January 2011
19 posts
All flesh is like the grass of the field. It fades, it dies, it is transient. Think of the most amazing thing in the world. It is grass. Think of the person who means the most in your life. Think of how they can affect you, make you smile, make you feel alive, bring you such joy. They are grass. Nothing more. God’s glory is the only thing that matters in all existence. This does...
Passion and Perfection
I keep having this strong impulse, this urge, to write. Not like this….this is just a place I come to put my thoughts down so that I don’t go insane. I mean real writing. Like, isolate myself in a cabin in the woods for a year with nothing but a typewriter and not leave until I achieve something. And I guess that is the thing. Why does anyone write? Who am I to think I have...
I’ve become convinced that no one lives for the moment. I am certain that there are only two things people look to, the past or the future. The present is non-existent. We spend our energy trying to recapture or recreate something from the past. We try so hard to remember, how she looked, the smell in the air, the way they laughed. We cling to things that no longer exist. Or we try to...
“We’ve had nine classes together since Kindergarten. Ten, if you count Religions of Other Cultures, which you don’t, because you called it Science Fiction and refused to show up.”
There are many amazing promises and truths in the Bible. Among them are that God is real. God intervenes in life. God sent His Son in human form. Jesus died to pay for sins. He rose again. Through Him we can stand before God and He sees us with Christ’s righteousness. I believe these things, and I cling to them.
Then there is the one promise I have some trouble with. And it is a...
There Are Some Random Times I Just Want To Weep
This has nothing to do with the title, that was just something I realized.
So, something cool to think about: Christianity is not some newfangled religion plucked from some peoples’ minds. It is the completion of God’s promises for all time. I think what is so easy for us to forget is that the Christ who saves the world, Jews and gentiles, is the one who was the promised savior of...
Greater
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” -Romans 1:1
It is amazing that in an introductory sentence, Paul can show such deep and meaningful truth.
Paul is a servant, he is called, and he has been set apart. These are great things.
But who is greater than the one who is a servant? The One whom he serves. And who is greater than...
It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is that every day we vacillate between examining our hangnails and speculating on cosmic order. ~Ann Beattie, Picturing Will, 1989
Fullness
The Gospel is the fullness of salvation. There is nothing outside of it that can make it more or less than it is. It is our full salvation.
The Gospel is also the fullness of our joy. Nothing in all creation can (or should be able to) add to or take away any joy from it. It is all we need for joy.
For some reason it is so easy for me to cling to that first truth and completely forget the...
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And no birds sing.
Oh what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrel’s granary is full, And the harvest’s done.
I see a lily on thy brow, With anguish moist and fever-dew, And on thy...
Vision
Be Thou my vision, Lord of my heart! Let naught be all else to me, save that Thou art!
This has always been my favorite hymn and my prayer.
Another song: I want to live for You. I want to die to me. I want to be empty. I want to be free from all that holds me captive, all that weighs me down, all that’s tried to lose me, now that I’ve been found.
How perfect these words are for...
Insignificant
I know that my significance and worth are from God. I know that it is His will and purpose that matter. They are the whole of my meaning, my significance, my worth, and my importance.
It is so frustrating to know this and still let people affect me. There is no rational reason that a person should be able to make me feel so insignificant, so worthless, and so unnecessary.
I feel like crappy...
Swear Not By the Moon
” Tom: Look, we don’t have to put a label on it. That’s fine. I get it. But, you know, I just… I need some consistency. Summer: I know. Tom: I need to know that you’re not gonna wake up in the morning and feel differently. Summer: And I can’t give you that. Nobody can”
- (500) Days of Summer
Consistency. This has been on my mind a lot lately. ...
“What’s the attraction?” I dunno… she fills gaps.” “What’s ‘gaps’?” “I dunno, she’s got gaps, I got gaps, together we fill gaps.”
Fear; trembling
I’ve begun a lot of thoughts lately with the sentence “If God is good….” as though this were in question. I think this comes form the fact that, lately, for me, this has been. Not that God is capable of good, or that He has done a lot of good in a lot of areas. I know He has accomplished the ultimate act of love and goodness in Christ. But where do we come to believe...
Practically, what does the gospel mean for my life? In my everyday life, how should the reality of the Gospel affect me?
I am honestly not sure what it is supposed to do sometimes. Sad as that is to admit. I don’t know what daily appropriation of the Gospel is supposed to mean…but I know it is important.
Are the things we are using our time on, the things we read, watch, and do, worthwhile. At church this morning the question was asked, or rather the challenge was issued: do not ask “Is this that bad?” Rather, ask “How does this make me love God and love people more?” I find myself in the former category almost exclusively. I do not think that the things I enjoy are...