Dangerously Important

"Be assiduous in reading the Holy Scripture. This is the fountain whence all knowledge in divinity must be derived. Therefore let not this treasure lie by you neglected." Jonathan Edwards

Scripture that blessed gift of God to man wherein he reveals himself to us, he teaches us the gorgeous reality of the gospel and the shameful existence of our depravity. Giving flight to the life which was yet unknown under the safety of his wings.

This book which is too often misread and misused and disposed of. This book which ought never to, “be applied to us,” yet rather we ought to always be applied to it.

We are not the solid line or are we the consistency to which it must be judged. No, the plum-line is not we it is itself. Scripture, this we know yet forget to do, is the interpretation of Scripture.

It’s a book about God.

He is the main character, the main actor. Scripture is the story of God to man.

Far too often we see it as the story of men to men. No, it is the story of God redeeming his Church. Yet to read the Bible and think solely of man is to read Harry Potter and think only of the Weasley twins, or to read Lord of the Rings and think only of the Shire, or to read The Hunger Games and think only of Katniss’ mom or to read The Chronicles of Narnia and think only of what was happening in London.

Do you see the point - the point of missing the point? The reason for Scripture is not to give us helpful hints and models to attempt to be like, no, the reason for Scripture is to teach us all that God has revealed to us.

All we can know of God is within its pages. This does not mean we’ll know him completely, it means we’ll know him partially, but the part that we’ll know is exquisitely beautiful.

And yet the quote from last week’s post is still wonderfully true, ““We have scarcely begun to see all of God that the Scriptures give us to see, and what we have not seen yet is exceedingly glorious (John Piper).”

Friday's Thoughts

1) Can I have another Spring Break?

2) The Hunger Games movies/book/soundtrack are all good.

3) I had Taylor Swift's song "Eyes Open" on replay. It sounds like NEEDTOBREATHE's "Keep Your Eyes Open." It's like they were on tour together.

4) I have some classy friends

5) Psalm 139

6) If I have to ask, "Is that a t-shirt or a skirt?" You a) didn't look in a mirror this morning, b) did look in a mirror but your mind is mush from reality TV so it didn't dawn on you that sitting would be awkward or c) dumb.

7) I dreamt about my Kat... Imacrazycatguy great.

8) H&M has pants that fit my tiny butt!

9) With some people you just click.

10) Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.

Pathetic

I saw The Hunger Games movie on Sunday. I enjoyed it.

The books are better (duh).

It’s a 1984, Brave New World, V for Vendetta kinda deal.

O and the soundtrack is great.

It’s also got me thinking about being safe and comfortable. Maybe it’s the compilation of being back from a far away place, or just the themes of the movie/books/music. Either way we are search for safety.

This makes sense really. We organize our house and friends so that we are the most comfortable (we even try to make other cultures different so we can feel safe). Risks aren’t the American’s deal.

I’m not against feeling safe. I’m not against being comfortable (cause I’m comfortable as I write).

I’m against apathy. (Some things really are worthy dying for, imagine that.)

One of my professors said a while ago while introducing an assignment, “Pick any topic you care about, anything. Cause no one just doesn’t care.” But he said it with a hint of irony. Which got me going.

Do we care about anything? My age group, my people, do we care about anything? What would we speak out against (and by that I mean with more than a facebook post)? Would we call something truly foolish, “foolish,” or would we sit down and shut up cause disagreement is difficult?

Apathetic, also has pathetic in it. Just saying.

Don’t read this as saying, “You must have an opinion about everything.” But maybe, just maybe, we should each have something we care about, something, which presses us to disagree and agree, to discuss and to grow.

Maybe we should have something that we care more about than cheap beer and ignorance. Maybe our lives would be better served by not being our lives at all, but by being for something bigger and better than just our one self.

You all know what I think is worth living for and dying for. Jesus.

A Story of Stories

I finished reading The Hunger Games on Monday night (yea, this post is late oops.). They were like 1984 for teens. I was really enthralled by them and frankly they kept showing up in my mind throughout any given day and I woke up a few times re-playing images in my mind of them. PTSD, is what they describe too well, a 17 year old girl’s attempt at dealing with killing and being the face of a revolution.

But what I liked the most is no one had told me anything about them. I was on the road for the first time, I’d never seen the view before and never even heard of its beauty.

Like the first time I heard U2’s Where the Streets Have No Name (but not as amazing), like the first time through Romans, Inception, Jonathan Edwards, or The Count of Monte Cristo (since the movie… sucked).

Stories are like that, no? They entrap our minds and force us to imagine (something we don’t do enough of as adults) all sorts of possibilities.

I really do think it’s an overly used cliché, “Your life is a story,” and sad too, cause the impact of the statement is completely lost on us. It’s true though. Just ‘cause it’s not full of Hollywood ‘beauties’ doesn’t make it any less of a tale.

We seem to trudge (like the guy from Knight’s Tale) along like life is not exciting enough. When people are dying all around us (literally and spiritually); when a war is raging within us; when love is root deep inside us. The commons of WSU is loaded with people, all of them with unique narratives.

As believers in Jesus we should understand this more than most, as those who’ve been brought from death to life, from being beggars to princes.

So, here’s the deal: stop looking to something else for fulfillment and look to the God of all to satisfy your cravings for an ‘interesting’ life. He can create the minds who created the stories, songs, and movies so he can create something better out of you… Plus to judge your life by a book is like comparing a mountain to the flint hills.

A New Day

“Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences.” (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)

A whole book series wrapped into a line, after the characters have been run through the ringer and the plot has nearly wound itself up into a beautiful tapestry this one line plays the chord through the entire series.

It begins with the attempted saving of the innocent, and ends with its lose. The story in the middle could really be anyone’s. Yours, mine, whomever you want to put in the hero’s position.

I won’t turn this into politics.

I will turn this to point at you.

Will this be us? Is this you? Does this line paint us?

I can’t answer this for you. I can’t yet even answer this for me.

We’re all in the story, every one of us. There’s no escaping our character’s development, no avoiding the tragedy and comedy, no stopping the coming crescendo.

But in the night, when it’s dark, we feel the vacancy of our economy, the economy of our hearts, the one that pines to be more and less, all and nothing. Really wanting to be carried away in something bigger than us, something, some cause which is worth our lives and deaths.

Still this quote rings true in my ears,

“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.” (Lord of the Rings)

So.

Here it stands.

We are playing the part we were born to play.

We are not our own.

We never were.

Yet hope.

Thinking Thoughts

1) Found out my boy cat is a girl cat… Luther is now Katharina… Yup.

2) I got a lady friend (like a human lady, not a cat).

3) Bacon and coffee

4) If you’ve never read John17, or just haven’t done it in a while, then here

5) I’m reading The Hunger Games and trying to make them last

6) The Scarlet Letter

7) My thoughts on the whole Mars Hill discipline issue

8) Skittles are getting me through my College Algebra homework (the red pack, not some silly purple or blue pack).

9) Why is the sentence, “Go and sin no more,” not apart of our thoughts/words?

10) The trash truck that drives by my house every Monday might as well be a tank.

Obsessed

So, I’ve got a cold. Last night I was up off an on the whole night (2:53-4am all at once. Bam.), not really feeling icky just awake. But my mind was racing with thoughts and images and ideas (probably why I couldn’t sleep).

Recently I was hooked on Lost. The show that was all the rage a while ago (I know, I’m behind.) I also started reading The Hunger Games. The thoughts shooting through my dome last night were everything from, “How do they get Claire back? (Lost)” to, “Is The Hunger Game trilogy three different Hunger Games or does the story stay with Katniss?” (If anyone tells me the answer to either it’ll be a bad day… for them.)

I was obsessing. I restlessly tossed and turned. Luther (the cat) just sat on the bed watching.
But then the thought occurred to me, “What’s the point? These fictions are taking over my reality.”

We obsess so easily about different little things shows, books, relationships and I am chief offender. But to be obsessed with the glory of God would be another matter entirely.
Think about it.

Men who’ve been in this line of obsession have and do shape our present. The Apostles, Augustine, Martin Luther etc… Consumed by one thing, seeing God glorified over and above all else.

The New Year… So Far

1) Reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien and geeking out about it.

2) My cat, Luther, is no longer echolocation-kitty – he’s falls-in-the-toilet-kitty.

3) When I heard Boeing was closing its Wichita plant I thought of the song “Further Along” by Josh Garrels

4) 2012 has started off with a furry.

5) I’m taking a pre-session Earth Science class. Yesterday's lesson was about Mars. Thank you, WSU.

6) Colossians 3:12-17 is good stuff and Romans 7:24-25 still defines me.

7) My Christmas tree is still up.

8) This years reading list (so far): The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, The Arabian Nights…

9) Where’s a place that works on record players?

10) Scotland. I wanna see Scotland.

Christmas Time-ish Thoughts

1) Case of Skittles... 'nough said.

2) I got to hang out at The Anchor for a little bit. It was a good Christmas present.

3) Are there any good excuses to leave my Christmas tree up all year long? ...other than being a redneck.

4) Does the world end at the beginning of 2012 or the end of 2012?

5)I bought The Hunger Games to read after I meander through The Lord of the Rings again. (Starting with The Simarillion, then The Hobbit, then LOTR) In other words I'll be in the realm of complete and utter nerdom for the first few months of 2012.

6) New vaccum! (You know you're grown up when this excites you)

7) Hey Wichita, if you add 50 to the highs these days, they still don't touch this summer's temps.

8) Gonna see The Civil Wars, again!

9) Hat Man Jack's andThe Spice Merchant.

10) Fight the good fight of faith.