"Not because sin isn't serious, but because I am taking seriously who God says I am. The point isn't my failure; it is God's success in remaking me into the person he originally intended me to be."
"If people were taught more about who they are, they wouldn't have to be told what to do. It would come naturally. When we see religious communities spending most of their time trying to convince people not to sin, we are seeing a community that has missed the point. The point isn't sin management. The point is who we are now."
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
wrestling with being humbled and recognizing I am nothing without God while finding self worth because of the creator and the cross. walking on water and finding little faith in, not His ability, but in my ability to be used. "You of little faith, why
did you doubt?"
don't live life trying to prove - or becoming immobilized by the suspicion that you must prove- that you have great worth. be confident you do and act accordingly.
did you doubt?"
don't live life trying to prove - or becoming immobilized by the suspicion that you must prove- that you have great worth. be confident you do and act accordingly.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
mirror mirror 20 degrees on the wall
i have a flattering mirror. the angle in which it is placed makes me look taller and fit (sorta). t has noticed it too and pointed it out. t is beautiful. she keeps an unflattering mirror in her room. i had almost forgotten mine was a flattering mirror (but now i remember and in the process of actively forgetting)
there's a missing piece in my mirror from falling off the armoire one day. j is a believer of the 7 years of bad luck. i don't believe in it, but this year has been tough. i suppose even though i don't believe in luck, i believe in bad. i stuck a sign covering the hole: "look for beauty (beyond the mirror)."
we have a certain way of ignoring things when we get caught up in the clutches (obsessions) of the here and now.
some days i look at the mirror and think i see something attractive. sometimes i see the opposite and spend countless hours ripping apart the closet to remedy that (to remedy me) if not just for the next few hours, ignoring the sign on the hole on the mirror and the sign of a growing gap in the heart as well. other times i just get disgusted or give up and figure looks don't matter anyway and that i can be a better person by just forgetting about silly things such as these. those times i congratulate myself for being secure. but perhaps it's really just insecurity about my insecurity.
very rarely do i see the beauty beyond the reflection.
and even rarer do i see the beauty beyond who i am on what they call the inside.
in a way we're blinded by thoughts of what has become the glorified "inside". thoughts of look, i am growing/i am a better person. question of am i good? am i beautiful inside? too much of these now distract us from the real source and thwart actual growth, goodness, and beauty. when the focus is on me, no transformation can occur. when we see simply the reflection of ourselves in the now, we can't be pulled beyond and see our actual true self (which is no longer us, but Him who is beyond). something needs to be poured in and others cut out (yes, crucified). it's simple. we can't be mixing the same material over and over again (naval gazing) if we are to ever become something else. and we can't become something else if we're focusing our thoughts and hopes on ourselves, even ourselves becoming something else.
and so sometimes we see what's before us and forget what's in us. then sometimes we get caught up with what is in us that we don't realize that our desire to see only who we are right now actually prevents us from becoming who we are meant to be. and who we are meant to be (our truest of true selves) is no longer us but part of something greater with someone greater now living in us. so we couldn't possibly become true if we didn't seek Him first (over even getting our little selves to become more like Him). if we get so caught up by where we are in our process of becoming who we are meant to be, being so pleased with how we're growing, we detain ourselves from being immersed in the source that allows us to do so.
a sign of the ill is too much dreaming about being someone who loves the world, loving the idea of love, when we do not actually act in ways of love towards our closest neighbors; and when we cannot serve in the most mundane of ways rather than clinging on to illusions and dreams of self-glorifying sacrifices. love and beauty then remain faraway ideas only.
and even now as i type this, i'm moving towards that which i have proclaimed we ought to avoid. because honestly i'm seeking distractions. it's a sort of spiritual inertia that means turning my eyes upwards and beyond is just about the hardest thing in the world right now.
but as i recall, sometimes all it takes is just giving this too a chance. the hardest thing often takes the simplest step towards allowing oneself to be carried the rest of the way.
there's a missing piece in my mirror from falling off the armoire one day. j is a believer of the 7 years of bad luck. i don't believe in it, but this year has been tough. i suppose even though i don't believe in luck, i believe in bad. i stuck a sign covering the hole: "look for beauty (beyond the mirror)."
we have a certain way of ignoring things when we get caught up in the clutches (obsessions) of the here and now.
some days i look at the mirror and think i see something attractive. sometimes i see the opposite and spend countless hours ripping apart the closet to remedy that (to remedy me) if not just for the next few hours, ignoring the sign on the hole on the mirror and the sign of a growing gap in the heart as well. other times i just get disgusted or give up and figure looks don't matter anyway and that i can be a better person by just forgetting about silly things such as these. those times i congratulate myself for being secure. but perhaps it's really just insecurity about my insecurity.
very rarely do i see the beauty beyond the reflection.
and even rarer do i see the beauty beyond who i am on what they call the inside.
in a way we're blinded by thoughts of what has become the glorified "inside". thoughts of look, i am growing/i am a better person. question of am i good? am i beautiful inside? too much of these now distract us from the real source and thwart actual growth, goodness, and beauty. when the focus is on me, no transformation can occur. when we see simply the reflection of ourselves in the now, we can't be pulled beyond and see our actual true self (which is no longer us, but Him who is beyond). something needs to be poured in and others cut out (yes, crucified). it's simple. we can't be mixing the same material over and over again (naval gazing) if we are to ever become something else. and we can't become something else if we're focusing our thoughts and hopes on ourselves, even ourselves becoming something else.
and so sometimes we see what's before us and forget what's in us. then sometimes we get caught up with what is in us that we don't realize that our desire to see only who we are right now actually prevents us from becoming who we are meant to be. and who we are meant to be (our truest of true selves) is no longer us but part of something greater with someone greater now living in us. so we couldn't possibly become true if we didn't seek Him first (over even getting our little selves to become more like Him). if we get so caught up by where we are in our process of becoming who we are meant to be, being so pleased with how we're growing, we detain ourselves from being immersed in the source that allows us to do so.
a sign of the ill is too much dreaming about being someone who loves the world, loving the idea of love, when we do not actually act in ways of love towards our closest neighbors; and when we cannot serve in the most mundane of ways rather than clinging on to illusions and dreams of self-glorifying sacrifices. love and beauty then remain faraway ideas only.
and even now as i type this, i'm moving towards that which i have proclaimed we ought to avoid. because honestly i'm seeking distractions. it's a sort of spiritual inertia that means turning my eyes upwards and beyond is just about the hardest thing in the world right now.
but as i recall, sometimes all it takes is just giving this too a chance. the hardest thing often takes the simplest step towards allowing oneself to be carried the rest of the way.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
my timepiece
i hate watches. i find them confining and the whole wrist thing, claustrophobic. but the other day, i found what i thought might be a solution: a time piece - kind of like what rappers and grandpas wear, except smaller. and i'm so happy with it i wear it all the time. but now i realized it's not just the wrist thing that i find confining. something about time itself makes me claustrophobic.
(my obsession with peter pan continues) a recurring scary theme in my childhood stemmed from watching the disney version of peter pan and wendy. when the crocodile swallowed the clock and started tick-tocking every time he was approaching, i was traumatized. i associated everything that was out to get me with the sound of "tick-tock." i would run around (fleeing was more like it) hoping to get to "safety" in time or be caught... all while chanting tick-tock-tick-tock. in fact, if i heard that from someone now, i'd still get the chills.
i wrote this "not poem so much as random stream of thoughts that i felt like typing as i went along this little portion of time." i realize it's corny and appears to attempt depth, thus betraying its shallowness, but i've been feeling so ridiculous by the fact that i can't keep track of time/ been slightly obsessed with the idea of time - that i'm putting it here anyway - and i realize me not putting it up is more a sign of insecurity than me leaving it out --because in honesty, i'm afraid of being caught with something so trite. perhaps this paragraph for a few lines of what i've called "nonpoetry" even reveals that insecurity.
i wear a "timepiece" around my neck.
yet i'm still always just a bit late.
am i chasing You or are You chasing me?
Yesterday I set the clock 6 minutes forward in hopes that that will help
but today, instead of 5 minutes late
i've become 11 minutes late.
i hold the timepiece in my hands
and the minutes
continue
t o
sl i p
through,
rising up again to drown me
or maybe i'm floating,
or treading,
either way, it moves us all forward
when i just want to be somewhere
"this moment contains all moments" -lewis
(my obsession with peter pan continues) a recurring scary theme in my childhood stemmed from watching the disney version of peter pan and wendy. when the crocodile swallowed the clock and started tick-tocking every time he was approaching, i was traumatized. i associated everything that was out to get me with the sound of "tick-tock." i would run around (fleeing was more like it) hoping to get to "safety" in time or be caught... all while chanting tick-tock-tick-tock. in fact, if i heard that from someone now, i'd still get the chills.
i wrote this "not poem so much as random stream of thoughts that i felt like typing as i went along this little portion of time." i realize it's corny and appears to attempt depth, thus betraying its shallowness, but i've been feeling so ridiculous by the fact that i can't keep track of time/ been slightly obsessed with the idea of time - that i'm putting it here anyway - and i realize me not putting it up is more a sign of insecurity than me leaving it out --because in honesty, i'm afraid of being caught with something so trite. perhaps this paragraph for a few lines of what i've called "nonpoetry" even reveals that insecurity.
i wear a "timepiece" around my neck.
yet i'm still always just a bit late.
am i chasing You or are You chasing me?
Yesterday I set the clock 6 minutes forward in hopes that that will help
but today, instead of 5 minutes late
i've become 11 minutes late.
i hold the timepiece in my hands
and the minutes
continue
t o
sl i p
through,
rising up again to drown me
or maybe i'm floating,
or treading,
either way, it moves us all forward
when i just want to be somewhere
"this moment contains all moments" -lewis
from C.S. Lewis, the Great Divorce:
"Ye can know nothing of the end of all things, or nothing expressible in those terms. It may be, as the Lord said to the Lady Julian, that all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. But it's ill talking of such questions."
"Because they are too terrible, Sir?"
"No. Because all answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain. The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see–small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope–something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn’t is itself Freedom. They are a lens. The picture is a symbol: but it’s truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than any mystic’s vision) that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom."
"Ye can know nothing of the end of all things, or nothing expressible in those terms. It may be, as the Lord said to the Lady Julian, that all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well. But it's ill talking of such questions."
"Because they are too terrible, Sir?"
"No. Because all answers deceive. If ye put the question from within Time and are asking about possibilities, the answer is certain. The choice of ways is before you. Neither is closed. Any man may choose eternal death. Those who choose it will have it. But if ye are trying to leap on into eternity, if ye are trying to see the final state of all things as it will be (for so ye must speak) when there are no more possibilities left but only the Real, then ye ask what cannot be answered to mortal ears. Time is the very lens through which ye see–small and clear, as men see through the wrong end of a telescope–something that would otherwise be too big for ye to see at all. That thing is Freedom: the gift whereby ye most resemble your Maker and are yourselves parts of eternal reality. But ye can see it only through the lens of Time, in a little clear picture, through the inverted telescope. It is a picture of moments following one another and yourself in each moment making some choice that might have been otherwise. Neither the temporal succession nor the phantom of what ye might have chosen and didn’t is itself Freedom. They are a lens. The picture is a symbol: but it’s truer than any philosophical theorem (or, perhaps, than any mystic’s vision) that claims to go behind it. For every attempt to see the shape of eternity except through the lens of Time destroys your knowledge of Freedom."
the place between sleep and awake
" You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you, Peter Pan. That's where I'll be waiting." Tinkerbell
The place between sleep and awake is terrifying. I just spent what seemed like an eternity trying to get out of it.
I've always flirted around a bit with Peter Pan, and he's in fact been special to me perhaps even in a deeper way- I once wrote my Yale college application essay about him...the whole idea of growing up, letting go, facing life...so I suppose it's fitting that he should come up again as I consider leaving this place I once thought was the future now quickly becoming the past. The brave leap I once took into the future turns out to be only one in a series of endless leaps...it's like i'm on monkey-bars, if you will... and right now, i'm at that in between place where i can only reach to grasp the air and feel the sensation of about to fall - all while hoping that there is, in fact, another bar in front of me.
and now i'm also afraid to sleep. though it seems like an almost comforting, tho masochistic, alternative to facing the awake.
i spent much of this week asleep, sort of too ill and weak to face what's next but being too stubborn or afraid to really believe and admit it, tho i joke about it.
but today as i was taking another life-escaping nap after being tired with feeling insecure and immobilized, i had the dream that i got hit by a gigantic truck while walking to the hall of graduate studies and two people had to pull me back to the sidewalk because i was suddenly paralyzed and couldn't move. one of them got injured in the process but was ultimately okay. then as i was laying there on my bed in my dream, i realized i was laying around in the exact same curled position at the left end of my bed in real life, and neither dream alice nor real alice could move. and boy did i try to get up. except there was this force that kept bringing me back, and some song that kept drawing me to it. and i tried so hard to get the strength to move but i couldn't. there was a voice that didn't speak but kept trying to convince me to go back down and even something almost on top of me that tried to push me down when i stirred a bit. and for a while i kept wanting to go back...at this point i'm terrified. i was on the point of getting up about 3 times but kept being pulled back...i'm very sure by now my eyes were awake and i even managed to give one foot a kick but i was just too tired, and i just want to give in and rest, but as i said, i'm terrified.
all while this was happening, i realized the only thing i could even do was pray with all my might and cling on to the idea of Jesus and then His person when i couldn't quite feel Him there. and that seems strange as i'm trying to explain it, but it really felt like if i didn't keep myself completely focused on God, I would never wake up. I'm attempting to find explanations online about what I think is that common paralyzed state you're in when you're about to wake up, but I'm not sure that really cut it - because i've been there before, just not like this...all I could think about is, I wonder if that's what hell is like -- not being able to reach God because you're so lost and wanting to turn to Him, but just letting go because it's easier/ you can't give up the sleep to really wake up even though you know wake can be so much better than the crappy meaninglessness you're in now.
And the verses that I kept repeating was "I am the way the truth and the life." and that's all I could think about the entire time in my desperation. and then about Jesus being the light of the world.
I don't even know why it was those verse- maybe because I read them today during qt this morning.
all of a sudden I just let go and exerted the strength to leap out of bed. but this, mind you, is after i've done a couple of failed little leapings that ended with me deciding to lay back down, pulled back into the music, the paralyzing, the whole terrifying deal...but this time i just remain up for a while and convince myself I can't go back to where i was (asleep).
so i go to the bathroom.
and i'm still drowsy but am too suspicious of sleep. i look online and see wise people i know who can support me if i asked, and tho i don't talk to them, i am simply comforted by the fact they're there and God has put them in my life to help guide me.
i open jesus among other gods, the book i'm reading, half expecting that God might use it,but also half just wanting to do something that is not work but will keep me awake...
i didn't actually think it would speak to my situation because it's about an indian teenager trying to find meaning within his indian culture.
this is the point i entered the book today:
"life drifted with affections and sports, but without ultimate purpose." i thought about how i sort of felt like that - drifting, even though i flirted with the idea of, maybe even struggled with my purpose and sort of knew intuitively that i must give it up to God.
then ravi attempts suicide and in the hospital, he reads Scripture. what speaks to him is none other than the gospel of John (which I've been reading) and the verse "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me." that caught my attention. His attention, however, was caught by what was next: "Because I live, you shall live also." I wondered what that meant. I thought about what it meant to live and if I would have died if I had decided to lay back down - if i'm still in the danger if i remain in place and never grasp onto the next bar. And he said, "Again, I was not sure of all that it meant. I knew it meant more than just biological life. Piecing together God's love in Christ, the way that was provided because of Christ, and hte promise of life through Him, on that hospital bed I made my commitment to give my life and my pursuits into His hands. The struggle of my relationship, my origin, and my destiny were all addressed in that conversation Jesus had with His disciples two thousand years ago. My commitment stands now as the most wonderful transaction I ever made. I turned my life completely over to Jesus Christ." I realize how little I can even begin to understand, but I do know that what Jesus offers is the only thing that will give me life.
And as Ravi becomes transformed, he talks about his newfound passion for learning, the recognition of the value of study, and the need to understand great thinkers and their thoughts. He says "Our intellect is not intended to be an end in itself, but only a means to the very mind of God." And just before my nap, I was feeling a bit crappy about myself and wishing I was simply really good - the best even- at one thing. Ravi's teenager self had been wondering "What is everything? Is antyhing everything?> Why are we so eager to prove to the world that we are the best at what we do and care not for why or who we are?"
I'm a bit excited to begin my essays (yes, begin) now. Because it's exciting and freeing to know that intelligence and books are ways to understand God, not simply the end in themselves. How I do, what I can understand or perform in a paper does not prove my worth, but what I've gained in the process will help me understand a bit about is life and why and who i am, why we are here.
The place between sleep and awake is terrifying. I just spent what seemed like an eternity trying to get out of it.
I've always flirted around a bit with Peter Pan, and he's in fact been special to me perhaps even in a deeper way- I once wrote my Yale college application essay about him...the whole idea of growing up, letting go, facing life...so I suppose it's fitting that he should come up again as I consider leaving this place I once thought was the future now quickly becoming the past. The brave leap I once took into the future turns out to be only one in a series of endless leaps...it's like i'm on monkey-bars, if you will... and right now, i'm at that in between place where i can only reach to grasp the air and feel the sensation of about to fall - all while hoping that there is, in fact, another bar in front of me.
and now i'm also afraid to sleep. though it seems like an almost comforting, tho masochistic, alternative to facing the awake.
i spent much of this week asleep, sort of too ill and weak to face what's next but being too stubborn or afraid to really believe and admit it, tho i joke about it.
but today as i was taking another life-escaping nap after being tired with feeling insecure and immobilized, i had the dream that i got hit by a gigantic truck while walking to the hall of graduate studies and two people had to pull me back to the sidewalk because i was suddenly paralyzed and couldn't move. one of them got injured in the process but was ultimately okay. then as i was laying there on my bed in my dream, i realized i was laying around in the exact same curled position at the left end of my bed in real life, and neither dream alice nor real alice could move. and boy did i try to get up. except there was this force that kept bringing me back, and some song that kept drawing me to it. and i tried so hard to get the strength to move but i couldn't. there was a voice that didn't speak but kept trying to convince me to go back down and even something almost on top of me that tried to push me down when i stirred a bit. and for a while i kept wanting to go back...at this point i'm terrified. i was on the point of getting up about 3 times but kept being pulled back...i'm very sure by now my eyes were awake and i even managed to give one foot a kick but i was just too tired, and i just want to give in and rest, but as i said, i'm terrified.
all while this was happening, i realized the only thing i could even do was pray with all my might and cling on to the idea of Jesus and then His person when i couldn't quite feel Him there. and that seems strange as i'm trying to explain it, but it really felt like if i didn't keep myself completely focused on God, I would never wake up. I'm attempting to find explanations online about what I think is that common paralyzed state you're in when you're about to wake up, but I'm not sure that really cut it - because i've been there before, just not like this...all I could think about is, I wonder if that's what hell is like -- not being able to reach God because you're so lost and wanting to turn to Him, but just letting go because it's easier/ you can't give up the sleep to really wake up even though you know wake can be so much better than the crappy meaninglessness you're in now.
And the verses that I kept repeating was "I am the way the truth and the life." and that's all I could think about the entire time in my desperation. and then about Jesus being the light of the world.
I don't even know why it was those verse- maybe because I read them today during qt this morning.
all of a sudden I just let go and exerted the strength to leap out of bed. but this, mind you, is after i've done a couple of failed little leapings that ended with me deciding to lay back down, pulled back into the music, the paralyzing, the whole terrifying deal...but this time i just remain up for a while and convince myself I can't go back to where i was (asleep).
so i go to the bathroom.
and i'm still drowsy but am too suspicious of sleep. i look online and see wise people i know who can support me if i asked, and tho i don't talk to them, i am simply comforted by the fact they're there and God has put them in my life to help guide me.
i open jesus among other gods, the book i'm reading, half expecting that God might use it,but also half just wanting to do something that is not work but will keep me awake...
i didn't actually think it would speak to my situation because it's about an indian teenager trying to find meaning within his indian culture.
this is the point i entered the book today:
"life drifted with affections and sports, but without ultimate purpose." i thought about how i sort of felt like that - drifting, even though i flirted with the idea of, maybe even struggled with my purpose and sort of knew intuitively that i must give it up to God.
then ravi attempts suicide and in the hospital, he reads Scripture. what speaks to him is none other than the gospel of John (which I've been reading) and the verse "I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me." that caught my attention. His attention, however, was caught by what was next: "Because I live, you shall live also." I wondered what that meant. I thought about what it meant to live and if I would have died if I had decided to lay back down - if i'm still in the danger if i remain in place and never grasp onto the next bar. And he said, "Again, I was not sure of all that it meant. I knew it meant more than just biological life. Piecing together God's love in Christ, the way that was provided because of Christ, and hte promise of life through Him, on that hospital bed I made my commitment to give my life and my pursuits into His hands. The struggle of my relationship, my origin, and my destiny were all addressed in that conversation Jesus had with His disciples two thousand years ago. My commitment stands now as the most wonderful transaction I ever made. I turned my life completely over to Jesus Christ." I realize how little I can even begin to understand, but I do know that what Jesus offers is the only thing that will give me life.
And as Ravi becomes transformed, he talks about his newfound passion for learning, the recognition of the value of study, and the need to understand great thinkers and their thoughts. He says "Our intellect is not intended to be an end in itself, but only a means to the very mind of God." And just before my nap, I was feeling a bit crappy about myself and wishing I was simply really good - the best even- at one thing. Ravi's teenager self had been wondering "What is everything? Is antyhing everything?> Why are we so eager to prove to the world that we are the best at what we do and care not for why or who we are?"
I'm a bit excited to begin my essays (yes, begin) now. Because it's exciting and freeing to know that intelligence and books are ways to understand God, not simply the end in themselves. How I do, what I can understand or perform in a paper does not prove my worth, but what I've gained in the process will help me understand a bit about is life and why and who i am, why we are here.
Monday, December 1, 2008
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