...and nothing bad happened.

Brendon, 26, suburbs of Atlanta.
Video games, literature, Jesus, depression, anxiety, mewithoutYou, the Wonder Years.

I am a cynical hard-ass, and I don't believe that humanity or the world are basically good, and I refuse to not talk about how shitty things are just because it's unpleasant and it makes people uncomfortable. But I believe from the bottom of my heart that there is a Light shining in the midst of this darkness, and that Light is God.

The world is an ugly and a beautiful place, and we are not completely fucked.
Messages/questions go here.
Posts tagged mewithoutYou
“

”

gospelofthekingdom:

HOLY SHIT!!!!!

MEWITHOUTYOU COVERING NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL!!!!!!!!!!

HOW HAVE I NOT SEEN THIS?!?!

THIS IS SINGULARLY THE GREATEST VIDEO ON THE INTERNET.

This is perfect.

ryankozycz:

“The truth belongs to G-d! The mistakes were mine…”

holyspiritswag: just got this done yesterday. it means a lot to me. it’s based out of aaron weiss’ lyrics from seven sisters from my favorite album of all time: catch for us the foxes by mewithoutyou. i wanted a banner that read: come quick, you light that knows no evening (the lyrics from the song. he paraphrases a quote from “icon of Light”, a prayer written by symeon the New Theologian, but it wouldn’t fit.) a weiss on God: “Nothing makes you happy except for the love of God and the light of God that shines in your heart. You don’t need to be good, you don’t need to be together, you don’t need to be smart, you don’t need to be cool, you don’t need to be good looking, you don’t need to be confident or you know, successful or rich. You don’t need to be any of those things, you just need to be broken and lonely and humble and needy, which all of us are deep down but we just hide it and try and act confident and together. So we come to God broken and then God is the physician, God is the potter. God is the loving healer, the mother and the father and lover of us all, the restorer, the forgiver, the most patient one, the most merciful, the most kind and gentle one. We’ll find all we need in God, in God’s provision and protection. Not a religious group or going to a church on Sunday, or joining an organization or something like that. In reality, God is the source of love and light and serving others and forgiving others and praying for others and mediating on good things and humbling yourself and not taking yourself too seriously. All these things you know, different aspects of it. The one life that I’m trying to communicate or trying to live, is a life of faith and a following of Jesus.” this means a lot things to me for various reasons, the most salient example being God’s light in the midst of pain and suffering (the evidential problem of evil). even in the darkest of places God’s light shines. it’s daunting, indeed, to think that God’s light shines in child slavery, abortion, war, murder, rape, etc. which all seem, at face-value, like a nihilistic abyss. yet the silence of the God who speaks is there; he is suffering with his creatures. i contend that God’s capacity to suffer is on par with his power, knowledge, and goodness. human beings all have different paths—some more painful than others—but we are all being drawn toward God through his non-coercive love, to freely reject or accept. catch for us the foxes changed my life in so many ways. i’ve never been able to relate to an album or sympathize with another human being’s feelings through words before; this album made me fall in love with music—but most importantly—it has been a testament of God’s all-powerful-all-self-sacrificial-love in my life; it made me fall in love with God—the only Being worthy of our ultimate and utmost adoration. thus these words: God is love and love is real have proven true.   

holyspiritswag:

just got this done yesterday. it means a lot to me. it’s based out of aaron weiss’ lyrics from seven sisters from my favorite album of all time: catch for us the foxes by mewithoutyou. i wanted a banner that read: come quick, you light that knows no evening (the lyrics from the song. he paraphrases a quote from “icon of Light”, a prayer written by symeon the New Theologian, but it wouldn’t fit.) a weiss on God:

“Nothing makes you happy except for the love of God and the light of God that shines in your heart. You don’t need to be good, you don’t need to be together, you don’t need to be smart, you don’t need to be cool, you don’t need to be good looking, you don’t need to be confident or you know, successful or rich. You don’t need to be any of those things, you just need to be broken and lonely and humble and needy, which all of us are deep down but we just hide it and try and act confident and together. So we come to God broken and then God is the physician, God is the potter. God is the loving healer, the mother and the father and lover of us all, the restorer, the forgiver, the most patient one, the most merciful, the most kind and gentle one. We’ll find all we need in God, in God’s provision and protection. Not a religious group or going to a church on Sunday, or joining an organization or something like that. In reality, God is the source of love and light and serving others and forgiving others and praying for others and mediating on good things and humbling yourself and not taking yourself too seriously. All these things you know, different aspects of it. The one life that I’m trying to communicate or trying to live, is a life of faith and a following of Jesus.”

this means a lot things to me for various reasons, the most salient example being God’s light in the midst of pain and suffering (the evidential problem of evil). even in the darkest of places God’s light shines. it’s daunting, indeed, to think that God’s light shines in child slavery, abortion, war, murder, rape, etc. which all seem, at face-value, like a nihilistic abyss. yet the silence of the God who speaks is there; he is suffering with his creatures. i contend that God’s capacity to suffer is on par with his power, knowledge, and goodness.

human beings all have different paths—some more painful than others—but we are all being drawn toward God through his non-coercive love, to freely reject or accept.

catch for us the foxes changed my life in so many ways. i’ve never been able to relate to an album or sympathize with another human being’s feelings through words before; this album made me fall in love with music—but most importantly—it has been a testament of God’s all-powerful-all-self-sacrificial-love in my life; it made me fall in love with God—the only Being worthy of our ultimate and utmost adoration. thus these words: God is love and love is real have proven true. 

 

“ Jesus never mentioned homosexuality once. How has it become such an issue? Strange. Strange how all the things that Jesus actually did talk about fail to become issues. I mean, you start talking about war, and conservative Christians say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be political and protest the war.’ Or you talk about poverty and the causes of poverty. ‘Oh, that’s a political issue; Jesus wasn’t political.’ Why don’t these people deal with the issues that Jesus did? It shouldn’t surprise me. If you look at the Gospels, the most respected religious people were the furthest from the spirit of what Jesus was saying. It’s just the same thing all over again. But I am surprised. I really do continually expect Christians to be the most willing to accept pacifism, peacemaking, or redistribution of wealth, and care for the poor, and rethinking our prison systems and all that. But we end up being the most belligerent and self-righteous and all the rest. Scary. ”

Aaron Weiss (via ryankozycz)

always good.

(via holyspiritswag)

“I’ll let you be my belief If I can be your doubt” Brilliant.

“I’ll let you be my belief If I can be your doubt”

Brilliant.

(Source: questionofaperson)

“ You hold on to bitterness towards somebody that, you think you’ve got them sort of in a cage, like you’ve got them under your thumb. But really, they have you. You’re the one who is being controlled if you can’t forgive somebody. So, I just felt such a freedom when I’ve been able to forgive, even somebody who didn’t ask for my forgiveness. So I think to be able to forgive people who never said they were sorry, that’s really very freeing. And you never have to hold onto any anger, or resentment or desire for revenge. ”

Aaron Weiss (via comequicklight)

I love Aaron Weiss more than any other musician.

(Source: ryankozycz)

“ There’s a line I like, where the fortune teller accuses the rabbit: “You still see who I once was.” This is important to me, since it speaks to our tendency to allow our concepts of one another to solidify and fossilize; then, rather than interacting with who’s actually in front of us, we interact with those concepts and memories. This is a mistake I’ve made so much, and it’s done a lot of damage I think. Basically in doing this we stunt the potential for growth and spontaneity, and assert a kind of epistemological ownership over ‘them.’ ”

Aaron Weiss, on “East Enders’ Wives”

“ Nothing makes you happy except for the love of God and the light of God that shines in your heart. You don’t need to be good, you don’t need to be together, you don’t need to be smart, you don’t need to be cool, you don’t need to be good looking, you don’t need to be confident or you know, successful or rich. You don’t need to be any of those things, you just need to be broken and lonely and humble and needy, which all of us are deep down but we just hide it and try and act confident and together. So we come to God broken and then God is the physician, God is the potter. God is the loving healer, the mother and the father and lover of us all, the restorer, the forgiver, the most patient one, the most merciful, the most kind and gentle one. We’ll find all we need in God, in God’s provision and protection. Not a religious group or going to a church on Sunday, or joining an organization or something like that. In reality, God is the source of love and light and serving others and forgiving others and praying for others and mediating on good things and humbling yourself and not taking yourself too seriously. All these things you know, different aspects of it. The one life that I’m trying to communicate or trying to live, is a life of faith and a following of Jesus. ”

Aaron Weiss (via ryankozycz)

I got this tattoo today. It is a lyric from “O Porcupine” by mewithoutYou. The full lyric goes: “You say Judas was a brother of mine,Oh, but sister! in our darkness, a Light shines!And all I want to say for the rest of my lifeIs how that Light is God,And though I’ve been mistaken on this or that point,That Light is God.” It’s cheesy to explain what your tattoos mean, but this is my blog and you don’t have to read it, so: I am a believer in Jesus, and I have also suffered from chronic bouts of depression since I was about ten years old.  For someone like me, if God is only present and only good on brightly sunlit Sunday mornings, then he is not really God at all. Through dealing with my depression, I have learned that God is not present/good/powerful/glorified in spite of, but rather through the darkness that so frequently comes over me. “In our darkness, a Light shines.” One of the most insidious things about depression is that it infects your will and your thought processes, and it makes you forget what is really important to you. But I have this as a reminder that, however I may feel, I believe that there is a Light in the darkness; I have it as a reminder that “all I want to say for the rest of my life is how that Light is God.”

I got this tattoo today. It is a lyric from “O Porcupine” by mewithoutYou. The full lyric goes:

“You say Judas was a brother of mine,
Oh, but sister! in our darkness, a Light shines!
And all I want to say for the rest of my life
Is how that Light is God,
And though I’ve been mistaken on this or that point,
That Light is God.”

It’s cheesy to explain what your tattoos mean, but this is my blog and you don’t have to read it, so:

I am a believer in Jesus, and I have also suffered from chronic bouts of depression since I was about ten years old.  For someone like me, if God is only present and only good on brightly sunlit Sunday mornings, then he is not really God at all. Through dealing with my depression, I have learned that God is not present/good/powerful/glorified in spite of, but rather through the darkness that so frequently comes over me. “In our darkness, a Light shines.”

One of the most insidious things about depression is that it infects your will and your thought processes, and it makes you forget what is really important to you. But I have this as a reminder that, however I may feel, I believe that there is a Light in the darkness; I have it as a reminder that “all I want to say for the rest of my life is how that Light is God.”

Top 5

Internet, I think I decided on what my five favorite albums are.

1. Funeral by Arcade Fire

2. Brother, Sister by mewithoutYou

3. Digital Ash in a Digital Urn by Bright Eyes

4. The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New

5. Deja Entendu by Brand New

I didn’t want to put two on there by the same band, but almost ten years after the first time I heard it, I can still hear any of the songs on Deja and be like “This shit is my jam!”

I might be moved to write a bit about each of these albums sometime, if anyone seemed interested.

More Information