Monday, January 09, 2006

Headed Heavenward (hopefully!!)...

Yesterday was my first Sunday back in Germany, and it was wonderful to be at church and to see everyone once again. At this point, I'd normally turn all sappy and write how much I love everyone there, but I know some of them read this, so I'm slightly embarrassed to take that route. :)

It has been a little difficult being immersed in German 24/7 after a 2.5 week break, and I've noticed that I'm not able to follow as quickly and closely as before, but we'll give it a few more days and hopefully things will be back to normal. Retrogression... fun stuff. As long as there's an equal or greater amount of progression later, all will be well in the language realm.

There was a New Year's service at a little church in a nearby city yesterday, and I went with a dear family from my church... because of the New Year, everyone was asked to draw a little card with a verse and lyrics. Mine was quite lovely.

First, the verse...

"Selig sind, die reines Herzens sind; denn sie werden Gott schauen." Matthäus 5,8

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Matthew 5:8


Then the lyrics...

"Mach mich reines Herzens, daß ich Deine Klarheit schauen mag in Geist und Wahrheit. Laß mein Herz überwärts wie ein Adler schweben und in Dir nur leben."

"Create in me a pure heart, so that I might see your clarity in spirit and in truth. Let my heart float heavenwards like an eagle and only live in You."


This is a wonderful prayer for the New Year. Purity. Clarity. (Sanity?) In both spirit and truth.

There's also an eternal perspective here... a heavenward-floating heart as opposed to one that's weighed down, unable to truly fly, and focused merely on the temporal. Also, the heart isn't simply looking upwards into the heavens, but is actually floating up into the heavens. It's doing something. It's more than a thought or an idea; it's an action. Yes, thoughts and ideas are wonderful things... but unless they're acted upon and applied, they're meaningless (the high marjority of thoughts, that is... gotta give Aestheticism some credit here...). Ideas ought to be a means to an action, not an end in and of themselves.

Anyway. I think I'm going to laminate the card and put in on my fridge... next to the postcard of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the gang. :)

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