It's a Bittersweet Life...

Thank God I am an English major. Thank God that He has given me artistic desires. I do not understand scientists and mathematicians, who think of the world solely in formulas and numbers. That might be a generalization, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not created that way.

I see God in the arts. In words, in music, in paint, in theater and film.

I see God in nature, and He overwhelms my soul. I can only pour out His love and beauty through words. That is my gift and talent. Sometimes what I feel is so strong and fierce that I can't even find the words to make myself understood.

Tonight, I was moved by music.

Music. I love music. I love the words, the notes that swell with every beat of my heart and every breath of my lungs.

I love concerts, when you can feel the bass from your chest to your toes, and you simply stop existing. You become something more, something bigger than yourself. You become connected to the band on stage, the crowd around you, everyone.

It doesn't have to be a "Christian" band. It doesn't even have to be a "happy" song. Music just makes sense. It soothes and heals, and at the same time it rips open old wounds because even pain and sadness can help you find God.

There's beauty in music. There's creativity. And there is God.

And this is why I sing.

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;
before the “gods” I will sing your praise…
May all the kings of the earth praise you,
O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth.
May they sing of the ways of the LORD,
for the glory of the Lord is great.
[Psalm 138:1,4-5]

Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I
live.
[Psalm 146-1-2]

Praise the LORD…
…Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for he commanded and they were created….
…Praise the LORD from the earth, you…
…kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all the rulers on earth,
young men and maidens,
old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the
heavens.
He has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his saints,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the LORD.
[Psalm 148:1, 5, 7a, 11-14]

Day and night they never stop saying:
“Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, and is, and is to come.”
[Revelation 5:8]

David, wearing a linen ephod, danced for the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets…
Michal…said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
David said to Michal… “I will become even more undignified than his, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
[2 Samuel 6:14, 16, 20-22]

Powerful music [at least for me]:

• My Favorite Highway, How To Call a Bluff
• Pretty much anything by Tenth Avenue North: Gentle Whisper, Apathetic, Beloved, Holy is Our Lord, Bless the Lord
• Anberlin, Paper Thin Hymn, Godspeed, Adelaide, The Unwinding Cable Car, Hello Alone, Dismantle. Repair.
• The Arcade Fire, Rebellion (Lies)
• Relient K, Devastation and Reform, Deathbed, Softer to Me, I am Understood?
• Saosin, Voices
• Jeremy Camp, Beyond Measure, Walk By Faith, Restored, Even When
• The Calling, Stigmatized
• Skillet, The Last Nights, The Older I Get
• Mae, Someone Else's Arms, The Everglow, The Sun and the Moon
• Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars, Open Your Eyes
• Fall Out Boy, Golden, Hum Hallelujah, Don't You Know Who I Think I am?
• Hillsong United, All I Need is You, From the Inside Out
• Jars of Clay, Frail, Much Afraid
• anything by Bright Eyes
• Rockstar Supernova, Headspin

And so much more...