From Yahoo Music Blogs:

Late last week a 38-year guessing game seemed to have come to its end when Carly Simon released a re-worked version of her hit song “You’re So Vain.” Fans, media outlets, mystery lovers, and even people who weren’t alive when the song was first released all joined the conversation when it was revealed that the subject of the song is music mogul David Geffen.

Or was it?

Over the weekend, Simon, who was en route to the U.K. to promote the album that contains the new version of “You’re So Vain, dashed off an email to Showbiz 411’s Roger Friedman, exclaiming: “What a riot! Nothing to do with David Geffen!” Friedman, who is a writer for The Hollywood Reporter blog, says Carly didn’t even know Geffen in 1971, which is when she wrote the song.

Check it out.

I have a personal interest in this story since I know for a fact that one of the members of our small group happens to be the subject of this song. He dated Carly and she fell head-over-heels for him. He is way too modest to admit to this in public, although he has fessed up to us, and so I will let those of you who know the members of our group guess who I am talking about (hint: it ain’t me).

Oh yes. As you are guessing, please don’t forget to check your gullibility factor. It may be on overload. 🙂

Classic.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment. I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.

—1 Corinthians 4:8-14 (TNIV)

Here we see Paul define the essence of Christians discipleship. It is first and foremost recognizing our place in God’s created order. God is God and we are not. This recognition, which Scripture typically calls humility, leads to a truly countercultural lifestyle where we go against the standards of this world. We bless our enemies and pray for them. We are truly saddened when we see others fail or engage in destructive behaviors and we risk offending them by loving them enough to tell them so. We work for Christ, not ourselves. We stop wanting to be the lead dog in everything. We see this world for what it is: God’s good but fallen creation that is finite and passing away. We accept the fact that living faithful lives is difficult and we will likely suffer for it.

Assuming we are not masochists, why would we do these things? One reason might be because we are commanded to do so and we trust God’s word and will for our lives. Another reason might be because we see life as more than just biological existence or having physical/material niceties. Regardless, these are the things we focus especially on during this season of Lent, working with the help of God’s very Spirit in us to develop the necessary habits to carry them on after the season of Lent is over.

The days before Easter signify the life that we live now with all its trials and troubles. The days after Easter signify the happy days that lie beyond death. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life, what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess.

—Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 148

O Lord, we ask you mercifully to receive the prayers of your people who call upon you; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

—The Gregorian Sacramentary

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home.

Under the shadow of thy throne,
still may we dwell secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting, thou art God,
to endless years the same.

A thousand ages, in thy sight,
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night,
before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
bears all its sons away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come;
be thou our guide while life shall last,
and our eternal home.

—Isaac Watts, O God Our Help in Ages Past, 117

Indeed, the leading of the Spirit is different in different souls. His more usual method, I believe, is to give, in one and the same moment, the forgiveness of sins, and a full assurance of that forgiveness. Yet in many He works as He did in me: Giving first the remission of sins, and, after some weeks or months or years, the full assurance of it.

—John Wesley, Journal, 1:127

Did you catch Wesley’s last sentence? God sometimes chooses to work in us before we are even aware of it. This has been my experience as well and there is great hope in this truth. I used to suffer terrible anxiety over fear of being unforgiven by God. Eventually, God showed me that even I could be forgiven and my anxiety over this dynamic is gone now.

The next time you get discouraged over what appears to be a lack of progress or growth in your walk with Jesus, remember this. God is working on you and your awareness of his work does not change the reality of that. Take hope and heart because this is true. Thanks be to God!

You seek the happy life in the region of death [by making things of this world your priority]; it is not there. How can there be a happy life where there is not even life?

—Augustine, Confessions 4.12.18

Augustine points us to an important truth here. Life, real life, is not biologically-based but can only be found in a relationship with God, the Source and Author of all life. Do you understand this? More importantly, are you working on cultivating that kind of relationship so that you can enjoy real life?