Tuesday, May 5, 2009

good music and movies and to where one longs to go after

"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things - the beauty, the memory of our past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not visited."
Clive Staples Lewis -- The Weight of Glory

I remember listening to Sufjan Stevens play Predatory Wasp... for the first time and it made me feel overwhelmed with breathing correctly. I remember watching Magnolia and feeling like I had not felt enough. I remember listening to Sigur Ros at Coachella and being broken to my most inner core. I remember watching Saving Private Ryan and breaking down. I remember listening to Is This It by The Strokes with my brothers and feeling like life really was finally about to begin.

Each one of these feelings have failed me in my life. I tore through each one like a hungry man hungry for life... until I saw Jesus as the fulfillment of them all. And only now I feel I have just tasted Him for the most briefest of moments. fire, redemption, hope... I am starting to listen again to music I have not listened to in awhile and now I cannot help but worship Him. His creation is breath taking. I can only imagine the beauty of its Creator. Meeting Him face to face is going to be awesome.

Romans 8:19-23 -- For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.

Revelation 21 -- 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” 5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”