naming my blog

So in case you wonder about the blog title I have to confess that the idea came from C. S. Lewis. I have many authors but He is my favorite. I was re-reading his address entitled "The Weight of Glory" a while back and was reminded of what he says about our spiritual longings. He speaks of how we long for something that seems elusive; he writes about how we usually notice a particular feeling " just as the moment of vision dies away, as the music ends, or as the landscape loses the celestial light". He goes on to write about "the bitterness which mixes with the sweetness of that message is due to the fact that it so seldom seems to be a message intended for us, but rather something we have overheard". In another of his quotes from a source I have yet to locate, he says"If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." My husband has been reading Randy Acorn's Heaven and finished another couple of his novels over the past few months. We have talked quite a bit about some of the concepts he presents in those books. They remind me of many of C. S. Lewis's ideas concerning heaven. From time to time we catch a glimpse of what it may be like in the next world for a fleeting second and it is as though we have overheard something so wonderful we can't put it into words. The past several years of my life I think I've only begun to recognize those moments for what they are. I know as I get older I think more about eternity and things eternal. It's the idea that God has "set eternity in the hearts of men"(Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV) But I am quickly brought back to the here and now with all the pressing, urgent matters that must be attended. I so desire to live in the here and now with a view toward those things that will remain forever: the triune God; His word, and the souls of people. I think that writing my thoughts helps me to put life into the right perspective. I hope that as I share some of those thoughts on my blog that you will be encouraged in the same way. These are the lyrics to a recent song release by a band called Downhere that put many of my feelings about this into words.


My Last Amen (by Marc Martel & Jason Germain)

From the corner of my eye
There's a tear I'm trying to cry
But the feeling can't be found
Like a note thrills in a song
When I play it again, it's gone
'Cause it was never in the sound

And it keeps me wanting
That mysterious thing
Like a night is waiting for a dawn

Every prayer I say (a little closer)
To my resting place (a little closer)
Where my final breath is the beginning
To never needing
And I will find my last Amen

I could swear I have two hearts
One to stay, one to depart
This sad, tragic kingdom
And it burns me down to the core
Because I know there's so much more
It's just a pale reflection
And it keeps me wanting
That mysterious thing
Like an outcast waiting to belong

And while the thrills are fading The joy is in the waiting
Somewhere in the grand design It's good be unsatisfied It keeps the faith and hope a little more alive

Marc Martel writes that the inspiration for this song came from an old hymn called "The Lost Chord". You can read more at http://mylastamen.wordpress.com/my-last-amen/
or listen at
http://www.downhere.com/