In Spring

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In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin’s breast;

In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;

In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish’d dove;

In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

– Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”

Ah, Spring! Unfortunately, “thoughts of love,” aflutter though they may set my heart, pose an unnecessary impedance to my work-momentum, so the hearts aflutter are probably best kept at arm’s length till after finals. Yup. Sure. Just keep telling yourself that.

Guest Speakers

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No, I have no witty techie April Fools gimmick today. I was in the incipient stages of writing up a Google-style frontend this morning, but it looks like Metafilter has beat me to it. Maybe I’ll do something next year.

Going to a lecture tonight by 0100101110101101.org. Next week, Alex Galloway talks about hacking multiplayer games for fun and profit, and the following week, Perry Hoberman is giving a talk. Yes, I need to attend all those while juggling six other major art and production projects, all due within the next one to four weeks.

Hay buhay.

Snowy Spring

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Fifteen minutes ago it was bright, brisk, clear, and sunny. Now it’s snowing like a blizzard out there. Crazy, crazy weather.

Listless

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Today was a dull, boring, lonely, passionless day. I barely left my room except to eat and do the laundry, and I found myself unable to produce any kind of creative or technical work. In fact, I had trouble producing anything more coherent than simple sentences. Okay, I’m going to stop this entry before I start sounding like The Apathetic Online Journal Entry Generator. Or The Dullest Blog in the World. Right now I’m going to turn off the war coverage, disconnect from the net, and sit in my chair by the window with a bowl of split pea soup and a good book. Good night.

Emotionalism in Worship

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“Rampant Addiction to Emotionalism Discovered in Much of the Western World!” says Jason. Do emotionally charged church services — contemporary or otherwise — help or hinder our worship of God? Do we sometimes find ourselves going to church because it just feels good to worship God, rather than because it is right to give Him praise?

This has bearing as well on our music, because heaven knows I’ve sung more than my share of church songs which, rather than praising God, instead turn into meta-worship which praises the wonderful emotions that accompany praising God. (Or worse, songs which prefer to repeat the word “love, love, love” again and again and just treat it as implied that God is the subject.) These days, when I find myself singing a song that starts singing about me and how I feel rather than how great God is, the song begins to taste sour, and I can no longer sing it. I recently experienced such a pang with I Can Only Imagine, which seems more about how the singer will react to standing before God, and not about the glory of God Himself. (But maybe that’s just me. Sorry, Julie! ;) (Never mind that. I’m just being a stupid, snobbish, heresy-hunting killjoy, especially considering that there are Psalms which praise God through meta-worshipful phrases just like that. Sorry.)

Which is why we are called to take every thought captive to obey Christ, and to prove all things and hold fast that which is good. We need to ask the Spirit to search hearts for any way that is against Him, that we may rise above shallow worship and smash the idol of emotion-worship, that we may worship God in spirit and in truth.

Cool?