Month: January 2009

I don’t often put my poetry on here for various reasons, but some of my dear ones are going through a tough time, and this one expresses my heart:

Psalm 34:18 “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

There are days when God takes this child

Through a storm so strong and wild

That the pain blinds me

And the disappointment binds me

With cords of numbness

And confusing lostness.

I weep through the rolling thunder,

As my storm-battered heart wonders

How is this trial ever going to end –

Will my upset world make sense again?

Yesterday I saw a clear blue sky

With whispers of clouds that floated by.

Today it turned dark shades of gray

And I’m afraid – I’ve lost the way.

 

Then a tender voice I hear,

Whisper gently in my ear,

“Do not fear My little one,

I know that you can’t see the sun,

All you feel is waves and wind,

But trust Me, child, I know the end.

I have brought you to this place,

You’re surrounded by My grace.

You’ve no one to trust but Me alone,

So rest, My child, I’ll take you home.”

I look around, and there I see

The oceans of His love for me

They spread about me, vast, deep, and wide

I could not measure them if I tried.

So in this dark and dreary day

I’ll trust in Him, He’ll lead the way.

He alone is truly good

And these things that are not understood

Pale as I grasp this verse anew

And know deep down that it is true,

“Whoever trusts in Him

Will never be disappointed.”

– from Made for Eternity: Reflections on Time and Timelessness © 2006

 

My sister sent me this dire message last night:

help me understand my college assignments! From tonight’s reading: “It follows from this that to understand a text must be to understand both the intention to be understood, and the intention that this intention should be understood, which the text itself as an intended act of communication must at least have embodied.” huh?

To which I replied:

It follows that my implicit reasoning for expressly expressing my thoughts to you is in order that you may infer all inferences that you wish to infer, regardless of my intention (or lack of direct intention {though presumably, at the very least, an inkling of intention would be noted in the reasoning with which I embarked upon this current communique}) and my desire that the meaning of my expressly expressed thoughts would in no way be obfuscated by the sudden and unintentional (though, it may be possible that in some ways it was intentional) logorrhea that has poured incessantly (although, cessation may be soon be in the offing) from the fertile lexicon of my cerebrum.

Hope this helps.

The scary thing is, writing intelligent sounding drivel ain’t all that hard . . .

Nearly completely lost in the adoring (worshipful?) coverage of the pre-inaguaration events is the fact that today is Mr. Bush’s last day in office. This makes sense for a few obvious reasons – we are a forward-looking country, the media loves (loves, loves) Barack Obama, and the media hates (hates, hates) George Bush.

So I want to take this opportunity to thank my President on his final day. I’m not one of those who agreed with everything he did. I cringed a few times. But, Mr. Bush, thank you.

Thank you for taking on the nearly impossible job of leading our nation. Thanks for being tough on terrorists. Thank you for protecting the youngest among us. Thanks for not always doing the popular thing, but what you thought was the best thing. Thank you for supporting Israel. 

Tomorrow Mr. Obama will become my President. My prayer is that in four years, or eight years, I will have much to thank him for as well.

And though we’ve never deserved it, may God continue to bless this land that I love.

Ah, this is the time of year when it’s good to be a Philadelphia sports fan, but not good to live any further north than, well, Texas. I was walking to work this morning when the air was still and the ambient temperature (i.e. not including wind chill) was six degrees. And I found myself thinking, this isn’t all that bad. That is until you add another 6-8 inches of snow by Wednesday, the mercury loses sight of zero (on the wrong side) for a while, and the wind kicks that “real feel” temp down to -40. 

I’m just sick of global warming. Stupid greenhouse gasses. We need to cool off already!

This evening I went over to the Marquette University library and checked out Good Morning, Little Fox. 

And thought about how doing so perfectly shows the dramatic shifts in my life over the last year – from grad school to elementary school, from spending most of my days with adults to spending most of  my days with little ones,  from heavy reading on speech sound development and language disorders to watercolor pictures and simple rhymes.

It’s been a good change.

It’s gone . . . at least for now. After the Phils took the World Series in October, I no longer feel like we can never ever win anything. 

So, despite the extremely low prospects that the Eagles will break through and win the Super Bowl in a month, it doesn’t feel like such a crazy idea anymore. After all, lightning struck once, so it can strike twice . . . .

Right?

My failures and the hardness of life in a disappointing and sin-sick world  – these are the things that often capture my mind when I have too-long breaks. Because they are difficult to dwell on, I attempt to drown them out with many “doings” that are not necessarily productive or profitable. But sometimes the music is off, the DVDs are on the shelf, the books are closed, and the only sound I hear is the humming of the refrigerator.

And I think. 

In those moments, I have a choice – to contemplate those dark details of sin and self . . . or to contemplate God. The former leads to despair and disillusionment. But the latter leads to a restful ease, a quieted heart, for in focusing on God (and particularly on my Savior, Jesus Christ), I focus on the best, most glorious, righteous, and true Being.

The things of earth grow dim in that Light.

to start a new year on:

Philippians 3:12-14

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

Happy ’09, friends – Maranatha!