Like Forgivness from the Sky (Grateful Tuesdays #15, Short and Late)

Dear Heavenly Father,

Snow, God! Thank you for creating snow! It's such a wonderful invention and just shows your extravagant love by the detail you put into this world's design. Thank you that we can see, God. That we can see snowflakes and sunsets and rainbows against a cloudy sky.

Thank you for how the eye works; how anyone could think this design could have come about by anything other than you is beyond me.

Thank you so much for the conversation I was able to have with my friend on the phone the other night. I thank you for your design for friendship in general. The beauty of companionship is breathtaking. Painful at times, but still absolutely breathtaking.

Thank you, God for telephones. For communication in general. Once again, when communication is messed up, it's the beginning of wars and death and the like, but, when done right, it's beautiful.

Thank you, God for these cool speakers we have. I love listening to music on these things. Thank you also that the left speaker's not broken after all.

Thank you for computers, Elric, and for music in general. Thank you also for my friend who notices things like music and thinks about it in that certain way that starts your mind rolling towards thanksgiving again.

Thank you for the picture on my desk.

Thank you so much for your grace, God and that you desire to restore and forgive and that you desire not harm for your creation but life. Thank you for the forgiveness others afford me. The forgiveness you afford me. The love I'm so blind to all the time yet never diminishes.

There's so much more to thank you for! But I need to publish this, so I'll just end by thanking you for who you are and pray that I would live out thanksgiving throughout my day.

In Jesus name,

Amen.

Well, apparently no one reads my blog any more.

But that's okay, because I was never writing for any of you anyway! So ha! Take that!

Okay, now I'm sad.

What I really meant to say is that, even though I know most of you guys are in school and things are getting kind of hectic, you should be putting most of your brain power towards two things. One, what you are going to get me for Christmas. Two, who/what you want to vote for in my upcoming annual very-patriotic family-friendly Groundhog Day vote! (Sorry Walter.)
Last year, if you'll recall. I asked you to vote on your twenty favorite "moment" songs, tunes that caught your ear at the time; the year before that is was favorite songs in general. Well, I never meant to restrict the voting to songs, so after much deliberation, I have decided that the fabulous subject for this year's vote will be:

Film!
Yes, I know, I the Foolish Knight am talking about film. Please try to contain your shock if you would, and instead, start getting out your pencils and legal pads; go to your local video store, breath life back into your Nexflix cue, and bring me back a list of your twenty five favorite films (in order of first favorite to twenty-fifth favorite) by February second! Go! Go! Have fun! Be safe! Don't play snap ball in the middle of the street! Brush twice daily! And (most importantly) be sure to drink plenty of water, okay? All right, now go!

Installment Twenty Seven...

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.

-G. K. Chesterton (from his excellent "On Running After One's Hat")

(Grateful Tuesdays #14)

Dear Heavenly Father,

There are so many things to be thankful for. The extraordinary life you give, the rich, rich blessing to you allow to grow in my life. You have regenerated my soul! You have removed my heart of stone and given me a heart of flesh! With your odd mixture of mud and spit, you have washed away my blindness replacing it with a glorious vision.

Father, I am turned against you many times. I am thinking only of my self many times. Yet you send your love and allow it to flow deep within me.

I thank you for the wonderful films I've seen recently. Thank you that I can even thank you for these films. Some of your people feel guilty for watching and enjoying movies.

I thank you for the freedom you give us. The glorious freedom! Father, with your wind under our sails, our spirits can fly! We are allowed to dwell in your presence!

Father, I am completely undeserving of your love. Father, I feel that I am weak and half-hearted, even at my best. I can talk about you all day long, but I enter into your presence (or even think of it) far too rarely.

Yet you pour your love into me, like Multnomah Falls into its basin.

I thank you for my family and the love we share. It's only because of your grace that I enjoy such a good relationship with each one of my family members. Thank you for increasing us in love. Thank you also for my WorldView family and my extended family.

Thank you for the Newmans, and the present they got me. I'm glad we can joke with each other and laugh. I don't ever want to be in a place in my life where I've lost my ability to joke, to find humor in something. I really really want to write an article about that.

Thank you so much, my dear Father, for the Queen of Arts and England. Her friendship casts such a warm glow on my life. Thank you for the conversation we had last night and how she turns my thoughts towards you.

God, I've experienced some hard things over the past few decades, but nothing worth complaining about when you consider all the lovely things you have filled my cup with. Jesus, you are the best lover. You love with a pure love none can match. All the metaphors in nature can only hint at character of the love you have for me.

So why do I leave this love? Why do I... Oh, I don't know. I don't think I'll ever get the hang of living with you, God. I don't know that I'll ever love you with the love you deserve. Not here anyway.

You have restored my life! You have brought healing and love filling in the dry cracks. I don't know how to say it, really, but I'm grateful. And I guess we can for now just leave it at that. I love you (because you love me).

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

A Broken Heart Love's Cradle Is (Grateful Tuesdays #12 & 13)

Father,

I'm remember thinking yesterday that it's been a while since I needed your grace. What a terrible thing to think; I don't ever want to fall into that frame of mind again.

I thank you for your grace; I thank you that you seek restoration. How terrible it would be if you delighted in tripping us up. How wonderful it is that you instead bring healing. You are a warrior and a healer, like the best heroes in stories.

Stories.

What a confusing place this world is! Everyone has so many opinions and I'm never really sure what to think. I wonder if I want too much to follow you; if I'm too fevered and in my fervor I miss something, if it would be better for me just to rest.

Father, I'm reminded once again that I can talk with no one the way I talk with you. I hope you don't mind my being so free with you. It's just that, I need to talk with someone this way, and you seem the most willing to listen. Also you are always listening. Which I thank you for.

I think clouds are a marvelous design, God. Floating water? Who would have thought of that? And to see light refracted in the tiny water molecules (yes, I know, all water molecules are tiny) is something that would set anybody straight if they stopped to think about it.

Thank you for golden hour! Thank you for beauty in general.

How tragic that we don't see you when we look at your creation, God, or at the state of the world. How sad it is that so many are blind. I thank you so much for what you've allowed me to see; I don't deserve life or love more than anyone else.

Thank you once again for grace, restoration and healing.

Thank you for all my friends and all the people who could come to my birthday party; thank you for how much fun that was. I feel very spoiled, to be honest. Whether by you or not, I don't know. Thank you for my friend, Moriah and that we could celebrate together. Thank you that Eucharisto could come.

The sight of a bird flying just right against the wind so that it just stays in one spot is a beautiful thing, God. A small wonder.

Thank you that my friendship with my sister gets deeper each day; what a beautiful thing there.

Thank you that my application is finally submitted! Oi, I didn't handle that situation well.

I just want to do what's right, God. I think. I want to be loved, deeper than (I see now) any human can love me. Help me to see your love for me, and help me to know the truth.

I love you.

Amen

Words

I think "myriad" is a fine word.

Note: "Alot" is not a word, neither is (according to Walter Strunk Jr.) "alright". Both should be written as two words.

Notice

Dear Internet World,

My birthday is in four days. You had all better be buying me presents.