Filed under: Art, I'm thinking, Summer Missions, faith, movies, music, readings, the word, traveling
Hello, world! I am sorry to have been laking in blogging on this blog over the past month or two. Between starting up another blog for my summer missions work and the work itself things have been absolutely crazy and out of control. I can honestly say that I have missed writing with this blog.
Speaking of summer missions blog, if you have been by here before you might have seen links to my summer blog. Well, if you are looking for it then you will be out of luck, because it is no longer there. I just deleted it. It just got to the point where I started to feel like I really didn’t need that blog and I have a perfectly wonderful blog already here. That and I felt like at that blog I should only talk about my summer missions work and there really isn’t that much to talk about on it so I have my little free-for-all blog here to turn back to.
So far the summer has been good. I’ve been at work for a month now and have come up with some really cool things. I will go ahead and be truthful and say this hasn’t been an easy adventure for me. I’m basically alone working here. I come to work from around 9-5 each day and then the rest of the night is just trying to figure out stuff to do. I am also living alone in a town house that is 20 minutes away that belongs to a family who is working away this summer and have to take care of a cat (it came with the house; my boss didn’t even know about the cat) and I have never taken care of cats before so that has been challenging. It’s just been a lot of loneliness and trying to find purpose in what it is I’m doing here. But thankfully Christ has been with me all the way and things are much better.
I have definitely had some fun trying to find stuff to do in my spare time. I’ve seen a bunch of movies. I basically work beside a cinema that shows independent films and I have just been enjoying it tremendously. I’ve always loved indy films but living in a small town we never got to see them until they came out for cheap-sale at the Hollywood Video. I’ve got to see The Brother’s Bloom & Away We Go, both of which I highly recommend. Last week I went to the bigger, more blockbuster theatre and saw Up…again, and, yes, I did go see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night at midnight and it was amazing! Apparently I’ve had high school friends living close by that I didn’t know about and I met up with them and some more who came up from home and we got to hang out and go see the movie.
I’ve also enjoyed going through miles of stores. I grow up in small town, US of A, so the biggest store I’ve ever lived beside is a Wal-Mart (standard, not supercenter). I work in an area that has a bunch of different shops I like. There’s a Best Buy (I’m a tech geek. I also have stranger than mainstream music taste and so BB is good for having some of that. So much better than Wal-Mart and their mainstream Pop/Country stuff that is about to get on my last freakin’ nerve **disclaimer: I truly apologize if this last statement offends anybody. That just not my taste in music and if you enjoy it and it makes you happy, then by all means ignore my rants and call me a fool.**) as well as the biggest Barnes & Noble I’ve ever seen (It’s like heaven).
I think that’s about it for now. There is still plenty more I want to say (I’ve got a couple months of stuff stored up) but I don’t to weigh down this post. I’ll save it for some other time. I hope to get back into the swing of things here.
I hope you have a truly wonderful day,
randall
Filed under: I'm thinking, charity, faith, music, readings, the word, traveling, writing
If you have read one of my latest blogs, you know that I am heading on a mission trip to Peru soon. Well, we leave in the morning. I am so honored and blessed to be going on this trip with nine other students who I am privileged to called really wonderful friends. God has done so many wonderful things even before we even began the process of starting this endeavor and I just hope that he continues to do many wonderful things. My biggest hope in this journey, as a more personal sojourn, that I can discover God in the streets of Peru. Please pray for all of us as we travel. Will have pictures when I return.
*edit*
I just listened to C.S. Lewis Song by Brooke Fraser and these lyrics really resonated with me in relation to my trip. I have written them down in my journal to remember as well as this statement:
“It’s the feeling of something bigger than me that gives me courage.”
For those of you unfamiliar with the song (shame on you 
) here are the lyrics:
If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy I can only conclude that I was not made for here. If the flesh that I fight is at best only light and momentary, then of course I’ll feel nude when to where I’m destined I’m compared.
Am I lost or just less found, on the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way? Is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive? ‘Cause my comfort would prefer for me to be numb and avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become.
Speak to me in the light of the dawn
Mercy comes with the morning
I will sigh and with all creation groan
As I wait for hope to come for me
For we, we are not long here
Our time is but a breath
So we better breathe it
And I, I was made to live
I was made to love
I was made to know you
Hope is coming for me
I just left the theatre to see this movie. All I have to say is…wow!!!!….!!! This is such a beautiful movie. I have heard before a critique calling it a celebration of life and that is what it truly is. The cinematography was amazing (no, it wasn’t done with a cell phone). Between that and the incredible soundtrack, you felt like you were there running through the slums with the children. It’s a riveting feeling. I understand now why the Academy liked it so much. It is a truly wonderful movie and you will not regret seeing it.
Next up, Q&A, the book that inspired the movie.
*edit*
I just found this on Yahoo and it was, for me, one of the highlights of the movie. You can’t have a Bollywood movie without a dance number (yes they seriously ended the movie with this; the dancing part at least with the credits). Check it out here.
If you have visited my site before, you might have heard me rant about this book. ”Tuck” is book three in the King Raven Trilogy written by Stephen R Lawhead. It is a retelling of the Robin Hood legend with a more historical context. I have absolutely fallen in love with these books and has been anxiously waiting Tuck for a very long time (hense the constant mentioning of the anticipation in past post). But the glorious day has finally arrived!!! I just got my copy today and have been reading it all evening and let me tell you it has been an absolutely wonderful book. Maybe it’s just because I have been dying to read it for ages, but this has definitely been his best work yet and I can say that only a few chapters in. I would say you should so totally go check this book out but I can’t because you probably haven’t read the first two. Well, then, you should read them!!!!! Hood & Scarlet!!! Lawhead has become one of my new favorite authors. His work filled the gap and denial that I got when we ran out of Harry Potter books. He is a historical fiction writer of sorts. His works consist of legends or cultures like Saint Peter, The Crusades, Robin Hood and he gives them a little more pizzazz (yes, I just said it). You should definitely check out his work.
I know, it’s been a day and a half since it happened, but I just recently finally got to sit down and listen to Obama’s inauguration speech. I’ll go ahead and just throw it out there; yes, I voted for the man. I believe he can allow America and it’s people to do great things and I feel comfortable and content at the moment with everything. I have always thought that Obama was a really great speaker and now that I am in a public speaking class I have to study it (it’s actually kind of fun). I really enjoyed his speech and found it very worthy of our situation. It promoted the American spirit of imagination, hope, and drive that can only come from it’s people rather than it’s government.
I will have to admit, though, to me the best part of the whole thing wasn’t his speech, but the poem that was read after it. Written and read by Elizabeth Alexander, professor at Yale University, I thought the imagery and drive of the poem was beautiful. You could see the history and the same drive and desire for freedom that we seek now bleed through those stories. Here is the poem (keep in mind I translated this myself after listening to it over and over again, so please forgive me if some words aren’t quite right.)
Praise song for the day
Each day we go about our business
Walking past each other
Catching each other’s eyes or not
About to speak or speaking
All about us is noise
All about us is noise and bramble
Thorn and den
Each one of our ancestors on our tongues
Someone is stitching up a hem
Darning a hole in a uniform
Patching a tire
Repairing the things in need of repair
Someone is trying to make music somewhere
With a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum
With cello, boom box, harmonica
Voice
A woman and her son wait for the bus
A farmer considers the changing sky
A teacher says, “Take our your pencils begin.”
We encounter each other in words
Words spiny or smooth
Whispered or declaimed
Words to consider; reconsider
We cross dirt roads and highways
That mark the will of someone
And then others who said
I need to see who’s on the other side
I know there is something better down the road
We need to find a place where we are safe
We walk into that which we cannot see
Say it plain
That many had died for this day
Seeing the names of the dead who brought us here
Who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce
Built brick by brick the glittering edifices
They would then keep clean and work inside of
Praise song for struggle
Praise song for the day
Praise song for every hand lettered sign
The figuring out at kitchen tables
Some live by ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’
Others by ‘first do no harm’ or ‘take no more than you need’
What if the mightiest word is love?
Love beyond marital, filial, national
Love that cast a whitening pool of light
Love with no need to preempt grievance.
In today’s sharp sparkle; this winter air
Anything can be made. Any sentence begun
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp
Praise song for walking forward in that light
If you wish to see the video of this reading, you can watch it at CNN
Filed under: I'm thinking, charity, faith, movies, readings, the word, traveling
I just found this. Back when I first saw Amazing Grace in May 2007 I went straight home and wrote this. These were too strong and piercing of an understanding not to write down and be lost in my mind…
I just got back in from watching the movie Amazing Grace. It was an incredible movie and I believe everyone should go see it. It has opened my eyes to many troubles in this world that we just tend to paint over with our fears. And as I just walked into my house I noticed something. I noticed my computer, my game boy, my cell phone and I realized how much I have really worshiped them. I spend most of my time on some of the most nonsence of things when the time, effort, and profit given into this could have gone to much better things, like that little boy I read about while campaining for the Amazing Change. His name was James and I will never forget reading the line of how, after he was abducted and kept as a slave, he had to kill his own brother. JAMES WAS ONLY 11. I know things like this aren’t pretty but they are happening right under our noses. And most of the time, where don’t want to get involved because we don’t want to get our hands dirty (I’m just as guitly of that as anybody else). We spend so much time in our own little worlds more concerned with having the latest gadget or trend that we forget how blessed we really are.
As I was observing my metal-idols, I also noticed a roof and walls and a counter covered with photos of me and my family. I have totaly ignored the fact that I am blessed beyond my wildest imaginations. Not because I have money or that I am wearing the latest fashion trend, but that I am loved. I have been blessed with a family that loves me and a roof over my head and a bed to sleep on. Not many people are that fortunate. I just want to take it all back but I fear that I am already in too deep. My mind, heart, and soul has been poisioned by the world with my own two hands and eyes. Life can be complicated, I know that. And in today’s society has become we need all these advancements and gizmos to succeed and trive. But I read something about someone who went on a trip to Zimbabwe (sorry if I misspelled it) and was blown away by the fact that they are suffering and dying by diseases and govermental turmoil, but they are some of the most joyful people you will ever meet. They don’t know what it really means to upgrade or have the latest “thing”, all they know is that life is more about living and loving what you have than always wanting more. They desire mostly what they “need”, we have become a society of “want”. We have overlooked love and replaced it with a measily brick of gold that feeds off of our inner beast that if nothing can be done it will destroy us. Life is just more valuable than a car, I just wish one day people can recognize that.
James
and here is his story…
An abducted child kept as a slave in the Lord’s Resistance Army, James was forced to brutally kill his own brother who had been abducted with him. He was rescued from captivity, but demonstrates the fragile psyche of a child victim forced to kill or be killed.
Whether in the U.S. or in countries such as Uganda, most fifth graders spent last summer escaping the rigors of school and enjoying the activities of a lazy summer vacation. Not James, an 11-year-old boy from northern Uganda. An abducted child kept as a slave in the Lord’s Resistance Army, he was forced to brutally kill his own brother who had been abducted with him. He was rescued from captivity, but demonstrates the fragile psyche of a child victim forced to kill or be killed.
James is now in a transit center in Lira, and the details of his abduction and captivity are just beginning to emerge from his silence. His deadened eyes and unwilling tongue betray the horror of recent months, when he was one of three brothers abducted by LRA rebels from their village.
When one of his younger brothers tried to escape, the rebels pronounced a sentence of death as punishment as an example to other abducted children who would consider escape. The rebel leaders designated James and the third brother to execute their sibling using means too horrific to detail here. Adding to the horror, sometime later when James picked up a piece of cassava to chew on without permission, his overseer cut off part of his ear as punishment.
James was rescued in an army raid, but he is traumatized by the abuse of his captors, and although now free he needs enormous emotional and spiritual help if he is to recover and lead a productive life. This is the kind of enduring and critical help ChildVoice is trying to offer children enslaved by war.
Here is a fresh new quote to start off the new year right…
“God takes care of the lilies and the sparrows, and God will take care of you. Just come.” -Mother Theresa; quoted from the book “The Irresistable Revolution” by Shane Claiborne
Filed under: Art, I'm thinking, Music I Listen To, faith, music, readings, the word, writing
Below is something I wrote back in the late Summer and posted on my blog. Reading over it lately, I noticed how real these words still are in my life and my hope for the future. It puts into perspective what 2008 presented me and what hopes I have for the new year and the days ahead…
Have you ever just felt dead. When the whole world is spinning and everything seems to be moving in sync with it while you feel lifeless and out-of-sync with it all. Well, that basically sums up these past few months for me.
Over a span of three months, a time that felt like an eternity yet flowed quickly before my eyes, I discovered hidden demons inside of me and have fought what appeared to be my foundations. What started as a supposed time of mediation and self discovery took a sharp turn and became a war between me and myself disguised in cloaks of this world. Looking back over the years, this has been a long time coming. I can’t really pinpoint when, but I remember certain changed in my life that took me from a safe and secure environment and slowly corroded those walls until I stood bare in a world around me that was strange and frightening.
As I started my trek of returning back to my “comfort zone”, I began to drift farther away from God’s will for my life and into what I wanted for my life. Growing up I have learned that to be alive, we must surrender all; that in God we are made whole and more ourselves than we could on our own. I have tried at least every excuse I could to think different. That philosophy didn’t go well with my questions and opinions. While trying to discover my faith, what I ended up doing was trying to tweak it to what suits me and my “comfort zone”. Keep in mind this was all going on while in college and trying to plan and figure out my future.
As time moved on, I started to feel dead. Lack of purpose and meaning for anything began to build a new beast in the deepest, darkest parts of my heart; rage. This rage, though it scared the crap out of me, I found a slight comfort in it because it was an instantaneous response and solution to many circumstance; lets just blame someone else. Trying to keep this to myself and let people see me as the way I felt they wanted to see me as, I would feel like just a shadow in this world; always in the way and wandering aimlessly trying to impress people and get them to seem me as I am without breaking the mold. But, as you slowly crawl into a world of confusion and stand near insanity, there comes a time where you can’t hold it any more and beg someone to save you from it…thank you Jesus!!
By the will of God, I have discovered purpose. By the love of God and the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ, I have found the will and power to truly love like they do. By taking my plans, ideas, opinions and tearing them to shreds and throwing them out the window, I have discovered that there are bigger and brighter things than what this world has to offer. In the comfort of my own “comfort zone” I am safe, but in the mysterious world beyond these walls, I am alive & I am me. I am me under the grace of God and no one can change that.
There were times where I felt like when I was crying out to God that I was basically just calling out to myself and my “idols” in this world for comfort and guidance and I knew that. There are sometimes when I feel that he does hear me, but it’s like he is telling me that I’m not done. I still have much to learn. And I know I do. I have tremendous faith in my God. I know that sometimes I may not have the best representation of it, but at the end of the day, He has been the one who gave me life. Each morning I wake up is another blessing from him so that I may learn and grow as a servant, lover, and devoted follower. And when it is all said and done, All I wish is to hear him tell me is “Well done, good and faithful one.”
As I have just read…
“GOD’S message to the family of Israel:
‘Seek me and live. Don’t fool around at those shrines of Bethel. Don’t waste time taking trips to Gilgal, and don’t bother going down to Beer-sheba. Gilgal is here today and gone tomorrow and Bethel is all show, no substance.
‘So seek GOD and live! You don’t want to end up with nothing to show for your life but a pile of ashes, a house burned to the ground. For GOD will send just such a fire, and the firefighters will show up too late.’ “
-Amos 5:4-6 (The Message)
The things of this world are temporary and short, but GOD and his power are eternal. We must seek it before it is too late, because one day the final curtain will be drawn and it will be too late.
“In life or death, God we belong to you!”- Yours (New Verse), by Steven Curtis Chapman. (part of a verse written after the tragic passing of his 5 year old adopted daughter from China this past May. Visit his website to learn more).
Tonight is a new beginning. Tomorrow is the beginning of a new adventure. I will still have my troubles, sorrows, and doubts, but by the wonderful, incredible grace of God (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I have a desire for this world. And I will be journeying through it as…me.
