I am a teardrop, eighteen years ancient. Falling into an ocean whose vastness makes me realize how childlike I really am.

Life is fragile. So, so fragile. Life is precious. Life is full to the brim. Life is empty, like a hollowed-out tree. Life is a bubbly glass of champagne, until it goes flat the next morning. Life is fragile. Life is hardy, resilient. Life is a gift. There is no antonym for this one. Life is a precious, fragile, resilient, gift.

"A certain psychological approach which seems to have gained tremendous popularity among Christians reminds me of the jungle rivers that I used occasionally to travel by canoe. They meandered. It was possible to get where you wanted to go by following the tortuous curves and loops, some of them doubling back almost on themselves. It was also possible to get there on foot by cutting straight through a curve, covering in ten minutes what it would take hours to cover by canoe. 

To search out and sort out and "hang out" all the whys and wherefores of what we call our problems (a few of which just might be plain sins) may be one route to the healing of certain kinds of human difficulties, but I suggest that it may be the longest way home. I say this, I know, at the risk of being labeled simplistic, reductionist, obscurantist.

Psychology describes. The Bible prescribes..... "Help one another to carry these heavy loads, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). "Let your bearing toward one another arise out of your life in Christ Jesus....He made Himself nothing...humbled Himself...accepted death" (Philippians 2:5,7) The woman who had hurt me had plenty of heavy burdens to bear. I knew that very well. How could I help her to bear them? Well, for one thing, by "being offended without taking offense," that is, by following my Master. 

What a relief! I no longer had to plot and plan and cogitate about how to handle my feelings or how to confront my friend or just what to say. My bearing toward her would arise out of my life in Christ Jesus.I couldn't do it myself. He could, and He would enable me. To cut the straight path a good deal of the jungle of my selfishness had to be slashed through. But it was a much shorter way home. " 

-Elisabeth Elliot, Trusting God in a Twisted World

[the God dare]

"Always seek to love others with the relentless, unconditional, beautiful, powerful, amazing love that God loves you with. At first you'll fall flat on your face and find that your heart is full of hatred and can only cough out an occasional, weak, sickly, reluctant love. But know that this is a necessary first step: until you realize just how deplorable your love is, you'll never get far in the journey towards God's type of love. So be persistent. When you fall on your face, ask your Father for forgiveness and new strength... and get. On. Your. Feet."

This was written by my friend, Samuel Hayashida, and it is well worth reading all the way through. I don't always agree with everything he writes.. in fact, most of the time I don't agree with everything. But I really appreciate the way that he thinks, deeply and out of the box. Here's his facebook page. Hop over there and like it.

"Life is a dare.

That sacred moment when God first breathed life into Adam's lungs, He breathed an eternal dare onto humanity. Every time a newborn breathes his first breath in this world, he enters into that dare. Every time you take a new breath, whether asleep or awake, working or resting, ten years old or ninety years old... you're breathing in God's dare, renewing it. See, life isn't just a collection of events; it's not a list of "have-to"s or "should"s. Life is God's gift, God's way of daring us to make some beauty. And this isn't figurative speech. This isn't something I just made up for the sake of a cool-sounding note. This isn't "metaphorical."  

Resulting from all the noise, busyness, and agitation in our lives as 21st century citizens, we've lost touch with this quiet call hidden inside every one of us. We're distracted; we no longer notice it. But underneath all the mindless commotion, every breath of every man renews God's whispered dare. It's just as present now as it was when it was first breathed into us. It's when we learn how to integrate our lives with silence and stillness, it's then that we begin to come alive once more to this whisper. So I guess the point of this note is to ask you to listen. Quiet down. Still your thoughts, silence your questions... if possible, get away from other people, sounds, and the craziness of life... and listen:

I dare you to love.

I dare you to love extravagantly. I dare you to stop confining love within words and definitions and to see how far you can take it in practice. To seek a standard with no limits. To find a way around anything that threatens to stop the onward movement of your love, anything that threatens to slow it down. To reach further than they say is possible. To love harder than they say is necessary. To find love for those who hate, for those who hurt, for those who betray.

I dare you to love when the music stops. When there's nothing romantic or admirable or thrilling about it. When there's nobody watching. I dare you to do that. When there's no glory, no praise, no reason, no soul deserving of it. When you no longer want to, when everything in you says you can't. When there's no one to cheer you on, no one to hear about it, no one to know about it. When even your good friends think it's unnecessary, silly, or exaggerated. When you're the only one left. I dare you to keep loving where others stop. To keep loving where others draw the line. To keep loving where your friends start backing out, getting angry, hating. I dare you to love when you don't have to.

I dare you to love people with your mouth. To stop discussing people, analyzing them. To stop picking them apart and talking about what you don't like about them, what annoys you about them, what bothers you. To stop criticizing. To stop joking about people. To stop laughing at them. I dare you to treat every person you meet like he was made in the image of God.

I dare you to stop joking about people being fat. Socially awkward. Unattractive. Know that your words sink deeper and bite harder than you will ever know. Even when the people you joke about go unnamed. Even when your words never reach the ears of those they were aimed at. Even when you weren't entirely serious. So I dare you to love those people with your mouths. To stop labeling them. To stop treating them like a joke, to stop discussing them, to stop locking them with your words in the icy cell of insecurity and self-hatred. I dare you to stand up for society's rejects. I dare you to provide them with a place where they finally fit in, belong, and are utterly accepted and loved for who they are.

I dare you to treat your disliking of a person as if it were cold hatred. I dare you to treat your annoyance with someone as if you were committing an unforgivable crime. To see and dwell only upon the good in a person, to associate with people's flaws. To abandon thinking, talking, and dealing with people's flaws to God alone. To relentlessly seek to forgive, even when the wounds are deep, even when it takes years to do it.

I dare you to seek peace with all men with all your might. To strain never to hold something against anyone. To never avoid a person but always to remain ready and open to talking with them. To never back down, never be "done with" a person, but to always be willing to forgive a repentant heart, even when the repentance is half-hearted or fake. I dare you to apologize. To own up to your mistakes. To accept the consequences. I dare you to let people hate you, to let people laugh at you, to let people misunderstand you. To let people hold your sins against you, to let them dwell on and exaggerate your screw-ups and flaws, to let them talk about you behind your back. I dare you love those people. To try with all your might to treat them kindly. To not seek revenge by bringing their sins to the attention of your friends. I dare you to keep their sins a secret. To hide them from your friends' gaze. To love them that much. To pray compassionately for them, to see that the reason they hate is because they've been hated, to humbly ask God that He would forgive them their sins against you and forgive you your sins against them.

I dare you to love people with all. Your. Mind. To start closing your mind to malicious, hurtful, or judgmental thoughts. To shun thoughts about how silly someone looks, how stupid someone is being, how arrogant someone is acting. I dare you to not even think about a person's flaws. I dare you to start regulating what goes into your mind. I dare you to start treating others how you yourself wish others would treat you. To stop picking people apart in your head, to stop forming secret opinions about others, to stop assuming that you're on the good side and your enemy is on the bad side. Know that God loves both of you, knows the flaws in both of you, and sees the good in both of you, and He's no more "for you" than He is "for" your enemy. God doesn't take sides, neither should you. I dare you to start stepping into your Father's perspective.

I dare you to love strangers. To love the people you'll never see again in your life. To treat even these as the beloved of God. I dare you to hold your biting tongue when you start to poke fun at a ridiculous-looking jogger, when you come across an angry driver, when the cashier at the checkout is having a bad day. I dare you to start treating all men with compassion.

Friend. I dare you to love. Love as hard as you can, and when you're at the end of your rope, step out onto God's. Make your love shine brighter than the sun. Love without limit. Love more than is necessary. Never stop. Never be satisfied with the state of your love; always seek to increase it. Always seek to love others with the relentless, unconditional, beautiful, powerful, amazing love that God loves you with. At first you'll fall flat on your face and find that your heart is full of hatred and can only cough out an occasional, weak, sickly, reluctant love. But know that this is a necessary first step: until you realize just how deplorable your love is, you'll never get far in the journey towards God's type of love. So be persistent. When you fall on your face, ask your Father for forgiveness and new strength... and get. On. Your. Feet. Keep your love moving, growing, increasing, conquering. If you till the ground, plant, water, weed, prune, protect, sweat, work, weep, and cry out... God will provide the increase. So stop waiting. Start the journey now.

Never let your thoughts about someone settle in a negative light. That's key. Let God who alone knows all things do the analyzing, searching, and judging. Stop holding secret opinions about people; if you had your way, you wouldn't want people picking you apart in their mind and secretly thinking of you as "annoying" or "naive" or "immature" or "awkward." So start a new work today. Begin loving others as hard as you wish they loved you. Dedicate your life to that. Seek it. Always.

Like I said, I'm not making up this whole dare thing. This isn't poetry. This isn't "nice sounding fluff," it's not motivational hype. I've just sat still, kept silent, and shut up long enough to begin hearing the sound all around me. It's there—in the silence of night, in the warmth of the wind, in my own every breath. I can guarantee you, if you do the same, you'll find the same. It's a secret, but a secret that was meant to be accessed by every man alive. Go slow your schedule down, make as much time for God as you can, bring Him into every odd moment, seek Him away from distractions, start trying to do everything His way... and you too will begin to see this dare hidden deep inside every cross. With every new day this particular whispered word from God will become clearer and clearer:

I. Dare. You. To. Love."

Great Books Paper III

Great Books Paper 3-Eusebius

The story of the Christian Martyrs, as related by Eusebius in 'The Church History'.

The Christian Martyrs played an enormous role in the history of the early church. As Christianity spread in the early years, the persecutions became more or less prevalent, largely depending on the emperor at the time. Eusebius focused on recording persecutions that took place during the second and third centuries A.D.


The Christians that were martyred were brave and triumphant during torture and their own deaths. They had a tremendous peace that was given to them by God. Blandina is a tremendous example of steadfastness and bravery, withstanding the gravest tortures. "Through Blandina, Christ proved that what men think lowly God deems worthy of great glory. When we were all afraid...Blandina was filled with such power that those who tortured her from morning to night grew exhausted and admitted that they were beaten, for they had nothing left to do to her. They were astounded that she was still alive, since her whole body was smashed and lacerated, and they claimed that any one of the tortures was enough to end life...But [Blandina] gained in strength while confessing the faith and found comfort for her sufferings by saying, 'I am a Christian, and nothing wicked happens among us.'" When Blandina was later killed in the stadium, after being whipped, exposed to wild beasts, burnt with a gridiron, and placed in a net to be thrown to a bull, "the heathens admitted that never before had a woman suffered so much so long."


Polycarp also provides a wonderful example of strength during martyrdom. At the old age of at least 86, he was arrested and put into the stadium to be forced to denounce Christ. As he entered, he and some other Christians heard a voice from heaven saying, "Be strong and play the man, Polycarp!" When Polycarp had come into the stadium, the proconsul "tried to dissuade him, saying, 'Respect your age! Swear by Caesars fortune! Recant and say, 'Away with the atheists!'' But Polycarp swept his hand across the crowd, sighed, and cried, 'Away with the atheists!' But the governor pressed him, saying, 'Take the oath and I will set you free. Curse Christ!' but Polycarp replied, 'For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and He has never done me wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?' "


We can also see in these two examples that the martyrs were focusing on Christ in their last moments, drawing on Him for strength and making sure that He never left their minds, allowing them to fall into denying Him. But just as importantly, they were fixing their minds on the resurrection to come. As Polycarp was placed on the pyre to be burnt, he prayed this prayer: "Oh Father of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we know you, I bless you for this day and hour, that I may, with the martyrs, share in the cup of Christ for the resurrection to eternal life of both soul and body in the immortality of the Holy Spirit... I praise you for everything, I bless and glorify You through the eternal high priest, Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, through whom be glory to You and the Holy Spirit, both now and in the ages to come. Amen." The Christian martyrs were so focused on the bodily resurrection that during the persecution in Gaul around 177, the persecutors exposed and insulted the dead martyrs' bodies, then burning them until they became nothing but ash and finally swept into the Rhone, so as to defeat the Christian's hope in the resurrection.


Eusebius quite naturally thought highly of the martyrs. He often wrote about the martyrs finding their 'glorious fulfillment,' in their martyrdom, or 'his glorious death,' indicating that this is something that every Christian can be proud to endure for Christ. He also looked favorably upon them because they were the representatives of the church, the Billy Grahams of their own era. Because of the Christians' everlasting hope in the resurrection and their devotion to a man who had been crucified two hundred years ago, they were instrumental in spreading the gospel through their examples of courage and steadfastness. Even today, their influence remains to those who read Eusebius's work, inspiring us to be like them if the need would ever arise.

[baby island]

I found this book somewhere...I'm not sure where, and nabbed it to read to my little ones when I have them. I don't know about you, but a well done kids book just makes my day. It's one of my favorite things. I haven't read this one all the way through; it's a chapter book in the style of The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, but a bit shorter. I do want to read it sometime when I have the time, though. The illustrations are darling, a bit reminiscent of Indian Captive (one of my favorites growing up-by Lois Lenski) and it looks like a really fun book for 7-12 year old kids. I have a few pictures of some of the illustrations, and a couple shots of some cute parts in the book. Enjoy!

Yes. I want to write a book like this someday.

I am more willing to believe and look a fool in this life than to disbelieve and look a fool in eternity.

[three oh two]

[three oh two]
7.20.11

 

      -Nighttime-

Darkness blankets the sky;

I look up and see His face.

Evening is a wondrous time

To contemplate His grace.

He calls me to His side

And holds me there;

To think that He would call me His child,

And watches me everywhere!

I praise Him for His infinite love,

Unchanging, true, and vast.

I wonder at the marvels around,

And long to be with Him at last.

~By myself.

Trashbins in the shed.

[two ninety four]

[two ninety four]
7.11.11

Deep and dark, intoxicating. Soft as velvet, your favorite blanket, or a desperate kiss. Intriguing, mysterious, passionate. The intrigue of a novel, the mystery of the unknown, the passion of a rebel. The blood flowing through your veins.

Red.