Thursday, June 12, 2014

Words alone.

Last year i went to an exhibition of artwork about homelessness. I noticed a quote on one of the paintings, and it got me thinking. I just found what i wrote that evening in response, & have been pondering it again:

"If we can send a man to the moon, surely we can put a man in a room" 

And i nod; shedding a tear. And take these words to turn into this post of mine, like fleeting liquid thoughts contain some worth, like letting paint sink deep and sting might change this town, change these men. But it won't. I sit here and contemplate, whilst space expands to man-made hands, and men still lay upon the street. A tear is no drink to thirsty lips. My mind houses thoughts, but can't house souls. And space it grows with schemes and plans. And we love this thought. We quote this notion. As if somehow that's the same as loving a real person. We propose schemes. And love our dreams. We think the state should change their ways: stop sending men up to the moon. We say. As we eat our tea on comfy sofas; pop to the shop for some milk & don't even notice the man half dead upon the street. 

Quit speaking words that are just heard. This air pulsates the rhythm of our speech. Yet words that cease to take form in flesh, are words alone. 

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Surpassing all others...

"Whether God handles me tenderly, or gives me over to torture, i love HIM. He is my reward, the builder of the city i long for, the treasure beyond the the riches of egypt, and the possession that surpasses all others and abides for ever!" - John Piper

I know that it is true: He Himself is better than life itself. 

Monday, October 22, 2012

For He's a great God


I haven't posted for so very long. And i wish i had. There's so much i could have shared about God's goodness and faithfulness and tenderness and mercy to me. So much i could say thank you for. For now, i will just say that He is good. And i am thankful. I may start a new blog soon, for doodles and creative writing. This one seems to have almost come to a natural end. I'm not sure yet?!

Monday, April 23, 2012

O to grace...


"O to grace how great a debtor, daily i'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee."

- Robert Robinson

Sunday, April 15, 2012

The eye of the storm


Harbour me in the eye of the storm.
I'm holding on to the love you swore.

- John Mark McMillian -

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Workspaces..

I don't have a proper space to work in, so always end up using our dining room table, or my bedroom floor. Anyway, yesterday i realised that even if i don't have my own little office i can still make whatever space i use each day look kind of neat and pretty to inspire me!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

How great

"How great are You Lord, how great is Your mercy, how great are the things that You have done for me. How great are You Lord, Your lovingkindness, is filling my heart as i sing, how great are You Lord. How great is Your love, it reaches to the heavens. How great is the heart that sought and rescued me. How great are You Lord, how great is Your mercy, how great are the things that You have done for me." - Robin Mark

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Saviour please, pilot me


"I will arise and follow you over
Saviour please, pilot me

Over the waves and through every sorrow
Saviour please, pilot me

When I have no more strength left to follow
Fall on my knees, pilot me

May your sun rise and lead me on
Over the sea’s, Saviour pilot me "

- Song lyrics by Josh Garrels

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Never.

"Stick to that word "never." It is worth its weight in gold. Cling to it as a drowning man clings to a rope. Grasp it firmly, as a soldier attacked on all sides grasps his sword. God has said, and will stand to it, "I will never leave you!"

"Never!" Though your heart often faints, and you are sick of self, and your many failures and infirmities; even then the promise will not fail.

"Never!" Though the devil whispers, 'I shall have you at last! In little while, your faith will fail, and you will be mine!' Even then, God will keep his Word.

"Never!" Though waves of trouble go over your head, and all hope seems taken away. Even then the Word of God will stand."

- J. C. Ryle (via Desiring God)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Waiting

Paintings by Brett Amory. I like his style.

Friday, January 13, 2012

For one wild moment


"...when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough.... [nursery] tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water." - Chesterton

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A broken and contrite heart


“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” - Psalm 51.17
"Being a Christian means being broken and contrite. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you get beyond this in this life. It marks the life of God’s happy children till they die. We are broken and contrite all the way home—unless sin gets the proud upper hand. Being broken and contrite is not against joy and praise and witness. It’s the flavor of Christian joy and praise and witness. I close with the words of Jonathan Edwards who said it better than I can.
All gracious affections [feelings, emotions] that are a sweet [aroma] to Christ . . . are brokenhearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble brokenhearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is a humble brokenhearted joy. . . . (Religious Affections [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959], pp. 339f.) "
- John Piper

Sunday, January 08, 2012

The valleys

There are some encouraging verses in the Bible about valleys. Verses that testify to the truth that God is a God of the valleys, as well as the hills (1 Kings 20.23).

In Hosea 2.15 God promises to make the valley of Achor (trouble) a door of hope. In Psalm 84 He promises that for those who trust Him, He will make the valley of Bacca (tears) a place of springs. And in Psalm 23 He promises that even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there is no reason to fear, for He is with us.

I'm grateful for verses like these. They give valley-dwellers and valley-walkers hope. They remind us that God is with us, that He is in control, that He sees, that He turns situations around, and that He can bring good from even the most difficult times. And it's a beautiful thing to have such hope. Hope in itself seems to impart life and joy and peace. You see it in the face of a child as they eagerly wait for Christmas, you hear it in the song of the bird that begins singing before the first rays of morning, and even the lambs seem to skip with joy as Spring awakens a new lease of life on earth. Hope in itself is powerful. But my gratefulness extends beyond mere hope that there are such promises. I really have seen something of the truth of these in my own life, and for that, i am even more grateful. To experience something of what you hope for.... to catch a glimpse of it with your very own eyes, is truly incredible. I can testify to that.

But right now, I'm still walking through valleys. So, i'll joyfully remember what I've tasted of God's faithfulness in the past, I'll put my hope in what He promises for the future, and i'll stand firm on the certainty that He who promises will be faithful once more.

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Biro Envelope Drawings

I love these envelope drawings by Mark Powell. They are done completely with bic biros on the backs of old envelopes. Amazing.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

World Map Papercut


I've been doing a World map papercut over the last few months. I finally finished it, just before the new year. It's my biggest papercut yet and took a pretty long time - almost 30 hours of cutting and an awful lot longer to draw the design before i cut. I'll post some proper photos at some point, these two are just a tiny snippet.


Thursday, December 15, 2011

Beside the manger


Who will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, all honour, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Brick Lane

I was in London at the weekend visiting my dear siblings and i noticed a bit of street art by Swoon. I've posted some of her work on here before, but never actually seen any in real life, so i was quite glad to notice a piece pasted up in Brick Lane. I like her style.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Grace


‎"You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the play and the opera, and grace before the concert and pantomime, And grace before I open a book, And grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, And grace before I dip my pen in the ink." G. K. Chesterton


Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Back to the start...

To say that my life has been strange in recent years would be an understatement; it's been more than strange. And at times my mind has been like a maze of confusion which i have felt more than lost in. This has meant that i haven't written so regularly and when i have it's tended to be quite heavy. But i miss writing, and i especially miss writing about the kind of things i first set out to write about. It was my aim back in 2007 to use this as a place to help me practically outwork my desire to think about whatever is true and honourable and just and pure and lovely and gracious and excellent and worthy of praise (phil 4.8). And so i'm going to restart this blog, with my original aim in mind.

I love noticing tenderness and grace and beauty in the every day things.. and i love noticing it in the not-so-every-day things too... i also believe that sometimes tenderness can be seen in and through the most obscure and bizarre situations and i think such expressions of tenderness are worth noting and celebrating.

I'm pretty sure i have no readers any more, so i feel free to start writing without the worry of saying silly things. I'm doing this more as an exercise for myself anyway.. an exercise to keep me focussed on things outside myself, to remind me to lift up my head and keep my eyes open, and to re-train myself to speak about all i love, rather than all i fear. So, here we go....

Friday, November 18, 2011

Hungary

Photos of Hungary by Tamas Dezso

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Songs in the Night

"God, my maker, who giveth songs in the night." - Job 35.10

"No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, i can weave songs, fashioning them wherever i go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall i frame a hymn of praise to God?.. Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and i can sing God's praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall i then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself give me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an alter-coal shall touch his lip... Since our maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon Him for the music. O Thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune Thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving." - Spurgeon

Thursday, October 13, 2011

The Well Song.

Here's an extract from The Well Song by Chelsey Scott. It's a beautiful, albeit a little sad, song..

"Well i've walked and walked a thousand lengths, watched my precious strength go weak. Oh Lord, I can't walk here a single mile more. So i sat and sat in lazy pain, Let the plea go straight to my brain. Oh, Lord, I can't sit here a single moment more. 'Cause this well that i have dug, completely empty of love, no water does it hold to quench my thirst and soul. But Your cisterns in the ground... Oh, what a beautiful sound, they just flow and flow. How they meet my thirsty soul. Oh, Lord, why give this precious strength to fools? No, I don't thirst anymore."

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Like Snow.


"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." - Isaiah 1.18

Photos by Lisa Robinson

Monday, August 29, 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

There is a fountain

"There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; and there may i, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose it's power, til all the ransomed Church of God be saved, to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be til i die. Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing thy power to save, when this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave." - William Cowper

Friday, July 08, 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

An eternal weight of glory..

I just read this, by Jon Bloom, on the Desiring God website. It's good, so i'm going to quote most of it:

"I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me (Job 30:20-21).

These words came out of the mouth of the man God considered the most blameless and upright on earth at the time (Job 1:8)..... Can you identify with Job? You cry out to God in your affliction and you see nothing change. It seems like he’s just standing there watching you writhe. It feels cruel.

But this is not, in fact, true. What is true is that God is doing far more in our affliction than we know.

For Job, he did not know that he was putting Satan to shame by trusting in God despite his desolate confusion. He did not know that his experience would encourage millions for millennia. And like Job, we do not know what mind-blowing designs God has in store for what may feel unbearable and appear cruel today.

But we do know this: God was answering Job when it seemed he wasn’t. And God was remembering David when David cried, “Will you forget me forever?” (Psalm 13:1). And when Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), God had turned his face away from our sin, only to raise his Son from the dead to undying, unsurpassed, and eternal glory.

Your suffering may be inscrutable today. But in reality it is preparing for you “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Take heart and hold on."