Sing Of Mary

If this is not one of the most beautiful songs you have ever heard, well, you have heard more beautiful songs than I :)

Good Old War - Coney Island

Just a song I really enjoy! :)

Have We Lost Ourselves?

All around us society is focused on things like money, sex, and power. We are always trying to make more money, TV and movies are trying to push the envelope on what they can show, and relationships are becoming less about what you can do for another person and more about what they can do for you.

But our lives are meant to be so much more, we are meant to live for more. These are the sentiments expressed by the band Switchfoot and their song "Meant to Live."

"We were meant to live for so much more/
Have we lost ourselves?"

If we are simply striving to make more money, amuse ourselves, and live a selfish life, then we are missing the point of life, and the things that we were meant to live for and strive to be. It seems as if somewhere along the way our society has lost itself.

What were we made to live for? Loving one another, seeking the best in others and striving to lift them up, looking out for the needs of others more than ourselves, and treating others like we would want to be treated. It is when we do these things that we can live happy and fulfilling lives, that we can change others and change ourselves.

What is your life lived for right now? Is it in line with the things that we were made for?

The Shins - Australia

My favorite song :)

Times They Gotta Change, But So Do We

So often we hear people (sometimes even ourselves) bemoan the state of society. When we hear of a murder, or a drug bust, or any of a number of other different crimes, we read about them and say, "What is our society coming to?"

And it is true. Society is (in my opinion) heading some negative places, and things are being acceptable that make me shake my head. But at the same time, we have to always change ourselves to in order to become better people.

It is easy to judge ourselves and our actions against the backdrop of society, or the people we know. We have to try and avoid that temptation. That leads to thinking such as, "Sure I didn't act very nicely there, but nobody else would have acted nice in that situation." Or, "Sure I don't set time for prayer everyday, but most people don't even go to church, so I am still doing good there." And so on and so on.

We have to judge our actions based against the best person that we can be, not against what everyone else is doing. If we are not living up to being the person we can and should be, it doesn't matter if we are still acting better than some or most people. We are still falling short of what we can be.

This is another reason why it is important to surround yourself with quality people that will lift you up higher. It will help you avoid this temptation and always make you strive to be a little bit better than you are, and a little bit better than you think you can be.

By the way, this is a lyric from a song called "Quiet as a Mouse" by Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos.

"He said times they gotta change/
But so do we"

Love Will Set You Free

One of my favorite bands is Mumford and Sons, and one of the songs I particularly enjoy is Sigh No More. They seem to at times have lyrics in their songs that are uncharacteristically deep when compared to other popular radio songs (and they sound good too, which is a nice perk).

For instance, in Sigh No More, they have this lyric near the end of the song.

"Love it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be"

Rarely in music have I seen lyrics so right on. They are so simple and so deep at the same time. We can look at them in a couple of different ways.

One is in relation to our relationship with those around us. If we are in a relationship where we feel like we are enslaved to someone (or vice versa) that is not a loving relationship. If that is true, then we are being used (or, again, doing the using), which is the opposite of love.

Love should do what the last lines of the lyric say - allow us to feel free and become better people, indeed the people who we are meant to be. For myself, I will be married in 4 months or so... and if I felt that my fianceé was holding me back from becoming who I was meant to be, or if I felt like I could not be myself around her, then I should not marry her, and what was shared between us would not really be love. (Fortunately, that is not the case, and October 8th will be the best day of my life! But I digress... :))

At the same time, we can look at this lyric in relation to our relationship with God. Oftentimes people (who don't really understand God) think religion is simply about rules. "I have a personal relationship with Jesus," they will say, "I don't need religion." And they will use that excuse to justify doing whatever they want.

But God's love is not about rules. He does not betray us. He does not tell us that we cannot get drunk, or have premarital sex, or lie to others as a way of enslaving us. It rather a way to set us free to live happy, fulfilling lives. It is like this, when you play a game of basketball, there are rules. If you play a pickup game anywhere, you won't be able to run with the ball and foul everyone. There are fouls and there is the rule of traveling. These things are not in place to enslave us or prohibit us from enjoying the game, but rather the opposite. They are there to allow us to be free to enjoy the game.

In the same way, God does not put things in our life as a way of making us "enjoy it" less, or make it seem like all we do all day is follow rules. Rather, he puts things there so that we can live more freely and fully.

Love shall you set you free and allow you to become the person you were meant to be. Anything less is simply not love.

Give Me Your Eyes

One of my favorite Christian songs is by Brandon Heath, titled "Give Me Your Eyes." In the song, Heath talks about trying to see others and the world as God would see them.

"Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so i can see
Everything that i keep missing
Give me your love for humanity"

What would we see if we could see with the eyes of God? Instead of seeing someone that annoys us, we see someone that we need to get to know better. Instead of seeing a beggar, we would see someone desperate for love and attention. And so on, countless examples could be given.

Instead, we usually see them through the eyes of our self-serving selves. People come into and out of our life every day, going different places and doing things, and we barely take notice. We don't try to think of their needs and the ways that we can love them and make the world a better place. Indeed, we don't think about them at all.

But how much different would we, would the world be if we make a concerted effort always to see each other through the eyes of God? To reach out and try to help people, and understand them and what they are looking for in life. We would learn empathy and compassion, and grow in all of the virtues that come from serving others.

Lord, give me Your eyes.

"You Got A Friend In Me"

A nice feel good song :)



"You've got troubles, well I've got 'em too
There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you
We stick together and we see it through
You've got a friend in me"

We could all use lots of friends like that!

"You Were On The Cross"

On this Good Friday, I thought this song by Matt Maher would be appropriate to post...



The description of the song via his website:

"In the Laments of Job, you get this sense of, "everything is lost, everything is gone, everything that I have worked so hard for, everything that I had been blessed with and I have sores all over me" - I think most people don't really stop to imagine what that must have been like for Job. I got to thinking 'God where were you when this happened? He was on the cross.

I realized that not only is the cross in and of itself the atonement for all sin, but the way in which it happened is now a means by which all human suffering becomes a transformational moment. It does not matter how dark your situation is - God himself has been there and as you grieve it and morn it you can find consolation in him because he was there."

Ave Maria

Absolutely beautiful.



Ave Maria Gratia plena
Maria Gratia plena
Maria Gratia plena
Ave, ave dominus
Dominus tecum

Benedicta tu in mulieribus
Et benedictus
Et benedictus fructus ventris
Ventris tui Jesus

Ave Maria
Ave Maria Mater dei
Ora pro nobis pecatoribus
Ora, ora pro nobis
Ora ora pro nobis pecatoribus

Nunc et in hora mortis
In hora mortis, mortis nostrae
In hora mortis nostrae
Ave Maria!

Eric Bibb - The Cape

I came across a great song.... It is called "The Cape" by Eric Bibb, one of the best songs I have heard in a while :)

Here is the song and then the lyrics right below it! Enjoy!!



Eight years old with a floursack cape
Tied all around his neck
He climbed up on the garage
Figurin' what the heck
He screwed his courage up so tight
The whole thing came unwound
He got a runnin' start and bless his heart
He headed for the ground

He's one of those who knows that life
Is just a leap of faith
Spread your arms and hold your breath
And always trust your cape

All grown up with a floursack cape
Tied all around his dreams
He was full of piss and vinegar
And he's bustin' at the seams
Well he licked his finger and he checked the wind
It was gonna be do or die
He wasn't scared of nothin' boys
And he was pretty sure he could fly

He's one of those who knows that life
Is just a leap of faith
Spread your arms and hold your breath
And always trust your cape

Old and gray with a floursack cape
Tied all around his head
He's still jumpin' off the garage
Will be til he's dead
All these years the people said
He's actin' like a kid
He did not know he could not fly
So he did

He's one of those who knows that life
Is just a leap of faith
Spread your arms and hold your breath
And always trust your cape

Most relaxing song ever

For my money, the most relaxing song that I have heard.

Bishop Allen - Butterfly Nets

Oh what a beautiful view...

[I wrote this as a Facebook note once but figured I may as well repost it on here!]

"I wish we could open our eyes,
To see in all directions at the same time.
Oh what a beautiful view,
If you were never aware of what was around you"
-- Death Cab for Cutie - Marching Bands of Manhattan

Picture a typical Monday morning (or really, any weekday morning)... walking around, going to school or work. With few exceptions, everyone has a dreadfully dull look on their face. You probably do too (I know I usually do). Everyone seems to be simply... bored. And unfulfilled. But that's not how it should be. That's not how it's supposed to be. To put it simply, I think, in many respects, we've lost our excitement for life. The way the snow falls, the way the leaves change colors, a letter from a friend, the way we can affect the lives of others... these things are exciting! If we really stopped to appreciate life and the things around us, I would humbly suggest that we would be in awe. The grandeur of the world is mindblowing, but we reduce it to its simplest level. We are always thinking about the things we have to do and need to get done, and we stop focusing on simply enjoying things. Things like watching the snow fall, or seeing how our bodies adapt to freezing temperatures, or enjoying the presence of the people around us. These are things to be celebrated, not tossed aside and forgotten.

This reminds me again of a quote from GK Chesterton that I've used before, but it's so good I'll use it again. "How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure; if you could see them walking as they are in their sunny selfishness and virile indifference! You would begin to be interested in them, because they were not interested in you. You would break out of this tiny and tawdry theatre in which your own little plot is always being played, and you would find yourself under a freer sky, in a street full of splendid strangers." Life isn't boring, we're just not looking hard enough. Or in the right places.

In many respects, most of us have resigned ourselves to being ordinary. Cogs in the machine. But we shouldn't be satisfied with this, we are called to be better. "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) We cease to think big, and focus more on our limitations than our abilities. We fit in with the crowd. As Marianne Williamson writes, "We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone." We see no way to break out of the day-to-day doldrums, and so at some point we simply stop trying. We become content to be an average worker, average student, average friend, average listener, average person. It's easier that way. It's less work, and we probably won't be called out for it. No one finds it easy to go the extra mile, to help out just a little longer, to be a friend even when it's not convenient... but these are the things we were made for. We must continually strive to become better than we are, to turn weaknesses into strengths. Change isn't impossible, it's just hard.

Being ordinary people (in our own minds), we begin to lose sight of our dreams! We forget we even had any in the first place. Or we keep putting them off for "someday." We forget the importance of them. Matthew Kelly writes, "Isn't one of the primary responsibilities of all relationships to help each other fulfill our dreams?" (Dream Manager) Instead, what happens is this... if someone tells us their dreams, we make a face and say "good luck," knowing it will be hard and take a lot of work, more than we ourselves would probably want to do. Plus, if we're honest with ourselves, we're probably a little jealous, because having dreams helps give us a sense of purpose, and we lose that to some degree when we lose our dreams. Think about it... if our only goal is surviving, then of course we'll get caught up in everyday things, and find them all boring and ultimately unsatisfying. When we have dreams and goals, it gives us something to look forward to. Ultimately, hopefully the end goal is heaven(!), but it's good to have some intermediate goals too. As Jack Johnson sings, "Don't let your dreams be dreams." Dream big, and work to achieve it. As Henry David Thoreau writes, "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."

Ultimately, we should seek to change the world! Lofty goal, right? It sure seems daunting, upon first blush, but I don't think it's as hard as you think. By every act of kindness, every act of love, every small thing we do, we change the world (for good or bad). Maybe it's small, but it helps. "It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness." (Confucius) To put it at the simplest level, think of when anyone (even a stranger) smiles at you, or says hello, or opens the door for you... doesn't that put you in a better mood, brighten your day? It does for me. Doesn't that make you more likely to reciprocate, or do something nice for someone else? It does for me. It's a small action, but it might start a chain of small actions. Everything we do affects others, even if we don't know it. Mother Teresa has so many great quotes on this, but I'll limit myself to two. First, "We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop." We might feel it makes no difference to anyone else if we're a little crabby, and this causes us to be a little rude, or simply indifferent to those around us. But life is all about the small actions, the little details. Again from Mother Teresa, "We do not need to carry out grand things in order to show a great love for God and for our neighbor. It is in the intensity of love we put into our gestures that makes them something beautiful for God."

Lastly, I would suggest this... if you are constantly seeking to help others, or simply in the mindset of appreciating everything around us, the reverberations will be felt. Again, at the simplest level, it's like this... when I am able to put the little worries out of my mind, it allows me to focus on the great things of life. When I do that, I'm happier. When I'm happier, I smile more, and help out others more. When I do that, I help make others happier. Still think you have no affect on others? Think about the happiest person you know... are you happier when you're around them? Your happiness makes other people happier, your unselfishness makes other people unselfish... at the same time, your worrying causes other people to worry, your dissatisfaction causes other people to be dissatisfied. There are exceptions to every rule, but I have found that we are indelibly linked to those around us, and we feed off of them many times, whether good or bad. Again, Marianne Williamson writes, "And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." There's a popular quote by Gandhi that says, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." This is not idealistic fluff, it's practical, life-changing advice.

Thank you to all of you who help me look beyond myself, who help me not to be satisfied with being ordinary, who help me reach for my dreams!

Don't let your dreams be dreams

Jack Johnson has perhaps my favorite music lyric of all time when he sings:

"don’t let your dreams be dreams/
you know this living’s not so hard as it seems"

“Don’t let your dreams be dreams.” That is such a simple thought, but if we would actually listen to it and live our lives by that motto, how different they would be. Instead of putting off our plans or hopes for the future for another day, we would take them by storm, never taking no for an option, and never settling for less than everything that we were called to be.

I suspect we would be happier, more fulfilled, more joyful, more caring, more loving, more patient, more kind. We would know that our life has meaning, and a very tangible meaning, rather than having to search for a reason to wake up in the morning and get through the workday. I suspect we would barely even recognize ourselves, because we would change the “somedays” in our life to “today.” Instead of hoping that we would be able to accomplish something, we would actively be working on it.

As Henry David Thoreau would say, “Live the life you’ve imagined.” Don’t let your dreams be dreams.

If not now, when?

People are just people

Regina Spektor sings a line that appears to be almost laughably simplistic, but I find to actually be quite interesting and attitude-changing, if we just take it to heart. In her songs “Ghost of Corporate Future”, she sings:

"people are just people like you"

Upon first blush, there doesn’t really appear to be a lyric with much depth to it. Yes, thanks Jon, you are saying, we know that people are people!

But, when someone gets on our nerves, when someone rubs us the wrong way, or cuts us off in traffic (how dare they!!), or insults us, how easy it is to lose sight of the fact that they are a person with feelings and emotions just like you!

When someone annoys you, how often do you think of them as a unique person, with their own talents that were given to them by God? If someone just boils something inside you and makes you angry, how often do we think that they are a person with things that make them angry and sad, with shortcomings (perhaps the very shortcomings that make you angry) that they are trying to get past? If someone is inconsiderate and makes you sad, how often do we think that they are a person that is doing their best to juggle the many things that life has given them, and they have things they are struggle with and that make them insecure?

Ultimately, nobody is perfect. Everyone has their fault sand weaknesses, and everyone can get on someone else’s nerves at times. The important thing to remember is that for every person that makes you mad, you probably make that same number of people mad (even if you don’t know it).

Remember that people are just people like you, prone to mistakes and bad behavior. The proper response is forgiveness, love, and charity, not annoyance, anger, and mistreatment. After all, you would hope for the same treatment when you messed up. After all, it is not something nameless, faceless, evil thing that is making you annoyed, it is a human person, worthy of your love.

What are you waiting for?

Brendan Benson has a song that I really enjoy (well, he has a few, but there is one in particular) titled "What I'm Looking For." He has one line in the song that always jumped out at me a little more than the rest:

"Well I don't know what I've been waiting for/
But I know that I don't want to wait anymore"

It seems like very often in our lives we are waiting for something. We probably don't know what, but we might have a lot of dreams and plans filed for "someday." Likely, that someday will never come.

There is no perfect time to do anything. If you want to and try hard enough, you will always be able to find a reason not to do something. Often at the core of this is that we are scared to fail, or scared that we won't do well at something. However, we have to be able to get past these things if we are going to achieve what we want to achieve, and if we are going to be the people that we want to be. Sometimes the very best thing of doing something and achieving something is overcoming the risk that it takes to even try.

So try to think about those things that you have been putting off, or the things that you want to do but you are not sure you will be able to do them. Plan for how you will accomplish something, or just jump right in. You might fail, but then, that's not really the worst thing in the world.

If not now, when?

The beauty all around us

"You light up the sky to show me/
that You are with me"
- The Afters ("Light Up the Sky")

People always want proof of things, they can't believe in something until there is absolute proof that it is true. The biggest example of this is faith. How do you prove God exists?

For me, one thing that works is just to look up the sky as the sun sets or the sun rises, or to look up at a mountain, or an open prairie, or a gushing river, or a weeping willow, or any number of a million different things. You want proof? Take a look at the world around you!

"Well i just saw the sun rise over the hill/
Never used to give me much of a thrill/
But hey man now I'm really living"
- Eels

Loving every bit of someone

In Chris Tomlin's song Indescribable (linked at the end of this post), he has this lyric:

"You see the depths of my heart/
And you love me the same"

To me, the difference between real love and not-so-real love is this: when you find out something bad about another person (something from their past that they are ashamed/embarrassed about, a fault that they are trying so hard to overcome but they are struggling, with, etc), do you love them more than when you didn't know about it, or do you love them less?

With God, we know that He sees the depths of our heart and He loves us the same (and even more, when we are at our weakest and we need Him the most, that is when He is closest to us). Many times this is the opposite of the human reaction to a situation, and as a result is causes us to not be ourselves, or to cause others to not be themselves.

At the beginning of most relationships, we act like how we think the other person would want us to act, or in a matter that is socially acceptable so that the other person likes us. This is especially true in romantic relationships. We might think, "If they knew this about me, they would think it was weird and leave." Or, "I'll tell them this eventually, but not yet." And then, when you finally do share it with them (or vice versa), you find that instead of running for the hills, you find that they love you all the more because you opened yourself and shared things with them that you didn't want to share. This is love.

We won't ever see the depths of another person's heart in this life (much as we or someone else opens up, ultimately it is likely only God really knows the depths of a person's heart, and maybe, if they're lucky, the person themselves), but we still have the opportunity to love all that we can of a person. We don't have to tolerate faults, but we can still love a person because they have faults, because they are human, because they are deserving of our love, no matter what they have done or who they are. This is truly loving every bit of someone, which is loving how God loves.

Pursue things that bring you happiness

This is not a call to live your life with a principle of “if it feels good, do it,” but rather a call to pursue those noble things in life that give you pleasure, and always make sure to set aside time for them.

When we pursue the things that we enjoy and that bring us happiness, we are happier people. Those things that take away your stress and worry, pursue those things. As the universally great song “Dancin’ in the Moonlight” (seriously, is there anyone that doesn’t like this song??) says:

"We like our fun and we never fight/
You can’t dance and stay uptight"

Aside from this being a great slogan for anyone that is looking to open a dance studio, it (in a roundabout way, but still) shows the affect that these types of enjoyable activities can have on us. They obviously like dancing, and so they feel like you can’t dance and stay uptight (if you have seen guys at junior high dances, or better yet, been a guy at a junior high dance, you actually know full well that you CAN dance and stay uptight, but that is another story for another time).

For you, that activity might be reading, writing, riding your bike, playing basketball, playing an instrument, writing a letter, hanging out with your friends…. Whatever it is, make time for these things. They are sometime the first to hit the backburner when we get busy, or when we feel that life is throwing us a little bit too much, but having these things in your life is essential to keeping you sane, keeping you happy, and keeping away that uptightness.

Now, everybody go have a dance in the moonlight…