In a time of strife, confusion and despair...

Save me o God,

For the waters have come up to my neck.

I am sinking deep in this mire

Here there is no place to stand

I find myself in deep waters

Where the floods overflow me

I am weary with my crying

My throat is dry.

My eyes fail me : I wait for my God.

Those who strive, within their cause

have driven thorns, so deep.

Though I have stolen nothing Here I am to restore it.

O god, you know my foolishness

and my sins are not hidden from you

O lord of Hosts, be ashamed because of Me;

shame has covered my face, and to many I become a stranger.

But as for me, my prayer is to You

O Lord in the acceptable time

O God in the multitude of your mercy

Hear me, in the truth of your salvation.

Deliver me from this mire, do not allow me to sink from your love.

Let not these flood waters overflow me;

nor the deep swallow me up.

And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.

For I am in grief, Hear me speedily, draw me to your soul, and redeem it.

(Let the heavens and the earth praise Him. The seas and everything that moves in them For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah that they may dwell there and possess it.)

Rockology

I have had an interest like most people in recorded music since middle school. In the past few years I have taken this interest and thought about, where has the music I listen to come from, what are the roots?

It was this question that has expanded my musical horizons in regards to what I listen to and such. I would read small bio's of bands I liked on wikipedia, this would often list the bands that had been inspiration and I would then read their wiki page. Eventually I wanted more what was the basis for this music. From this I did a brief sketch of its history. From what I could gather, it was from the bluesmen and the jazz cats that any whiff of rock and roll came from, this came to a head in a man, who called his act muddy waters. Of course at this time Elvis and buddy Holly were on the rise as well. From there was inspiration for the Rolling stones and The Who, of course, the beatles were to explode in america. This now into the sixties, has such giants on the American front such as Jimi hendrix and the Doors. From these came once again a giant from across the Atlantic, Led zeppelin. From the influence of Led zeppelin Rock changed its for completely, until billy idol and the sex pistols arrive killing all that was. This formed in an unknown way the small scene taht was to out grow itself in seattle, Grunge: Nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam and others. This was the final volume of Rockology, since there have been minor breakthroughs, with metal, screamo thrash an acoustic revival.

These bands lay the basis for all modern rock, in these bands I have taken an interest, I have read bios of several of the bands to see what the motives were how they worked etc. Why there music was important even when it may not seem impressive today. Take a look at your music, who inspired them why do you like it?

Psalm 137, or By the streams in exile, or longing for the King who is at such a great distance. Or feelings of remorse when we turn away, or...

We sat by the waters flowing out in the distant, Babylon and wept as threw all our guitars , amps and ALL,

To the rapids, weeping for You and ALL, crying "GOD we've been carried from YOU!"

Our pregnant memories of praise we rested against the willows,

Those who took us away asked for a song, (one we sang for You)

Sullen eyes filled our faces as the Babylonian sail billows

How can I sing away from you? (this do not let me do!)

Fervently we pray not to forget Your call,

. . . next to the water of Babylon we threw away our, synths, tambourines and ALL. Crying and weeping for you, for ALL. . .

We recall You, oh, Lion.

We know what dwells in Zion.

We ditched all our odds and most of our ends to the willow trees and the swelling seas of Babylon.

But in memory as we would sing a psalm of Ascent in the shimmer of dawn,

God you had asked for ALL.

WE WANT THAT ROARING LION!

aspiring to Holy Zion.

Stripping down and piling clothes at the base of those willows,

Lord, we dove in the river, swimming back to give you ALL.

wanting, longing to leave the Babylonian sail that billows.

but God these waves are so tall!

at a rivers edge in Babylon, happened ALL.

(Shhhh, daughter of Babylon,

I hear the purring of Lion

but in this blood red dawn

He is roaring out from Zion...)

Slush, Snow, and Swiss Chalet

I was not walking on a beaten path, that is of course many people had walked this way before just not his evening. Two, I would say two people had walked this way in the last three or four hours, that was number of sets of prints in the slushy snow before me. The seemingly all powerful weather system forced me to keep me head bent down chastising me with stinging hail if I raised my eyes to look longingly at the horizon. I continued walking and soon the hail ceased giving away to merely a driving rain. In this new found grace I was able to enjoy the walk a little more although slowly began to feel the consequences of wearing my Chuck Taylors on such a day. I jammed with my headphones blasting red hot chili peppers into my ears which helped greatly to take my mind off of the current situation and was able to make it back to my comfy dorm room.

This was all on the way back from Swiss Chalet, I was not out for a late evening meal a forty minute hike away but rather this past week I was blessed with the employment at this restaurant. Not too surprising this Swiss Chalet is quite different from the one back in Simcoe, with complete different quantities and styles of service. So here I am submitting to people telling me how to the most mundane tasks I have been doing for five years and also being assumed to know where everything is and how it all works in minute detail in this foreign building with its own oddities as a franchise. Non-the-less here I am employed and provided with an opportunity for exercise walkign to and from work.

This week I also read the motorcycle Diaries a story of Che and Alberto leaving Argentine and traveling north toward North america. On the journey they undergo some hardship including the breaking down of the motorcycle but witness much worse hardship, the most heartbreaking to Che and Alberto was the poor conditions found in some of the hospitals that were visited having not enough room of instruments to treat those in dire need of medical attention. Next to this was the mines, south america is very rich in mineral resources and the system is set up so that the poorest of the peoples move to the mines to work for pennies which would sustain them until they almost certainly perish from the conditions of the mines. it was from these events that Che gained his inspiration. I did not realize this at first but the Che in the motorcycle diaries is the Che Guevara who led the revolution in Cuba, along with Fidel Castro. Now Growing up in a capitalist country the communists are often pushed aside from view as being the bad guys but looking into the heart of Che can be seen what it is he was fighting for, while we can simply see socialism or communism is a system that establishes a few at the cost of many, it was Che who saw captialism doing this to the people in south America, this was caused often from the decisions from leaders put in place through USA backed coups (especially where they had holdings on the mines that yielded high paying results.

In the end the system that Che helped set up failed, and can be seen by the poverty in Cuba today but what he desired was a land of equality of sharing the load, Che perhaps is not the villain he is made out to be. Is capitalism the right way since the more powerful countries ascribe to it?

Sunshine

I started to feel a shortness of breath as I began to take the concrete steps two at a time, heading up the lighthouse steps, realizing I had descended to far when I noticed an Icon of Jesus healing the centurions servant on the wall to the right. I didn't have to go too badly but I wanted to find the washroom that was "I believe on the 7th floor" of the lighthouse, according to our questionable tour guide who had imparted this knowledge to me while we were at the top level. I finally found it, nestled in an unassuming corner that I had mistaken for an electrical room as I had been descending. I did my business in the somewhat questionable washroom and began heading up once again, at more of a calm pace (partly because I did want to enter where the rest of the group was huffing and puffing) Light filled the spiraling staircase from large winding in the lighthouse allowing sunshine to spill in and illuminate the Gold-leaf Icons on the outside wall of the stair well. There was at least fifty Icons that began with the birth of John the baptist on the first floor of the light house and ended with an icon of the new heavens and new earth in the pinnacle of the light house. It was an interesting experience walking upwards seeing an iconic expression of Christs ministry and seeing the landscape from the top floor of a light house. After this we road down on a cramped elevator and went into the sanctuary of the Church to see all the eastern design, a memorable experience of other traditions in the faith.

Reading break and birthday.

It has been awhile since I have posted, I have been doing many wonderful exciting things in this time off of the blogosphere. This past week was my reading week and went to Melissa's home in Haddo Ontario, for those who are not experts in the location of tiny communities consisting of 10 houses this is about 1 hour from Ottawa and 15 minutes from the St. Lawrence seaway. We arrived there on Saturday, and spent the evening chatting with her parents, who are helping with a church plant and turns out that the bass player was MIA that week so I was able to fill in! That was exciting being able to play in their church that is held in the gymnasium of a small public school (they graduated from the library). Through the week we spent time adventuring there 80 acres, feeding horses, and watching it snow. I was able to get sic pages into my theology paper, one highlight would be when we went to Ottawa to visit Melissa's sister, and we visited the National Gallery, I had been once before but had forgotten how amazing some of the art was and of course there are new exhibits (I saw a Van gogh and a Monet). That night I was also able to visit my brother who attends a college not far from Melissa's house, he told me about an illegal hamster he keeps in his dorm room which he named "Artorious Voldemort Prime".

Back to School, Sunday was the big hockey game which seemed as if it would have been impossible to avoid hearing about, which of course was a great point of interest even for those who do not know what a Power Play is. This was followed happily by my simple birthday celebration which was 6 friends and I going out for dinner.

Monday was may actual birthday, I had several people purchase coffee for me, and I was lucky enough to find a few Cd's in the thrift store across the road which were worth buying, For eight dollars I got Smashing pumpkins and Jason Mraz, (Who doesn't like 'i'm yours'?), That night for Care group my whole floor and one of the girls floors went to a place called Mount. Trashmore for an evening of sledding. It was astounding standing at the top of the mountain above the city skyline and witness the flour-incandescent lights below rival the stars and moon in the heavens above, then without proper warning flying down that mountain on a plastic mattress loaded with 20 people briefly considering whether or not last rites was a doctrine that could have been afforded more consideration.

When on my way back to school with Melissa, on the train, I had to return a call I had received to Swiss Chalet, in Kitchener. It was to confirm an interview, which I had yesterday, and can I say, "Nailed IT!" well I was hopeful that I would as I have much experience in a Swiss Kitchen, it was refreshing to discover that the Manager seemed to consider the fact I was in Bible school as equal credibility towards the Job as my experience in a Kitchen. With that I leave this vague spotting post to the readers to do with as they wish.... or whatever.