Saturday, August 18, 2007

I want to love (people, God) in my songs, prayers, statements, appearances, words, thoughts, hopes, dreams, passion, outreach, very actions, and do not much more if I can help it.
I think that there are a lot of superfluous intentions floating around in our lives. I want to do things only in love. I want to wear clothes not to make an impression, say things not to further my reputation, get involved in something not to increase my pride in myself.

It seems very easy to jump on one bandwagon in order to avoid another. I'm sure we've heard this a million times before, but I think it's very important to be sure not to jump on any bandwagons at all, not even the young Christian one. A Mainstay lyric comes to mind:
So take me home but keep me feeling lonely
when everyone is around
You're trying to show me how to hear Your song
down here by the water.
Far away from the lights I see that I can't live two lives.


I don't want to downplay the importance of fellowship in any way. This, I think, is an extremely thin line and so I have a lot of trouble expressing myself. But I don't think that Christianity is, or should be, a movement in the sense that movements pass and are often about support and popularity. They feed on emotions within us that are often temporary rather than feeding on the passion of God within us. People in the movement are held together by each other (rather than by God) and often depend on the movement itself for their interest in the ideal or program or goal.
The song ends with:
Night time lends its ear to the sound of my disappointment.
When the ideal fades I don't want to complain
I just want to hear You sing.


Also, when we are caught up in movements, it seems we are often consumed by them rather than by God. We are distracted by promoting the movement (along with ourselves, more often than not) and even forget about what the movement is promoting. And this can be okay in some cases, I think, but only if our intentions are kept pure and our eyes focused on God, rather than focused on finances or flashy new t-shirts or our new popularity.


Current music:
soundtrack for Notre-Dame de Paris
A Time for Yohe, Between the Trees
The Minstrel's Prayer, Cartel

Currently reading:
Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller

2 comments:

Companionable Ills said...

I.
Love.
You.

Next time I whine about not being allowed to go to youth group, please smack me over the head with this blog post.

lovelovelove

Anonymous said...

you've enlightened me, mahee.
A thousand thank-you's and an infinite amount of love,
Nahid