"Handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all He says. There would be no sense saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus, if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because he has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you."
-C.S. Lewis
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Learning to see again...
"The harsh light of suburban living tricks us--our lives are anything but flat. One simply needs eyes to behold its thickness. The discipline, then, is learning to see again."
-Death by Suburb, David L. Goetz
-Death by Suburb, David L. Goetz
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Rejection. Sort of a rant.
Rejection sucks. It doesn't matter what happened--whether it's your boyfriend, or a crush you went out with once, it always feels the same when they aren't texting you back or you see them with another girl. Everything, just...sucks.
The whole time you're shopping for groceries you're saying to yourself, hmmm...wouldn't it be nice if "so-and-so" was doing this with me? But you can't contact them. Can't sound desperate. So you push the thought away, buy your groceries, and start walking home, and vow to never speak to them again.
You see a cab pull over and decide that you deserve a more comfortable ride home than the gritty subway to resurrect you from the general feeling that everything sucks. He rejects you too.
Then you just stop. Really? The cab driver too? And it's raining? There's just no real reason to go home anymore. Why write a paper. Why scratch the next thing off your to do list. You start throwing a small pity party in the street like a statue wishing something exotic or loud would happen just to get your mind off of it.
Of course, ALL you want to do is text him...and of course...it's the one thing you can't do. But the thought of talking to anyone else at the moment feels disappointingly sub-par. So you resort to thinking about him, until gradually a small glimmer of hope arises at the possibility that...he could be missing you too, at that very moment.
Interesting... although, a bit pathetic... that the best consolation in the moment you feel like everything sucks is the notion that someome else desires to be with you. Humans are relational to the core.
When something happens that reminds you of your frailty--you're very raw vulnerability--you realize how shallow the paper pushing, clean, professional atmosphere is. What we're really after is loving and being loved, and that always involves the messy, risky, deep stuff that real living is made of.
The whole time you're shopping for groceries you're saying to yourself, hmmm...wouldn't it be nice if "so-and-so" was doing this with me? But you can't contact them. Can't sound desperate. So you push the thought away, buy your groceries, and start walking home, and vow to never speak to them again.
You see a cab pull over and decide that you deserve a more comfortable ride home than the gritty subway to resurrect you from the general feeling that everything sucks. He rejects you too.
Then you just stop. Really? The cab driver too? And it's raining? There's just no real reason to go home anymore. Why write a paper. Why scratch the next thing off your to do list. You start throwing a small pity party in the street like a statue wishing something exotic or loud would happen just to get your mind off of it.
Of course, ALL you want to do is text him...and of course...it's the one thing you can't do. But the thought of talking to anyone else at the moment feels disappointingly sub-par. So you resort to thinking about him, until gradually a small glimmer of hope arises at the possibility that...he could be missing you too, at that very moment.
Interesting... although, a bit pathetic... that the best consolation in the moment you feel like everything sucks is the notion that someome else desires to be with you. Humans are relational to the core.
When something happens that reminds you of your frailty--you're very raw vulnerability--you realize how shallow the paper pushing, clean, professional atmosphere is. What we're really after is loving and being loved, and that always involves the messy, risky, deep stuff that real living is made of.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Love.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
I Corinthians 13
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Encouragement.
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, cringing, and fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power, love, and a sound mind." 2 Tim 1:7
“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3
"God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." I Timothy 2:4
He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.
His power is made perfect in our areas of weakness.
You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
"Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, cringing, and fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power, love, and a sound mind." 2 Tim 1:7
“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3
"God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." I Timothy 2:4
He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.
His power is made perfect in our areas of weakness.
You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
"Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Stillness
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul;
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abby
In body, and become a living soul;
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abby
Poetry is...
"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. Emotion recollected in tranquillity"
William Wordsworth, a romantic poet who saw nature as a vehicle of redemption.
William Wordsworth, a romantic poet who saw nature as a vehicle of redemption.
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