Mash-up!

"It's like I been awakened..." I kept singing this little line from Beyonce's Halo this weekend on retreat (and of course, when I actually literally would sing this out-loud to my friend Christine, she appropriately responded with the Glee mashup version.

(And, yes, I recognize that clip was taken from a Spanish website. It's what came up when I googled "Glee mashup". It adds character, no? si? ;)

So I was praying this morning and the line again popped into my head. I just went to find the full lyrics to the song to see if the rest of the words had meaning. Sho 'nuff!!! They really could be something we sing to God (ahem.my sidenote comments are in parenthesis and italics ;)

"Remember those walls I built
Well, baby they're tumbling down
And they didn't even put up a fight
They didn't even make up a sound

I found a way to let you in
But I never really had a doubt
Standing in the light of your halo ( haha-literally!)
I got my angel now (okay, maybe too much literal there)

It's like I've been awakened
Every rule I had you breakin' (Jesus is radical like that!)
It's the risk that I'm takin'
I ain't never gonna shut you out

Everywhere I'm looking now
I'm surrounded by your embrace
Baby I can see your halo (again, the literal image is cheezy)
You know you're my saving grace (#truthbomb!)

You're everything I need and more
It's written all over your face (or the face of others? Body of Christ? what what!)
Baby I can feel your halo
Pray it won't fade away

I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo
I can feel your halo halo halo
I can see your halo halo halo

Hit me like a ray of sun
Burning through my darkest night
You're the only one that I want
Think I'm addicted to your light (better Jesus than the alternatives, eh?)

I swore I'd never fall again
But this don't even feel like falling
Gravity can't forget
To pull me back to the ground again (ok, this could need some existential analysis here. We want to be with Him but are on earth for now? Maybe?)

Feels like I've been awakened...(and repeat chorus)

Kind of good right?

So I've been talking about being glad to get my "groove" back in analyzing and making connections again. Well, I made yet ANOTHER connection today in prayer to something my spiritual director had talked to me about maybe, oh, a few months back.

Remember when I was praying for patience? And then discovered that was a bad idea? And the answer was to pray for charity?

How much sense does it make (and maybe I've said this already) that charity and love are what make the time in between more bearable? So if we are (as I said a couple posts ago) "loving the fear out of our lives", doesn't the love replace the tendency toward fear and impatience?

And isn't analyzing the signs of God around us a way for us to recognize and experience His LOVE for us??? Huh, huh?? Isn't it?? ;)

Crazy. It just seemed to click today that, 'yes! I DO need to be just focusing on love and charity in these in between times' and that, in turn, gives me patience! I'm not looking at the fear or the frustration anymore because I'm focusing on the love in that moment. The "signs" of love that God is giving me. And His Halo. Okay, not really. But still...

GAH! "Hit me like a ray of sun"... indeed.

Peace,
Julia