Music [discovery] of the week.

So, I began this post in hopes that I would (ideally) post somewhat frequently about the music I love and listen to because sharing good music is something that I just kind of love doing. (which is why I love teaching) Buuut I haven't been so good about that lately.

Today, however, I am pleased to present you with the band Trading Yesterday, introduced to me courtesy of Ophelia's gmail status. :D

I found a playlist on youtube for their band, hit play, and went back to the debate homework I had been doing before I got distracted.

After about 20 minutes, I realized I was still listening to the playlist, and I hadn't turned it off!

Okay, so maybe that's not so weird.

But for me (sadly) style of music is kind of important to me in music. I have a lot of friends who don't care what kind of music is, so long as it has good lyrics. Which I agree is a pretty good way to measure it - but sometimes, no matter how good the words are, screaming and yelling just isn't music. (Classical musician for ya)

So I was surprised to find that this band had decent music with a consistent style that I didn't hate. =P

Yes! a band I am willing to spend $10 of my money to purchase their entire album and the lyrics have depth!

Heh. Turns out they are nonexistent anymore. (depression!) So I have to resort back to my youtube playlist.

But man, their music is good.

Current favorite: "Shattered"



Yesterday I died; tomorrow's bleeding
Fall into your sunlight
The future's open wide beyond believing
To know why hope dies
And losing what was found, a world so hollow
Suspended in a compromise
But the silence of this sound is soon to follow
Somehow sundown
And finding answers
Is forgetting all of the questions we call home
Passing the graves of the unknown

As reason clouds my eyes with splendor fading
Illusions of the sunlight
A reflection of a lie will keep me waiting
With love gone for so long
And this day's ending
Is the proof of time killing all the faith I know
Knowing that faith is all I hold

And I've lost who I am, (i'm waiting)
and I can't understand (and fading)
Why my heart is so broken, (and holding)
rejecting your love, (love) without, (onto these tears)
love gone wrong; lifeless words carry on (i am crying)
But I know, all I know's that the end's beginning (i'm dying tonight)
who I am from the start, (i'm waiting)
take me home to my heart (and fading)
Let me go and I will run, (and holding)
I will not be silent, (silent) all this time (onto these tears)
spent in vain; wasted years wasted gain (i am crying)
All is lost but hope remains and this war's not over (i'm dying tonight)
There's a light, there's a sun (i'm waiting...)
taking all these shattered ones
To the place we belong (i am waiting...)
and his love will conquer all

Yesterday I died; tomorrow's bleeding
Fall into your sunlight

Another amazing one is called "For You Only." It's just....beautiful.



Blinding darkness surrounds me
And I am reaching for you only
This hopelessness that drowns all that I believe
Will be the one thing that I need
For you only

Keep on running farther, faster
Keep on searching for this haunting has an answer
And I know you will find me, in orbit
For I am breathing only for this.
For you only. For you only. For you only.

This is not to mention "Change My Name," "What I'm Dreaming Of," and "World on Fire." (oh my goodness "World of Fire" is AMAZING.)

Yeah, you should check out their music. It's almost as awesome, if not as awesome - as Tenth Avenue North. Now that's good music. :)

My life as a [non] gymnast.

I'm a gymnast.

Sort of.

I was a gymnast from like age 3 until the end of my freshman year.

And I wasn't a real gymnast - since I never seriously competed - only little meets and stuff.

But man, I loved it. I tell you, there's nothing like the satisfying *smack* when you hit the floor in a solid finish after flying through the air in a backflip. I love that noise.

*Smack.*

But now I'm getting all nostalgic.

One thing I really miss, though, was the workout. Nothin' like a good 2 1/2 hour workout and conditioning afterwards.

It is OoooOOoooohhhhh so painful sometimes. No, a lot of the times. Especially if you're doing like splits.

On a 3 inch wide beam.

Yeah. Ow.

So in the last 2-3 years that I've been out of gymnastics, I've tried to work out on my own to stay in shape.

::cough::

Um, yeah, about that....

The thing is, I can't do it myself. I don't have the equipment, the resources, or the right locations.

But, in order to get flexible and to get stronger - you have to work out. Consistently.

Working out makes you stronger.

And it made me think of the verse - you know, that says "work out your own salvation."

I've always been a little confused by that, because you don't need to work to earn grace.

But it doesn't mean "work" in that way. I think it means that once we are saved, we need to work consistently if we want to get stronger.

Cause, see, you don't have to work out to sign up for the gym. But once you're in - and paid the price for it - it'd be pointless to just sit there and do nothing, wouldn't it?

Can you imagine if someone else paid your gym membership - for life? Of course you'd go work out, wouldn't you?

Working out without the right equipment and without the right coaching can be dangerous - and you can easily hurt yourself.

I can't get stronger by myself - I need a coach to push me. I don't know the right exercises to do myself - I need a coach to teach me.

But what if you had the coach who created the sport in the first place? Boy, would that be a workout.

And that's the thing about life, I can't do the right things without my Coach. I can't become stronger and better unless I'm working out consistently.

But how awful it is the number of times I just sit on the sidelines instead of getting in there and doing my splits.

Yeah, I'll admit it. I put off doing splits because, let's face it, it is painful. Especially when you haven't worked out in awhile.

OH! and that's another thing! The longer you don't work out, the more painful it is to get back to where you were. Think splits are as easy for me now as they were when I was doing gymnastics? Think again - they hurt way more now because I haven't been working out consistently.

Okay, so that was a long post - and I might have stretched the analogy a bit.

But what do you think? Am I totally off my rocker here? Is the concept of working out applicable to the verse "work out your own salvation?" Or what do you think that verse really means?

True Perseverance.

If you still haven't checked out Jon Acuff's blog, you need to. Seriously. Look, I made half of that sentence a link so you wouldn't miss it.

This post in particular is really good - and here's an excerpt of it.

"When I focused on one approach...things changed. When I made a commitment and focused on keeping it, things changed. When I didn’t give up and change course the first day or the 15th day or the 30th day, things changed.

Sometimes we have a hard time focusing on things. There are so many different ways to accomplish a goal. So many ways to write a book or record a song or start a business or do anything that really matters to us. And when we hit a roadblock with one approach, it’s tempting to look for another.

When you find yourself in that situation, and you will, wait.

Pause.

Don’t give up on what you’re working on."

Asia Bibi: A Call for Mercy.

I don't know about you, but I've thought a lot about how we have the freedom to share our faith in the USA.

I mean - we don't really think it's that big of a deal.

But can you imagine being put in prison for it? Or even being sentenced to death?

A Christian woman in Pakistan named Asia Bibi did just that - and is right now in jail, with a death sentence.

Through the organization the Voice of the Martyrs, my brother, myself, and some friends of ours recently made a video to spread awareness about her situation.

The Voice of the Martyrs has started a petition for her release, and their goal is to get 1 million signatures.

They're also hosting a video contest to raise awareness, and you need 200 views by this Monday in order to be eligible.

Please watch the video and share it with your friends. It's not often I ask people to repost or reblog something - but it will only take a few seconds.

Even more than that, please, please sign the petition. It may not seem like a lot, but every signature counts.

You can view the video HERE, and sign the petition HERE.

Every signature is a call for mercy.

It's okay to not always be right.

So I've been working on accompanying my little brother for his Suzuki Book 2 violin recital that's coming up. (If you're an ancient blog reader of mine, you might remember his Book 1 recital...this one's not near as extravagant. =P )

And between speech, debate, geometry, piano, flute, awana, teaching, and general life-busyness, I ::cough:: haven't had a generous amount of time to practice the accompaniment part.

Having played piano for 12 years helps, but I'm still a little shaky, and the thing is tomorrow.

But if you've ever accompanied someone, you know it's not about hitting all the right notes, but it's about making the performer look good. If you miss a trill or the middle note of that chord, it's okay.

(being a classical pianist, it's hard to wrap your mind around....trust me, there's a difference.)

What you don't want to do is get off sync with your performer - staying with them is really important. If I'm always trying to get the right notes, I'm putting the focus on myself.

But as an accompanist, my job is not to draw attention to myself but to magnify the performer and make them look good.

The question is not "did I get all the notes right?" but "did I fulfill my job as accompanist?"

And I was thinking how that's true of life as well.

See, it doesn't really matter if we do everything right all the time, if we hit everything spot on and play every single note. What matters is that we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus constantly -that we are fulfilling the purpose He's given us and giving the glory to Him.

If we don't always get everything done that we wanted, or the day didn't go quite right, or we didn't react in the best way possible - it's okay. What matters is that I stay in sync with God.

When I try to look good, dress right, and worry so much about how everything is going wrong - I'm worrying about myself - and not giving glory to God.

It's not about me playing the right notes - it's about being a good accompanist.

This just kinda made my day.

It's one of those days where what you really need is just a good laugh.



(thanks to Keilah for posting it on fb :)

The title is relevant to the post, I promise.

Okay, maybe not.

So, I'm sitting here, trying to think up of a witty way to start this post so that you'll read it.

Huh?

Oh come on, everyone knows that you'll only read blog posts with interesting titles and/or first 2.3 sentences.

Unless you're one of those madly devoted followers who clings to every word a person says like it was sent from heaven above.

But I don't think I have any followers like that.

(on that note, do we cling to God's words like they were sent from heaven above? cause you know, they kinda are.)

Anyhow. I've got this weird writing style stuck in my head because, guess what? I just read a blog with a similar writing style, and it got stuck in my head.

Yeah, I'm one of those people who feeds off of others creativity. Get over it, you know I have your attention now. (come on, you gotta admit it was pretty witty. I couldn't do it more than once though, darn this creativity thing.) (hence why the post is witty, and the title is dumb)

;)

But now that I've wasted a perfectly good 45 seconds of your life, I'll tell you why I'm blogging at 11pm at night.

I want to share with you Jon Acuff's blog. He's got two, actually.

I came across this post this evening, and wow...let me tell you that man can write some powerful stuff. (Go read it. Now. You can read the rest of this later. )

(aw, aren't you devoted! you're still reading!)

I've never heard of him before, aside from a hazy memory of picking up his book in the bookshop of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (wilst in Boston) and being mildly amused.

I haven't scoured his website or been a long time reader, but in only reading a few posts on his blog, it's evident that he loves the Lord.

The cool part is? He's human, just like you and me.

I feel like it's so rare to find blog authors who are bluntly honest. People put up so many masks in hopes that it will attract attention. (of course, they'd never say that, because you know...that'd be....honest.)

But lately, I just need to know that I'm not the only one. And even if he's famous, he's a sinner saved by grace...just like me.

Rest assured, this is not the last you'll hear of this blog on my blog. It's like hearing a good sermon, one that God wrote for you....so refreshing.

The thing is, I really really want you to go read his blog. No, I'm not advertising, the stuff on there is amazing.


Jesus Christ is the formula killer. He won’t behave according to our formulas. He won’t fit into our incredibly tiny expectations. He refuses to be controlled by our logic. {Jon Acuff}

Check it out, then tell me what you think.

Actually, no. If you checked out the blog, and you liked it, comment. Hopefully that won't scare you away from checking out the blog for fear of being guilted into commenting....rather it will enticingly woo you to type into the comment box....okay I'll stop now.

Scenes from a Summer

This was almost like a preschool reunion or something.
I have known this amazing girl since I we were 3 years old!

My lovely new friend Emily and I at the Rebelution Conference in Portland
[post on that coming soon....ideally]

Some of the sweetest girls I know.

Me 'an my Narnia Nerd buddy at the Narnia Exhibit in Portland.

One of CS Lewis' wardrobes. :D

Cousinsauce

This is my awesome friend Heather. We've known each other since we were 4.

Last weekend we adventured out to Fort Casey and Deception Pass on Whidbey Island with some friends.

I love them.

Middle of August, wearing jeans, hiking trails. It's what we do.

We are true Washingtonians. We wade in the pacific.

Kite flying at Fort Casey

We are pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

I feel as if this picture accurately describes our relationship.

Explaining to visiting East-Coast friends what real pine trees look like. ;)

Ever seen the movie "The Wilderness Family?"

Cheesy/fake/cropped/free Space Needle souvenier :D

Definitely going on my list for best summers of the year. Oh wait, that doesn't sound right, there's only one summer per year. Oh well. ::happy sigh::