Advent Music, 2014

This week I've finally gotten around to working on the playlist for Advent this year.

The opening song for our 2012 playlist is "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus," McCracken/Webb version.  One of my favorite elements of this particular rendition is the intertwining of "Come, thou long awaited Emmanuel" with "Hallelujah." The longing accompanied by rejoicing: Advent. After two straight years I couldn't imagine the beginning of an Advent playlist with any other track.

I did include it again, but in conforming to the season of Advent I buried it instead of leading with it.

You know...so I would have to wait for it.

But I wasn't waiting earlier this week. As I was still putting this year's music together, I listened to last year's opening track on repeat and stumbled over the first verse, "…let us find our rest in thee."

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” ― Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of Saint Augustine

It has been a hectic week, not least on the inside. And I have been thinking about how there is chaos and then there is Chaos. Things can be chaotic, but I bring Chaos with me: one of the kinds of restlessness I think Augustine was talking about.

Years ago, a friend of mine with young children experimented by putting earplugs in her ears for a few days. When she could only hear herself, she said better understood how much of the chaos was within. For some reason I think of that story often.

“The punishment of every disordered mind is its own disorder.” ― Augustine

I am not currently wearing earplugs, but I am one-third of the way through a "lighthouse year."As I recently told J, I mostly keep my own company; and at this point I'm getting pretty sick of myself. I am discouraged by my own sin and weakness and don't have really have distractions to speak of. As a result this Advent, more than Advents of years past, finds me lamenting more and longing in different ways. I think that's shaped my playlist more than a little bit.

Purple	Trevor Borden
Black, Blue	The Avett Brothers
River	Indigo Girls
Knocking at Your Door	Bill Malonee
Winter Grace	Harvey Reid
The Dark Island	The Kepple Family Band
Below My Feet	Mumford and Sons
Manzanitas	Trevor Borden
Wait For the Lord	Taize
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus	McCracken & Webb
Zechariah and the Least Expected Places	So Elated
Gabriel's Message	Sting
Ave Maria	Frank Sinatra
O Come O Come Emmanuel	Trace Bundy
Awake My Soul	Mumford and Sons
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence	Red Mountain Church
The Longing	All Sons and Daughters
Christ Be With Me	The Brilliance
O Holy Night	Trace Bundy

Here it is on grooveshark and spotify, in case you want to give it a listen. Not all of the tracks are available on each, but it's close to complete (we bought or already owned rights to these). 

And so here we are at Advent 11, finally with a playlist to groove to, wash dishes to and sit with or drive with. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to Christmas…but am not ready for it, not quite yet. Most of the gifts are ready and many other tasks have been ticked off…I am grateful for the calendar space to sit a while. And long for our future. Colossians 1 is a good place for this, I think.

“You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.” 

― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

Pictures soon! We've been a-adventuring this past month...