love

for those of you who know me well you know that tuesday concluded roughly eight months of work i've done on a documentary film project.  the documentary, entitled canaries in the mine, focuses on the loss of alabama's black farmers and what this means for the state. however, one of the other thematic arcs is the idea of preserving rural community within alabama. 

because so much of my time was devoted to this project i was continually trying to metabolize the idea of community and it's importance.  i would come home from interviewing these amazing people who were essentially watching their communities disappear and my heart would just be so burdened for them.  

then one night i was reading through john and i came to the part in chapter 17 when jesus is praying.  he says to our Father: 

my prayer is not for them [the disciples] alone. i also pray 

for them that will believe in me through their message, 

that all of them may be one, father, just as you are in me and

i am in you.  may they also believe in us so that the

world may believe that you have sent me. 

john 17:20-21

it was through reading this that i came to understand that it is our obligation to create, construct, participate and foster loving Christ-centered community.  Jesus indicates here that by doing so we are a testament to the world that the Lord sent Christ to die. 

pagans can love people who love them.  they can encourage and support people who support and encourage them.  non-believers can like people who speak the same, act the same and dress the same as they do.  

but we are called to something so much greater than that. we are called to love and be in community with those who despise us. i sometimes don't do a good job of loving and fostering community among my friends.  

but i want to be so much more than an ordinary human being who gravitates towards and loves the people who share my ideologies and habits.  i want to love all those around me. i want people to feel the joy of God-breathed relationships. i want the way that i interact with people to be a testament to the Father that loves me.  

happy birthday katie!

the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad

for them; and the the desert shall rejoice, 

and blossom as the rose. 

isaiah 35:1 

i like to think that God and all my brothers and sisters

in heaven dance all day in flowers like these in heaven

they just dance and laugh and worship with 

joy at the glory of redemption

bring on next week!

lay your blouse across the chair

let fall the flowers from your hair

and kiss me with that country mouth so plain

outside the rain is tapping on the leaves

to me it sounds like they're applauding us

for the quiet love we've made.

- ray lamontagne, empty

i am so excited about seeing him live next monday! woo hoo!

thank you katie!! :) 

and then. they day after that. there's this little film screening 

i'd like you all to come to. i may or may not have spent

THE ENTIRE YEAR working on a film that will screen that day.

here's the trailer (mine's the farming one):

(but they're all so stinking good!)

girl crushes

they're just so cute! and pretty!

governments should be afraid of their people

i'm doing this project on nigerian afrobeat artist fela kuti and it's so incredible.  this man started a commune/clinic/recording studio called the kalakuta republic.  just through producing music he was able to ignite the people of nigeria against their corrupt militaristic government. 

somehow the military was able to obtain a warrant for his arrest and they raided the republic. they had with them a cannabis joint they intended to plant on him.  he discerned their plot and literally swallowed the joint whole. they then took him into custody where they intended to examine his feces.  however, another inmate in the prison literally gave him their feces and he was released without charge or harm.  

he then released this song called "zombie."  it was a metaphor to describe the methods of the nigerian military.  soon after the republic was raided and his elderly mother was thrown through a window sustaining fatal injuries. fela himself was beaten almost to death.  

but he continued to speak out against the government and produce music which served as indictments of their corruption.  in 1986 he would join bono and the neville brothers onstage at amnesty international's conspiracy of hope concert in new jersey. 

in 1979 he even put himself forward for the nigerian presidency. it was the first presidential election they'd had in over a decade.  he was denied the ability to run. 

fela died of kaposi's sarcoma brought on by aids on august 3, 1997. while he had his share of flaws (some of his songs have strong misogynistic themes) he took art and music and used it to elevate social consciousness and to hold his government accountable to the ideas of human rights and justice.

what a beautifully, beautifully lived life. 

carol brown just took a bus out of town

thus far the easter weekend has been a veritable cornucopia of wondrous occurrences!  first of all, honor's day my whole family came down to watch the ceremony. and let's be honest. those things are lame.  but they came anyway.  sometimes i am blessed beyond my own comprehension.  

then, as if that wasn't enough i got to go see flight of the conchords last night at the ryman. and it was sheer bliss. kristen shaal, who plays the character mel on the show, opened for them and was wearing gold sequin encrusted bermuda shorts.  then the band came out and was just this unstoppable force of wit and new zealand accents.  i couldn't find a set list online, nor is my memory good enough to recount it but here's what i remember: 

too many dicks on the dancefloor

business time

i've got hurt feelings

the human's are dead

jenny

albi the racist dragon

doin' it

most beautiful girl 

motha'uckas 

if you're into it

the ballad of stana

girlfriends of the past

they're may have been more. they encored twice!

anyway, then chris and i drove home to chattanooga and on the way we just had one of those on the road conversations that i love where you have enough time to talk to someone so you can just be elaborate and vulnerable. there were periods where we sat in silence and listened to u2 and patty griffin and then we'd think of something else we wanted to talk about. it was perfect.

this was one of the songs we listened to and i thought it was so appropriate in light of easter: 

the earth was shaking in the dark 

all creation felt the father's broken heart

tears were filling heaven's eyes

the day that true love died, the day that true love died

when blood and water hit the ground

walls we couldn't move came crashing down

we were free and made alive

the day that true love died, the day that true love died

now jesus is alive. 

- phil wickham, true love died

that last line he just sings over and over and it's building and it just fills my heart with such joy. it's amazing to me how easily the astounding miracle that is christ's death and resurrection fades into the obscurity of my subconscious.  but i am so eternally thankful that my neglect changes nothing about the beauty of the sacrifice.  happy easter everyone!

why this watch is exactly two days slow!

johnny depp and tim burton 

johnny depp's trial mock up for 

his portrayal of the mad hatter in

tim burton's alice in wonderland.

i die.

lolcatz

see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

you're beautiful

lately i've been listening to phil wickham's beautiful on repeat.  his entire singalong album is incredible, nearly every hymn he sings chokes me up.  but beautiful is one of the ones he's written and the imagery in it pertaining to christ and the beauty of his creation is so wonderful. the final verse is my favorite because it references one of my favorite metaphors in scripture and that's the church as the bride of christ:

when we arrive at eternity's shore

where death is just a memory and tears are no more

we'll enter in as the wedding bells ring

your bride will come together and we'll sing

you're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful

then thursday night whilst everyone was shaking their booties at viking cocktail a group of people gathered together and watched return of the king. now i'm going to geek out on you for a minute here.  but there's a pivotal scene in the battle of pelennor fields where eowyn, who is a woman, kills the king of the nazgûl.  right before she slays him there's this fantastic dialogue, and it's better in the book than in the movie so it's what i've included here: 

"a cold voice answered, 'come not between the nazgûl and his prey! or he will not slay thee in thy turn.  he will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shriveled mind be left naked to the lidless eye.'

a sword rang as it was drawn, 'do what you will; but i will hinder it, if i may.' 

'hinder me? thou fool. no living man may hinder me!'

then merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. it seemed that the dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. 'but no living man am i! you look upon a woman. eowyn i am, eodmund's daughter, you stand between me and my lord and kin.  begone if you be not deathless! for living or dark undead, i will smite you if you touch him.'"

- the return of the king, the battle of pelennor fields

to tie that in, shane explained that here eowyn represents the bride of christ, or the church, and she is overcoming the great darkness of earth.  i just love that image.  the church slaying this embodiment of evil.  

i totes understand if nobody understood this post. i considered deleting it because i'm afraid i'm the only one who would like it. but i did just transcribe half a page of tolkien at two in the morning. so i decided not to.