Moving!

Hey faithful readers! (chuckle)

I'm not going to apologize for the apparent long silence. It's just the way it is.

But! Good news, friends! (I feel like I'm talking to myself, kind of like the kid playing hide and go seek in the dark who says, "Hey, Andy, I know you're there" when in reality he has no clue whatsoever where Andy is and just doesn't want to face the fact that in all likelihood, Andy got called home by his mom ten minutes ago and he's just playing by himself.)

Ryan Cox has a new home in this big wide world and that home is called rycox.com

So, mosey on over there. My brother and I are currently on a two and a half month trek through Europe and Northern Africa, so things may be slightly more interesting than normal at the moment. Check out the photos, blog entries, maybe a video or two will find their way up, and shoot me (us) an e-mail!

Adios!

the winter is coming

Hello friends!

Life is such an amazing journey!  Sometimes I'm caught off guard by just how much can be crammed into it.  Right now that's kind of how I feel; like there are a hundreds of things that I want to experience and do and create, ideas fighting to get to the surface and take greedy  gasps of the fresh air.  I'm currently working on outlines for 3 feature screenplays, 2 television pilots, 3 music video treatments, writing 2 short scripts, trying to be in 2 bands, thinking about buying a house and maybe moving out of state, I recently travelled to Seattle for a film festival and I just competed in a triathlon in San Diego.  Today I'm getting my motorcycle license and tomorrow I'm going to a concert.  Everything is beautiful, churning, shifting, changing chaos.

In the middle of all of this, I have been inspired to undertake something that could quite possibly lead to absolutely nothing but trouble, but which I am convinced is of worth.  I recently read a book by Anne Lamott titled "Bird by Bird."  (It really is a great book, but this is not a review.)  She mentions her friend relating to her a simile from the observations of the life of 16th century priest named Brother Lawrence.  He observed that to God we are all like "trees in winter" in that before our Papa we are stripped bare, with nothing to offer.  We exist only to be loved.

How beautiful!  I want to live from a place of knowing that I am a tree in winter and that life is never about what I have to offer but about who I am loved by.  That's a concept that I would love for more people to embrace.  So, I think I'm going to do something with it, which may sound totally contradictory to everything I just said, but somehow, it's not.  It may take years to actually become something, but that's kind of the beauty of life and the nature of the idea; that it will get lived out, not being created in an instant, but growing and changing and becoming in a very organic way.

So, 

www.TreesInWinter.com

It's just a beginning, but maybe the beginning of something meaningful...

I Fall Into You

I know I need to learn how to sing in tune and play to a metronome, but here's a very rough worship song I recorded this morning while it was raining...



Jesus' blood in my woundedness
Christ's great peace my comfort is
Safe here in this solid rock
Held in the arms of a loving God

Thou alone my treasure art
Thou art the wholeness of my broken heart
The deeper I delve into thy great love
The more I'm assured of what my hopes are of

Hallelujah, I cry
As I fall into you

In thou I find my sure reward
And in thou I can no doubt afford
In your will alone is my resting place
As I fully give way to unbounded grace

Hopes & Fears

I spent this past weekend with my older brother, secluded in a tiny cabin the mountains just outside of Santa Cruz. For those who don’t know where Santa Cruz is, it’s on the California coast, somewhere between Los Angles and “The City” (Not “San Fran,” not “Frisco,” but “the City”). The whole purpose of the weekend was to keep a fire going in the wood-burning stove so we didn’t freeze to death and work on a feature-length script.

The second draft is beginning to shape up and this time around it includes some “holiday” themes. This, and the fact that Christmas is rapidly approaching, trained my mind back on a thought I was musing over recently.

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” It’s interesting how hopes and fears can be tied up in the same thing. Jesus coming into our lives brings fulfillment to both of these elements of our spiritual lives.

We hope, so desperately, for the freedom that He brings, yet at the same time we are afraid of what that will mean and the change that will bring to the comfort of the lives we lead. Freedom comes at a high price to the status quo. That seems like an obvious one, yet it’s as if people think that bringing radical change into their lives will only mean radical change to the parts that they didn’t like very much to begin with. The hopes and fears are met in the same body.

The fears may sound like a very negative aspect of what Jesus is supposedly all about. But when you think about it, they are only fears because we name them so. They are not fears because they are inherently bad or scary. They are fears because we’ve grown used to the way things are and fear that we won’t be able to survive any kind of change.

“Let my lungs issue the resounding cry: ‘I love you, Lord. My Papa. My Brother. My Intimate Friend. I desire you and crave you invading every aspect of who I am. Take my hopes and fears and transform them both in the light of your love.’” – The Adopted One

Here’s another photo from the drive home, somewhere between LA and “The City”.

Faith, Hope, Love,
Ry

Quotes: The C.S. Lewis Edition

Well, friends… after several months of silence and some gentle prodding from some of you (you know who you are… Jim and Stef), I really felt like it’s high time for me to write something. It’s been quite a busy few months (which is just the kind of excuse you were expecting, right?). Well, to quote Nickel Creek, “Others have excuses, I have my reasons why.”

There’s the first quote. The first of many for this post. Now, you may be thinking that this is sort of a copout, doing a whole blog post of quotes. You may say to yourself, “After three months shouldn’t he have something original to say?” Well, maybe you’re right. But! But! Over the last three months I’ve read some pretty good books and heard some pretty good words from pretty good people. About three months ago I started carrying around a “quote book.” It’s just a little notebook that I carry around in my pocket all the time so I can write down whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it. So I’ll empty some of the contents here.


Quote One:
“Now the Enemy’s philosophy is nothing more nor less than one continued attempt to evade this very obvious truth. He aims at a contradiction. Things are to be many, yet somehow also one. The good of one self is to be the good of another. This impossibility He calls Love, and this same monotonous panacea can be detected under all He does and even all He is – or claims to be. Thus He is not content, even Himself, to be a sheer arithmetical unity; He claims to be three as well as one, in order that this nonsense about love may find a foothold in His own nature.” - the elder demon in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.

This just struck me as an awesome reminder of who God is and what He desires. That the relationship love that He has created us for is something that He lives out within Himself all the time. This is one of the favorite quotes of a band called "lessthanthree."


Quote Two:
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the place I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!” – Jewel the unicorn in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle.

Jon Foreman borrowed from this for the Switchfoot song “This Is Home” in Prince Caspian. It’s just so amazingly hopeful! The things that we find beautiful in this life, the things that fill us with any sense of longing, are just the faintest whispers of what we were created for.


Well... hopefully I'll post some more soon!

Faith, hope, love,
Ry

You Alone

This is something that's been on my heart for a while now. I wrote the lyric to this sometime last March. About a week ago I figured out some music to go with it. Playing and listening to this have been hugely encouraging to me in a somewhat difficult season personally. It's very rough and I'll be the first to admit I don't know how to sing, but hopefully you can find some encouragement in it as well. Remember that God is good.



(1st Verse)
G ---------------------------------D
From the ends of the earth I call to you
Em -------------------------C
I call as my heart grows faint
G ------------------------------D
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I
Em ------------------------------C
For you have been my refuge and strength

(Bridge)
D
Where the morning dawns
Em
And the evening fades
C ------------------------ C
You call forth songs of joy
D
So with humble hands
C
And a trembling heart
D ------------ C ------------ C
To you I lift my voice

(1st Chorus)
-------------- G
For you are all that I have
-------------- D
You are all that I love
Em
The breath that I breathe
C
And the life in my blood
------------- G
You are all that I want
------------- D
And you’re all that I need
Em
To me you mean life
C
And a life that’s complete
Em ----C -- Em ----- C ----- Em ----- C
I need… you alone

(2nd Verse)
G ----------------------------- D
From the edge of myself I lift this song
Em ------------------- C
And let go of all of me
G ------------------------ D
Give me a peace that is past my sight
Em ----------------------- C
Until you are all that I see

G ---------------------------- D
Give life to my legs and I’ll run to you
Em ---------------------------------- C
As you quicken my heart’s every beat
G -------------------------------- D
You’ve given me love without compromise
Em ------------------------ C --------------------- C
And a promise that you’ll never leave

(2nd Chorus)
---------- G
You are all that I have
---------- D
You are all that I love
Em
The breath that I breathe
C
And the cry in my lungs
------------- G
You’re my day and my night
------- D
My future and past
Em
All else will fade
C -------------------------- C
Where you alone last
Em ----- C --- Em ---- C
And I need… you alone

D ---------------------- C (or Em)
Sing songs of praise, sing songs of praise
D (or C) -------------------- C
Great is the lord who has done all these things (x2)

OR

D ------------------------ C
Great is the lord and great is his name
Great is the lord who has broken our chains
Great is the lord who does marvelous things

Yo Aprendo

Sorry for the lack of posts recently... no good excuses. Here's something currently on my heart...


True love is so hard to come by, because in order for true love to exist something else needs to be present; something that can be extremely difficult, painful, and scary. In order for true, real, no-holds-barred love to actually exist, honesty and truth need to be the most dominant characteristics of the relationship. I guess the emphasis would be placed on TRUE love. There’s a reason why we call it that after all.

Some of the adverse effects of this are evident in the “love” that we don’t talk about. Holding something inside can be extremely dishonest. The truth is something that must be lived out, and hidden love, in some ways, is just as much a lie as something seemingly more blatant. In my own experience (which may not hold a whole lot of weight), love is held back or kept inside for one main reason: fear. I know that in my life I have been afraid of speaking honestly and openly about feelings and emotions and dreams because I am afraid that everything that I’ve been secretly hoping for will fall to pieces the instant I open my mouth. (Again, note that this observation is not backed by a whole lot of experience.) “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” I John 4:18, or so. That ought to be a big clue right there. If I’m looking for love perfected, I’m most likely not going to find it in a place of holding on for the fear of losing something that isn’t even real yet to begin with.

It’s well quoted, but that’s for a reason, it bears repeating, “…love rejoices with the truth.” I Corinthians 13:6-ish. Yo aprendo.

I’m learning… slowly.


[Thanks to the friend who helped me learn this one.]