Everyone I know is getting married.
That’s an exaggeration. Let me try again.
Almost everyone I know is getting married.
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Month: June 2016
Flesh and Spirit
I trust you, but I do not trust you;
Love you, but my heart is cold;
Hope in you, yet live as hopeless.
I am new, yet still am old.
I am your own by your good pleasure,
Living by your love and grace.
Why then do I dare to doubt and
In your presence hide my face?
O Father, how I still forsake you
While I wish to know you more!
Wretched flesh, this wayward servant,
Works to wrench me from your shore!
But it cannot defeat redemption,
Nor diminish your resolve.
None can snatch this great salvation,
Nor condemn those you absolve.
So in this grace I stand acquitted,
Salvaged from futility.
Now I live by thy great power
Free for all eternity.
An Even Trade?
I used to be all about some trading cards. Granted, I never managed to jump on board the major trains (shout out to Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic, etc.). Instead, I amassed stacks upon stacks of Young Jedi cards (a trading card game based on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace), Marvel’s Recharge trading card game (complete with images from the first Spider-man movie), and, finally, The Lord of the Rings trading card game. For all the inherent nerdiness, trading card games captivated me for years. I loved to collect, to display, and, whenever I found an opportunity, I loved to trade.
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The Discovery
Cold. Not a winter cold, though. After all, this was mid-June. No, it was more of a lifeless cold: a certain uncomfortable feeling that something wasn’t right in the world. It was damp too, as I recall. All around, I felt a paralyzing stillness. It was as if this place had never felt the sun’s warmth, never imagined the spark of love, never shifted from its sullen fixation on its own emptiness. This place was darkness, unadulterated and unexplored. Continue reading
Thought
I think we only think we think
When our imagination
Is captivated at the brink
Of some infatuation.
The meeting of the mind with wonder
Tricks us to assume
That old ideas are torn asunder,
New ideas to bloom.
But truly we have only just
Begun to chip away the rust
And wipe away the years of dust
For mental exploration.
And pushing past the stench of must,
Advancing with a forward thrust
Into the realms of doubt and trust,
We reach the elevation.
And it is there we find
A freedom for the mind
As God in grace unbinds
Our thoughts from Satan’s blinds.
Press on! Press on! And think to know
The Truth amidst the lies below!
Pray Then Like This
My dad introduced my brother and me to Red Skelton’s comedy shows back in the day. While his sketches still stand out in my mind as some of the funniest I’ve ever seen, one of his more serious moments came to my mind the other day.
Prayer of Pursuit
O Father, let me never be
A hindrance to your plan for me,
But grant me, Lord, the eyes to see
The roads you’d have me travel.
And strengthen me to follow thee
By sun or star, by land or sea
Until the day I fin’lly flee
This world of grit and gravel.
Fellowship
Frodo could not have made it to Mount Doom without the help of the fellowship. Sure, he wasn’t completely helpless on his own; he showed surprising resilience and courage throughout the journey. In fact, the strength of hobbits continually surprised the peoples of Middle Earth throughout the story of The Lord of the Rings. But the truth remains that the fellowship, that band of nine commissioned to carry the ring of power to its destruction, were crucial to Frodo’s success. The fellowship challenged Frodo to grow beyond what he had once thought possible for himself, and, because of their influence, he was able to complete his mission.
Desensitized
Why do we find such follies fun
And magnify the madness?
The filth from which we ought to run
Fills us with giddy gladness.
So should we not expect to find
That love for God is lacking?
And in the church we are not kind
But are ourselves attacking?
Oh can we not reject the dross
And seek sanctification?
Do not, for “fun,” reject the cross
Nor bask in your damnation.
For Christ has saved our souls from sin
That we might sin no longer.
Embrace his grace, his nail pierced skin,
And in his love grow stronger.
as i learn to walk 