How Magnificently have we Repented!

I just finished reading The Four Loves by CS Lewis. He never fails to fascinate me. Listen to this and tell me he’s not describing you with the precision of a surgeon with a scalpel.

No sooner do we believe that God loves us than there is an impulse to believe that He does so, not because He is Love, but because we are intrinsically lovable. The Pagans obeyed this impulse unabashed; a good man was “dear to the gods” because he was good. We, being better taught, resort to subterfuge. Far be it from us to think that we have virtues for which God could love us. But then, how magnificently we have repented! As Bunyan says, describing his first and illusory conversion, “I thought there was no man in England that pleased God better than I.” Beaten out of this, we next offer our own humility to God’s admiration. Surely he’ll like that? Or if not that, our clear-sighted and humble recognition that we still lack humility. Thus, depth beneath depth and subtlety within subtlety, there remains some lingering idea of our own, our very own, attractiveness. It is easy to acknowledge, but almost impossible to realise for long, that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us. Surely we must have a little—however little—native luminosity? 

CS Lewis – The Four Loves. Pages 130-131. Mariner 2012.

Citizens – Made Alive

Here’s a new music video for the super-catchy song “Made Alive” by the Mars Hill band, Citizens. Dig it!

Jubilee! (free music)

If you’re as big of a fan of free music as I am, you’ll want to know about Page CXVI (a local band from Boulder) and their jubilee during the month of March, in which they’re giving away their entire catalog for free! Not only that, but they’re giving away the entire catalog of music from their other band, The Autumn Film, which is all original music. Here’s what they have to say:

After forming The Autumn Film, an indie-pop trio from Colorado, band members Reid and Latifah Phillips and Dann Stockton created their alter ego band, Page CXVI, to focus on re-imagining old hymns. The name is drawn from the page number in The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis, the brilliant passage where Aslan begins to sing Narnia into creation out of a black void. According to Relevant Magazine, “…(Page CXVI’s) genius is in making the compositions as thoughtful as the lyrics.”

As the band celebrates seven years of crafting music as The Autumn Film and Page CXVI, they are giving away their catalog – from both bands – for the entire month of March. Eleven albums, seventy-four songs, two bands. Think of it as a Jubilee. Think of it as a sweet springtime gift. Think of it as something to share with your friends.

Hop on over to pagecxvi.com/jubilee to score your free music and to learn more about them.