Archive - September, 2008
Wake Me Up
This photo says so much to me.
It says that anything can happen… and that business leaders, world leaders and all the control we feel we have over our lives really are a bit of an illusion.I don’t mean to sound pessimistic or ‘domesday-ish’… It’s just got me thinking.
It seems like we are in very strange times. Nashville ran out of gas last week… it was bizarre to read “Twitters” where friends in TN were having to stay home because there was no gas…lining up for hours fighting over the remaining gallons of fuel.. Then to hear contant stories of earthquakes, fires, disasters, and then the news of the stock market. It is a reminder that serious things are taking place in the Earth at the moment, and whether I want to or not, I’m reminded of Jesus’ words that such things will happen as we begin to journey toward ‘the end’ of things… So it is jointly an exciting and very sobering time to be awake, aliving and breathing.
I’m bad at keeping up with news…local news or global news… I’m just bad at keeping up. I often exist in my own little bubble, typing away on my laptop, talking on my cell phone, ticking off my bible study plan… and often unaware of the issues and developments taking place in the globe.
God on the other hand, is anything BUT unaware. The more I hang out with Him, get to know Him, I realize that He is the most aware Being in existence. Some theologians say that attributing emotion to God is “anthropomorphic” (reducing God to a human level). I strongly disagree – God created emotions. We are a tiny reflection of His image. Therefore, He is far more emotive, more pained, more joyous, more senstive than any of us and all of us combined.
His awareness, His pain over the tragedies. His frustration over the injustices. These call me to HAVE to pay attention. He is my dearest Friend, my Husband, my Savior. I must know what is on His heart. I must share it and stand in it with Him.
So God, open my eyes and ears to see the world as you see. Wake me up from my comfortable sleep, my numerous conferences and meetings, my own dreams and agendas. Open my eyes to see as You see. Jump start my heart to feel what you feel.
Lead me out of my comfort zone… Outside the doors of comfortable church…and into the dangerous place where you stand…where there are question marks and heartaches, and the full punch of the weight of the pain of the world. I want to come out from behind my safe walls…..and share Your heart for this universe.
Jeremiah shared it. Hosea felt it. Ezekiel lived and breathed it. Amos carried it. Give me the gift of feeling your pain, your anger and your joy. I want it all – I want to know You and your heart. Ruin me for living a numb life in a comfortable bubble. Break my heart with the things that break yours. Open my blind eyes. Wake me up. Start today.
Amen
T. S. Eliot – a poet who rocks!
Hey friends,
I have a new author to tell you about….You know I love reading, so I thought I’d share a new discovery!
“Thomas Stearns Eliot” lived from 26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965. He was a poet, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Eliot did the opposite of me – he was born in the United States, and moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at age 25). He said: “[My poetry] wouldn’t be what it is if I’d been born in England, and it wouldn’t be what it is if I’d stayed in America. It’s a combination of things. But in its sources, in its emotional springs, it comes from America.”
I like that he lived in both the countries that I’ve lived in, and that he found inspiration in both, as I have done. I think he and I would have had a lot to chat about over a cup of Earl Grey tea!
Anyways… All credit for me discovering this new writer goes to Daley Hake, who shared some thoughts about Eliot’s poetry when he came to visit a few days ago. If you haven’t read Daley’s blog or seen his photography, click on his photo below and it will take you to his website…
Here are a few of the T.S.Eliot quotes I’ve found and am loving:
“All dash to and fro in motor cars,
Familiar with roads and settled nowhere” (Hmmm..I know that feeling!)
“O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word”
“Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
Pretty deep stuff!!
So I encourage you to check out his works… I’m just scraping the surface as I’ve only read a couple of quotes on Wikipedia! But I’m about to dive into one of his poems called “The Rock” and really think about how his writings apply to the church of today. Here’s my favorite Eliot quote so far:
“The Church must be forever building,
For it is forever decaying within and attacked from without”
When I hear him say that the church must “be forever building” I think he means that we can never sit down and get into a rut as the Body of Christ. We must keep asking “are we truly living out the Gospel? And do we as ‘the Church’ look anything like Jesus intended and dreamed we would?”
How can we as a generation impact and build the Church increasingly into something that reflects Jesus and His heart? What would that look like?
How do we keep the Gospel true and pure, and yet make our expression and presentation of ‘church’ accessible and relevant to the culture of today?
Is our expression of church today something that pleases God’s heart, and something that embodies the Gospel? Or have we missed the boat?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Love,
Vicky