Left Behind

This has been a stressful week.  I can't even remember the days before Saturday.  We didn't get raptured that day ... not that any of us REALLY thought that was going to happen that day ... but every one of us gave it a thought or two.  You see, the guy who came up with the Judgment Day predictions was originally from Grand Rapids.

So Saturday, six o'clock came and went.  The Christians are still here, to struggle right along with the rest of humanity.

Sunday morning Mike and I went to church.  We have a new church since last August, and we like it very much, and never want to miss the chance to "hang with the saints."

We drove out I196 to Lake Michigan Drive and I took a glance to my left as we passed the downtown area, because I knew the Rob Bliss Grand Rapids LipDub was going on that morning.  You needed to gather by 9 AM to be part of the crowd.  We were at church already by 9 AM.  It was "Dispensationalism 101" Sunday.  We had a grill-out/potluck afterwards.  I brought my bff Kathy's recipe "Barbecue Beans" ... they were a big hit.  I wished the LipDub would have been not on a Sunday morning because I'd have loved to be downtown.  I really love Grand Rapids; I really love Rob Bliss's energetic community events; I really love how my little town has gotten so cultural in my adult lifetime.

Sunday afternoon there was a bad tornado in Minnesota; and we were under "watches" for tornadoes here.  There was a deadly tornado in G.R. when I was a little girl.  I've had bad dreams about tornadoes.  Before I went to bed Sunday night, I took a bunch of stuff down to the basement.  I always do that during tornado season.  I took my scrapbooks, my strong box, my jewelry box, my purse, my laptop ... this time I even took some canned goods down there, and a box of raisins, box of crackers, some silverware. There's bottled water down there left-over from my original fear-stash in the days after 9/11.

Woke up Monday morning to the images of the Missouri E-5 tornado.  And by tonight I have realized that tornadoes chew up everything and spit it on top of your head ... if you even survive ... so I brought the crackers and the raisins back upstairs.  The treasures are still in a plastic tub in the basement.  Tornado season doesn't really start in Michigan until June -- when the air here gets hotter.

Well, Tuesday night, I got a text from my almost-daughter-in-law, Amy.  (Josh and Amy are getting married on 6/25. That's my son Scott, who died 2 years ago on 6/18/09's birthday. Josh & Amy chose that date on purpose.  Amy's shower is 6/18/11.  Why? Just sayin' ... but not to them, of course.)

Anyway, the text from Amy was asking me to pray for her friend, David, whom I've never met. Amy's parents are church-building missionaries, so Amy grew up living all sorts of places, and she has friends all over the U.S.  David had been "swept away" in a river in Arkansas.  So I prayed.  And prayed.  And this 21-year-old has been in my heart and on my mind all week.

Over on Facebook, David's brother's future-mother-in-law had, by Wednesday night, created a special "page" for prayers for David and updates on the search effort.  So I've been praying, and visiting that page, multiple times each day.

Hundreds of people are praying for David.  Many of us, like myself, have never met him, but are friends or relatives of David's friends.

From Tuesday night until tonight ... constantly in our unanswered prayers, is a young man swept away in a river.  Sonar has determined, the Arkansas authorities claim, that there is no body in the river, so the family should not give up hope.  Cadaver dogs have also determined that there is no body in the river.  So last night they started searching the forest with volunteers and bloodhounds.  Everybody has been praying.  I am not used to prayers this heart-felt, humble, and fervent going unanswered!  How in the world can a person simply vanish when his whole community is searching for him day and night?

The bright spot in the week, for me, has been the YouTube release yesterday of our Grand Rapids LipDub video.  I really want to share that with everybody!

On YouTube the response has been very favorable. It was featured on several network newscasts tonight, to my surprise.  A very few YouTube comments were criticizing the "under-representation of minorities."  Well, in Grand Rapids, a LOT of people go to church on Sunday morning.  I had personally wished that the Bethel Pentecostal Choir would have been in the LipDub -- they are really cool, and mostly African-American.  Would have liked to see the Three Fires tribes in it, too. PaWaTing MeGedWin senior citizens meet twice a week at the church where I work (not the same church that I attend on Sundays).  The Three Fires Annual Pow Wow will be at Riverside Park in June ... The church I work at is quite multi-cultural; and the church I go to is, too. The happy, clean-cut faces of several races that you'll see in this video are mostly people who either don't go to church at all, or who played hooky for the Rob Bliss event.  Grand Rapids is a cool city.  I love living here.  I love going downtown. I hope you will enjoy the video I post in the comments (because I can't post it in the body of this blog).

Hey! I actually wrote a BLOG!

For I Have Loved, Not as I Should, a Creature Made of Clay ...

On Raglan Road on an autumn day,

I saw her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare
That I might one day rue.

I saw the danger, and I passed
Along the enchanted way
And I said let grief be a falling leaf
At the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November,
We tripped lightly along the ledge
Of a deep ravine where can be seen
The worth of passions pledged.

The queen of hearts still making tarts
And I not making hay,
Oh I loved too much; and by such and such
Is happiness thrown away.

I gave her gifts of the mind.
I gave her the secret sign
That's known to artists who have known
The true gods of sound and time.

And words and tint I did not stint.
I gave her poems to say
With her own name there and her long dark hair
Like the clouds over fields of May.

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet,
I see her walking now
Away from me, so hurriedly,
My reason must allow,

That I have loved , not as I should
A creature made of clay.
When the angel woos the clay, he'll lose
His wings at the dawn of day.

Cabin Fever Music

Quote du Jour

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance."

Quoted from the end of a round-robin email posted on my friend, Missy's page: http://cherokeemis.multiply.com/journal/item/81

If I Stand

There’s more that rises in the morning than the sun,

And more that shines in the night than just the moon.

There’s more than just this fire, here, that keeps me warm,

And a shelter that is larger than this room.

There’s a loyalty that’s deeper than mere sentiment,

And a music higher than the songs that I can sing.

The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance

That I owe only to the Giver of all good things

So if I stand, let me stand on the promise

That You will pull me through;

And if I can’t, then let me fall

On the grace that first brought me to You.

 

Rich Mullins

 

 

 

 

Notes to Self

Go look at this week's Picture Perfect entries when you get some time.

If you want to hear Luciano Pavarotti or Placido Domingo, go to Vinster's videos.

See what the CC challenge is on Bill's page.

Try to read some more of those De Maupassant short stories, because they might be good for the writer in you, even if you don't like the endings.

The Words My Mama Taught Me and The Songs My Grandma Sang

Music is an outstanding gift of God and next to theology ... I would not give up my slight knowledge of music for a great consideration ... and youth should be taught this art ... for it makes fine skillful people ... I would certainly like to praise music with all my heart as the excellent gift of God which it is and to commend it to everyone.

-- Martin Luther

I woke up this morning to the music in my memory:

My mommy told me something
A little girl should know
It's all about the devil and I've learned to hate him so
He'll only give you trouble if you let him in the room
He will never, ever leave you if your heart is filled with gloom, so:

Let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Smilers never lose
And frowners never win

So let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Open up your heart and let the sun shine in

Does anybody else know this to be the first verse to Rock-a-bye Baby? --

Rock a bye baby, your cradle is green
Daddy's a nobleman, Mommy's a queen
Sister's a young lady who wears a gold ring
And Johnny's a drummer who drums for the king

Rock a bye baby
In the tree top
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all

In adulthood, I heard that some think that cradle falls and crashes to the ground, injuring or killing the baby ... but by the time I heard that interpretation it was too late to stick that ugly picture in my memory because I already saw it floating gently to the softest of landings on the notes my grandma sang to me as she rocked me in her arms.

Remember to sing to your children

Have a joyful day, my friends!