I wish I could write the song
That's been somewhere in me all along
Just because I want it
Doesn't mean it's meant to be
You didn't seem to have to work
It came so naturally
Already on the inside track
The charmed life of a prodigy
Why were you my hero?
You had it all and all I wanted
Did we share some common traits?
I thought if I just looked like you
There'd be a place for me there too
But now I see my foolish sense
Why were you my hero?
You had it all and all I wanted
The years have passed and I moved on
Other heroes caught my eyes
I tried so many on for size
I'm not sure who I really am now
Why were you my hero?
You had it all and all I wanted
Do not forget the sins of youth
And pray to God you find the truth
- Rob Gast
June 2012
Carmen Bajo landscape
The view from Carmen Bajo, Quito, Ecuador
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Looking Ahead: The Gasts Talk About Quito
This coming Sunday July 1, God willing, we will be on our way to Quito. Years of dreaming, and months of planning and prayer have finally come to this! I love looking forward to a major life experience like this, and we are in the process of starting to pack our bags and wondering how in the world it's all going to fit!
I took some time to interview the girls and Carina, to ask them their thoughts on our upcoming trip, thought you might be interested in their responses:
Kayleigh (age 6) –
What excites you most about this trip to
Just being there!
What makes you nervous about the trip? Meeting new friends.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing in Quito
Kamila (our Compassion sponsor child in Carmen Bajo)What do you think you’ll miss most back home?
What have you been doing to get ready to go?
Packing my stuffies.
Anything else you want to say?
I can’t wait to go there!Amanda (age 8) -
What excites you most about this trip to
Seeing Fabian and Grace and their family.
What makes you nervous about the trip?
That I might get sick.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing in Quito
Kamila (our Compassion sponsor child)
What do you think you’ll miss most back home?
Buttons (our cat) and our families.
What have you been doing to get ready to go?
Picking out stuffed animals and dolls to take with us.Getting activities ready for the kids in Quito.
Anything else you want to say?
no
Carina –
What excites you most about this trip to Ecuador
Finally experiencing a place I have heard about for so many years.
What makes you nervous about the trip?
Motion sickness and all the car rides :~(
Who are you most looking forward to seeing in Quito
Grace, Fabian, Andrea, Raquel, and (finally) meeting Santi! (the Erazo family)
What do you think you’ll miss most back home?
Buttons (our cat)
What have you been doing to get ready to go?
Learn
a little spanish, some reading on cultural differences and packing every
conceivable medication we could possibly need.
Anything else you want to say?
Probably not.
Rob –
What excites you most about this trip to Bringing my family to see and experience my 'other' home. Being among our friends and colleagues there. Quito is a city I love with a passion that is hard to explain.
What makes you nervous about the trip? Maintaining a reasonable pace and routines for the girls, health and wellness issues that may crop up.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing in
What do you think you’ll miss most back home? Peace and quiet at night - Quito's a noisy town!
What have you been doing to get ready to go? Lots of prayer, practicing my spanish worship songs and keeping my guitar chops up, reading the Bible in Spanish, taking care of many little details along with Carina to get us packed and ready.
Anything else you want to say? Interested to see if Ecuador grants Assange asylum ! Stay tuned . . . .
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Merton on Contemplation
Last week at a friend's cottage I happened upon a book that has been on my 'to-read' list for a while, Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation.
I skimmed through it and landed on one chapter in particular that said a lot about living a contemplative life, a life in which one 'pays attention' to God's presence and activity in the here-and- now present moment.
As an 'aspirant' to such activity, (and very often ONLY an aspirant!) I could identify with what Merton, a Trappist monk, writer, philosopher and activist had to say about the challenges of contemplation:
"The contemplative life certainly does not demand a self-righteous contempt for the habits and diversions of ordinary people. But nevertheless, no man who seeks liberation and light in solitude, no man who seeks spiritual freedom, can afford to yield passively to all the appeals of a society of salesman, advertisers and consumers. . . . A natural pleasure is one thing; an unnatural pleasure, forced upon the satiated mind by the importunity of a salesman is quite another."
These words, written in 1961, are even more relevant today than ever. Life is often nothing but distractions, a perilous place for we, the ADD-crowd.
As I look deeper into my entire motivation for seeking to contemplate, these thoughts shine a light on what for me is often simply a desire for peace, quiet and no annoying people to have to bother with. Merton writes,
"If you seek escape for its own sake and run away from the world only because it is (as it must be) intensely unpleasant, you will not find peace and you will not find solitude. If you seek solitude merely because it is what you prefer, you will never escape from the world and its selfishness; you will never have the interior freedom that will keep you really alone."
So what is the whole point and purpose of living a contemplative life, or even just to take a day apart to be quiet and enjoy some solitude? Being on sabbatical, I am enjoying having chunks of time I can dedicate to solitude, but to what end? Likening contemplation to a desert, Merton says,
"We do not go into the desert to escape people but to learn how to find them; we do not leave them in order to have nothing more to do with them, but to find out the way to do them the most good. But this is only a secondary end. The one end that includes all others is the love of God."
My prayer is that in this season of enjoying some silence and solitude, I will encounter the Lord in a fresh way and receive something I can bring back into my life among family, friends and the world that will bless and encourage another to walk closer with Him as well.
(Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation, 1961)
I skimmed through it and landed on one chapter in particular that said a lot about living a contemplative life, a life in which one 'pays attention' to God's presence and activity in the here-and- now present moment.
As an 'aspirant' to such activity, (and very often ONLY an aspirant!) I could identify with what Merton, a Trappist monk, writer, philosopher and activist had to say about the challenges of contemplation:
"The contemplative life certainly does not demand a self-righteous contempt for the habits and diversions of ordinary people. But nevertheless, no man who seeks liberation and light in solitude, no man who seeks spiritual freedom, can afford to yield passively to all the appeals of a society of salesman, advertisers and consumers. . . . A natural pleasure is one thing; an unnatural pleasure, forced upon the satiated mind by the importunity of a salesman is quite another."
These words, written in 1961, are even more relevant today than ever. Life is often nothing but distractions, a perilous place for we, the ADD-crowd.
As I look deeper into my entire motivation for seeking to contemplate, these thoughts shine a light on what for me is often simply a desire for peace, quiet and no annoying people to have to bother with. Merton writes,
"If you seek escape for its own sake and run away from the world only because it is (as it must be) intensely unpleasant, you will not find peace and you will not find solitude. If you seek solitude merely because it is what you prefer, you will never escape from the world and its selfishness; you will never have the interior freedom that will keep you really alone."
So what is the whole point and purpose of living a contemplative life, or even just to take a day apart to be quiet and enjoy some solitude? Being on sabbatical, I am enjoying having chunks of time I can dedicate to solitude, but to what end? Likening contemplation to a desert, Merton says,
"We do not go into the desert to escape people but to learn how to find them; we do not leave them in order to have nothing more to do with them, but to find out the way to do them the most good. But this is only a secondary end. The one end that includes all others is the love of God."
My prayer is that in this season of enjoying some silence and solitude, I will encounter the Lord in a fresh way and receive something I can bring back into my life among family, friends and the world that will bless and encourage another to walk closer with Him as well.
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