Long time, no blog.
At my house in Greensboro, I am sitting on the couch because I mistakenly came home for an eye appointment that isn't until Wednesday. Oh, well. I should be writing a paper or designing one of the million things I've promised to do for somebody . . but I'm not.
Instead, Sufjan Stevens is currently capturing my attention. KCRW has video from his in-studio performance from a few weeks ago. His new album is astoundingly good. When I first heard it, I wanted to cry. Of course, I'm not a crier, so I didn't. But I wanted to and that's what counts.
One song in particular struck me so hard I feel compelled to blog about it. It concerns (and is titled) John Wayne Gacy, Jr and recounts his life and his crimes. Satan is a liar, and not a particularly good one. For the first time, I am noticing this. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy and we miss it. He can convince a young boy, with the world before him, to become a man that dresses like a clown to kidnap, rape, and murder a young boy. Twenty-seven times over, he can convince him that that is love.
It makes me incredibly angry. The lies he tells us are usually less extreme, but they are just as deadly. He sneaks into the secret part of us and knows just the way to whisper so we will trade God's truth for his lie. He takes our deepest God-given desires and exploits them. Personally, he takes the gift God has given me to empathize with others' pain and perverts it into hopelessness that pins me to the floor.
I'm learning to battle. Satan is a strong man but he is not THE strong man. Jesus's murder and decent into hell has already won this war. I just have to appropriate it. I will not let my life in the unsearchable riches of Christ be stolen and, as far as my authority reaches, will not let Satan steal my brothers' lives.
At my house in Greensboro, I am sitting on the couch because I mistakenly came home for an eye appointment that isn't until Wednesday. Oh, well. I should be writing a paper or designing one of the million things I've promised to do for somebody . . but I'm not.
Instead, Sufjan Stevens is currently capturing my attention. KCRW has video from his in-studio performance from a few weeks ago. His new album is astoundingly good. When I first heard it, I wanted to cry. Of course, I'm not a crier, so I didn't. But I wanted to and that's what counts.
One song in particular struck me so hard I feel compelled to blog about it. It concerns (and is titled) John Wayne Gacy, Jr and recounts his life and his crimes. Satan is a liar, and not a particularly good one. For the first time, I am noticing this. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy and we miss it. He can convince a young boy, with the world before him, to become a man that dresses like a clown to kidnap, rape, and murder a young boy. Twenty-seven times over, he can convince him that that is love.
It makes me incredibly angry. The lies he tells us are usually less extreme, but they are just as deadly. He sneaks into the secret part of us and knows just the way to whisper so we will trade God's truth for his lie. He takes our deepest God-given desires and exploits them. Personally, he takes the gift God has given me to empathize with others' pain and perverts it into hopelessness that pins me to the floor.
I'm learning to battle. Satan is a strong man but he is not THE strong man. Jesus's murder and decent into hell has already won this war. I just have to appropriate it. I will not let my life in the unsearchable riches of Christ be stolen and, as far as my authority reaches, will not let Satan steal my brothers' lives.
