His Glory, or My Works?

At the door I am speaking,

"Lord, Lord, let me in

Let me in, let me leave

this bleak world of sin."

"Give me a place I can lie

in peace, safe and sound

where hope, love, and joy

and life can be found."

"In Your name, oh, my Lord

I've done many great things

and I'll tell You about them

from the height of Your wings."

"So please," I implore You.

"Lord, let me in.

I knock on Your door

so this life I can win."

But wait -- You are whispering

from this door You shut tight.

"I never knew you," You say.

"Yes, you heard right."

My forehead is wrinkled,
 "But look what I've done!"

I've done many great things,

and all for the Son.

And so now You reply,

with love in Your eyes,

"Listen to me," You say,

"If you wish for life in the skies."

"You call my name Lord,

yet do not what I say:

for the will of my Father

is the only True way."

"So first, seek my God

seek Him and you'll find.

For this kingdom of Heaven

is not seen with the mind."

With that, my knocking ceased,

and I turn from the door

for this kingdom of Heaven

is not what my pride has in store.

And so now I remain

in the dark, evil lurks

and I'm kept awake with a question:

His glory, or my works?

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Matthew 7:21-23, King James Version.

A View From the Cello Section

Fluffy snowflakes have covered the ground. Coats and boots have become part of everyday wear. We have already had our first snow day off from school. It is November in here in the Midwest.

November also means the first orchestra concert of the school year is coming up!

Ugh.

I love the cello very, very much. But concerts just aren't really my favorite. Walking onto the stage, playing for everyone, all those glaring lights...

*sad noise*

But really, orchestra is great. Especially the cellos. I mean, we kind of have an infestation, uh, I mean blessing of cellos in my orchestra. There's quite a few of them, especially if you compare to our very meager viola section. When you have that many of us, there can be kind of a problem with how much sound we produce. Let's just say that the command to play louder is a very rare thing for our cello section to hear. (Oh, but when we get the melody... :D)

So, sure, there are some problems we have. Concerts are one problem for me, but there are others. November, for instance, not only brings joy with the snow, but also brings groans with the tuning.

Tuning, tuning, tuning. It's a problem year round, but especially here when the weather is shifting. Bridges popping, pegs slipping, and strings snapping are in unfortunate abundance. The pain is real, guys.

(via pinterest)

The cello is a lot of resting and simple harmony a sad amount of the time. As the cellos say in The Composer is Dead, "You can't waltz without a reliable one-two-three, one-two-three. It's boring, but it's steady work." The first violins, however, along with other sections, have some more tricky parts. Thus, our army of cellos is often left sitting for the other sections to get things figured out.

Being an orch dork is a hard life. ;) Not only do we have to deal with those things, but also non orchestra people. "Is that a guitar?" people ask as I carry my cello case. "The cello..." another says thoughtfully when I explain what actually is in the case. "That's like, a big violin, isn't it?"

Uh....no. Just no. :D

Anyway, I'm getting a little off the point. The point is, there are some little annoyances, but there's so much more benefits. In orchestra, you get such a wide variety of people. You get to learn so much from each one as you play music along with them, and talk to one another outside of playing. It's just kind of a big orchestra family, and it's wonderful.

And we haven't even talked about the music yet. Music is such a beautiful gift, as J.S. Bach said, "for the honor of God, and the permissible delights of the soul." It captures so much of the human heart. Engulfed in music is such a lovely place to be. Being in such a musical group is a great blessing, even though performance is part of the deal.

As the band director at my school said, "there comes a time in every musician's life when suddenly he loves the soft, pretty music more than the loud, exciting music. Or maybe it's just that the pretty music suddenly has become more exciting." Orchestra is one of the most beautiful experiences I have the privilege to be part of, and I wouldn't want to trade it, even to pick up more electives. ;)

How has music impacted your life?

It's Been a While

Instead of NaNoWriMo, maybe I should just be going for No-Post November here.

I would be pretty good at it.

Wow, what a month. I wish I had pictures to share, but I'm sort of camera deprived right now. :( 

As you can probably tell by the NaNo widget on the side over there, I'm *a little* (okay, quite a bit) behind on the count. But I don't know, that's pretty okay for me. For someone who barely ever writes fiction in her spare time, 14,000 words in 19 days is pretty good, actually. Plus, I didn't write for like 6 days due to being completely overwhelmed for a little bit. But I did start back up again!

We just read Wool by Hugh Howey in English. Go read it, right now. ;) It's really short, just 45 pages. But it's pretty amazing. Hopefully, I'll talk about it in a near-future post.

Some things that have truly brightened my month:

-A handwritten letter from my lovely, lovely sister. What could be a better gift to receive??

-A painting by my dear friend, in honor of my birthday.

-Some pretty amazing English discussions.

-A copy of Kisses from Katie for my very own. :O :O :O

I will leave you all with a little something to think about:

(via pinterest)

4 Things I Learned From Starting NaNoWriMo

1. 1,667 words is a lot of words.
You honestly don't even want to know how much time I spent writing on November 1st. The words came very slowly. And I didn't even reach the goal! I'm currently behind by about 400 words. Already. And November started on a weekend.

2. I'm good at people, not plots.
I can develop a great character. Stories? Eh, not so much. But guess what? The great thing about NaNoWriMo is that I can totally work my novel around this. I get to learn my strengths & my weaknesses through experience.

3. Perseverance is possible.
Learning my writing strengths & weaknesses is great, yeah, but it doesn't mean anything if I don't just write. This means using every minute of my day to the best use so I have writing time.

4. The words will come easier.
Since I haven't actually attempted to write a story in quite awhile, it was a bit of a shock to sit down and try to write. But even today it was a little bit easier. NaNoWriMo allows you to give yourself the permission to write complete junk. It's okay to write terribly. You just have to write. And so write I will.