in need of relaxation, i headed out to the bush library again to take some pictures. it looks like within the next few weeks there will be some more flowers, so there may be multiple trips out there… at any rate, the rest of the pics can be found here.
Not to complain, but this has definitely come up as an issue the past two weeks in church services i’ve attended: language usage.
Now I understand that no one speaks with perfect grammar all the time. I am certainly guilty of bad english usage as much as the next guy, but if you’re going to depart from your normal pattern of speech while praying just so that you can sound smarter or more formal, I would appreciate if you do it correctly.
With that in mind, I thought we might have a refresher course on what certain archaic words mean, and their usage:
1. Thy or Thine – Thy and Thine are possessive pronouns in the genitive case. Correct usages: Thy word, Thy chair, Thy heart, thy grace. Incorrect usages: Thy art, Thy bring us, Thy formed the world. Thy should be used in place of the more common word “your” – and let’s not get started on the proper usage of “your” as compared to “you’re”. ex. sentence: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
2. Thou and Thee- Thou and Thee are pronouns, thou being the nominative case and Thee being the objective, functioning as both the dative and accusative. For those of you who are counting, the nominative case marks the subject of a verb while the objective case functions as the target of the verb. Correct usage: “We beseech thee.” or “Thou art great among all Gods.” or “Thou hast provided …”
coldplay was fun tonight, though generously only about 45% as good as u2. of course comparing u2 @ year 26 with coldplay @ year 7 isn’t exactly fair, but none the less it’s hard to compare with the show u2 puts on. my hope is that in 15 years or so coldplay will have evolved to the level of showmanship of u2 and mellowed out of some of their rolling stonesish antics.
that being said, there were several really cool moments. my personal favorites were “the scientist”, “till kingdom come” with a tribute to johnny cash with “ring of fire” tacked on the end of it, as well as “talk” and “yellow”. the encore (“swallowed in the sea”, “in my place”, and “fix you”) was quite compelling, and probably worth the price of admission alone. i don’t know that i’d payed proper attention to “swallowed in the sea” before. the lyrics from the final bridge seemed to me to be particularly appropriate for the evening: “oh, what good is it to live / with nothing left to give / forget, but not forgive / not loving all you see?”
at the conclusion, “fix you” was quite well done, with chris martin not singing the final refrain at all, but rather allowing the voices of the crowd echoing in the toyota center to rise above the strains of the piano.
“lights will guide you home,
and ignite your bones,
and i will try
to fix you.”
all in all an extremely enjoyable evening.
thursday james and i went out and stole traci’s tulips so we could take some shots of them. not the best macro work i’ve ever done, but some came out ok.
i was going through old benedictions tonight when i realized that there were several from the early days that weren’t posted here. i thought i’d fix that by putting them up, but i wanted to keep their date structure somewhat intact, so i’ve placed them back where they belong (a year or so ago). here are the links:
to you who are alone
you who have tasted the world
as you follow his plan
you who wait expectantly
you who search for wisdom
may you run
God reaches out to you
a people – lost and wandering
as you survey your valley of dry bones
it was still back in the early days, so some are better than others, but there are a few that i like a lot, and that are rather meaningful to me. hope you enjoy.
may you carry others to Christ:
wounded, helpless, hopeless.
may you have eyes to see those in need –
in need of relief and release from an existence of fear and doubt –
in need of a Savior.
and as we approach Christ together
poor in our spirits and blind in our understanding
may we be continually reminded
that we are not above the charity of God –
that we are all the rescued ones.