tulips

we went down to woodburn to the tulip festival--it was like a dream come true!

it was soo beautiful, its like you just cant stop looking at it!!

downtown salem, oregon

tallest man on earth

some well-crafted, good old folk music.

listen!

I was born to lie here patiently

Be dragged on by the black star

And you were told to glow majestically

And love until your hands bleed

--page france

inked

rejoice.

okay so i just decided to do a list of all the great songs that are on my exclamation point playlist. because its pretty magical.
if its the beaches--avett brothas
awake my soul--mumford & sons
i hope you find it--miley cyrus (SHUTUP.)
the funeral--band of horses
hey me, hey mama--ray lamontagne
rave on--m. ward
one hundred million years--m. ward
empty bottle--ingrid michaelson
you & i--ingrid michaelson
in ruins--fol chen
congratulations--MGMT
it's working--MGMT
your love is a song--switchfoot
jorge regula--moldy peaches
fair--remy zero
devil dressed in blue--right away great captain!
this is your life--the killers
the times they are a changin--bob dylan
forest--number one gun
toomuch rain--bob dylan
hoppopolla--sigur ros
head first down--whitley
imma be--black eyed peas
a sun a sound--great northern
jesus--page france


gosh, i just love music.

m. ward is brilliant. 

if you have never listened, you should now. 

here's his website

be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

--Plato

this guy:)

is a good one.

marc johns

is so great.

check it

for believers, earth is the closest thing to hell they will ever experience.
for non believers, earth is the closest thing to heaven they will ever experience.


think about that one for a while.

you were made to find your strength in Christ, to be passionate & joyful. to praise and glorify your Maker. to love without condition. to feed the hungry and to bring relief and good news to the weary. to rejoice in every circumstance. to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.  you were made to be holy, set apart. 

you were bought with a price. now live that way.

so often i label what i want as what God wants.  just by putting God's name on it, i justify (to myself of course) doing whatever i desire. and soon, i trick myself into believing it IS in fact what God wants. i have no discerning into what i have actually given over to Him and what i am holding so dearly onto.

and when i think about what these things are, i am reminded by 1 Corinthians 7:23

 "you were bought with a price, do not become slaves of man"

and i come to this conclusion: it really does not matter what i want. 

that seems like such a simple simple concept and its taken me this long to fully understand it, but the things i want, the deepest desires of my heart, do not matter in the big picture of the Kingdom. this is both humbling and somewhat disappointing, as well as comforting to know that there is someone in control of this crazy messed up world in which we live.

this reminds me of blue like jazz when donald miller talks about being self-absorbed. because i'm a human, i spend more time on myself--thinking about myself, looking at myself, entertaining myself, analyzing myself, making myself look nice--than i do on anything or anyone else. mr miller goes on to say "All i'm saying is that if we, as a species, could fix our self-absorption, we could end a lot of pain in the world."

so if i could channel this force, this current of self-centeredness--if i could stop thinking about what i want and start thinking about what God wants--if i could think of people's NEEDS rather than what i feel like at the moment--if i could channel all that into helping someone else, the world would be better off.

and i am humbled by that.

mumford & sons!

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such a good album.

now there is great gain in godliness with contentment.

2 timothy 6:6

i love art

Robert Rauschenberg, Estate