Memories

The memory of the righteous will be a blessing...

Proverbs 10:7

 

This past weekend was Alumni Weekend at the parochial high school that I attended back home in Arizona.  Called Back to the Classics, it was organized by a couple of members of the class of 1967, and featured a huge party at a nearby Scottsdale hotel on Saturday evening.  It appears that everyone brought their cameras and all had a marvelous time.  My e-mail inbox has been flooded with pictures of the event, and plenty more pictures can be seen on Facebook.

It was on Facebook, while perusing all of the alumni photos, that I came across the above photo as I scrolled down the listings.  It stopped me in mid-mousing - I would know this structure anywhere!  This is the old Phoenix Central SDA Church - the church home of my childhood.  Sitting at the corner of Ninth Street and Garfield, this grand old lady looks better today than she did back when I raced down the halls in the basement to reach my Sabbath School room.

Every Saturday, my mother would dress me up in some fluffy number that she had made by hand, then she would drive the old stationwagon downtown, arriving at the church about 9:15 a.m..  Sabbath School was at 9:30 a.m., where I would sing songs, listen to stories, and place stick figures of Bible characters in the sand box that our teacher used to illustrate her Bible lessons.  After S.S. was over, a trip to the two-toilet ladies room and a stop at the drinking fountain completed the pre-worship ritual.  "Church" started at 11:00 a.m., and I eagerly took my place on the hardwood pew right in front of the choir.

 

Central Church was where I was baptized, where I learned about Jesus, where I sang my first church solo (at 2 1/2 years old), where I joined my first choir, and where I accompanied my first Messiah rehearsal.  So many memories are packed into that tiny structure.  How wonderful it was to run across this picture and be reminded of the very beginning of my walk with the Lord.

All Things New

Behold, I make all things new...

Revelation 21:5

 

This past week was Spring Break for the school system in my county.  This meant two significant things for me:  I didn't have to teach school, and I didn't have any children's activities at the church.  I had a holiday at the church on Monday, and Friday is my regular day off, so I decided to take Tuesday through Thursday as vacation days and really get things done around the house.

I sporadically follow Emily Clark's decorating blog, and one of her recent posts had given me an idea.  She began a series based on working with what you have.  Utilizing a wide variety of paints, colorful fabrics and lots of ingenuity, she and her readers shared wonderful ways of taking something you own and making it new and different, rather than purchasing a replacement item. My goal this week was to utilize that concept in my own home.  At the end of this week, I had completed four "old to new" projects:

1. The shutters on my red brick house (five sets of two) were probably a beautiful teal green color when they were first installed, but the sun completely washed out the vibrancy.  Armed with two ladders (short and tall), a million paint brushes and a gallon of oil-based paint, I now have gleaming black shutters and an amazing facelift for the front of my home.
2. The large planters in my front yard were old, bleached-out terracotta plastic pots - ugly but still very serviceable.  Gathering two spray cans of primer for plastic and two spray cans of Hunter Green Semi-Gloss paint, I transformed my old pots into glossy dark green planters that would have cost me a fortune if I had purchased them new.
3. My family photo grouping that should be adorning a wall in my living has never been put up because it is housed in picture frames that are a kaleidoscope of colors, materials, textures, and conditions.  Taking out the photos, mats and glass, I spray painted my hodgepodge of frames the same color - a very light, silvery taupe.  They turned out beautifully, and my grouping now looks stunning instead of stodgy.
4. The red brick fireplace surround in the living room is far too dark for the color scheme of the walls.  Two coats of white primer has transformed the look of the living room, even before the final coats of latex are applied.

Watching the "old" turn to "new" this week has been a very satisfying experience.  A simple coat or two of paint covered up a whole host of imperfections.  How wonderful it would be if there was a "coating" of some kind that could hide my personal flaws.  The scriptures advise us to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness: His character perfection covering our sins and weaknesses.  God is also in the business of making all things new - new hearts, new lives, new outlooks.  All He needs is for us to be willing.
   

The Value of Human Life: Carrie Underwood

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.

Romans 1

I remember Carrie Underwood on American Idol in 2005.  She was a small town, Christian twenty-something who had never ridden on an airplane, never been to a big city.  Week after week in the competition, thousands of people like me cheered her on as she advanced in the competition.  Finally, she was declared the winner of Idol Season Four.  She immediately released an album, Some Hearts, which won three Grammy's including Best New Artist.  There were two songs on that album that stood out for me.  The first was Jesus, Take the Wheel - a tune that I listened to over and over.  The second song was Before He Cheats.

 

Although I really liked Carrie as a singer and an entertainer, Before He Cheats bothered me.  The singer is telling the triumphant story of revenge on a guy who is cheating on her.  That revenge, however sweet it might be, is vandalism - cheerful, triumphant vandalism of a real scumbag's SUV, but vandalism none-the-less: keying down the side of the vehicle, a baseball bat to the headlights, a knife to the leather seats and the tires.  It makes for a heck of a song, but the message it sends does not exactly jibe with either the laws of the land or the laws of God.  

Her latest hit single, Two Black Cadillacs, gave me the same uneasy feeling.  This is also a song about a cheating man, as well as the wife, the mistress, and a funeral procession with two black cars.  The lyrics of the song are clear:  the two women compare notes, decide that the jerk will not get away with his lying and philandering, and they wait for the "right time."  The right time for what?  To kill the guy!  Yes, that's right - to MURDER the husband.

Last Sunday I went out for lunch to a local restaurant, and the music video for Two Black Cadillacs came on the big screen.  To say that I was shocked as I watched would be an understatement.  One of the women lures the man to a meeting place, then the cars begin to play with him like a cat and mouse, finally running him down as he pleads for his life.  After he is dead, the two women walk up to view their handiwork (all you see is a limp, bloody hand).  Were they in the cars? Watching as "innocent" bystanders?.  In a "behind the scenes" video, Underwood explains that the women don't do the killing, the cars do (a la Stephen King's horror novel Christine), as though that makes the killing okay.  The car does "heal" itself of the resulting dents and dings, but in the video, there are clearly "hands on the wheel" and "foot on the accelerator" shots just before the man is gunned down.

 

What message does this video deliver to the hordes of adoring fans - mostly kids and teens?  The man is a cheating scumbag so it's okay to take his life?  Do the dirty on me and see what you get?  Cheaters don't deserve to live?   I know what message it sent to me:  this is an artist that I don't need to listen to anymore.