A Warm Blanket for an Early Morning

Full recording of Avett Brothers newest albumn

Closer to love

Its (a beautiful) Sunday here in Pittsburgh, and someone just started a blasted lawn mower. I was trying to partake of food, beauty and quiet before going to work. I think I'll still succeed, but I wouldn't mind if the lawnmower wasn't running in the background. There was a wonderful church service this morning. We sang quite a few old hymns: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee; On Jordan's Stormy Banks; God, Be Merciful to Me; Great is thy Faithfulness. The pastor spoke of "God Behind the Scenes," God at work in the world and in our lives even when we cannot see how He is working or to what end, for what profit or purpose, using as his text Exodus 1:1-2:10. During the sermon, I had a small epiphany. Hebrews tells us that Christ can sympathize with our experiences, our temptations, in every way, because of the incarnation. I realized that, because of the cross, Christ can also identify with the separation from God that we feel as fallen and sinful creatures.

Insomnia

Half an hour after trying to go to sleep, here I am. My mind is too hard at work on stupid stuff: composing an email to complain about an inappropriate anecdote a presenter shared in the classroom, thinking about all of the work I need to do tomorrow, Monday, and through the rest of this week. And there is nothing to be gained from being awake right now... Oh, God...