"All My Tears" by Jars of Clay

I was listening to this song this morning and reflecting on how powerful the lyrics are. I'm guessing the premise for the song comes from Revelation 21:4: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

We truly are only here for a short time, like a mist in the wind, and then our lives will be over. In light of that, what could matter more than getting to know Jesus better every day? Those who have accepted Christ will spend eternity in His presence and all the troubles of this world will be done. All the pain, all the suffering, all the misery, all the tears - wiped away!

We'll have eternity in paradise - what an amazing gift grace is!

Here are the lyrics - check the song out if you don't know it - from the excellent album "Good Monsters":

"All My Tears"

When I go, don't cry for me
In my Father's arms I'll be
The wounds this world left on my soul
Will all be healed and I'll be whole
Sun and moon will be replaced
With the light of Jesus' face
And I will not be ashamed
For my Savior knows my name

It don't matter where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay
All my tears be washed away

Gold and silver blind the eye
Temporary riches lie
Come and eat from Heaven's store
Come and drink and thirst no more

So weep not for me, my friends
When my time below does end
For my life belongs to Him
Who will raise the dead again

What joy we have to look forward to - praise Jesus for His mercy on our wretched souls. Amen?!

There's This Cricket...

There's this cricket
It lives upstairs
I can't find it
When I go there

Now it's chirping
Chirping lots
I go up there
Then it stops

I will smash it
If I find it
It must know this
And would mind it

So I'm dealing
With the racket
When I see it
I'll attack it

It knows I lurk scarily
Yet chirps on merrily
Without a care in the world

With crushing destiny
It soon will have a date
But hey, it got to star
In this blog update

An Up-Down Conspiracy? or Reflections On How English Is A Really Weird Language

Follow me DOWN the proverbial rabbit hole, if you feel UP to it...

This is a verbal checkUP - I'd offer a checkDOWN but it just can't happen.

Once you pick this UP it's hard to put it DOWN.

We can sit UP or DOWN, but only listen UP.

You can be beat UP or suffer from a beat DOWN but can only jot things DOWN and only look things UP.

We can calm or settle DOWN but not UP.

I can be DOWN in the dumps, but never UP in them.

We could hook UP for coffee later but could never hook DOWN, whether we wanted to or not.

What's UP with that?

I can be DOWN for the cause, but only UP to the challenge.

I can only straighten UP but not in both directions.

Why do touch DOWNs and touch-UPs have so very little in common?

I could move DOWN under but not UP it.

It would be quite chaotic to be dressed DOWN while being dressed UP.

You wanna get DOWN with some more or have you had it UP to here with this?

Just thought I'd break it DOWN for you.

I was UP to my neck in deadlines writing this so it came DOWN to the wire & I was UP all night finishing it.

Ultimately, it all boils DOWN to this:

It's UP to you to decide if you're DOWN with what I'm saying.

And for the record, I did just DOWN some 7-UP, but no, I'm not Catholic - why do you ask?!

I'm OUT.

Wacko Sales Manager Spot

This one is quite ridiculous and would probably annoy me if I were to start seeing it on TV  - but then again, most car commercials are that way, especially local ones.  So I will spin it that I was just paying homage to the genre. That sounds artistic, sorta, doncha think?

Heavy Metal for Preschoolers

My Super Bowl commercial debut

Isn't it awesome to discover obscure commercials done overseas by megastars like George Clooney & Brad Pitt?!  Wouldn't you love to watch one of their obscure cheesefest commercials and laugh at it right now? Well, too bad.  You're on my blog, not theirs, so you'll just have to settle for me in my much sought-after, little-seen, now finally available Super Bowl commercial debut. 

Try to contain yourselves.

Obsessed With FaceBook Friends?

Like many folks, my wife and I had resisted the urge to join in the whole facebook trend. But a couple of months ago, we finally gave in and decided to join, mainly to see what all the fuss was about. Overall, we're glad we did - we both rather enjoy being able to reconnect with old friends we'd lost touch with and the sense of community that comes from being more connected on a day-to-day basis with people we otherwise wouldn't hear from very frequently, as, let's face it, life is just BUSY, especially when you both work and have young kiddos, like we do.

One thing I've noticed that disturbs me about facebook though is the way some folks seem a bit obsessed with having more and more "friends". Now, we all have real needs for love and to feel that we belong - there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

But I've seen enough facebook status's along the lines of "only 40 more friends and I'll have 1000!" that I'm starting to wonder if some of the pursuit of greater and greater numbers of "friends" isn't perhaps more symptomatic of a larger trend going on in our culture - that being, the busier we get, and the more technology we have in our lives that supposedly make things easier and more convenient, the less real meaningful social interaction we may be having with REAL people in REAL (i.e. non-internet) life.

Is this pursuit of more and more virtual 'friends' perhaps covering up the fact that we don't have true friendships and community in our lives? When I speak of community, I mean people who are available, both emotionally, and time-wise, to us, who are able and willing to share the joys and sorrows of life along-side us. People who will be there when the inevitable crises of life crop up. People who will challenge us, encourage us, and celebrate our victories with us. People who will invest both their time, trust, and love with us, and who we invest back those same valuable commodities with.

Joy & I have been searching for that kind of community in our own lives. We haven't found it yet since moving a couple years ago to AZ, so we can certainly understand feeling lonely and isolated at times. But we're not giving up - we're continuing to trust that God can and will bring that into our lives, as we believe He desires us to live and grow our faith in just such a community.

But back to this phenomenon of facebook - if you're one of those folks with hundreds and hundreds of friends in your virtual community, I hope and pray that you're blessed to have at least one or two people in your life you can call true friends. But if those types of relationships are lacking for you, I challenge you not to substitute quantity for quality when it come to friendships - don't give up!

Risk being vulnerable with other people.

Risk being a true friend to others, even if you're not quite sure they consider you a true friend yet.

Risk opening up and being honest about an area you're struggling with in life.

Risk the pain of possible rejection.

If you aren't willing to do that, you may end up spending way more lonely nights talking to your "friends" online and missing out on the better way God has in mind for you.

I think He has a greater plan for your life - one where you live in community with people who love and encourage you to be all God created you to be and where likewise you do the same for others. If you can be honest with yourself, I think you will agree that you want that as well.

Don't settle for anything less than God's best for you!

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13