Sunny Weather

Since I wrote about the weather yesterday, I thought I'd follow up with another poem about the opposite kind of weather today.... This one is definitely free form poetry, though--but then, so is half of the Old Testament!

Sunshine Through the Slats

Bright, bright it is!
The bold eye of light in the sky
Peeks in on me.
Sunlight streams through the slats--
No venetian blind can shut it out--
Cool and blue,
Clean and cool.
The face of light,
Up in the blue and white,
Is laughing at me;
Because I peek back through the slats.
So I laugh, too.
The sun and me,
We have a game--
He hides from me,
I hide from him.

Sometimes the blinds come between,
Sometimes the cloudy shrouds.
But other times we are merry friends
And dispense with games.
Ah! The sun and I!
We play day by day,
Laughing at one another.

His bright beams visit me here
In my little chair;
Or soar above me in ethereal realms
Where I can never go.
Ah! But the sun and I!
We are friends!

He is high and I am low;
But I have reason and he does not.
Yet our merry game continues on,
For both he and I shall be redeemed.
Some say the sun shall cease--
But I do not know...
Perhaps the sun and I
May laugh at one another
For eternity--
We shall see.



That, then, is the weather report for today!

A Rainy Day Poem

Here's a poem inspired by the weather today...

Walking in the rain,

Wandering under the clouds,

Moving away from the pain,

Meandering through the shrouds.

I am surrounded in softness,

I am chilled with the breeze,

I am filled with my weakness,

I am searching for ease.

Where, where can I find it?

Why, why won't it come?

Peace flees from me--I flee from it.

Prayer flies from me--it I fail to welcome.

I am so stubborn--why?

I am so cold--for what?

It makes me want to cry;

Inside my heart it is shut.

Break through, O God!

Bust down the door!

The tears of the sky enter in squads--

I know You can do more!

You can transform my heart,

You can bring me to pray,

You can pull me apart,

You can cause me to say:

"O Lord, You are my King.

O Lord, You are my Savior.

Father, to me You only can bring

Freedom from the pain of this war.

"For in my heart there is war--

For in my soul there is bitterness.

This should be in me no more,

This should not be my distress!

"I am Yours--forgive my distrust!

I am Yours--pardon my self-love!

No more shall my face seek the dust!

No more shall I see the darkness thereof!

"But I shall sing to You,

But I shall rejoice before Your mercy.

For me You have brought anew,

You have drawn me Your grace to see."

****

And so You have done.

And so it is accomplished.

In the rain, not under the sun;

In the rain You have me blessed.



And no, I don't feel this blue today--but this suits the weather...

What do You Find Invigorating?

It is interesting how invigorating a little bit of sunshine on a cool morning can be, especially after days of overcast weather.

It is quite interesting how invigorating just taking the two and a half minutes to straighten out one's desk can be, especially on a Monday morning.

It is also surprisingly interesting how invigorating listening to Herman Cain can be, especially after learning that he won the Florida straw poll.

What do you find invigorating?

Shooting?

Dancing?

Or something else entirely?

It is an interesting question, isn't it?

Silent Sounds

Sometimes silence is good. It is valuable to fill the air around one's self with edifying talk or music (or even just the sounds of your work and the wind), because through these things we learn, we communicate, we edify one another, we accomplish what we have before us to do. Of course, there are those times when those sounds and words and tones of voice we would rather not hear bombast us...but we also learn from those, it is hoped.... Yet, sometimes it is best when silence is the surrounding sound for a little while. As good as speech is, sometimes silence is needed that we might think and order our thoughts, or just rest from an abundance of speech, work, or even joy. Rest and silence, just as work and speech, are both good things in their proper times.

Rest and silence can be misused and abused, like everything else, but they certainly have their place in our day to day lives. Without rest, we would be constantly haggard and snappy...without silence, our thoughts would be always muddled.... Just as too much rest makes us weary, so too much silence spins our thoughts into crazy loops. Thinking is dangerous....

Just think of it--because people think, we have had all the wars in history. Because people think, we have had all the interpersonal arguments that have ever taken place. Because people think is the reason for the greater number of the difficulties we face in life....

But, on the other hand, because people think, we have the edifying (or at least informative) literary heritage of all history. Because people think, relationships are possible. Because people think, we can know and learn and create things. God made us to think--but it can be misused....

In order to use thought correctly, we must sometimes sit down in silence and think...but we must not think too hard or too long, lest we begin fretting and striving after God's place. In order to use this gift of thought to His glory, we must use it, but we must also let it rest while we go about doing those things that need to be done. The Christian life is like that--moderation in all (lawful) things is that narrow line between pietistic asceticism and the near-hedonism that characterizes many Christians.

Well, then, God gave us the Lord's Day especially for us to rest and to think, though these truly ought to figure in our daily life as well. But we should not strive to fill up each of our days with thought and silence, lest we forget the noise of our work...and the noise of joy.... What a desolate creature is the man who forgets the sound of his work and of his joy because the noisy silence of thought has become his god!

...for yes, a time of silence and thought often seems as if it was as noisy as a symphony after the fact...and a day of constant activity can seem as mentally unruffled as a still summer day....

Just a Picture Today...

God is Not a Magician

Just a wandering rabbit trail today...

Jeremiah 21 presents an example of an interesting thought--the people of God at the time just prior to the Exile viewed God as a great magician rather than as the great I AM who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. Just listen to what these agents of the house of David, one of them a priest, said to the prophet: "Please inquire of the Lord on our behalf...perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful acts, so that the enemy will withdraw from us." They did not approach God with the humility of redeemed men, but with the humility of courtly servants--and there is a difference.

The reason why it seems to me that their attitude in approaching Jeremiah and the God he represented was that of courtiers coming to a prominent magician was the response that God quickly sent to them: "I myself will war against you." Nowhere in Scripture is there a hint that God takes kindly to humble patronization. But he did not leave his response unexplained; he quickly went on to tell this priest and this royal representative that, if they would administer justice, his wrath, burning like fire against Judah, would be extinguished. Yet, as is, " 'I am against you...I will punish you according the results of your deeds,' declares the Lord."

God is not a magician. Nowhere has he presented himself as such to us and nowhere are we authorized to come to God as to a great wonder worker who will accept our flatteries and do what we want if we say the right words. God is a great wonder worker, indeed, but he does not do his deeds to be seen of men or for their sakes. Everything he does is for his own sake, for the glory of his own name. It behooves us to remember that the God who has had compassion on us is a jealous God and that we should never come to him with the hypocritical spirit of humble courtiers. God is become our Father, it is true; but let us be careful lest we begin to see him as a divine magician rather than as the ever-existant I AM.

Change

For a number of years, my sisters and I have been talking about starting a monthly family newsletter sort of thing. But now we have finally gotten our in-house paper going--two months down and next month's in the works...and I am more proud of the fact than I really ought to be. We "published" our first issue last fall, but didn't manage to keep up with it over the winter months. As editor, I get to write the article heading up each month's issue as well as do the formatting, both of which I have found enjoyable. This month, I wrote about change. Today I decided I would post an edited version here for your perusal....

After Change, Comes Change

Fall is here—September has swept in with a cool blast to remind us that the year of our Lord two thousand eleven is coming into its final quarter. 

As our difficult, unusual summer comes to a close, it brings with it a return to normalcy as we know it and, along with this, the almost imperceptible revisions of “normal” that always follow periods of abnormality. With the stretching of our horizons and the refining of our purposes comes this interesting phenomenon that follows unusual times in our lives. 

September is an annual season of change—sometimes the changes it brings are more drastic than others. Sometimes September is a month that slips by almost unnoticed as the seasons and emphases in our lives slip from one set of priorities into another; while at other times September is a marked period of shifting…but such is life. Though sometimes seasons of change, on the surface, seem to belong more to the preceding or the following season, they are yet distinct times—if distinct for no other reason than that they are indistinct.

Everything in life changes—ages, seasons, ideas, plans, hopes, fears, health, dreams, sorrows, etc. Change is a part of life on this earth—even if no sin had entered the universe, there yet would have been change as Adam and Eve matured and were fruitful and multiplied as they set about taking dominion over the earth. Change is not an abnormal thing—though sometimes it is treated and feared as such.

Why is change part of the creation order when the Creator is an unchanging being? Our indivisible God is yet a God of diversity. Our God is the Triune God—diverse and yet one; one and yet a plurality. Though He is unified and unchanging, He has created a world of diversity and change. The creation God has made is not static—it is constantly growing, shifting, dying—this is the nature of anything within the confines of time.

Though the whole creation is in a state of fluctuation essentially, there is that which binds it all together as one unified world—there is one thing and one thing only that does not change—God Himself. God transcends the realm of time, bringing unfailing constancy to us in this ever-shifting world though His Word and His Christ. He is the steadfast Rock throughout the fluid course of history.

Apart from Christ, changes from the state of normalcy often bring fear because they are very often accompanied by the fact that things are out of our control or are not working out how we had planned. For this reason, therefore, humility is required to face such times in the strength that comes from above. When times of change descend upon us, we would do well to remember the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. Correct me, O Lord, but with justice; not with your anger, or you will bring me to nothing” (Jeremiah 10:23, 24).

When important things in our lives or in the lives of those close to us change, we must respond one way or another. The question is not whether we will respond or even so much how we will respond. More than these, the true question is this: “In what ways will we ourselves change in order to keep walking in faith in our God?” Change calls forth change. When God alters our plans and redirects our steps, our attitudes and plans must also be altered and our focus must be redirected—otherwise we are found murmuring against our God.

We are creatures and not God—we cannot and do not remain static. When the situations around us are altered, we adapt in order to respond to those changes. This means that we change when our circumstances change—though it might be imperceptible for a while, at least to ourselves. There are many practical ways that we adapt ourselves to new or different things, thoughts, relationships, responsibilities, seasons, or situations. It is in these responses where we either sin or do righteousness.

It would take more paper than we have in the house to describe all the different responses to change that people can have—therefore, let the briefest and most fundamental thing here suffice. It is by knowing and trusting the unfailing Word of the unchanging God that we discover what should properly be our response to whatever particular things are affecting us. Submission to name of the God who sends the change and to His Word for understanding how we should change to adapt to it is the key to contentment in the shifting sands of time.

After change, comes change. May it be for us as it was for our forefathers: Post Tenebras Lux!

More Tactical Thoughts

The other day when I wrote about "Tactical" as a clothing style affected by upper-middle class gun-toters, there were a couple of things I forgot to mention. First, I could have clarified the "specialization" of our culture a bit better and, secondly, what one wears doesn't make any difference on the range to anyone who has grown up with gunpowder in their veins. The first sometimes borders on snobbery--I hope the second is not likewise, though in the opposite direction....

Well, then, whatever the Yuppies get into, that they put their peculiar twist of "specialization" on...and that includes the gun culture. Yuppies have changed the face of lots of things, from camping to cookbooks, with their emphasis on acquiring all the "right" stuff in order to make their hobbies or businesses "worthwhile". It's like they feel they have to prove their right to do whatever it is by investing in obtaining everything they might possibly need for that particular occupation. And if it's not done exactly according to the formulas laid down by the "experts", it isn't right...so it is no great stretch to attribute the rise of tactical fashion to them as well. That particular look associated with the early twentieth-century expensive big game hunters has, with modifications, spread down to the gun culture of the law-respecting citizen via the Yuppie attitude of having to have all the right accoutrements in order to do anything well...put that together with the draw of the martial spirit frequently associated with weaponry--and here we find Tactical ensconced as the unofficial uniform at ranges across this country.

But for one who has not grown up under the influence of Yuppies, such a mindset is actually laughable. Who is going to tell me that, in order to be respected on the range, I need to wear the right brand name, some "camo" color, and be covered with pockets and ingenious hidden pleats? Maybe I want to wear my plain bright pink skirt and a very un-official looking hat that yet manages to do a fine job of keeping the sun out of my eyes while I get some target practice. Who cares? What matters on the range, and in most situations civilians encounter, is not brand name accoutrements, concealability, or ease of access, but skill. Gunpowder in the veins doesn't hurt anything either--but, just like God has no grandchildren, so it is the individual's skill and knowledge that are the measure of respect due him--not his heritage or his appearance.

*****

Just as a side note to this whole discussion, I don't think anyone could call me a redneck any more than anyone could call me a Yuppie. The redneck culture and its autonomy (as opposed to the herd-like mentality of the Yuppies) rubs me the wrong way sometimes, too...and there are certainly times when dressing appropriately for the occasion is quite important--but why should I lose respect on the range just because I'm not wearing Tactical and don't feel that I need to????

Tactical Thoughts

The very first Latin sentance I ever learned was "the clothes make the man." At the time that seemed kind of silly to me; but since then I have seen that it is very much true. People do dress in a manner that reflects who they are. And who they are is determined by their subculture. There are subtle differences in attire that mark individuals out as part of a certain group of people--and, sometimes, if the observer isn't familiar with the subgroups within a certain type of carriage and dress, you won't recognize the subtle differences....

Now, there is a certain group of people I am not a part of, yet I have had occasion to observe somewhat. Anytime I see anyone with this carriage and dress, I know immediately that here is a gun-toting fellow who most definitely does not want to be viewed as a redneck. By affecting "tactical" styles, this probably upper-middle class man is unmistakably marking himself out as a gun-owner (maybe a carrier, too), but only upon the condition that he is not a redneck (who, as I have heard it said, has a certain "Nimrod outdoorsy" air about him). The wearer of Tactical (no matter if it is khaki, green, brown, or black) is telling the world that he belongs to the priviledged class of Amerian citizens who take advantage of their second amendment rights for self-defense and sportsmanship, as well as for hunting. I had noticed the "Tactical" look before (since it is similar to the upper-middle class EPA types, except more complicated), but it wasn't until I ran across an article on the subject in the latest Guns and Ammo magazine that I really put two and two together and came up with four--that is, I realized why Tactical sometimes rubs me the wrong way. It's not because it is sloppy or silly looking--for it is often actually pretty sharp-looking--it's not because it is intimidating--it's because I'm a military brat.

Let me explain, please, before anyone starts wondering what that has to do with the price of tea in China. The Tactical look often (not always) says that the wearer is a wannabe. At least, that's how it appears to those who have spent any time in the "real world" where men and women wear tactical because it's just a part of their job. And the tactical that these people wear is not nearly as fancy or complicated as the civilian fashions. And they don't need to wear Tactical in order to be tactical. They are tactical, no matter what they wear. That's why it sometimes seems, to me, anyways, that civys wearing Tactical are play-acting at being psudeo-military--and that can be a little annoying. Of course, it depends on the carriage of the individual, as well...the Tactical wearers that are not wannabes, but real grown-ups, are what makes the style attractive despite the the way that some people flaunt it....

But I really can't be too hard on them. I know it is because of the "specialization" mindset of our culture that every subgroup has its own "tribal plumage" (to quote again). The subculture of the non-redneck gun owners has recently developed its own style--unnecessarily so, though it does make them readily identifiable....

I probably could ramble on about Tactical and the tangled paths that cross due to guns some more, but it probably isn't worth my time today....

Am I a Slave?

"I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification."

Romans 6:19

This passage stood out to me when I read it today because it is not often on my mind that I am a slave. A daughter of God--yes. A servant, one whose duty is obedience to God--yes. But a slave--not very often. Slaves are owned persons--which is actually how I think of any believer's relationship to God--but the term "slave" does not often enter my vocabulary. Perhaps I am too autonomous...sometimes I wonder...but then I remember how every human being is naturally autonomous and set against the law of God and I know I am no different...but autonomy is a subject for another time.

Anyways, Paul's literary parallelism drew my attention. First, he mentions that he is using a human analogy before setting forth two opposing situations. I also found it interesting how Paul, by his repeated use of "present yourselves", emphasized that everyone is a voluntary slave of one of these two mindsets.

The first thought Paul sets forth is that of voluntarily becoming a slave of impurity and lawlessness. Now, lawlessness is that autonomy I mentioned earlier--how each one seeks to make his own law and live as is right in his own eyes because he has rejected the holy law of God. And, as Paul makes very clear, by once presenting one's self to serve lawlessness and walk in the paths of impurity, one finds himself caught up in even greater lawlessness, impurity, and iniquity of heart.

Even though we are naturally all voluntary slaves of sin, hating the good God who made us, to those who are "dead to sin [and] alive to God in Christ Jesus" (verse 11), there is another option. Paul lays this out in the second half of his parallelism: turn your hearts to God to serve him as his faithful slave and the results will not be that helpless bondage to lawlessness, but the freedom that is found in sanctification. Somewhere else (I can't remember where at the moment) Paul tells another church that, in pretending to hold forth freedom apart from becoming God's slave, false teachers are themselves actually enslaved to sin and can help no one out of such a condition.

It is too much right now to attempt to describe the vast differences that I see between slavery to lawlessness and slavery to righteousness--so I will simply draw the application that came to mind this morning: we are to actively (voluntarily) set our minds and hearts to obey God. If we do not do so, or slack off in so doing, so much will our sanctification be diminished. And, as I reminded myself, sanctification is that process by which the Holy Spirit works in us, renewing our hearts, minds, and wills so that we are remade more and more into the image of our Savior and come to partake less and less of the lawlessness in which we naturally walk. The active work on our part of submitting to God is part of our sanctification. And what is the eventual fruit of this? Verse 22 of Romans 6 says it better than I can:

"...having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life."

My First Comments...

I was planning on beginning this blog in January of this year. Clearly, I did not achieve that goal; so here it is, September 12th, 2011, when I am writing my first posting.... Evidently, it was not in God's providence that I begin this when I had planned. He does that often enough--I plan to do something, but He has planned something else. So I do that something else until the time is right to do the thing I had planned first. It frequently falls out that I do get to accomplish what I set out to do, though it often is delayed....

Anyways, to briefly explain why I chose the name I did for this place where I plan to set forth my wandering thoughts to the world, the fires of real Reformation is what is most needed in this day and age. Repentant revivals and spiritual renewals are truly like fires--they always begin with sparks. When the sparks are flying thick enough in conditions that are ready, fire will break out. By all accounts, the conditions are ripe for Reformation--so I count myself as one of those sparks among the others that may, if God so chooses, if He has so planned, use in bringing in this great restoration of the Western church to usefulness.