Archive: May 17th, 2008

Romanian symphony, Narnia, Romans 6


Yeah this is sort of a hodgepodge of what's running through my head after a very busy day or so...
So last night I went to Rumanian Rhapsody - a benefit concert put on by Phoenix Symphony musicians to raise money for one of their own, a Romanian violinist battling breast cancer. This pretty much spelled out a perfect evening for me - combining downtown Phoenix with music with the Romanian community, and combining all that with 2 friends who were excited to go with me. SO many Romanians were there, and the guy who co-owns my favorite coffee shop was one of the performers. I was glowing all night - the music was phenomenal - a collection of the woman's favorite pieces, including some Romanian works. And it was such a cool event - while still maintaining a strong sense of the symphony culture, the performers also sort of let their hair down so to speak - it was far more casual than your typical night at the symphony. It was fun to kind of get a glimpse into that world and so great to see the way that so many talented people pulled together to help this woman and her family.
Then today I saw Prince Caspian - also amazing. I love the element in this story of the 4 kids and their relationships to Aslan...Aslan is far less physically present in this story than in the last and they all deal with that in different ways. Lucy holds onto hope - more than hope really, a sincere confidence - that Aslan remains faithful. The others have a harder time. Susan and Peter both wonder why Lucy was able to see him and they weren't. Susan seems to remain hopeful but skeptical throughout the story. But Peter decides to take matters into his own hands and says they have "waited for Aslan long enough." I could see myself in each of them. But in the end, of course, Aslan is faithful, and all 4 kids bow before him and rejoice in his great love.
The other thing on my mind is Romans 6. Our church has been challenged to memorize the chapter as we go through a sermon series on it. A girl on the music team, Kami, actually wrote songs that recite these verses word-for-word. So the last few days, on my many commutes, I have listened only to these songs in an attempt to memorize the passage. It has been such a sweet blessing. It is so easy for me to completely space out while driving - I always have music on, unless I have a sermon to catch up on, and I'm often singing along, but even while singing along I'm often not really engaged in the words. This week, I've caught myself SO many times not paying attention, and I need to recapture my thoughts once again and focus on these precious words. And then, once I leave the car, I typically have these songs - straight scripture - running through my head for the rest of the day. I even woke up in the middle of the night with one of them in my head the other night. So much better than the garbage of a lot of secular music, the encouragement but often triteness of Christian music, and especially my own cheesy songs i compose and sing all day. I'm so grateful that in this case, God can use the gift of music to help me retain His life-giving words.
That's all for now but I'm sure there are many more bloggable events on the horizon...