the band at walas was running through their same old repetoire again tonight.. and i was getting pretty bored. then they played a song that made the whole night worth it (:

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

ive always always loved switchfoot. and i remember when they came in march this year! (ps: im sorry ben and andrew, for not choosing the mosh pit cos they had so much more fun. hahahaha. but we had our own fun eh) before the concert began we were discussing what songs we thought they would sing, and when they actually sang 'dare you to move' it certainly was an amazing experience.

and the band at walas did a pretty decent job tonight so i am happy (:

im a considerable number of pages into 'mere Christianity', and its becoming a harder and harder read. i have to read 5 times slower than my normal pace in order to process all the thoughts Lewis is trying to bring across.

just a little background: this book is a collection of speeches. when the bombing of Britain began, Lewis was prompted to speak about the problems of suffering, pain, and evil, work that resulted in his being invited by the BBC to give a series of wartime broadcasts on Christian faith. delivered over the air from 1942-1944, these speeches eventually were gathered into the book we know today as Mere Christianity

that's just it. mere Christianity. take time to understand Who Christ is (or at least Who He claimed to be, Who Christians understand Him to be, Who atheists and agnostics make Him out to be, and make your own judgments). dont dismiss it without reason, you do Christ a great injustice. but you do a greater injustice to yourself for you lose so much, both now and in eternity.

someone once asked me if people are sometimes the product of circumstance. ie if you're 'born into a Christian family' its so much easier to accept the faith than if you were born into a non-Christian one. or a happy home v. a troubled home. i dont doubt that environment plays a part, but it all ultimately comes right back down to you.

in the foreword of this book by kathless norris, she writes: Even someone [Lewis] envisions as "poisoned by a wretched upbringing in some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels" can be assured that God is well aware of "what a wretched machine you are trying to drive," and asks only that you "keep on, [doing] the best you can.".

and that's all He requires of us. to do the best we can. sometimes i think refusal of God is simply a refusal of sacrifice. 'the greatest religious struggle is not fought on a spectacular battleground, but within the ordinary human heart, when every morning we awake and feel the pressures of the day crowding in on us, and we must decide what sort of immortals we wish to be.'

i am inspired. to pray.

maybe redemption has stories to tell.
maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
where you gonna go?
salvation is here.