Washing of the water

River, river carry me on
Living river carry me on
River, river carry me on
To the place where I come from

So deep, so wide, will you take me on your back for a ride
If I should fall, would you swallow me deep inside

River, show me how to float
I feel like I'm sinking down
Thought that I could get along
But here in this water
My feet won't touch the ground
I need something to turn myself around

Going away, away towards the sea
River deep, can you lift up and carry me
Oh roll on though the heartland
'Til the sun has left the sky
River, river carry me high
'Til the washing of the water make it all alright
Let your waters reach me like she reached me tonight

Letting go, it's so hard
The way it's hurting now
To get this love untied
So tough to stay with this thing
'Cause if I follow through
I face what I denied
I get those hooks out of me
And I take out the hooks that I sunk deep in your side
Kill that fear of emptiness, loneliness I hide

River, oh river, river running deep
Bring me something that will let me get to sleep
In the washing of the water will you take it all away
Bring me something to take this pain away


Peter Gabriel: Washing of the water
More lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/peter+gabriel/#share

Boats

Heard recently:

Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals ...

Work and play

Here are some notes from a recent sermon in our Open Church service about work:

1) Work is not pointless. It is intended to produce food, store food or produce the resources to buy food. Proverbs 6 says:

"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest."

Just because we are Christians, does not mean that we have an excuse not to engage in daily work; we should not consider ourselves to be too holy for work. 2 Thessalonians 3 says:

"If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

2) Our work should be done as if we are doing it for the Lord and not for the praise of men. Ephesians 6 makes this clear. Daily work can be seen as a 'calling' and as such is important.

3) We are more than our daily work. There is also more to life than work. The Sabbath (which means 'stop') makes the point that sometimes things are finished, enough, sufficient. In Genesis 2 on the seventh day, God created the opportunity to step back and review His work and see that it was good. In a balanced life, we will have time and energy over outside of our work to evaluate, consider, think, re-charge. Psalm 127 says that the Lord grants sleep to those he loves; sleep is a gift of love.

4) Ecclesiasts 10 points out that fools are often put in positions of power. It is important to realise this so that when stupid decisions are made, they do not break you. If you become your work then losing your job or changes in your workplace will be able to powerfully affect you, your self-image and your self-confidence.

5) We can entrust our work and the situations in our workplace to the Lord. Psalm 127 tells that that our work is in vain unless the Lord is in it. Psalm 27 says that the Lord is our strength and that He helps us as we trust in Him:

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."

Het Water

Ik staar over het water

Dat net als ik

Ooit in beweging was

Peilloos diep en dreigend zwart

Net als wat ik in je ogen las

Stekeblind, oostindisch doof

Wil ik voor altijd zijn

Om maar niet te zien of kunnen horen

Dat alles is verloren

Zonder jou kan ik niet

Eten, slapen, lopen, dansen, leven

En dus blijf ik hier nu zitten
En blijf ik hier nu wachten
Tot het water ooit weer in beweging komt
En dan drijf ik mee
Tot aan de zee
Waar jij
Op mij zal wachten

De lucht is licht
En eindeloos

En zo ver boven mij

Onaantastbaar en toch

Zo dichtbij

Net als jij

Het staat in de lucht geschreven

Maar op m'n lippen blijft het kleven

Zonder jou kan ik niet

Eten, slapen, lopen, dansen, leven

Dus blijf ik hier nu zitten

En blijf ik hier nu wachten

Tot het water ooit weer in beweging komt

En dan drijf ik mee

Tot aan de zee

Waar jij

Op mij zal wachten

Ik staar over het water
Dat net als ik
Ooit in beweging was

Marco Borsato: Het Water

Links

Meetings between people are like links in this pattern. Any meeting not only impacts on me but also on the people linked to me.

"The greatest work of God today is not what happens in people but what happens between people."

Crossing borders

Borders
To cross or not to cross?
Move forwards or stay put?
Take on the unknown or remain with the known?
Be active or be passive?
Initiate change or hang onto familiarity?
Bring in the new or sit down with the old?
Open up to a challenge or close down with routine?
Be uncertain or be sure?

Secure border crossings
You cross knowingly.
Preparation before crossing is necessary.
Authorisation is required.
Permission to cross can be refused..
There are restrictions on what you take across with you.
There is a specific point at which you may cross.

Open border crossings
You can drift across unknowingly.
You may cross on a whim.
You are free to come and go as you please.
Permission is not necessary.
You can take across what you will
There are many points at which you can cross.

Some borders have been created by mankind to divide us from our fellow human beings.
Where are the borders that I do not cross?
What can I do to prepare to cross a border and extend my horizons?

Who is God sending you to?

Pool of Tears

"But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all around her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the hall."

Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland

Kenneth Rougeau: "On The Bank Of The Pool Of Tears"

each person
sits next
to their own
pool of tears
 
Andrea at: http://poustiniamoments.blogspot.com/

No Water

Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses

If there were water

And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

From T.S.Eliot: The Wasteland; What the Thunder said

God's Garden

The Lord God planted a garden

In the first white days of the world,

And He set there an angel warden

In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,

That the hawk might rest with the wren,

For there in the cool of the even

God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden-closes

With their shade and their sun-flecked sod

And their lilies and bowers of roses,

Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon

The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden

Under the olive-trees

Where the angel of strength was the warden

And the soul of the world found ease.

Dorothy Frances Gurney (1858-1932)

http://www.wordle.net/

Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, not no man ever loved.