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One of my favorite songs by Rich Mullins. For years this was one of those songs that you just pass over and think, “That was nice”, but don’t really understand the depth of the lyrics. On a flight for one of my business trips, I listened to the words carefully and was struck by how much it hit me. Typical of Rich Mullin’s music, which I think grows with age is his prayer to God to shield him from the storms of life. As the final verse plays, he comes to the realization that everything that had shaken his life with so much turmoil was actually the wings that lifted him to his final resting place in the arms of the Lord.

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Rich Mullins

Isaiah 60:1-3, 1 Cor. 2:9, 2 Cor. 4:7-18, 2 Timothy 2:11-13

I see the morning moving over the hills

I can see the shadows on the western side

And all those illusions that I had

They just vanish in Your light

 

Though the chill of the night still hangs in the air

I can feel the warmth of morning on my face

Though the storm had tossed me

‘Til I thought I’d nearly lost my way

 

And now the night is fading and the storm is past

And everything that could be shaken was shaken

And all that remains is all that I really had

 

What I’d have settled for

You’ve blown so far away

What You brought me to

I thought I could not reach

And I came so close to giving up

But You never did give up on me

 

And I see the morning moving over the hills

I feel the rush of life here where the darkness broke

And I am in You and You’re in me

Here where the winds of Heaven blow

 

And now the night is fading

The storm is through

And everything you sent to shake me

From my dreams they come to wake me

In the love I find in You

And now the morning comes

And everything that really matters

Become the wings You send to gather me

To my home

To my home

I’m going home

 

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Are we on the edge of another Great Depression?

I will have to admit that I get very tired of politicians and news media making such a big deal of our small and relatively minor recessions. I remember hearing in 1992 that our economy was the worst since the great depression, which amazingly we heard again last year. It seems that this is a convenient way for them to state that the current administration has not been doing enough. The greatest hero of the great depression has been Franklin D. Roosevelt, who got this country through the depression and into World War II, which actually ended the depression.

However, economists and historians are now re-thinking this line of thought and beginning to believe that Roosevelt’s constant “tweaking” of our country’s economy and his policies did more to extend the great depression than if he had done nothing. Many in his administration were Stalin sympathizers and hoped to be able to set in place some of the same command economy systems that the Russians had designed and were extremely antagonistic to the free market. They were anything but laissez-faire. Unfortunately, however, what this did was to stifle an already struggling economy and make it not only struggle against the market forces which caused the collapse, but also against the government that claimed to be looking out for the “little guy”.

Last year I thought that all this talk about another depression was comical, just a bunch of Chicken-Little politicians trying to stir up things to get elected. Had things stayed the way they were, perhaps we would be climbing out of that recession by now. However, with almost a year of “tweaking” of his own and attacking the market as a bunch of greedy old men, our current President is doing a good job of walking down the same path that FDR took that very well could lead us to another great depression.

Amity Shays writes an interesting and updated view of the great depression in her book “The Forgotten Man“.

Which makes this debate in the Wall Street Journal very interesting. Could we be on the edge of another depression? Until recently I would’ve said absolutely not. Now, however, I’m not sure.

Eighty Years After the Great Crash — ‘Is It the ’30s Again?’ (Wall Street Journal)

 

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Beauty Will Rise – Steven Curtis Chapman

Album available November 3, 2009.

Pre-buy it here from Family Christian Stores.

SCC has been my favorite CCM musician over the last 17 years or so. In 1990 as a new artist that I had barely heard of, he came and did a concert at our high school, South Kitsap. Unfortunately the concert was cut short due to the fact that he was losing his voice. But, he stood on stage and did was I’ve seen him do so many time in later years and just spoke about his family, what he was going through and just life in general. He always seemed less of a performer and more of a “real” person.

In 1993 he did a live concert in Seattle and several of us went to the concert. We even saw a shot of ourselves as the camera panned the audience. Lots of fun being able to say, “I remember that shot!” In later years he did a mini-concert at Key Arena during a couples retreat.

I always love good music, but I especially like strong lyrical content and the benchmark for me has always been Keith Green, whose energy in his music is hard to surpass. Chapman, like many other artists took up that challenge to make his music meaningful. He always allowed much of his music to be influenced by his daily life. These songs have really touched me through the years.

Whether it is love songs like “I Will Be Here”, “Go There With You” or “11-6-64” that every time I hear them I think of my beautiful wife. There are the songs with powerful meaning of God’s promises like “Bring It On”, “All Things New”, “God Is God” and “This Day”. Or incredible worship songs that seem to come from Steven’s soul like “Moment Made for Worshiping”, “Not Home Yet” and “Yours”. Then there are the songs that tap into the deep pain that life seems to throw at us and which have made the tough times that the Chapman family has gone through recently more real, like “With Hope”, “When Love Takes You In”, “Still Called Today” and “His Strength is perfect”.

I am really looking forward to this new album from Steven. There is no one that touches the truth of the matter quite like SCC.

Steven’s website, http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/

Steven’s blog, http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/

 

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About my Blog

My primary goal with this blog is to reflect upon things that I’ve observed or been a part of in the past. I may even summarize current events or trends that I see for the future. But, this is primarily about my point of view.