Walk with Me

On January 20, 2014March 3, 2014 By Charis PsalloIn Music, Photography, Trees and forests, Winter5 Comments

As I went for a walk on a frosty afternoon yesterday the song “A Resting Place” by Paul Wilbur was running through my head. The air was calm and peaceful and Holy Spirit’s presence so gentle and warm that I forgot the cold weather. Can I share some photos from that walk with you?

My soul finds rest in God alone

My peace depends on Him

In that place of quiet rest

He fills me from within

He pours on me His holy oil

The Spirit of the Living God

Then He takes me by the hand

And comforts me with His love

Comfort me with Your love

Those who wait upon the Lord

New strength He gives to them

He gives them wings like the eagle

That they might soar with Him

He weaves His strength into their lives

The Spirit of Adonai

Then He gives then all of His peace

To guard their hearts and their minds

Guarding our hearts and minds

So come my soul now take your rest

Find your peace in Him

The Holy presence of the Lord

That fills you from within

O pour on me Your holy oil

The Spirit of the Living God

Fill my cup Lord I lift it up

Until I overflow

He comforted me with His love.

Just Fly!

On January 16, 2014 By Charis PsalloIn Music9 Comments

A 5,905 voice online choir made up of members from six to ninety eight-years old.

Each singing their part in their own distinctive voice from one of the 101 countries in which they live.

Each tuned to the same pitch.

Each singing the same song.

Each following the same director.

The song is 5 minutes long. The credits honouring the participants takes over six minutes.

Worthy

On January 15, 2014January 16, 2014 By Charis PsalloIn Music, Photography, Sky, WaterLeave a comment

Then in my vision I heard the voices of many angels encircling the throne, the living creatures and the elders. There were myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, crying in a great voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour and glory and blessing!”

Then I heard the voice of everything created in Heaven, upon earth, under the earth and upon the sea, and all that are in them saying, “Blessing and honour and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever!” (Revelation 5: 11-13)

L’heure exquise

On January 13, 2014March 7, 2015 By Charis PsalloIn Music, Photography, Sky, Trees and forests, Water2 Comments

L’heure exquise

(English translation)

The white moon shines in the forest,

From every branch comes forth a voice,

Under the foliage.

Oh beloved!

The pond, a deep mirror, reflects

The silhouette of the dark willow,

Where the wind cries.

Let’s dream, ’tis the hour!

A vast and tender calm

Seems to descend from the firmament,

Iridescent with stars;

‘Tis the exquisite hour!

He brought me to the banqueting house of wine, and his banner over me was love. (Song of Solomon 2:4)

Oh Holy Night: Chante ta délivrance!

On December 20, 2013December 22, 2013 By Charis PsalloIn Art, Music, Photography7 Comments

Midnight The Solemn Hour — Midnight
The Solemn Hour

I try to be positive. I really do. I usually appreciate any attempt at singing. Song is a free gift that can be enjoyed by anyone. But to me some songs are sacred, holy, set apart and meant to glorify God. They are not meant to be recorded by pop singers with no sense of phrasing, or breath control, who have inadequate diction and obviously no emotional connection to the lyrics, and then piped through the aisles of Stuffmart to create background noise for harried shoppers who don’t give a damn. I’ve threatened to go postal if I hear Santa Baby in the produce aisle one more time -but that’s just irritating. It’s hearing one of the greatest hymns/carols of all time massacred over and over that makes me want to plop down on the floor by the gift boxed baubles and weep.

(Rant over)

When I taught singing my students often asked if they could work on “Oh Holy Night.”

“Not for a few years yet,” I told most of them. “And when you do it will in the original language.”

“Why?”

“Because your voice isn’t ready and because you have heard it so often in English you can’t hear the words anymore. Most versions drop half the lyrics anyway. I want you to study it, to translate it, to concentrate and savour every note and every word.”

Like songs that are sung year after year and have lost their flavour like chewing gum on the bedpost overnight, we can become so familiar with the goodness of God we cease to grasp the depth and height and width of it. We fail to comprehend the massiveness of His love. We take it for granted. We develop a sense of entitlement, as if God owes us freedom, and deliverance from slavery to sin. We fail to pay attention.

Translations that have to fit the meter and accents of a set piece of music are never entirely accurate, but here is another English translation of Minuit, Chretien. Listen to the words again.

Midnight, Christians, it is the solemn hour,
When God as man descended unto us
To erase the stain of original sin
And to end the wrath of His Father.
The entire world thrills with hope
On this night that gives it a Saviour.

People kneel down, wait for your deliverance.
Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer,
Christmas, Christmas, here is the Redeemer!

May the ardent light of our Faith
Guide us all to the cradle of the infant,
As in ancient times a brilliant star
Guided the Oriental kings there.
The King of Kings was born in a humble manger;
O mighty ones of today, proud of your greatness,

It is to your pride that God preaches.
Bow your heads before the Redeemer!
Bow your heads before the Redeemer!

The Redeemer has broken every bond:
The Earth is free, and Heaven is open.
He sees a brother where there was only a slave,
Love unites those that iron had chained.
Who will tell Him of our gratitude,
For all of us He is born, He suffers and dies.

People stand up! Sing of your deliverance,
Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer,
Christmas, Christmas, sing of the Redeemer!

Attend ta Délivrance Pay Attention — Attend
ta Délivrance

From the English version:

Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory evermore proclaim!
His power and glory evermore proclaim!

(Link to video in comments)

What Can I Give Him?

On December 18, 2013December 18, 2013 By Charis PsalloIn Music, Photography, Uncategorized, Winter3 Comments

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him… give my heart.

-Christina Rossetti

God Keep You Joyful, People

On December 11, 2013December 14, 2013 By Charis PsalloIn Music, Photography, Uncategorized, Winter8 Comments

Let nothing steal your hope.

I have older friends who refuse to use computers.

“They make me feel stupid,” said one person (she who managed to ace a statistics course after one weekend of cramming since her shift schedule conflicted with actually attending lectures.) “It’s the words. They have been hijacked by computer geeks with odd senses of humour to mean something completely different from what they meant before. If they had used new words I could have learned them, but no, now I have to un-learn the old meanings and assign new ones. It’s too much work. Give me a typewriter and some ribbon.”

I grew up with archaic English. My mother learned English from reading Charles Dickens novels her teacher gave her. Living on an isolated prairie farm where everyone in the area spoke the same dialect of German, she didn’t realize Canadians didn’t speak in Victorian English. As she later said, “It behooves one to attend to tales at tea time.”

I grew up in a church that used only “The Authorized Version” of the Bible. (I thought that meant that God Himself had authorized it, not just a political figure.) I was encouraged (forced and coerced) to memorized large passages of scripture with Thees and Thous and hasts and words ending in eth. I do appreciate the beauty and poetry of the language. (I’m still a big fan of Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets too.) It’s cadence plays like music in my head and like He promised to do, Holy Spirit often ~~brings to remembrance~~ reminds me of verses I have read, and they come in that language. But I need to translate them for people who don’t have my background. Often familiar words in that translation have different meanings -awful, and terrible for example. And the formal and familiar forms of Thee/You are actually the opposite of what many people think. (Thee/Thou was used between family and close friends. You was used for authority figures.)

Some of the old Christmas carols need translating as well. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen doesn’t necessarily mean that guys need to take a break from joking around. For one thing, it needs a little punctuation in the form of a comma after the word merry. Rest is an old word meaning to keep or let it be. Merry could mean something more than joyful, but joy was always contained in the word. Mankind and men have often been used generically for people in general for many years (the exclusion of women and children from person-hood is a topic for another day).

So the first lines of the song actually mean, God keep you joyful, people! Don’t allow anything to cause you to lose hope.

We’ve hit one of those deep freeze weeks here. Well, actually the term deep freeze is misleading too, because it would have to warm up by about 20 degrees to be the temperature of a deep freeze. It is so tempting to be dismayed by cold and dark, but the bright red berries on the mountain ash tree outside my window sing themes of joy and hope in the midst of winter. Thank you, Lord, for red berries. They rest me merry.

God rest ye merry,

gentlemen

Let nothing you dismay

Remember, Christ, our Saviour

Was born on Christmas day

To save us all from Satan’s power

When we were gone astray

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

In Bethlehem, in Israel,

This blessed Babe was born

And laid within a manger

Upon this blessed morn

The which His Mother Mary

Did nothing take in scorn

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

From God our Heavenly Father

A blessed Angel came;

And unto certain Shepherds

Brought tidings of the same:

How that in Bethlehem was born

The Son of God by Name.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

“Fear not then,” said the Angel,

“Let nothing you affright,

This day is born a Saviour

Of a pure Virgin bright,

To free all those who trust in Him

From Satan’s power and might.”

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

The shepherds at those tidings

Rejoiced much in mind,

And left their flocks a-feeding

In tempest, storm and wind:

And went to Bethlehem straightway

The Son of God to find.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

And when they came to Bethlehem

Where our dear Saviour lay,

They found Him in a manger,

Where oxen feed on hay;

His Mother Mary kneeling down,

Unto the Lord did pray.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

Now to the Lord sing praises,

All you within this place,

And with true love and brotherhood

Each other now embrace;

This holy tide of Christmas

All other doth deface.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

But Not for Me

On November 24, 2013November 26, 2013 By Charis PsalloIn Art, Music2 Comments

I was surprised when I first dared to tell people about some of the answers to prayer I have seen. I expected a negative reaction from people whose worldview doesn’t give them a grid for things that don’t fit into an observable/measurable/repeatable frame. Frankly most people who demand evidence will usually dismiss or ignore it when you do go to the trouble of fetching documentation anyway. At best they may grudgingly offer a “not-yet-explained.” Fine. Not my job.

The people who surprised me were the church-type folk or nominal Christians who accepted the possibility of miracles, in theory, but became suddenly angry when told of something way beyond the norm that happened — to someone else. They brought up examples, either personal or involving poor children elsewhere, which ended tragically. One person said, “What kind of God would heal a sick, rich Canadian kid when thousands of poor kids die in third world countries every day?” Then the real issue, “Why did he answer your prayer and not mine? I guess God shows love -but not for me.”

The temptation at this point is to jump in and try to defend God’s reputation.

Not my job.

Who knew God’s love could be so offensive? Millions of words, written by thousands of people more credentialed than I, attempt to address this topic of disappointment with God. I have only three words: I don’t know.

We can say, “It doesn’t hurt to ask,” but yes, sometimes it does. Asking raises the possibility of risking hope and even the Bible says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. One of our greatest fears is the fear of disappointment.

For some reason this week I met several people whose hearts long for a soul mate. Some suffered enormous disappointment when the one who swore to love them abandoned them. Others are tired of being overlooked because they don’t fit society’s ideal standards of beauty, or status, or the mystery “it” factor. A lot of great people can relate to the classic Gershwin song, sung by Eileen Farrell, “They’re playing songs of love -but not for me.”

Now there are some obvious factors that could be blocking romantic love, but when lovely unmarried friends ask, “Why am I still alone when I have prayed and prayed?” I have to say — I don’t know.

I do think God cares more about our character than our comfort, but he is not opposed to giving his children good gifts like health and loving embraces by someone with skin on. To say someone is not receiving an answer because they haven’t cooked up enough faith, or because they have some character flaw he can only fix by throwing something nasty at them, is just cruel, in my opinion. On the other hand, it doesn’t take much faith or hope, or perseverance to look around and see pain or suffering or loneliness or poverty. When I talk about the good things I have seen I am not oblivious to pain and suffering. It does require effort to look at God’s marvelous actions and not be offended by them. It would be easy to sing, “They’re playing songs of miracles –but not for me,” but those kind of thoughts focus only on our pain. They keep us from raising our hopes.

All I can say is that I know God is good and that I have noticed that people who doggedly pursue a relationship with him, believing he is good, who are not offended when he answers someone’s pleas and not their own -but rather who genuinely thank God for his goodness to them, see more of his active intervention in their worlds than those who don’t pick up the broken bits of hope and push through the pain of disappointment to find the treasure beyond the valley of trouble. I realize that talking about things I have seen and experienced may cause some people pain, but I have to give glory to God for what he has done. My intent is to offer hope.

I was struck by Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 this week.

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (vs. 17-19 NLT)

Jesus admitted he was a stone of offense to some people. It takes strength and power to be able to perceive and receive his love and not be offended by it. He doesn’t play by our rules. He wants relationship. He wants us to ask him the hard questions. We can pound on his chest in our pain and frustration and he won’t love us any less -or any more.

God is still love. May your roots go deep.