Do you ever feel small? I mean, have you ever really stopped to think about how small we really are in the over all scheme of things? When you think about it, it can be a little bit daunting really, especially if you consider how big so many other things are.
I got a tweet earlier from one of my favorite authors, Don Miller. Granted I am just one person who happens to be following him on Twitter, and I for sure don't know him (but I do think it would be dang cool if I did), but it still is cool to get updates from him. Anyway he posted something about the entire cosmos that made me start thinking tonight. Check it out, cause it's really pretty cool.
Anyway, he added this verse to it: "What is man that you are mindful of him; the son of man that you care about him?" (Psalm 8:4) That is a question that I first heard nearly 13 years ago. I was listening to the song "God" by Rebecca St. James and that was in the lyrics. It made me stop and really think about it. What are we that God is mindful of us? Then of course when you look at the picture from that link there, you start to really wonder about our place in the cosmos. We think that we are big, and yet the images clearly show us just how small we are as a planet, much less as inhabitants of that planet.
So what is all of this? I am just going on about how little we are? No. See all those years ago as I listened to that song in my car (in cassette form to be sure) I asked God that same question. "God what am I that you are mindful of me, that you care about me?" I was curious, especially when you consider the size of everything. And as I drove a little further, I reached a point that I had to pull over on Interstate 20 between Big Spring and Stanton in order to write down the answer that I heard that day.
I felt like God spoke to me telling me that what made Him mindful of me was the simple fact that I was his creation. He had created me, and in the same way that an artist does not create something and then just turn away from it, that is what it is like with Him. He has invested himself in me and because of that he cares for and is mindful of me. I admit I can understand that so much better now that I have children. I am invested in those children...I could never not care for and be mindful of them. God, the same one that I believe is responsible for all the things in that picture, CARES FOR ME. Wow. I mean really, wow. As I sit here and think about it, it blows my mind.
So even though we are really very small in the over all scheme of things when it comes to created things, we have tremendous value to the one who created us. God is God of the huge things of the (seemingly) eternal cosmos, and yet he is also the God of the small things, like me. Peace and Love y'all.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
So Sweet
Ok, I am laying on the floor of the living room this evening watching the end of LOST and Puck comes walking in. Not a big other than the fact that she is supposed to already be in bed and hopefully asleep at this point. She however is not, but she is so very sweet about it. She walks into the living room carrying a blanket with her and talking (she is always talking). Roni and I tell her it is time for her to go to bed.
Before she goes she drops the blanket near me so I pick it up. Within about 5 minnutes she is back and standing in the doorway from the hall to the living room. We are talking to her, telling her that it is time to go to bed, she has school in the morning and she didn't take a nap, things like that. I roll over and take the blanket that I have wadded up and playfully throw it at her. It hits her in the chest and she looks at me and in her sweet, innocent 3 1/2 year old way says "Hey F@*&%er".
I lay there not sure that I have heard her correctly. Roni jumps on it however. She is sitting in the rocking chair hear Puck and immediately says to her "How about calling him a silly head instead." So Puck says "Yeah...silly head" with all the 3 1/2 year old attitude she can muster it seems and we all laugh. She finally heads to bed. Roni wants to know what I think of her recovery and reaction to hearing such a word come from the mouth of our sweetly innocent little girl. I tell her that she did a good job to not make it a much bigger deal than it really was. She was afraid that if she made too much of it, Puck would continue to say it, much like she does with Shut-up.
Earlier this week. either Sunday or Monday, I was standing on the porch. I was minding my own business really talking to Roni a bit. Puck has a stick and is pretending that it is a snake. She proceeds to poke me in the butt with the stick, just on the right cheek, and tells us that the snake just "bited Daddy's butt." Roni again corrects her and she changes it to booty for the next time, but by now it doesn't really matter because Daddy is laughing so hard that I would not be able to correct her if I tried.
I have no idea where it is that she has picked up these words. Well, ok, she has heard her daddy use the word butt before. In fact I've probably called her a silly butt or some such. However it is strange to hear a 3 1/2 year old use such a word correctly. I am convinced that at times however, kids just figure out words. It's not that they are always taught them, or hear them and repeat what they have heard (if that were the case, my kids would have said some other things by now that they shouldn't). I really believe that sometimes, they just take a sound they have heard and they add a letter to it that they shouldn't and it comes out as something not nice.
Or perhaps she really doesn know what that word is and that is how she feels about me sometimes. Peace and Love y'all.
Before she goes she drops the blanket near me so I pick it up. Within about 5 minnutes she is back and standing in the doorway from the hall to the living room. We are talking to her, telling her that it is time to go to bed, she has school in the morning and she didn't take a nap, things like that. I roll over and take the blanket that I have wadded up and playfully throw it at her. It hits her in the chest and she looks at me and in her sweet, innocent 3 1/2 year old way says "Hey F@*&%er".
I lay there not sure that I have heard her correctly. Roni jumps on it however. She is sitting in the rocking chair hear Puck and immediately says to her "How about calling him a silly head instead." So Puck says "Yeah...silly head" with all the 3 1/2 year old attitude she can muster it seems and we all laugh. She finally heads to bed. Roni wants to know what I think of her recovery and reaction to hearing such a word come from the mouth of our sweetly innocent little girl. I tell her that she did a good job to not make it a much bigger deal than it really was. She was afraid that if she made too much of it, Puck would continue to say it, much like she does with Shut-up.
Earlier this week. either Sunday or Monday, I was standing on the porch. I was minding my own business really talking to Roni a bit. Puck has a stick and is pretending that it is a snake. She proceeds to poke me in the butt with the stick, just on the right cheek, and tells us that the snake just "bited Daddy's butt." Roni again corrects her and she changes it to booty for the next time, but by now it doesn't really matter because Daddy is laughing so hard that I would not be able to correct her if I tried.
I have no idea where it is that she has picked up these words. Well, ok, she has heard her daddy use the word butt before. In fact I've probably called her a silly butt or some such. However it is strange to hear a 3 1/2 year old use such a word correctly. I am convinced that at times however, kids just figure out words. It's not that they are always taught them, or hear them and repeat what they have heard (if that were the case, my kids would have said some other things by now that they shouldn't). I really believe that sometimes, they just take a sound they have heard and they add a letter to it that they shouldn't and it comes out as something not nice.
Or perhaps she really doesn know what that word is and that is how she feels about me sometimes. Peace and Love y'all.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Ask Not...
I have been reading a book lately that I really like. I should actually say that I am re-reading a book that I really like. The book is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I think it is just about my favorite book of the entire seven book series. This is about the fifth time that I have read it. Roni has always wanted to know what it is about this book that I seem to like so much. To her it is one of her least favorites. It's the longest book of the series and to her it just takes a while to really get going.
For me it has the character that I despise more than any other in the entire series...even more than Voldemort and he is THE bad guy. The character is Delores Jane Umbridge. She is from the Ministry of Magic and comes to Hogwarts as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The thing is that she is horrible and not just as a teacher. Overall, she is just bad. On top of this, the Ministry is horrible in this book as well. They have decided that it is time for them to take a more "active" role in what goes on at Hogwarts in this book and do so by implementing policies that take away from the students and other teachers. At one point, in a DADA class, Umbridge tells one student to just do her work and don't ask questions. Much of this is based on the Ministry refusing to admit that Voldemort has returned at the end of book four. In the end, a group of students decide to form a "club" and learn defense on their own. It's a great book in my opinion.
The reason that I bring this all up is because it makes me think of the Church in some ways. Don't take this the wrong way, I don't mean all churches by an stretch of the imagination. But being from the Biblebelt and all, I have had some experience with the kind of churches that come to mind. It's the kind of place that doesn't like it when people as questions about faith. It is the kind of place where you are not encouraged to really figure things out for yourself. It is this way and that's it, just accept it and go on. As I read The Order of the Phoenix the other day, this is what came to mind.
First there is the Ministry of Magic. By all accounts it has lost it's focus. It is no longer doing what it was created to do, which is to help guide the magical world. They have lost their focus but they don't want to hear this. When they are confronted with the truth, they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear and do their best to make others the target. They have become power hungry. Those who have gold to give are able to receive a certain amount of influence. This reminds me of the stories that we hear in history of the Church. Priests reaching a point where they believe themselves to be a bigger deal than the Bride of Christ; rich people and nobles gaining special favor in the church because of who they are and what they are able to give in terms of money. This is the problem in the fifth book.
By the middle of the book, a group of students who believe the truth have decided to split off and form their own defense group. They are going against what the Ministry says that they can do, and yet they are doing and thinking for themselves. They will no longer just take what the Ministry says they have to do. It makes me think of when Martin Luther split from the church, when the Wesley brothers chose to do their own thing. Throughout history there are groups who break away from the company line and follow what they know to be the Truth. They realize that it is ok to ask questions and to think for themselves and to figure out this thing called faith. After all, faith is our first line of defense against the dark arts (sorry I knew that was dripping in cheese when I wrote, but I bowed to the temptation anyway).
Here is the comparison that I come up with for all of this. In this book, the Ministry is like the Church in Ephesus from Revelation chapter 2. The Risen Christ tells the church there that they are doing all the right work, but they have lost their focus, lost their forst love. This is how I would compare the Ministry. They are doing some things that they should be doing, but they have lost their focus which is to protect the people of the magical world. At times we as the Church are the same way. We lose our focus and forget the reason that we do the things we do. I pray that now, in this season where we celebrate the power, love grace, majesty and authority of the Risen Christ that we will remember why it is we do the things we do and for whom we do them. Peace and Love y'all.
For me it has the character that I despise more than any other in the entire series...even more than Voldemort and he is THE bad guy. The character is Delores Jane Umbridge. She is from the Ministry of Magic and comes to Hogwarts as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The thing is that she is horrible and not just as a teacher. Overall, she is just bad. On top of this, the Ministry is horrible in this book as well. They have decided that it is time for them to take a more "active" role in what goes on at Hogwarts in this book and do so by implementing policies that take away from the students and other teachers. At one point, in a DADA class, Umbridge tells one student to just do her work and don't ask questions. Much of this is based on the Ministry refusing to admit that Voldemort has returned at the end of book four. In the end, a group of students decide to form a "club" and learn defense on their own. It's a great book in my opinion.
The reason that I bring this all up is because it makes me think of the Church in some ways. Don't take this the wrong way, I don't mean all churches by an stretch of the imagination. But being from the Biblebelt and all, I have had some experience with the kind of churches that come to mind. It's the kind of place that doesn't like it when people as questions about faith. It is the kind of place where you are not encouraged to really figure things out for yourself. It is this way and that's it, just accept it and go on. As I read The Order of the Phoenix the other day, this is what came to mind.
First there is the Ministry of Magic. By all accounts it has lost it's focus. It is no longer doing what it was created to do, which is to help guide the magical world. They have lost their focus but they don't want to hear this. When they are confronted with the truth, they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear and do their best to make others the target. They have become power hungry. Those who have gold to give are able to receive a certain amount of influence. This reminds me of the stories that we hear in history of the Church. Priests reaching a point where they believe themselves to be a bigger deal than the Bride of Christ; rich people and nobles gaining special favor in the church because of who they are and what they are able to give in terms of money. This is the problem in the fifth book.
By the middle of the book, a group of students who believe the truth have decided to split off and form their own defense group. They are going against what the Ministry says that they can do, and yet they are doing and thinking for themselves. They will no longer just take what the Ministry says they have to do. It makes me think of when Martin Luther split from the church, when the Wesley brothers chose to do their own thing. Throughout history there are groups who break away from the company line and follow what they know to be the Truth. They realize that it is ok to ask questions and to think for themselves and to figure out this thing called faith. After all, faith is our first line of defense against the dark arts (sorry I knew that was dripping in cheese when I wrote, but I bowed to the temptation anyway).
Here is the comparison that I come up with for all of this. In this book, the Ministry is like the Church in Ephesus from Revelation chapter 2. The Risen Christ tells the church there that they are doing all the right work, but they have lost their focus, lost their forst love. This is how I would compare the Ministry. They are doing some things that they should be doing, but they have lost their focus which is to protect the people of the magical world. At times we as the Church are the same way. We lose our focus and forget the reason that we do the things we do. I pray that now, in this season where we celebrate the power, love grace, majesty and authority of the Risen Christ that we will remember why it is we do the things we do and for whom we do them. Peace and Love y'all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)