Vote for Davidson!!!!

Can I just say how stinkin' proud I am to be an alumna of Davidson College....where it's always a great day to be a Wildcast (whether we make it to the Final Four or not).

While, March Madness has always been my favorite event in the world of sports (I think it began when I witnessed that awesome shot made by Christian Laettner), there has never been a March Madness like this one, though sadly the excitement ended prematurely for me. I may not even watch the Final Four!

Part of what made it so fun was hearing what the media said about my little alma mater, from their admiration for Davidson's Trustees to their amazement at the laundry service. Here are links to two of my favorite articles from the tournament:

"Davidson College" was the #1 Google Search...followed by "Davidson University" and other fun numbers from Davidson's quick fame

Curry shruggs off glory in Davidson's Elite Eight run (and his little bro just signed to play bball at Liberty! There's nothing like a good Davidson-Liberty combo....)

Finally, in light of the awesomeness that is Davidson College, please go HERE to vote for Davidson for the game-changing performance of the tournament!!!!

Easter Song

Last Easter I shared a song that is always on my heart this time of year. This year I thought I would share another one of my favorite Easter songs, actually entitled "Easter Song." Like the Sandi Patti song I shared last Easter, I was also introduced to "Easter Song" by my mother. The version I knew as a child was sung by a great band from the 70s and 80s called 2nd Chapter of Acts. You can listen to that version here. My favorite rendition these days is the Keith Green version.

Listen to both samples and tell me which one you like better. I realize that both are musically dated, but I find myself able to overlook that aspect because of the role the song played in teaching me how to worship the Risen Lord. Also, I think knowing the history of these two artists can also help you appreciate their work in spite of how cheesy it might sound to our ears. Both Keith Green and 2nd Chapter of Acts were used mightily by God in their time to influence a generation for Christ.

Here are the lyrics to "Easter Song." Enjoy!

Hear the bells ringing, They're singing that you can be born again
Hear the bells ringing, They're singing, "Christ is risen from the dead!"

The angel up on the tombstone said, "He has risen, just as he said.
"Quickly now, go tell his disciples that Jesus Christ is no longer dead!"

Joy to the world! He has risen, Hallelujah! He's risen, hallelujah! He's risen, hallelujah!

From the mouths of babes....

"Jesus was born. Jesus grew up. Jesus was a teacher. He said that God loved everyone. Jesus helped sick people. Jesus had many friends. But some people did not like Jesus. They hit him. They put him on a cross. Jesus died. One day…two days…three days…Jesus is alive!"

The long day's journey of Saturday

Every year on the Saturday before Easter, I remember a sentence I read in a Philip Yancey book when I was in college. Yancey quoted a man who described the Christian experience as "the long day's journey of Saturday," referring to that strange day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Yancey elaborates, writing, "For some, like Betsy [a women with Alzheimer's], Saturday's long day's journey seems too long, its burdens too heavy. The fact of Good Friday may offer some solace of companionship [in the sense that Jesus understands the cruelty of this world and suffers with us]. And yet for one trapped in suffering and shame and a mind too clouded to understand anything else, the promise of Sunday seems hazy and hopelessly insubstantial. Unless, of course, it's true."

It seems that in this last year, more than most, Adam and I find ourselves seeing and feeling more of the suffering and tragedy of living in a fallen world. We can hardly walk down the block without being confronted with some reminder that sin and its destructive effects touch of every part of human existence--whether it's the homeless man mumbling to himself while he walks to the liquor store, the sounds of an ambulance siren rushing to the scene of some disaster, or the selfish and frighteningly violent anger that arises so easily within our own hearts. In the face of seemingly unending tragedy, the promise of a resurrection that will make everything okay can at times seem "hazy and hopelessly insubstantial" as Yancey puts it. Unless, of course, it's true.

Yes, "ours is the long day's journey of Saturday." Oh God, give us strength to believe and to dare to hope that he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead can also give life to our mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in us. (Romans 8:11)

"Who do you say that I am?"

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

At the laundromat

Once a week we go to the laundromat down the block to do our 4 loads of laundry. (Don't ask me how the 3 of us produce that much stuff!)

Adam has actually been the one doing the laundry for the past several months (Thanks, honey! ). Last week, however, I ventured out to do our laundry there with Katie for the first time. The experience wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be(I was having nightmares about sitting with a toddler for hours waiting for the laundry to finish). Thanks to this laudromat's industrial dryers, however, it only took about 1.5 hours! Katie did wonderfully as well since there was a lot to explore and people to watch. Which is what this post is all about....

About 20 minutes before we were done, a middle-aged man and his father (?) came in. I'm not exactly sure why they were there--I never saw him doing any laundry, maybe he was just visiting the attendant. Nevertheless, within minutes of arriving, he was engaging another woman in a conversation about the gospel. Several things struck me as I observed this interaction.

First, the negative things. This man did not appear to be particularly gifted in interpersonal skills. He seemed a little loud and preachy, and I'm not sure if he ever took time to really listen to the woman to whom he was speaking. These are not insignificant faults, and they are surely areas in which the Lord desires to sanctify all of His children.

Despite this man's weaknesses, however, I walked away from the laundromat, not feeling critical and judgmental, but rather deeply challenged. At one point in the conversation, I heard the man say, "I love Jesus--He is the only thing I want to talk about! I don't care about talking about football or sports or tv. Jesus is all that matters." Here was a man captured by Jesus Christ. Here was also a man who was truly making the most of every opportunity. I, on the other hand, had been sitting at the laundromat for over an hour, surrounded by immortal souls created in the image of God, but had not made one effort towards having a conversation with any of them about eternity. This man, however, recognized the truth C.S. Lewis spoke of in A Weight of Glory:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you may talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet if at all only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities it is with awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal..."

Oh, to walk in light of this reality!

Remember this?

I sing this song in my head every time I make a pbj for Katie.

I showed her the video last night for the first time. She (like all of us) thought it was hilarious.

When YouTube makes you cry...

Several months ago a click on one blog led to another click to another and another (doesn't it always happen that way). Somehow I ended up on YouTube watching (or rather experiencing) this video:


I never knew that a video on YouTube could actually make me cry. Did you see the scoffing looks on the faces of the judges and audience members before he started singing? And then the later looks of utter amazement and awe...people wiping tears away? This man's story is beautiful to me. An awkward phone salesman with an incredible gift from God to share with the world finally gets the chance and totally shatters everyone's expectations. This is a video I love to watch again and again...and every time it makes me cry!

I think he won that season of Britain's Got Talent and now has his own album. Go buy it here. Too bad my birthday is 10 months away......

A post devoted to what you really care about....