Discernment, Michael Spencer, Randy Newman, John Prine, Loneliness

This is the best post I've read in some time: John Frye on Jesus, the Discernment Artist.

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Friend Nancy recently asked what I thought of Mere Churchianity. Answer: the book reflected my own views pretty precisely, but expressed those views with greater clarity than I have ever been able to do. I loved it. I consider it important. Church people should read it.

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I link to music a lot here, mostly because I'm always looking for good music online and because well, like a kid wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, I think music is a way to get to know a person. And we all want to be known! Norman Cousins said, "The eternal quest of every individual is to shatter his loneliness." Note: "every individual." Social networking sites are inadequate here, but their popularity says something about our "quest."

A young man I know recently brought his white-haired grandmother to see the gallery display of antique maps where I work. The grandmother was just very happy to be out and about with her grandson. As they were leaving she said to me (with a sparkle in her eye), "It's not every day I get to go on a date with my favorite boyfriend!"

Contact is what everyone craves. This being with another. It is such a fine gift to give, this being with.

There are so many ways to feel isolated. You might have a condition that no one understands. You might have an accent or speech impediment that makes people always have to ask you say it again. You might simply know no one who thinks like you do, and you long for a little like-mindedness (it's really not such a selfish thing to long for . . . not necessarily).

When I feel this way, this since of isolation, of being far from others, my wife is the one who I go to. No one has more grace for me than she does. No one loves me more than she does. She is amazing.

These are more or less random thoughts. But it all started with a comment about music. Therefore, I leave you with two songs about loneliness: