Litany of the Good Shepherd

God the Father of the Lamb, 

have mercy on us. 

God the Son, Sacrificial Lamb, 

have mercy on us. 

God the Holy Spirit, Life of the Lamb, 

have mercy on us.

O Good Jesus, Shepherd of the just, hear us.

Vigilant Finder of lost sheep, guide us. 

Fervent Hope of the fallen lamb, guide us. 

Constant Gatherer of a broken flock, guide us.

O Good Shepherd, hear Thy sheep.

Purest shelter of the yearning heart, feed us. 

Perpetual Feast of the hungry soul, feed us. 

Lasting Bread of perfect Life, feed us.

O Good Shepherd, hear Thy sheep.

Patient Tamer of rebellious wills, shear us. 

Loyal Teacher of all kind commands, shear us. 

Tender Purger of all blemish of sin, shear us.

O Good Shepherd, hear Thy sheep.

From the lures of false shepherds hiding in Thy guise,protect us. 

From mirages of richer fields, conquering our minds,protect us. 

From diseases of the soul, separating us from Thy flock, protect us.

O Good Shepherd, at once the Guard and Lamb, 

Who knows well the sheep He leads, 

Guide us, feed us, shear us, 

and bid us come unto Thee, 

delighting in Thy Heavenly pasture, 

and praising Thee 

forever and ever. Amen.

from: http://www.catholictradition.org/Litanies/litany31.htm

Recover

Your fight has been long and bloody
Your body war-weary
Battles old and new haunt you…
Threaten…
Dismantle…
Destroy…
Your world collapses from within
And pain clouds your mind

How long till your rescue?

A voice disrupts the cacophony,
“You do not deserve this.”
Through the ages of your life it echoes,
“Release your pain to my power
Recover…
Be healed.”
And again with authority,
“Your past is not the victor.”

Where there is Pain.

Tonight, I drove the mountains close to where I live. My family used to travel these roads quite frequently, on the way to a church where my dad was pastor at the time. This is the same road where friends who never experience motion sickness are suddenly overcome. A wide, sloping, gentle curve to the left suddenly becomes a narrow, hairpin to the right, then to the left. To one side is an overhanging rock face – mountain blown away decades ago by TNT and the labor of mountain men – and to the other is sheer drop into a tangle of brush, trees, leaves, and God knows what else.

From my present perspective in the driver’s seat, I recall the many trips as rear-passenger through those mountains. At this point this song on this CD would be playing, that is where I could feel my guts pushing forward while the rest of me and the car banked to the left. Memories of those days flooded my mind, each seeming to last forever but passing in an instant, always moving forward.

I kept chasing those memories, jumping from age 15 through this very night. So much joy. So much pain. For some reason people I’ve lost, love I’ve given away, time I’ve wasted seems to linger in front of my mind. There’s a connection between this foray into the mountains, but I can’t quite put it together…

I have a song on repeat… Surely we can Change, by David Crowder.

“Where there is pain, let there be grace…”

And the pain lingers… much like when a wound has partially healed over, but a careless bump reopens. Before, all this remembering would bring on a certain sense of condemnation. A feeling of inadequacy. Look what you’ve done… you’ll never be loved, you’ll never amount to anything.

But… this is different. The song repeats again.

“Surely we can change. Surely we can change…”

And then that Old Familiar Whisper stirs within. This is not for you, I feel him say. This is not for you, Brandon.

He says:

Your pain has been noticed, and I have felt it alongside you. The sound of your tears falling have captured me. I have turned my heart toward you. Your cries reach my ear each time they are uttered.

I have not forgotten you. I know the struggle you face… your daily frustration. Don’t let them control you. You have my power. I give you my grace. Be at peace.

And the song still repeats…

“The whole world’s about to change. The whole world’s about to change.”

Home Improvement and Bodily Injury

This is phase one of the Deck Improvement Project.

For the past couple of months, I've been working with my Dad, who's an electrician. In that time I've done many things from hanging lights to rewiring older homes to wiring brand-new homes. Wiring a new home is strenuous - drilling through studs, dragging around spools of wire that weigh well over 75 lbs, and pulling the wire all through the home, up through rafters and down under floors.

But none of that is as strenuous as actual carpentry. I say strenuous but what I actually mean is "exhausting" and "extremely time consuming" and "just plain hard," but I don't want to sound like a wuss. The difficulty was interrupted by fits of fun, because pulling up rotted boards essentially amounts to destroying them. And like any man, I like destroying things. Rear back with the hammer, claw forward, drive that sucker into the bad wood, pull, yank, repeat. Someone get a cloth and sop up the testosterone profusely pouring from my forehead.

There are many rotted planks here and we removed about four of them around the one you see missing here, and there was a "one-by" (a three ft. long board, one inch-square), lying across an expanse. The way that it was laying, I thought that it was closer to a joist, and thus, safe to step on. Haha. Negative.

I completely missed the joist, and this happened.

Actually, I fell, through the joist space, snapping the "one-by" and causing the freshly Brandon'd end to jab into my stomach. There is another bruise that I’m sure no one wants to see.

If it were a few more inches east, I would be sitting in a corner, sobbing.

"Stimulus"

There is $650k in the new spending bill set aside for beaver management in North Carolina. Should I say it?
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Breaking Out Your Momma

I recently moved back to my hometown after eight years away. As such, I am having to reacquaint myself with old friends and make new ones. The friends I had in college were no strangers to innuendo and/or double entendre, and we were all quite good at coming up with off-color and (sometimes) slightly inappropriate remarks. From the short giggle at things that are otherwise innocuous to "That's what she said" and the all time favorite, "Your mom." "Your mom" is a standard retort to almost any insult that comes my way, and is infinitely versatile. For example:

Insulter: Gah, dude, your face is scary.
Insultee: Your mom's face is scary.

It's an air-tight response, really. And it all but dominates my conversations with peers.

With people I don't know too well, I'm never quite sure how to bust out the "Your mom" phrase. Will they take offense? Will they even get it? Will they think I have a immature sense of humor? I mean, I do, but I don't want them to think that's all I think is funny.

So, I'm open to suggestions. Tell me how I can win friends and influence people, just like Larry King. Only without being creepy and old. Or maybe just without being creepy.

Walmart

I've been in walmart for 3 hours. Someone save me.
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