Until he showed up at the ALIVE music festival this summer, I thought Kris Allen wrote only generic, sappy-but-clean girlfriend&breakup songs. I figured that any Christian with a strong witness probably wouldn’t have won American Idol.
I judge people on very little information, and yes, that’s a flaw, even if I justify it with James 4:4 and passages like it. In Kris Allen’s case, I have to make a lukewarm exception for “Live Like We’re Dying.”
Yeah, we gotta start
Looking at the hands of the time we've been given

Breathless, she collapsed. She beheld her hands before her on the pavement; they were blue, bruised and numb. Pattering, the rain struck her back, dripped down her hair and caused little ripples in the puddles that surrounded her. She was on her knees: torn by the rough pavement. Around her there was no one; not a living being passed by on the streets. Alone. Companion by companion had deserted her. Now upon her knees she sank; to her unfeeling hands she leaned.     

Kallah told herself he was nothing. The cloaked man was not following her, even though she had spotted him each day on the road. But why were his steps gaining on her?
If you run you’ll look guiltier. There is always the mantle…
No! She jerked her hand away from her pack.
Even if she hadn’t, it was too late. The stranger started to talk to her, coming to her side with fearsome speed. “Why are you crying?”
Kallah nearly froze up. “What? I’m not… I’m just traveling…”

I often find it hard to believe I live in my body. Am I really the short, bespectacled teenager I see in the mirror? Apparently.

**So the other night, I couldn't get to sleep...and finally I picked up my little scripture passage-a-day book.  I forget what exactly the passage was, but the words "Abide in Me" stuck out at me...and then this "prosy sort of poem" just came out of my fingers...and I guess my heart too. :)**

-

Alone with my failings
Alone in the night
I felt my heart
Beating
The rhythm it pulsed was one of sadness
And it spoke a language of loneliness

Alone with my failings
Alone in the night
I reached with my heart....

16.
Two people dance and sway in the night
The boy tells the girl to look in his eyes
In his arms, she trembles and tries not cry
She knows it’s the last night they’ll have in this life
-so close-
The girl watches this dream, wonders who they are
Then she sees herself, and he’s holding her heart
She never knew how much pain it would bring them to part
Not ‘til the moment under the stars…

17.
Mercy so relentless it died a criminal’s death
Love so jealous it overcame every rival for her heart

In a small town there is a street
Where the chapel and the forest trees meet
And on this street there lives a girl
Who has given all she once prized for a pearl
It is pure, white, and perfect, set in a ring
Radiance, life, light, and joy does it bring
But when outsiders appear, the girl covers her hand
She will not share her treasure with the land.
    What will her gravestone say?

On a sun-bathed cliff, under sky, over sea
There is a boy who knows he is free
To a people who cannot comprehend his choice

[This essay contains massive spoilers from Red, middle novel of Ted Dekker’s Circle Trilogy. DO NOT read if you haven’t read the book.]

When I first read Red, I thought it was really good, but found the character Justin confusing. His teachings of peace with the Scabs seemed heretical, while I sensed hypocrisy in the Great Romance.

But one scene changed that. It was the closest I’ve ever come to unity with a fictional character. My eyes sprang ahead…

Where there is hatred, let me sow love – St. Francis of Assisi.

Perfect love casteth out fear – St. Paul.

Fear and hate rule the world today. The evidence us everywhere: mistrust, violence, bloodshed and murder.

I have come so that you can have life, and have it more abundantly – Jesus

For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten son – John

God’s intention was that we would listen to His son and what He had to tell us.

Above all, love one another, even as I have loved you – Jesus.