well I love you, still more and more,
But you're fighting everything I'm working for,
You're acting like my enemy,
You love the world and you're avoiding me.
These other loves, they're hurting you,
If you end up losing me, then what will you do?
Oh, I gave my blood, to save your life,
Tell me, tell me, is it right?
Will you leave me here alone again tonight?
Well, I want you here with me,
But you've been keeping other company,
You prefer the light of your TV,
You love the world, and you're avoiding me.
You love the world, you love the world,
You love the world and you're avoiding me.
Oh, you love the world.
You love the world and you're avoiding me.
Neat Poem (cross-archive)
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As the Ruin Falls
All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.
Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love – a scholar's parrot may talk Greek –
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.
Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, a grown man. And now the bridge is breaking,
For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.
(C.S. Lewis)
I'm in love... (cross-archive)
*grin* ...I'm wondering how much extra traffic I garnered by my title... 
Have some tough issues I'm working over... lots to think about (yes. start groaning, those who know me too well). But what has awed me over and over the past few days is how God keeps drawing me to him. He'll overthrow my schedule, I'll get all frustrated because of things I should be doing... but God keeps calling. beckoning. And I am reminded that He is the most important thing in my life.
Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair. -- G. K. Chesterton
(from the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis:)
"Why, Daughter of Eve, that's what i brought you here for. I'm to lead you where you shall meet him," said Mr. Beaver.
"Is- is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion- theLion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he- quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."
Rebecca St. James' song "Lion" for the Music Inspired by Narnia CD
Mysterious
That's what I call You
I'm curious about You
I'm scared and not sure that You are safe
But Your eyes seem to say that You are good
Chorus
This is not a dream that I'm living
This is just a world of Your own
You took me from all that I knew
Shown me how it feels to hope
With You with me, facing tomorrow together
I can learn to fly
Feels like I'm living in a lion's mouth, but the lion is an angel
Wise eyes, You see the core of me
Your gentleness melts me
And now I know that words cannot describe
The power that I feel when I'm with You
Peace and power, love forever
Who am I to stand before You?
I am speechless
But in my weakness
You are here and all is well
You took me from all that I knew
Shown me how it feels to hope
With You with me, facing tomorrow together
I can learn to fly
Feels like I'm living in a lion's mouth, but the lion is an angel
Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone? (cross-archive)
Must Jesus bear the cross alone
And all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for ev'ryone,
And there's a cross for me.
The consecrated cross I'll bear
Till death shall set me free,
And then go home my crown to wear,
For there's a crown for me.
Upon the crystal pavement down
At Jesus' pierced feet,
Joyful I'll cast my golden crown
And His dear name repeat.
O precious cross! O glorious crown!
O resurrection day!
Ye angels, from the stars come down
And bear my soul away.
-- Thomas Shepherd and others
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Mark 8:34
One interesting thought struck me upon reflecting on all this. When Jesus spoke to the disciples, he had not been crucified yet. That's obvious, of course, but we often view what He said in light of what He did. I wonder what the disciples thought when He referred to crosses and giving one's life.
A resolution (cross-archive)
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomine, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. --GK Chesterton
Pray without ceasing. --1 Thessalonians 5:17
...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. --1 Corinthians 10:31b
Haunting Memories (cross-archive)
"...I was lying awake and wondering what on earth would become of me. And then - but mind you, it may have been a dream. I don't know."
"Go on," said Edmund, with considerable patience.
"Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly towards me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think, that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came closer up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it."
"You mean it spoke?"
"I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it.... The water was a clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.
"I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.
"But just as I was going to put my foot into the water I looked down and saw that it was all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as it had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this under skin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.
"Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.
"Then the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke - You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.... Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass : only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. The he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again..."
Eustace's tale in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnian series, C.S. Lewis)
I'm quite partial to the BBC productions of the Narnian series, and this scene in that movie has been burned deep within me. Lurking. Calling. Beckoning.
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