Learning Life

When God First Slept

carriebethgriffin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:29:19 +0000

One of my favorite lyrics is from the carol I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. It says, “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.” I would love to just sing that line over and over but today I am humbled by the fact that He did sleep. He slept in a womb. He slept in a young girl’s arms. He slept in dirty hay. He slept while his earthly parents were questioned of their own morality. He slept everyday during His time on this earth. Sleep is something that we must have to function and most of us would say we’d like more of but God had never, ever slept before. He had rested, yes, but not slept. I am blown away by this act of humility and that after giving Himself up to sleep, He willingly died. He subjected Himself to a form that was only an image of the Father to provide righteousness for us. He being God was not overcome by death and because of that we sing, “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.” Amen and Merry Christmas.

What it means to fail… to me anyway

carriebethgriffin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:54:35 +0000

I think many people have a false impression of failure. Often we look at failure as if it is the result of things that don’t go the way we want them to. Over the past couple years, I’ve seen a lot of things go in a different direction than I had originally planned but have also found those to some of the greatest lessons of my life.

So my thought of the night is this: Watching your dreams NOT come true does not qualify as a failure. Failure is never doing something about those dreams in the first place.

The same can be said of the flip side: Watching your dreams come true does not always qualify as a success. Success is the pursuit of those dreams and everything you get to learn along the way.

It reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago about a man. One day he walked past a giant rock and God told him to push the rock. Every day he spent hours and hours pushing the rock, all the while growing more and more frustrated. The rock never budged. It remained in the very same spot where the man had found it but every day God told him the same thing. Finally after years of pushing the same rock and not seeing it move even an inch, he threw up his hands and said, “I can’t do this anymore! I keep trying and trying and nothing has ever happened! That’s it, God, no more!” He sat down and hung his head and the Lord whispered over him. “My son, you say nothing ever happened but lift up your head and look… look at your arms, your legs, and your back. Your muscles are stronger than ever they had been before. You are frustrated because you think that you have failed because you weren’t able to move the rock but, my precious son, I never told you to move it… I only told you to push.”

Things I Appreciate

carriebethgriffin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:20:55 +0000

After a 6-month blogging hiatus and a perfect day I thought I would awake from my hibernation and make a simple list of the things I have appreciated today:
•pumpkins
•sunshine
•driving through the night to see best friends
•best friends who wake up in the middle of the night to let us in
•walking to Starbucks and enjoying our drinks outside
•laughing at an uninhibited volume at poor choices we made in the past and crazy things we’ve experienced lately
•fall scented candles
•Jenni, who has been my best friend since I was 7
•Kinsley, who “shares part of my soul”
•Cando, who is my roommate and has been a huge encouragement to me this past year
•being with people who know me well and encourage me with every conversation
•the future… because if it is anything like the past it will be full of laughter, joy, hurt, failures, successes, and most importantly, people who have carried me and will carry me through them

I love a good bullet list

carriebethgriffin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:56:35 +0000

Evidently my blogging has become so poor that even Kaylyn has given up and stopped reminding me that my time for writing a post is long past due.

I just haven’t had much to say. I also haven’t had much time to say it.

This is not a complaint by any means. I am so grateful for the past couple months. Since my last post:

I led an amazing groups of 9th and 10th grade girls for a Disciple Now.
I got to spend a weekend with 12 other people who will be directing Fuge camps across the nation. These people are all so incredible and I wish I could spend more than 4 days a year with them.
Merea Price, who is family, was in town and we celebrated our birthdays together by going to the Grand Ol’ Opry and doing super fun stuff. (I am still new enough to Nashville to enjoy the sightseeing scene!)
The following weekend Robin Moore and Kinsley Kuhn came to visit and made me laugh harder that I have in months. It was so refreshing to be with girls who have known me for so long and don’t require any back story for conversations! I also got a new pair of boots out of it!
I heard my first tornado siren
I’ve talked to almost every person that will be on my staff this summer.
I’ve started cooking new things: sweet potato fries, Chicken Parmesan, coconut shrimp, omelets, and grilled chicken salads. And they’ve all turned out good!

I’ve also been learning a lot as well.

My work environment has taught me that I can use my creativity in so many different ways.
School has been teaching me that there is a lot to be said for discipline and hard work.
My roommates and friends have taught me to appreciate the people around me who are so understanding and supportive when all I can do is walk to my room and shut the door to do homework every night.
When you can’t go home, the Lord is gracious and brings home to you sometimes.
And the greatest truth that is still true and will always be true is this; the gospel is still good news.

I’m looking forward to a lot more wonderful experiences and lessons that will be coming in the next few weeks!

Song for Violin and Piano

carriebethgriffin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:40:45 +0000

This is the second movement of a suite I’ve been working on. Performed at a student composition recital at Belmont.

Dear Winter,

carriebethgriffin — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:31:26 +0000

I just can’t do this any more. Things between us aren’t working out. You’ve changed. You used to be so sweet and mild and now its like you are ready to lash out at me whenever you get the opportunity. I don’t want to be in a relationship like that.

I’m not saying you are bad. I think you just need to step back and re-evaluate some things. For example, is it necessary to freeze the doors of my car shut? Who is benefiting from your cold air coming in through the window seals? And with all this going back and forth I don’t feel like you are supporting me and my need for warmer weather. I need you to let me go.

We’ve had some wonderful times together. Remember when you snowed me in at my friends house and watched movies and drank hot cocoa? Or when I saw the snow glittering at night? Those are memories we will always have and I will never forget. But we’ve hit a rut and we need to move on. You were my first true winter and because of that you will always have a special place in my life, but our season together has come to an end. I hope you understand but honestly, I can’t worry about that. I have to move on. This is it.

Goodbye…

Carrie

PS. Mr. Groundhog didn’t see his shadow so please don’t hang around like a creeper. Thanks

Forever Young

carriebethgriffin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 02:11:55 +0000

Evidently I have been 19 for over 10 years now.

Ever since I was fourteen years old people always thought I was nineteen. I thought I finally outgrew that the past couple years but last night set me back. A few of us went to the Wildhorse Saloon for some good ol’ Nashville line dancing. They check ids as you come in and the guy at the door didn’t believe that my driver’s license was actually mine. He thought I was too young and was using a fake id! They quizzed me on my info and then asked me to sign my name like I did on my license. The problem was that when I signed for my license I tried to make it look nice and don’t EVER actually sign like that so I got that part of the test wrong. Then I was laughing because it was so weird which made me look guilty! After some more drilling and being talked to as if I was a misbehaving high schooler, I had to go back to the car and bring other forms of identification for them to believe me. Even after that one guy thought the license was fake. However I didn’t have to pay the cover so I’ll claim it as a WIN.

People keep telling me that I’ll be grateful for it someday and if it keeps up I’m sure I will be, but almost twelve years of this is just silly!

25 years old going on 19… going on 19…..going on 19

Turn it up

carriebethgriffin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 04:44:01 +0000

Happy New Year!

2011 already seems to have a lot in store. I guess all years do but things seems to be happening so fast right now. I am now a Program Specialist (Intern) in the Fuge Office at Lifeway, I moved in to a new apartment last weekend, and I am still a full time grad student. One of my responsibilities at school is that I am an intern for one of the vocal ensembles as well. I get to write for them and work with them during rehearsals. It is something I am really looking forward to.

The song I am working on for them right now is called How You Live (Turn Up the Music). It is referring to making the most out of life and loving those people around you. The chorus says to “Turn up the music /Turn it up loud /Take a few chances /Let it all out/You won’t regret it /Lookin’ back from where you have been/Cuz it’s not who you knew/And it’s not what you did/It’s how you live”

As I was listening to it, I remembered an email I received about 4 1/2 years ago. I had met a missionary family during a mission trip in Cambodia and received this email from them when they found out their wife and mother was battling cancer again. The last line of the email has stayed with me since the moment I read it. I think it gives a new meaning to “turn up the music.”

Here is part of that email:

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me. Psalms 13:5-6

There comes a time in the course of cancer when all the treatments have run their race and successes hoped for have eluded all hopes and dreams. These are times for grief, and sorrow, yes – but they need never be times of loneliness – for the unfailing love of the Father permeates and dominates all things seen and unseen, whether it feels that way or not at the moment. You see, what drives me to trust Him today, and even for tomorrow, is the legacy of the unfailing love He’s shown me in all the yesterdays I’ll ever come to know. And when I consider those, joy is able to pry its way past whatever despair that’s bent to overtake me. And if I listen well, there is the faintest of songs deep down inside me – singing away – though I can barely perceive it, reminding me of His goodness to me.

Choosing to listen well, and hearing the song – yes, hearing it – though faintly,

Its been a great reminder lately to listen to the song and turn up the music.

I read a good book lately…

carriebethgriffin — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 04:21:55 +0000

I read a book last week. It was a book that didn’t have anything to do with the political demands of a government on a composer and how those affected the course of music history. It also didn’t have anything to do with the ethical/unethical choices faced in musical research especially in regards to ethnomusicology. I didn’t read it as an assignment, chore, or obligation. I read it because I want the title of the book to be true of my life.

Last week I read Living the Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney. My bff Jenni has been telling me to read this book for over a year and I finally did. One chapter in particular really got to me. Chapter 11 is called Breaking the Rule of Legalism: How the Cross Rescues You from the Performance Trap. It describes legalism as basing our relationship with God on our own performance. I am a self-admitted perfectionist. You wouldn’t be able to tell that by my desk or my closet because those are far from being in perfect order but it comes out in my performance. I am always looking for ways to improve, or work harder, or do things more efficiently. These aren’t bad things at all, they’ve helped me do well in school and different jobs. But if I think that God will love me less when I come up short then I have lost sight of what He did on the cross. CJ says, “That’s how serious legalism is. The implications are staggering, because legalism claims in essence that the death of Jesus on the cross what either unnecessary or insufficient. It says to God, in effect, ‘Your plan didn’t work. The cross wasn’t enough and I need to add my good works to it to be saved.’”

The cross is enough. It is the fulfillment of his love for us and the fulfillment of his wrath as taken on by Christ.

When we behold the disfigurement of the Son of God, when we find ourselves appalled by his marred appearance, we need to reckon afresh that it is upon ourselves we gaze, for he stood in our place.- John Calvin

Enough

carriebethgriffin — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:13:41 +0000

The past few weeks at church we’ve been going through a series entitled Enough. It can mean different things. It can mean we’ve had enough of the world and want more of Christ. Or it can mean that He fills us with more than enough of Himself. This morning we talked about contentment and how we need to practice contentment because it is not natural to us. The world around us always wants us to be discontent with what we have and go get the newest better whatever. The truth is that there is nothing newer and greater than the grace by which we live. If we truly recognized it we would find that it never runs out and therefore always fills us with an abundance, in His sufficiency. Then I read this story on my friend, Merea‘s blog:

He was riding home and he compared himself to a little fish swimming in the Thames River, and he was worried that he might drink too much water and dry up the river. The Thames said to him, “Drink away little fish. My stream is sufficient for you.”

Next he thought of a little mouse in the storehouses of Egypt. He was afraid that his daily eating would empty the supply and he would starve to death. Then Joseph comes and says, “Cheer up, little mouse. My granaries are sufficient for you.”

Then he thought of a man climbing a high mountain to reach its summit and dreading lest his breathing might exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere. The Creator booms His voice out of heaven saying, “Breathe away, oh man, and fill your lungs. My atmosphere is sufficient for you!”-Charles Spurgeon
He never runs out….He is always enough. Find rest and contentment in Him.