I always defined "culture" as how a particular group does something or the idiosyncrasies of a particular people. On a Florida vacation over Christmas break we learned that, unlike in Iowa, everything there was open on Christmas Day. It was like the 4th of July in Okoboji. Culture has the Dutch washing their windows every day since they want their neighbors to see what is inside their homes and it has the French closing their shutters so no one can see in. It wasn't until I was in language school in France that I discovered that most of the rest of the world defines culture in a different way. They use the word to refer to the arts. This weekend I was fortunate to participate in a bit of both kinds of culture.
On Saturday I went to an Indian cooking class taught by two women from India. They were delightful women, full of stories of growing up in India where the kitchen is considered the most sacred room in the house. As a little girl, one of the women had to take a bath before an aunt would allow her into her kitchen. Then she would sit on the floor next to her aunt and watch and learn. Indian cooks don't taste their food before it is served. Cooking is a labor of love and to taste the food before the family or guests did would break that spell of love. The way the Indian culture views food oozed out of these women and the food they fixed was very good.
On Sunday afternoon I went to the Minnesota Varsity Showcase concert in St Paul featuring the five best high school musicians in the state. I had heard a couple of these musicians on the radio and knew that it would qualify as "culture" even for my French friends who had looked at me with a blank stare when I had described the high school band and choir concert as the cultural activities in our town. In addition, the price was right for my budget - free. I was not disappointed. All five of them gave excellent performances. You can listen to the top 15 http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/cms/features/ongoing/minnesota-varsity/player/.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
On the Inside
This is one of those weeks where I wonder what to write about. Most of my posts have been about a particular event or different spheres of my life. Little has occurred in recent weeks that makes a good story. What is happening in my life is more internal. Right now my life seems to be full of figuring out what it means to grieve well, dealing with anger and unfulfilled longings. Stir in the effects of still being in transition and at times my emotions and thoughts seem like a ball of yarn that a cat has played with until it is a tangled mess. At times it feels that I have far too much time on my hands but that has allowed me extended time to read, study, pray and journal. And when I'm stuck with my thoughts going around in circles, there are a couple of women in my life who challenge my thinking and get me going in the right direction again.
I've found much of what I'm experiencing to be mirrored in the Psalms. I'm thankful that God included so many laments in his songbook even though we don't sing them in church. (We need more laments in our repertoire, but that's another topic.) I've memorized Psalm 16, 27, 42 & 43, and 63 and manage to review them each day as I get ready for work at 4:30 AM. It's been a great way to start my day and has oriented my prayers.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
I've found much of what I'm experiencing to be mirrored in the Psalms. I'm thankful that God included so many laments in his songbook even though we don't sing them in church. (We need more laments in our repertoire, but that's another topic.) I've memorized Psalm 16, 27, 42 & 43, and 63 and manage to review them each day as I get ready for work at 4:30 AM. It's been a great way to start my day and has oriented my prayers.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, "Seek my face."
My heart says to you,
"Your face, Lord, do I seek."
Hide not your face from me.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
I say to God, my rock:
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?"
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
There are many things that I desire and would like to see happen in my life. I'm also grieving losses that change everything for the rest of my life. As I've wrestled with these things and allowed God's word to work in my mind and heart, I find myself knowing at a much deeper level that God is the only one who can satisfy the deep needs of my soul. He's the only one who provides exceeding joy. My other desires seem less strong, less important, and my desire for him is deeper and more intense. And the process has probably been helped by the relative dullness of many of my days.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
World Premiere
Music is better heard than described with words, but since the recital I attended featured two world premiers, they can't yet be found on youtube. Who knows if they will ever be of internet fame. Then again, maybe that is not the desire of these students. For this particular concert Erik Rohde, a doctoral student in orchestral conducting, was happy to conduct the university orchestra and a hodge-podge sixteen-member choral who had all rehearsed together two times.
The first piece was a viola concerto, Knowing the River, composed by Jacob Tews, a viola doctoral student. From one of the women who sang in the choral I learned the score had 1184 measures, 148 time signature changes and 14 key changes. From the first notes I knew that this was a modern piece. It was filled with dissonance. At times during the first act I felt like I was listening to noise. Yet that noise fit with the texts being sung.
...The jester of Discordance now leads the footsteps...
Cuts from the harsh thorns
are met by increasing fierceness
mixed with a secret fear:
This place is suitable for me,
as empty and dark as the secrets of my soul...
In the second act the dissonance lessened and things began to resolve a bit.
...Contentment and peace, hitherto elusive,
now fill my mind, my lips, and my being with your praise.
Swaying. Staying. Praying in your presence.
Shall I dance?
The third act depicted uncontainable laughter, spontaneous childlikeness, and a kaleidoscope of joys. And at the end, finally in a major key with more pleasing harmonies, it declared:
Behold! I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed...
Then shall come to pass
the saying that is written:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
Throughout the concerto I enjoyed watching Jacob Tews play the soloist part. At times a smile would play over his lips as he seemed particularly pleased with how it was all sounding. Another time I think it was in anticipation of a section he particularly enjoyed. But during the closing lines his face filled with emotion and his eyes brimmed with tears.
O death, where is your sting?
Amen, halleluia!
Whatever the dreams Jacob and Erik have, I hope that they never stop putting all their heart into the music they compose, perform or conduct.
The first piece was a viola concerto, Knowing the River, composed by Jacob Tews, a viola doctoral student. From one of the women who sang in the choral I learned the score had 1184 measures, 148 time signature changes and 14 key changes. From the first notes I knew that this was a modern piece. It was filled with dissonance. At times during the first act I felt like I was listening to noise. Yet that noise fit with the texts being sung.
...The jester of Discordance now leads the footsteps...
Cuts from the harsh thorns
are met by increasing fierceness
mixed with a secret fear:
This place is suitable for me,
as empty and dark as the secrets of my soul...
In the second act the dissonance lessened and things began to resolve a bit.
...Contentment and peace, hitherto elusive,
now fill my mind, my lips, and my being with your praise.
Swaying. Staying. Praying in your presence.
Shall I dance?
The third act depicted uncontainable laughter, spontaneous childlikeness, and a kaleidoscope of joys. And at the end, finally in a major key with more pleasing harmonies, it declared:
Behold! I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed...
Then shall come to pass
the saying that is written:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
Throughout the concerto I enjoyed watching Jacob Tews play the soloist part. At times a smile would play over his lips as he seemed particularly pleased with how it was all sounding. Another time I think it was in anticipation of a section he particularly enjoyed. But during the closing lines his face filled with emotion and his eyes brimmed with tears.
O death, where is your sting?
Amen, halleluia!
Whatever the dreams Jacob and Erik have, I hope that they never stop putting all their heart into the music they compose, perform or conduct.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
The Saturday in Between
As I've been thinking about Jesus' death and resurrection this year, I've wondered what Saturday was like for his followers. I'm sure they slept only little and their thoughts and conversations
were a confused mixture of contradictions. They weren't just mourning
the death of a friend and companion, they were faced with the death of hope.
They were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, the chosen one of God who came to sit on David's throne forever and set all things right. They had listened to him and determined that he had the words of eternal life. He had shown his power over nature by instantaneously turning the sea to glass when they were in a storm that had the experienced fishermen among them convinced they were in their last hour. He had cast demons out of madmen (as well as women and children) giving them freedom they never dreamed was possible. He had fed 5000 men with 5 loaves and 2 fish. They had watched blind people see for the first time in their lives, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the paralyzed run and leap for joy and lepers walk away with skin that was completely whole. Just a few weeks before, their friend, Lazarus, had been dead and buried for 3 days but Jesus called to him like he was in the next room and there he was, alive and just as hospitable as ever.
Every man who dies, suddenly becomes better than he was in real-life, but with Jesus it was really true. there were so many things he did that only God could do. If he had any fault, it was that he insisted upon insulting the religious leaders, calling them whitewashed tombs, a bunch of snakes and even worse, Satan's children. While everything he said was true, it got him killed, and that wasn't part of the plan. How could the Messiah, the coming King, the one who said he was the Son of God and was only doing what his Father told him to do, be dead? It made no sense. Jesus had been their hope and now that hope was dead. How could they have been so wrong? What did they miss that showed he wasn't the one to fulfill all those prophecies? I wonder if they thought of the times Jesus had told plainly told them that he was going to die and that on the 3rd day he would rise. It didn't make sense at the time; did it now give them a glimmer of hope?
It is not surprising to me that they had a very hard time believing that Jesus had really risen. It went against everything they had ever experienced. Their only clue had been prophecies they didn't understand as well as the people Jesus had raised from the dead. But once they believed, everything changed and they turned the world upside down.
Jesus' resurrection and its implications for our lives still goes against almost everything in our experience. The only thing I can find to do is join with Paul in asking God to open the eyes of our hearts so we can know the hope he gives, the extravagant value that he places on us and the immeasurable greatness of the resurrection power that is at work in all who believe.
They were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, the chosen one of God who came to sit on David's throne forever and set all things right. They had listened to him and determined that he had the words of eternal life. He had shown his power over nature by instantaneously turning the sea to glass when they were in a storm that had the experienced fishermen among them convinced they were in their last hour. He had cast demons out of madmen (as well as women and children) giving them freedom they never dreamed was possible. He had fed 5000 men with 5 loaves and 2 fish. They had watched blind people see for the first time in their lives, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the paralyzed run and leap for joy and lepers walk away with skin that was completely whole. Just a few weeks before, their friend, Lazarus, had been dead and buried for 3 days but Jesus called to him like he was in the next room and there he was, alive and just as hospitable as ever.
Every man who dies, suddenly becomes better than he was in real-life, but with Jesus it was really true. there were so many things he did that only God could do. If he had any fault, it was that he insisted upon insulting the religious leaders, calling them whitewashed tombs, a bunch of snakes and even worse, Satan's children. While everything he said was true, it got him killed, and that wasn't part of the plan. How could the Messiah, the coming King, the one who said he was the Son of God and was only doing what his Father told him to do, be dead? It made no sense. Jesus had been their hope and now that hope was dead. How could they have been so wrong? What did they miss that showed he wasn't the one to fulfill all those prophecies? I wonder if they thought of the times Jesus had told plainly told them that he was going to die and that on the 3rd day he would rise. It didn't make sense at the time; did it now give them a glimmer of hope?
It is not surprising to me that they had a very hard time believing that Jesus had really risen. It went against everything they had ever experienced. Their only clue had been prophecies they didn't understand as well as the people Jesus had raised from the dead. But once they believed, everything changed and they turned the world upside down.
Jesus' resurrection and its implications for our lives still goes against almost everything in our experience. The only thing I can find to do is join with Paul in asking God to open the eyes of our hearts so we can know the hope he gives, the extravagant value that he places on us and the immeasurable greatness of the resurrection power that is at work in all who believe.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
A quiet week
It's been a quiet week. I suppose in some ways it wasn't much different than most weeks. I'm usually at home by 7:30 from my UPS job. This past week I only worked six hours for my afternoon job. I studied for about 5 hours between Monday and Wednesday and went to Physiology lab on Wednesday afternoon. As you can tell, that leaves lots of time for other things. A month ago that schedule had me putting a lot of energy into searching for another job to fill my time. This week I was grateful for the extra time to be able to process some of what I've been experiencing and talking about with friends. I appreciated being able to write out my thoughts without having to watch the clock to make sure I'm on time for the next event.
One of the things I've been thinking about this week is the whole idea of renewing our minds. We've been studying Colossians at church and Paul tells us in chapter 3 to set our minds on and seek the things that are above where Jesus is. He goes on to say that Jesus is our life. The problem is that our actions show we really expect something else to give us life and the result is that our lives are filled with the works of the flesh. In order to stop doing those things and start being loving, patient and kind, we have to change what we are living for. So it all goes back to what we believe and a lifelong process of renewing our minds.
I spent quite a bit of time this week seeking the answer to what it means to renew my mind and how to do that. Google and a couple of friends helped me with some ideas. The basic idea is to replace my thoughts with God's thoughts. That implies that I have to know what my thoughts are, which sounds rather obvious but far too often I don't allow myself to say what I really think because it isn't the way I "should" be thinking. In addition, I don't always find it very easy to identify what I'm feeling. However, I've discovered that one of the effects of dealing with my brother's death is that many of my emotions have been magnified in every area of my life. The raw hurt makes it easier to get at what I really think - and much of the time it seems very far from the "right, biblical" answers I say I believe. The comforting thing is that I see those same raw emotions expressed in the Psalms. These are God inspired songs that he wants his people to actually sing. That tells me God is glad when I pour out all the grief, anger, hurt, pain, and longing as well as the glimpses of joy that I've been experiencing. By telling him (and myself) what I really think rather than what I think he wants to hear we can work with reality rather than a facade. And best of all, he loves, accepts, rejoices over me and even makes up songs about me in the midst of my mess.
One of the things I've been thinking about this week is the whole idea of renewing our minds. We've been studying Colossians at church and Paul tells us in chapter 3 to set our minds on and seek the things that are above where Jesus is. He goes on to say that Jesus is our life. The problem is that our actions show we really expect something else to give us life and the result is that our lives are filled with the works of the flesh. In order to stop doing those things and start being loving, patient and kind, we have to change what we are living for. So it all goes back to what we believe and a lifelong process of renewing our minds.
I spent quite a bit of time this week seeking the answer to what it means to renew my mind and how to do that. Google and a couple of friends helped me with some ideas. The basic idea is to replace my thoughts with God's thoughts. That implies that I have to know what my thoughts are, which sounds rather obvious but far too often I don't allow myself to say what I really think because it isn't the way I "should" be thinking. In addition, I don't always find it very easy to identify what I'm feeling. However, I've discovered that one of the effects of dealing with my brother's death is that many of my emotions have been magnified in every area of my life. The raw hurt makes it easier to get at what I really think - and much of the time it seems very far from the "right, biblical" answers I say I believe. The comforting thing is that I see those same raw emotions expressed in the Psalms. These are God inspired songs that he wants his people to actually sing. That tells me God is glad when I pour out all the grief, anger, hurt, pain, and longing as well as the glimpses of joy that I've been experiencing. By telling him (and myself) what I really think rather than what I think he wants to hear we can work with reality rather than a facade. And best of all, he loves, accepts, rejoices over me and even makes up songs about me in the midst of my mess.
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