A Storm on the Horizon

The Imperials have been around for a long time in one iteration or another.  I first became aware of them in the mid-seventies when Russ Taff was a member.  They were on a journey from southern gospel to a more contemporary sound and I caught up with them at the right time.  I was used to sixties pop music: Simon and Garfunkel, Glen Campbell, etc.  and the Imperials with a strong beat and a multiplicity of musical instruments appealed to me.

There was one song that I liked that I somehow thought I shouldn’t like.  It was Let the Wind Blow.  Here are the lyrics.

And here is the song:

Why shouldn’t i like it?  Well it sounds kind of like a negative confession, doesn’t it?  Look at these two lines:

Let the world give all the hurt it can,
Let the evil one devise his plans, 

That’s negative, isn’t it?  But I think the song does have a message we need to hear, especially today.  We listen to the voices around us.  ISIS, Ebola, a socialist government, social security and medicare, illegal aliens.  Let’s see.  What else?  Obamacare.  NSA spying.  There’s more but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

There are plenty of reasons to be afraid.  There are plenty of people who are ready to tell us we should be afraid.  And it seems to me that we have listened.  We have willingly traded in our peace, joy and love for fear, anger, and suspicion.  And one day we will wake up and realize how hard it will be to get back where we were.

It may be that we stand at a crossroads.  The world is running headlong in the wrong direction.  What is our response?  What should be our response?  I’m going to get radical here and say what I think.  I think maybe our response is not to arm ourselves.  It’s not to join the strident voices in the political arena.  Maybe our response is not in fighting back.  Maybe it’s peace, joy, and love instead of fear, anger, and suspicion.

Because if we have not the peace of God, if we have not the Prince of peace, then what is our testimony before the world?

I think I need to add the rest of that verse;

Let the world give all the hurt it can,
Let the evil one devise his plans,
I’m trusting in the great I am, 

Let the wind blow.

 

Archaeology for the Home

My wife works from home.  Her office is in the spare bedroom.  Well technically they  are both spare bedrooms because the children are out on their own so neither of the two other bedrooms are used for bedrooms.  Well the other one could be considered a guestroom I suppose.  But that room is another story.  What I have come to talk to you about today is the…  office.

My wife’s desk is in there with her computer and filing cabinet and big ole printer.  Well two printers.  One black and white for work and one color for personal.

She also has her sewing machine in there with it’s own cabinet.  Well two sewing machines really.

Then there’s the Create A Space, a big table that gets even bigger when you unfold it.  I call it the waste a space.  I guess I just haven’t inhaled enough fabric but I think I’m getting there.

Then there’s a bookcase with fabric in it, an upright cabinet with fabric in it, and various other filing cabinets with, I suppose, fabric in them.

Finally on part of one wall there is my computer desk.

So here I sit blogging away surrounded by…

Fabric.  (The horror, the horror.)

Okay I’m joking.  I really like us being together in one room doing what we are doing.  It feels cozy.  It feels connected.  I don’t know why anybody would want 2500 square feet.  You just gotta clean it.

Which brings me to the real topic of my treatise.  Vacuuming the office.

There are three chairs in the office: a work chair, a sewing chair, and a computer/blogging chair.

There are two open spaces in the office: in front of the closet and the middle of the room.

To vacuum the office requires an intricate ballet of movements.  It requires choreography.  Here’s how it goes.

1.  Move the computer chair in front of the closet.

2.  Vacuum in front of the computer desk.

3.  Move the computer chair back in it’s place.

4.  Move sewing chair in front of the closet.

5.  Vacuum  in front of the sewing machine(s).

6.  Move the sewing chair back in it’s place.

7.  Vacuum in front of the closet.

8.  Move the work chair to the middle of the room.

9.  Vacuum in front of the work desk.

10.  Move the work chair back in it’s place.

11.  Vacuum the middle of the room.

12.  Back out of the room vacuuming as you go.  Watch out for the corner of the Create A Space.

Somewhere in the midst of all that you can take a rod exactly two meters long, put a crystal on top, and wait for the light to hit it just right.  If you do it will show you where to dig (under all that fabric) to find the lost Ark of the Covenant.

It makes as much sense as the movie.  I Love Raiders of the Lost Ark but really?  The power of God resides in a box that you can dig up and possess?  I think not.

My faith is not dependent on some relic, on an object that can rust and decay.  The power of God cannot be dug up or bought or stolen.  All of God’s faith and power resides in flesh and blood, in us.

God’s Holy Spirit lives in us and His presence is not bought or earned.  His presence is a free gift.  Just by believing do we receive, by believing in Jesus Christ.