November 30, 2012
Posted with Blogsy
SWEET AND AWFUL
This movie means the world to one of my favorite authors, Susan Isaacs, and thus it means the world to me because she has earned my faith in her work and my support in the projects she chooses. I know I'm quite late in posting this seeing as there are only about 20 hours left to save this movie, but if you read this in time, please please please learn more about this film, remember that you love me and trust me and I have pretty good taste, and if you can and want to, please give, even if it's just five dollars. Every bit helps. Thank you! I love you all!
http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/cities/lookout-mountain-tn?ref=card
November 22, 2012
JESU, MEINE FREUDE
Everwood quotes in the post
below.
It is also the lyrics to Johann
Sebastian Bach's composition
of the same name.
I think it's beautiful.
I thinks it's perfect.
And I think it's true.
Jesus, my joy,
pasture of my heart,
Jesus, my adornment
ah how long, how long
is my heart filled with anxiety
and longing for you!
Lamb of God, my bridegroom,
apart from you on the earth
there is nothing dearer to me.
Beneath your protection
I am free from the attacks
of all my enemies.
Let Satan track me down,
let my enemy be exasperated –
Jesus stands by me.
Even if there is thunder and lightning,
even if sin and hell spread terror
Jesus will protect me.
I defy the old dragon,
I defy the jaws of death,
I defy fear as well!
Rage, World, and spring to attack:
I stand here and sing
in secure peace.
God’s might takes care of me;
earth and abyss must fall silent,
however much they rumble on.
Away with all treasures!
You are my delight,
Jesus, my joy!
Away with empty honours,
I’m not going to listen to you,
remain unknown to me!
Misery, distress, affliction, disgrace and death,
even if I must endure much suffering,
will not separate me from Jesus.
Good night, existence
chosen by the world,
you do not please me.
Good night, you sins,
stay far behind me.
Come no more to the light!
Good night, pride and splendour!
once and for all, sinful existence,
I bid you good night!
Go away, mournful spirits!
for my joyful master,
Jesus, now enters in.
For those who love God
even their afflictions
become pure sweetness.
Even if here I must endure shame and disgrace,
even in suffering you remain,
Jesus, my joy!
Jesu, meine Freude
Text and Translation of Chorale
Author: Johann Franck (1650)
DEFY THE OLD DRAGON
And, of course, leave it to TV to pull my attention back to this blog; it is the greatest form of story-telling.
[Note: Still's Disease is nicknamed "The Dragon" by those it chose because it lies in hiding, waiting to break out of its cave and breathe its fire and wreak its havic]
Here's some great writing from Everwood:
Princeton Essay, Written By Ephraim
Tell us about yourself in such a way that we will have a good sense of who you are; 500 words.
I wish you would've asked me that two years ago. I could've told you exactly who I was, who I'd be. Two years ago I knew it all and the thing is, I was right. Plans are like candy to the Fates. The only thing you could ever be sure of is nothing ever goes the way you imagined. I should probably be used to that by now. The thing is you can never tell when everything you counted on might fall apart – no matter how solid the rock. Rocks break. Everything changes, even when you think you’re sure, especially. To be fair, if I was one of the Fates looking down at the best laid plans of dumb little people, I'd probably see mine and want to mess with them too. You want to know about me in 500 words? I get scared sometimes and disappointed. I have doubts and I love getting my way. I don’t like change, but I know it's good for me and inevitable so I welcome it as best I can. There’s a poem by Johann Franck that says it better than I will. "Defy the old dragon, defy fear. The world may rage and quake but I shall remain singing in perfect peace." Yeah, things happen – things you don’t expect – or want or like. The world rages and you become someone you didn’t know you’d ever be. And there you are, in your clothes, in your life, this is my future, this is me. This is me and I want things I never thought I would. I want the possibilities a school like Princeton can afford. A place to grow, meet new people. A place to be surprised when life turns out to be nothing like I imagined. You have to be grateful for it – in perfect peace.
In junior high I decided I wanted to go to Stanford. That's when the plan started to take shape. You know, the twenty year plan for your life that everyone continues to foolishly encourage children to make. I believe we still call it "The American Dream"...
I often wish someone would have told me the truth: that life is hard and it never turns out how you thought it would, but that doesn't mean it won't be beautiful and meaningful, and that that's all you can really hope for and ask for anyway. I wish someone, anyone, would have been wise enough to tell me my story needed conflict and hardship, because without it, it wouldn't be beautiful and meaningful...
It's kind of funny how well you know yourself, or think you know yourself, when you are an adolescent. I'm starting to think that the most intelligent and mature and adult people in this world are the ones brave enough to admit that they don't know who they are...
The thing that scares me everyday I'm brave enough to face it, is that, if my plans from Junior High had come to be, I couldn't and wouldn't be here today with the ability to sing in "perfect peace". Yeah, I often look in the mirror and don't recognize who I am anymore, but I know, without a single doubt, I don't want to see the old me ever again. She never would have stopped to look at her life and sing in perfect peace.
Mind you, it wasn't always this way. I mean, people meet me now, eight years after being diagnosed with Still's Disease and watching my plans crumble from underneath me, and they are stunned at the "perfect peace" I have. They look at me in wonder at my lack of anger. I try to explain how they should have known me for the first three or four years, and they nod like they understand, but they don't. Not really. Not completely. They can't imagine the anger. The loss. The frustration. It was dark and overwhelming for years. I thought it would devour me. I thought I would drown in it. I thought I'd never escape Death's shadow. I thought I'd never escape my own darkness. I still can't believe it's not like that all the time anymore. I mean, it comes back, in moments and bits and pieces, but that's just to remind me there is always more to grow, towards acceptance and peace.
At the time the changes that were happening because of Still's Disease seemed to happen so quickly, overwhelmingly fast, but I look back at these eight years, and I see how much farther I've yet to go. Yet to change. Yet to grow. And I'm worried it's going to take forever. This dragon, Still's Disease, it can do whatever it wants whenever it wants, and yeah, that scares me. But what's starting to scare me more, is that if something as big as Stills can come into my life and change everything, who's to say something new won't come any day now and do the same thing. Some new dragon. Some new fear.
I guess, though, if there's one thing to mention now, that I've learned from knowing everything changes and everything needs to change in order to make a story beautiful and meaningful, is that we're here for a very specific reason: To defy the old dragon, defy fear. The world will rage and quake, and we are here to learn to sing in perfect peace no matter what change, or conflict, or difficulty, or pain, or suffering comes our way. And it will come. It has to. And maybe, hopefully, if we work together, if we are honest with one another, especially the younger ones in our lives, we can learn to be grateful for it--in perfect peace, the way He planned it.
Say it with me:
"Defy the old dragon, defy fear. The world [will] rage and quake but I shall remain singing in perfect peace." Amen.
October 19, 2012
A BEAUTIFUL LIE
 Victoria Douglass (@ToriGlass)It's hilarious that I was depressed when I mistakenly believed God wanted me to be healthy and wealthy |
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome this world." - Jesus, John 16:33
"I consider our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us." -Romans 8:18
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1:2-4
"Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will...test you, and you will suffer...Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life." -Romans 2:10
"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God." - 1 Peter 4:1-2
"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But, rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when the glory is revealed." - 1 Peter 4:12-13
"And the God of grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast." - 1 Peter 5:10
Victoria Douglass (@ToriGlass)I get upset when people believe that the Gospel is "Jesus came to make your life easier" but that's not me nitpicking. It's false. |
THE GREAT THING ABOUT DEATH
 Donald Miller (@donaldmiller)The great thing about death is it means most of the stuff we are worried about today doesn't matter. |
If you know how to die, you know how to live.
Most of today, it's just stuff. All the rest is pure life.
PLAY YOUR PART
 GS Elevator Gossip (@GSElevator)#1: Most people don't understand that God cast them as extras in this movie. |
BENT NOT BROKEN
 JESUS SAVES (@Godly_Life)If God asks that you bend, bend & do not complain. He is making you more flexible, & for this be thankful. -Terri Guillemets |
THANK GOD I'M...
TO KNOW THEM IS TO LOVE THEM
 Eugene Cho (@EugeneCho)You can't love your neighbors if you don't even know them. Without relationships, we rob people of their dignity & they become projects. |
October 16, 2012
HOW TO BE MISERABLE
MIRACLES TOO LARGE AND SMALL FOR SOME TO SEE
 C. S. Lewis (@CSLewisDaily)Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some to see. |
When I got sick at first all I wanted was for everything to go back to normal. I thought that could be God's miracle in my life, and everyone else was hoping for the same thing. But it never came; eight years later it still hasn't. So, what does that mean?
They are very controversial, miracles. I mean, we all love a good miracle, right? Especially one we can see with our own eyes. But does it have to be seen to be a miracle? Does it have to be physical to be a miracle? What was the point of Christ performing all those miracles in the New Testament? Why did He heal people? Did He really need to do that? And what was He really healing anyway?
Yes, I believe that Christ literally healed the sick, the lame, the blind, and raised the dead, but is that all He was doing? Was it all just to heal people from physical setbacks or tragedies in their lives? Was there nothing spiritual going on?
Depending on how you were raised, this may be difficult to hear. I know if you had made me read what I'm writing now, when I first got sick, I would have been so mad I would have been sick to my stomach. "How dare you not have hope I can be physically healed?! How small is your God?!" I would have wanted to never speak to you again until you got your perspective and beliefs "fixed". But something changed over the first few years with Still's Disease. I changed. My faith changed. My relationship with God and with Christ changed. Yeah, I was mad as hell at first, but somehow I began to slip away from the grasp of all that anger towards a calmer understanding about life and God and why things happen the way they do--why difficult things happen to seemingly good people.
I couldn't tell you when it exactly happened; big shifts in our perspective don't usually have "ah ha" moments. They tend to happen gradually without you being aware of it, and I think that's a good thing. I think our subconscious slowly gets us ready for something so unbelievably unordinary so this huge change doesn't scare us away from who we need to become. And God needed me to become someone who was ready for the Truth: His Truth.
His Truth is not easy: to hear, to live, to believe. If you think it is, you don't know His Truth yet, trust me. The change God brought about, the unbelievable and unordinary thing I was learning subconsciously will sound crazy, but here it is: you do not need to be healthy. Crazy, right? Now, if you are thinking, "duh!" then look a little more closely at life. Why is it such a tragedy when we get sick? If we really knew we didn't need to be physically healthy, why does it feel like the end of the world when we aren't? Because we have been tricked into thinking that we do and we aren't even aware of it. I am here to tell you: be aware of it!
I occasionally try to explain to family and friends, sometimes even strangers, that I do not need to be healed, and they look at me like I'm nuts. And then they have presumptuousness to tell me why that is sad, or wrong, or how I have no faith and have lost hope and that they will pray for me. I swear, I would do almost anything to get everyone to stop waiting for my miracle to come and to stop wondering why it hasn't already and to stop telling me what I should and shouldn't do so that it comes sooner...you have no idea how much it hurts.
At first it hurt because I couldn't believe how weak they thought my faith was. How weak they thought I was. But now, now it hurts because I feel unexplainably sad they missed the actual miracle God performed already, and had planned all along.
My miracle was written in letters so small they couldn't and still can't see them. And if they could, they would have the overwhelming feeling of love God pours on each of us everyday by knowing the miraculous story God has written for us in letters so big they can't see those either.
In college my professor taught us to read the Bible two ways. The first was to read it and look for the literal meaning of the text. For instance, who are these people historically, where were they living, what was life like, who was their ruler, what were their customs and cultures and what literally happened in their story in the Bible.
This literal understanding was to help us not just to understand our past as a way of living a better future, but to help us understand where our faith started, where it came from, how it was born, how it thrived or suffered, and to know that there were people, real people just like us, trying just like us, to live in this world knowing we aren't of it.
We need to know they struggled just like us and how their faith did or didn't get them through. We need to know they made mistakes just like us. We need to know they fell short of God and so will we, but we can learn from these people, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and how they found their way back to God so we can too. And this literal meaning of the text is invaluable to our understanding the Bible and God and His story, which is also our story.
But the second way she taught us to interpret the text is to look for the spiritual meaning of the passage or verses or story. And yes, this part gets very subjective and tricky, for it is all too easy to interpret what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear. This is the way the devil loves us to read the bible, subjectively, reading things into stories and poetry and songs that just aren't there, especially if it helps us do the opposite of what God wants us to do.
An example is when Donald Miller pointed out in one of his books that we in Western Christianity, especially in America, were consciously and subconsciously taught to read the Bible as a self-help book to help us achieve the corrupted "American Dream". However, I have learned that despite this upbringing, it is possible to do our best to avoid the selfish way of interpreting the text spiritually. It is possible to realize a lot of the bible is prose (story), and to realize what that means spiritually to us individually, as a world, as a culture, and as a group of imperfect beings trying to follow and love a perfect God. There are even many non Christians who read the bible as a book of stories, and while this may worry you, it can offer some of God's Truth.
Something a non-Christian would interpret in the Bible, as they read it as fictitious story instead of historical Truth, is that the miracles Christ performed weren't literal miracles--or in our case, just literal miracles. And what if that's true? What if they represented something else, something more, something spiritual? What if the real miracle that happened when Christ healed them, wasn't physical at all?
What if the miracle wasn't that they could physically walk again, but that they could walk in faith on God's path instead of their own?
What if instead of being healed of their physical blindness they were actually healed of their spiritual blindness?
What if instead of physically being raised from the dead, they were spiritually raised from the dead?
Now, I'm not discrediting the literal miracles that Christ performed. I actually believe He did do those things and still could and does do them now. I also believe that their culture, at that time, needed to see Him do those things so they could believe He was the Son of God. I am just asking you to look deeper.
I am just asking you to think about the Bible as a book of stories.
I am just asking you to ponder and pontificate over the spiritual meaning of those miracles. Could they symbolize something more? Could those physical miracles also be part of God's storytelling and story writing? Could God be trying to get us to realize something so much bigger than being physical healed happened those days? Could they be metaphors for an internal spiritual change as well?
And if they are, now, today, in our culture, where we don't have Christ walking around trying to show everyone He is the Son of God because we already have the stories of Him performing those miracles and that is the proof for our generations, could the actual miracles of our day be less something you see with your eyes, which already happened, and more something you see with your heart guided by the Holy Spirit?
And if so, if those are the miracles written in small letters of our time, the spiritual ones, isn't it about time someone wrote them down. It's about time someone started spreading the word around town of a man who can heal your heart and your soul?
All you need is to have faith--to believe and know He is indeed the Son of God, and you shall be healed.
The question now is, what needs healed?
What miracle are you waiting for?
What miracle do you need?
What miracle do you want?
What miracle is actually going to happen and which one should?
Just, please, try to remember, that your miracle should be "the story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some to see."
THE PROOF OF OUR YEARNING HEARTS
C. S. Lewis (@CSLewisDaily)The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can't supply is proof that Heaven must be our home. #CSLewis |
MORE GRACE DOESN'T MEAN LESS LOVE
WHY DO YOU OBEY GOD (LOVE vs. OBLIGATION)?
Ever heard "It's a relationship not a religion"? It used to worry me, to tell you the truth. It made it sound like Christianity was a lie or something. Like everything I had been raised to believe was true, was actually false, and it scared the kicking, screaming stars out of me.
I just couldn't understand what was wrong with religion. And even if there was or wasn't something "wrong" or "mistaken", I wasn't strong enough in my faith to dare ask the question. It was just so much easier to ignore it for fear of...well, everything. It was less scary to deny it altogether as false or blasphemy than to actually ask God the tough questions. But thank His endless love He allowed enough pain in my life to make me ask the scary questions.
Because I learned that I certainly never truly understood what it meant to be in love with God. I thought I did, of course, but I know now I was wrong, or at the very least I realized I didn't have all the information I needed to completely understand who I am in relationship to God, how He and I actually connect verses how we are supposed to connect--how He longs to connect with me, with us.
But after much needed study and devotion and prayer and soul searching, I now say it all the time. It's a relationship, not just a religion. But what does that really mean? What is the difference between religion and relationship when it comes to loving and worshiping and following God and His precepts?
This article, "Are You Loving God Out Of Obligation?" from Relevant Magazine (which focuses on "God. Life. Progressive Culture.") explains it really well.
Why do we obey God? Do we obey God because we know we are supposed to? Or is there something more to it than that? And if so, what is it?
Are any of us loving God out of obligation? Is it a love that reads by rote? Or are you actively engaging God because you are so in love with Him you can't possibly imagine doing anything but what would make the one you love happy?
Obeying God because you know you are supposed to is hard. Obeying God because you are in love with Him is easy, natural.
So if you feel like something is missing between you and God, if your life with Him is just even a little "off," if you are having difficulty doing what you know He wants you to, or if you want to take a close look at why you do the things you do, which is very scary but worth it, please read this article from Relevant Magazine written by Chris Hodges. It will open your heart to the Truth God longs for you to hear: that He wants you to fall in love, with Him, the way He has fallen in love with you. Because "loving God is so much more than something you 'should' do."
October 7, 2012
BY THE LIGHT OF FAITH
 Brilliant Women (@Epic_Women)Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light. -Helen Keller |
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