感谢主 for boring postgrad classes

Every wednesday night at 5-7 I have a postgrad international comparative literature seminar. Usually I love it. Last night it was boring. So I drew a picture:




And wrote a song:

But first, some context. Every week on Wednesday mornings I meet with a Taiwanese student called Samantha.* She comes from a typical background of a kind of mix of Buddhism and ancestor worship, and is "interested in exploring" Christianity. She has been to church a couple of times and has a Chinese bible which she has been trying to read herself. The first time we met I asked her what she'd been reading and what she thought, and she said she had started with Romans 8. What a first impression! At the moment we're going through Matthew, and time with her is incredibly exciting and humbling. She's super intelligent and grasps concepts well very quickly, and apart from just having someone to think things through with and reflect on stuff, I don't think I'm all that helpful. The challenge is drawing her out and getting her to talk about her own spirituality, not the Bible and Christianity as an abstracted "your" religion rather than something to consider for herself. Please pray for this!

So with these things and others on my mind, and kind of in response to a church talk we had ages ago on Christians being "cellophane" through which Jesus can be seen, I wrote these lyrics in class yesterday (with a vague idea of chords/melody but nothing substantial yet):


Cellophane

Don't listen to me too closely
I desire to be salty, but take a pinch of salt with my words as spoken
Cause this talking won't save anything
of the darkness in me and you
I desire to be light,
that this torch I hold might lead you home,
but it's not me, in the end, that you need.

So take my hand, please, and walk with me
but look at me and let it not be flesh and blood you see
look at me and see through me to a saviour
more real and more worthy than I can ever be

Sit and talk with me, open to verses familiar and new
and to my surprise you'll explain them to me better than I to you
Surprise, my wasted heart is beating with thanks
while all my wisdom is broken, foolish and shamed

Let's keep talking of love and law and grace,
and I'll fail to explain Matthew 6 and you'll have started with Romans 8
And I'll feel silly and hollow and fake,
cause how much light can one hour once a week shine?
Far more if I'm made of cellophane.

So take my hand while we're both balancing,
and keep your eyes on me but let it not be me you see
See through my words, promises to a saviour strong and holy
more real and worthy to guide you than I can ever be



*Names have been changed.