Since I have become entirely consumed by AP Language and the rest of school this year--despite the atrocious fact that I am only a week into my junior year of high school--I have grown quite weary of channelling my thoughts through this blog. However, David Crowder seems to put words together beautifully and brilliantly, so as of now, I'm going to resort to his thoughts as they will hopefully entertain you and put words of substance on my not-so-substantial blog (currently, anyway). So, please allow me to present goat/scientist/jesus freak (literally), David Crowder and his band of words.
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MY HOPE...
Job 1:1 - 42:17
Do you ever have just one of those days? Or, are you that guy. You know who you are. The one whose mouth is frozen in a perpetual grin. The one that walks outside on a windy day and has paper currency gather at your feet for your discretionary use. The one that is always found by the silver lining that the rest of us have heard tale of and searched courageously and diligently for, only to find you wrapped lavishly in it due, of course, to no cleverness of your own. Well this is not written for you so you can go now....no really, bye....
So now, do you ever have just one of those days? Or, perhaps one of those years? Now I’m not here to vent about our everyday, shared experiences such as the mud puddle that is completely avoidable by the passing car whose timing just happens to be in perfect symmetry to our proximity leaving us with a cool coating of brown mixing vividly with the new white shirt chosen conveniently enough for surely such occasion as this. No I’ll not vent here. I mean what would be the point to even suggest that on other people brown is a neutral even natural tone blending well with their attire but on you and I brown is indeed vivid. That would be pointless and we are at this point comfortably numb to these moments. They are only troublesome in their cyclical repetitiveness, really no more than trivial annoyances at this point.
I recently thought I’d found a loophole in the whole thing. I’ve told every soul I know about it and so I share it with you now. You know how when you and I set our VCRs to record say the season finale of Friends (or Everyone Loves Raymond according, apparently, to our socio/economic status) only to return to the flashing 12:00 or some other unexplainable occurrence that has overridden our double and triple check of programming. Well…enter TIVO. Have you heard of this? It’s incredible! It is a digital recording device that will record up to 30 even 60 hours of television. Through a series of very simple steps, including on screen instructions with visually appealing graphics, you set TIVO to record an entire series of your favorite show. You just click on SEASON PASS and you’re done. Oh, and did I mention it’s hooked up to your phone line making a daily phone call to get any scheduling changes, automatically adjusting it’s recording times accordingly! I am of the strong belief that it is the best invention of this century. Sure the century is new with more to come undoubtedly and TIVO was probably invented in the previous century but I did not own TIVO until last year and my rules allow for this. If you have TIVO you know what I mean. We are family. You and I and TIVO. I mean I talk out loud to TIVO and thank TIVO for making our television watching so efficient and enjoyable. We have a TIVO sticker on our car. But…just recently I returned home with my wife Toni from a pleasant evening out. We sit down in our very large TIVO viewing chair for two, ready to watch a desperately necessary half hour of Friends/Raymond that our dependable never failing TIVO should have ready to go for us. We scroll down the menu and to our delight find the show and push play and “oh my”...“Babylon 5?” “What?” “NO!” “This is impossible!” “TIVO never fails!” “This cannot be!”*
I still have yet to find a loophole.
No, for you and I life is unavoidable. And not just the mud on a shirt or a missed television show. I mean the moments that life really presses in. The moment the weight becomes crushingly unbearable by certainly any other. When tragedy intrudes and we are robbed of any logical proofs that God is good. When the book of Job suddenly seems our unauthorized biography. I wrote the song “My Hope” out of the experience of life and the comfort I found in Job. This book is not concerned so much with the why of life’s eruptions but the faith of a man throughout them. A godly man in possession of a faith that all of his afflictions could not shake. To find a man and eavesdrop long enough to hear him in intimate honesty ask “though You slay me, yet will I trust You?” (13:15) and to see his story answer in a resounding “yes” that can still be clearly and effectually heard today. And to see God show up in all of His majestic glory that pen and paper can express. Chapter 38. Everything that we thought was troublesome or painful or disappointing or hard or wearisome or frustrating or maddening is swept away. We become aware of His constant presence, and full of awe we, along with our concerns, are resized. We are swept away in this wonderful, beautifully glorious storm of who He is. He speaks out of the silence and it’s so terrifyingly plain that we have been right all along. He is in control. Beyond even our wildest imaginings.
“MY HOPE”
Here I am again
In this raging sea
On my knees again
Deep calls to deep
In the roar of Your waterfall
In the wonderful storm of You
May You find me holding on
May You find me true
I put my hope
I put my trust
I put myself in You, in You Lord
Here I am again
In need of You
Broken, beaten
Needing You
Wash me clean
Set me free
Hold me close
And cover me
I put my hope
I put my trust
I put myself in You, in You Lord
Here I am
Job 1:1 - 42:17
David Crowder lives in waco tx where he and his wife Toni watch more than a little less tv than this writing seems to indicate.
*(for this story and more about TIVO you can email me at davecrowd@aol.com )
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God bless,
lv
8.10.2005
eric schlosser who?
Fast food what? Slaughterhouse where? McDonald's when?
Apparently, Eric Schlosser found these questions important enough to be answered in a 270 page research paper (nice citations, buddy) turned documentary which consisted of redundancy, idiocy, and liberal advertisements. Certainly, this book was not written as a research paper, but it very well might have been. Who's to say a high school senior couldn't have written the same thing (in fewer words, no less) since it contained ill-researched material and a huge amount of "fluff"? In the "What's In the Meat" chapter, I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over...and yet it continued to go on! If Schlosser wanted to write a book about slaughterhouses and all of the problems with them, he should have said so. He certainly shouldn't have disguised it underneath a clever title about the large quantity of McDonald's that America (and the rest of the world, as he carefully points out) consumes every day. The beginning of the book did an excellent job describing (fascinatingly, perhaps) the history of fast food, how it came about, who initially began the industry, and why Americans were drawn to the instant gratification of fast food. There were a few negative remarks (which Schlosser stated as concrete fact without giving any other information) toward republicans that I was slightly offended by, but nothing I couldn't handle. By the "Meat" section, however, it seemed that every other sentence was discussing how the terrible slaughterhouse industry was being encouraged by the Republicans and the sweet, sympathetic little democrats were crying their eyes out and doing everything in their power to stop the awful industry. Sure, republicans make stupid decisions sometimes. But democrats certainly do as well! I just had a bit of a problem with this guy constantly blaming the state of things on republicans, while he simultaneously lifted up the Clinton Administration. Hello?? This guy's either blind or he's a flaming liberal idiot. Unfortunately, I think it's the latter.
The book in and of itself was fine. It was somewhat informative and, at times, quite fascinating. But the redundance killed me and made reading it miserable along with the frequent negative references to the republican administrations, be it Bush, Reagan or Roosevelt (whom he actually supported...but wasn't Teddy the one who was a lot more like a democratic republican?).
Enough said about that.
Orientation was today, and aaaah I loved seeing all my precious people again. I've missed everyone so much and they're the only reason I have to look forward to school. And, I think it is safe to say that Emily Clemons is officially the greatest hugger--ever. Also, some fabulous little things happened that those of you who spoke to me in person will know about. :D
Love to everyone, and I'll see my school posse tomorrow!
God bless,
lv
Apparently, Eric Schlosser found these questions important enough to be answered in a 270 page research paper (nice citations, buddy) turned documentary which consisted of redundancy, idiocy, and liberal advertisements. Certainly, this book was not written as a research paper, but it very well might have been. Who's to say a high school senior couldn't have written the same thing (in fewer words, no less) since it contained ill-researched material and a huge amount of "fluff"? In the "What's In the Meat" chapter, I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over...and yet it continued to go on! If Schlosser wanted to write a book about slaughterhouses and all of the problems with them, he should have said so. He certainly shouldn't have disguised it underneath a clever title about the large quantity of McDonald's that America (and the rest of the world, as he carefully points out) consumes every day. The beginning of the book did an excellent job describing (fascinatingly, perhaps) the history of fast food, how it came about, who initially began the industry, and why Americans were drawn to the instant gratification of fast food. There were a few negative remarks (which Schlosser stated as concrete fact without giving any other information) toward republicans that I was slightly offended by, but nothing I couldn't handle. By the "Meat" section, however, it seemed that every other sentence was discussing how the terrible slaughterhouse industry was being encouraged by the Republicans and the sweet, sympathetic little democrats were crying their eyes out and doing everything in their power to stop the awful industry. Sure, republicans make stupid decisions sometimes. But democrats certainly do as well! I just had a bit of a problem with this guy constantly blaming the state of things on republicans, while he simultaneously lifted up the Clinton Administration. Hello?? This guy's either blind or he's a flaming liberal idiot. Unfortunately, I think it's the latter.
The book in and of itself was fine. It was somewhat informative and, at times, quite fascinating. But the redundance killed me and made reading it miserable along with the frequent negative references to the republican administrations, be it Bush, Reagan or Roosevelt (whom he actually supported...but wasn't Teddy the one who was a lot more like a democratic republican?).
Enough said about that.
Orientation was today, and aaaah I loved seeing all my precious people again. I've missed everyone so much and they're the only reason I have to look forward to school. And, I think it is safe to say that Emily Clemons is officially the greatest hugger--ever. Also, some fabulous little things happened that those of you who spoke to me in person will know about. :D
Love to everyone, and I'll see my school posse tomorrow!
God bless,
lv
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