What’s Better Than Bacon? Bacon Wrapped In Bacon.
Long Lost Friend.
Audience Of One
My favourite song of Bruce’s whole album and the 2nd single to be released is Long Lost Friend. It’s a song of hope & loss. The clip above is just pleasurable. I’m listening to this track and most of the CD on repeat with single malt and crying a lot.
My friend Simon Moore was laying tracks (guitars) for this long awaited album over Easter weekend 2006. It was the first Easter Si wasn’t at for a number of years. We had written the Sola series in the week prior and Si was emailing updated scripts for me to shoot at camp from the studio. Later, we were to name our company after that weekend’s pivotal output (Sola Fida – the first of Luther’s creeds).
It seems that this weekend, as the news is starting to penetrate amongst friends, colleagues and my family of easter crew… this song takes me back to beginnings and ends and is so appropriate.
This week I accepted the news that I will no longer be working on Eastercamp.
It’s a hard goodbye, too fast and too soon. But God is present in it. In the weeks to come I’m going to endeavour to chronicle the time as a way of saying goodbye and honouring all that God has done and that I’ve been privileged to be part of.
In the meantime – if you have a special Eastercamp story – I’d love you to send them to me, even with a photo or two. I’m going to collect as many stories from 1999 – 2008 as I can to remember this season that’s been so important and beautiful in my life. Feel free to pass this around as many people as you know who have been part of or impacted by Eastercamp in some way during my involvement.. I’d appreciate the help. Email to tash at solafida dot co dot nz.
Song Of The Moment : Long Lost Friend
by Bruce Conlon
goodbye my long lost friend
i’m glad to see there’s no bitter end
cos it’s a long time we spent in our lives
and now it’s time to go
i won’t see you tonight
cos now it’s time we must say goodbye
cos it’s a long long time
til we can say i’ll see you again someday
no need to make amends
i’m glad we parted the best of friends
cos it’s a long time we spent in our lives
and now it’s time to go
i won’t see you tonight
cos now it’s time we must say goodbye
cos it’s a long long time
til we can say i’ll see you again someday
stay with me tonight
and all these memories inside you
stay with me
i want you to stay with me
cos i won’t see you tonight
cos now it’s time we must say goodbye
cos it’s a long long time
til we can say I’ll see you again someday
Mercy.
A Collection Of Stanzas
1.
i want to cry forever
until my tears are dry
i want to cry forever
until i’m washed away
i want to cry forever
until my skin is pale
through and through
til there is nothing of me
2.
how precious is grief
like a numb and sting
all at once and over again
how quiet is the pain
though my heart is loud inside my skin
my words fall into silence
and i hold on fast to them
3.
i don’t need you to argue for me tonight
not with me, yourself or any other ghosts
oh let angry words put down their curses
and weapons aim their sights away
let rain wash all things clean again
oh what other good is there for a storm tonight?
4.
have mercy with your words tonight
in your arms tonight
for the sake of our love and my hurt tonight
don’t break me, have mercy tonight
i break and i boil and live a little
where you are even when you’re far
5.
love has a way through valleys and rises
there must be a way of peace through all of this
for all i’ve done wrong
all that’s pulled apart
all injustice decried
if you’re torn all to pieces
i can mend a broken heart
Ten Songs About God
A Tag From Marko
Far out. A list of ten songs.. let alone a top ten of songs about God is probably one of the greater ‘High Fidelity’ challenges. However, after a night’s sleep on it, in no particular order…
1. Water Into Wine by Bruce Cockburn. First released in 1976 on ‘In The Falling Dark’. It’s an instrumental piece that is foundational in the Cockburn back catalogue. It’s a moment to lose yourself.
2. Roll Away by Dave Dobbyn. From the album ‘Accustomed to the Light’. Post his own spiritual awakening, Dobbyn writes “Roll Away is about rolling back anything that may be getting in the way with you. In my case pleading with God that obstacles be removed so that I can get on without them. It comes from a yearning that’s been around a while. This song brings me back to the hymns & solemn harmonies – simple harmony singing that the Latin masses had back when I was a small boy.”
3. Not Dark Yet by Bob Dylan. First released on the 1997 project ‘Time Out Of Mind’. This isn’t directly about God, and yet the words about humanity and the absence of a prayer, the falling darkness.. they invoke a sense of God in me. So it counts.
4. I was going to choose Hallelujah by Cohen, recorded by Kd Lang for the album “Hymns Of the 49th Parallel”, a tribute to Canadian songwriters. No doubt this tune will appear on several lists, but this version is covered in the emotions of the constant human/divine battle. Again, it’s not necessarily about God, but it’s still a God song. BUT… instead I am choosing from the same album Simple written by kd lang and David Pitch.
Flawless light in a darkening air
Alone…and shining there
Love will not elude you
Love is simple
I worship this tenacity
And the beautiful struggle we’re in
Love will not elude us
Love is simple
Be sure to know that
All in love
Is ours
And love, as a philosophy
Is simple
I am calm in oblivion
Calm, as I ever have been
Love will not elude me
Love is simple
Be sure to know that
All in love
Is ours…
Is ours…
That all in love
Is ours
And love, as philosophy
Is simple…
And ours…
5. St Matthew Passion by Bach.
6. There By The Grace Of God by Manic Street Preachers. Released in 2002 and a strange throwback to the eighties, there are glimpses of hard synth here. Musically it’s lacklustre but the lyrics and compassion are the gripper of this track and make it a worthy placing in this list.
7. ágætis byrjun by Sigur Ros. The title track of the 1999 release is the first track that I ever heard and it remains my favourite. I’ve used it as the soundtrack to a number of deep worship moments in my own private life as well as in corporate gatherings. Hence it’s become a God song.
8. Sky Flashings by Earthsuit, followed by You are Mine by rebirthed Mutemath. These are stunning tapestries of sound where lyrics, ideas and musical soundscape both point toward and draw the Spirit close to wherever you are.
9. Surely We Can Change by David Crowder Band.
10. The Lords Prayer performed by Mahalia Jackson, at the 1958 Newport Jazz festival and seen in the doco-film “Jazz on a Summers Day”. The first time and every time I see this, it brings tears to my eyes, even after all this time.
I’m passing on the tag now… to Sam, Danielle, Stu. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments. Also – I would have included Leeland’s Opposite Way too, but I ran out of numbers.
UPDATE: How could I neglect the Etnobofin… I’m a fool. In fact, I suspect that Richard’s list will be worth downloading for myself..
Outlive Them All.
I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am.
John Newton
A Eulogy Of Hope
There are a lot of funerals you go to, and leave feeling somewhat lifted. You leave having celebrated, remembered, laughed and farewelled. You share your grief and in that space the ‘knowingness’ of being with others comforts you.
I didn’t go to Tony’s funeral yesterday – I would have been a spectator to sorrows; but Kyla did and we shared and talked about it last night. Tony was so exceptional in every area of his life, with every person he encountered you hear the same stories and character retold.
The scary and terrifying thing about Tony’s life is that he did it so well. Lived so well and died so well, as Paul references. In 29 years he left a legacy of life that was already being celebrated before he died.
That is a challenge that rumbles in my spirit and shakes my bones. If I was to die now, what would the living legacy of my life be? I’m not satisfied with it all yet, although parts of it I think are good and worthy. Perhaps this new season will bring some hope of somehow living better with this life than I am now.
Song Of The Moment : Say It To Me Now
Glen Hansard
I’m scratching at the surface now
And I’m trying hard to work it out
So much has gone misunderstood
This mystery only leads to doubt
And I didn’t understand
When you reached out to take my hand
And if you have something to say
You’d better say it now
Cause this is what you’ve waited for
Your chance to even up the score
And as these shadows fall on me now
I will somehow
Cause this is what you’ve waited for
A chance to even up the score
And as these shadows fall on me now
I will somehow
Cause I’m picking up a message Lord
And I’m closer than I’ve ever been before
So if you have something to say
Say it to me now
Say it to me now
Say it to me now
By Way Of The Heart
Toward a Holistic Christian Spirituality
By Wilkie Au, S.J
“Being on the Way Is a Way of Arriving” (Chp 8)
“As in other human journeys, we reach the destination of our spiritual pilgrimage only gradually. However, there is a paradoxical nature to the spiritual sojourn. While alive, we will never fully reach our goal of union with God and others. Yet, being on the spiritual path is already a way of attaining that end. God is to be enjoyed not only at the end of the search, but all along the way. The Christmas story of the magi illustrates this truth. God was present to them not only when they joyfully arrived at the cave in Bethlehem, but also in the original stirrings that sent them off in search of the promised messiah. God’s presence was also experienced in a guiding star that directed them through dark nights and in a dream that warned them of Herod’s threat. They experienced God’s support, too, in the encouragement they gave each other throughout an uncharted search that took them miles from home. God is more present to us than we think.Our search for union with God is lifelong, often a strenuous trek punctuated by dark passages. If we are to persevere, we must take courage in God’s abiding presence all along the way. Even as we are traveling toward God as destiny, Emmanuel is already with us in manifold ways.”