hmmmm.... this is good news

"God does not accept me just as I am; he loves me despite how I am. He loves me just as Jesus is; he loves me enough to devote my life to renewing me in the image of Jesus. This love is much, much better than unconditional! Perhaps we should call it 'contraconditional' love. God has blessed me because his Son fulfilled the conditions I could never achieve. Contrary to what I deserve, he loves me. And now I can begin to change, not to earn love, but because I've already received it." --David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes

dying friends

It is surprising how singing in a choir with a bunch of messy people (myself included) lifts the Spirit. And I'm not sure whether to capitalize that, spirit or Spirit? It's sort of that "everything is gonna be alright" sense but more in a "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" sense. In the middle of hearing a lot of suffering today, I felt really pretty quiet. But not a good quiet. Kind of a sick quiet.
After choir practice, I say, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

And my throat is burning now as I sang with the sopranos. What was I thinking?

new color for a non blogger (on this site, at least)

I chose this color orange as my background color because it is almost exactly the color of my kitchen. Wanted to feel all "beach at sunset" every morning (and the rest of the day, for that matter).