Look Up

Look up, young man, look up

Dragging, dragging on your belly all day long

Sisyphus, oh Sisyphus! Throw off your stone

Foot-dragger, bottom-feeder, axe-grinder

Look up, young man, look up

Reaching, reaching, further than ever before

Return, oh return! Pure white as days past

Mud-slosher, alley-way-walker, evil-tempter

Look up, young man, look up

Burning, burning with restless, maddening desire

Chaos, oh chaos! Animals with no soul

Fence-jumper, track-traveler, woman-luster

Eden, oh Eden! My days reincarnate within your gates

Madness-healer, utopian-keeper, soul-fulfiller  

Woods and Wonder

            UFO’s fly through the air while a T-Rex roars on earth below. The T-Rex grabs the spaceship in his mouth and starts to tear it to pieces. Just in time a knight arrives to fight the T-Rex for the spaceship. The knight wins but the ship is destroyed beyond repair. He hops in his getaway car and drives to the coast, where the pirates are waiting for him.

            Ever play with toys as a kid? You play and play with them and it seems to never get old. Your imagination soars and you’re in your own little world and no one can destroy it. Wonder fills your heart as you play out the bad guy or the good guy.

             One day it gets old. It’s that birthday or that friend that makes you say “I’m grown up now” making the toys start to lose their wonder. Imagination decays, until the toys in the closet are just a replicas collecting dust.

              Being in the woods fills me with wonder how toys fill kids with wonder, but the feeling never went away.

We're All Different

“How’d the SAT’s go?” my dad asked.

            I was getting out of my car and walking towards him as he leaned against his car, waiting for me. It was my sister’s graduation from college, and I just drove three hours to get there separate from my family because I had to take the stupid SAT’s.

            I started to shrug off my shirt while my dad grabbed the nicer shirt Mom had for me in the car. It was pressed and still on a hanger.

            “The system was made for monkeys,” I replied.

            “Huh?”

            “It’s like telling the animal kingdom to take a test to see how smart they are, but the test is to climb a tree. The monkeys have the advantage. I’m a fish.”

            “Now, look, everyone has to work hard and do their best.”

            “Yeah, yeah” I replied as I buttoned the last button on my shirt.

My dad closed the door to the car and locked it, and we started walking toward the gymnasium. The graduation started in a couple minutes.

“I’m sure there’s water somewhere,” I said.

“What?” asked Dad.

“For a fish to swim in.”

He chuckled as we opened the doors and walked inside.

Time Well Spent: A Personal Narrative

 “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” – Henry David Thoreau

It was a beautiful day, though it was still early, making one want to put a long sleeve shirt on when one waken in the morning. The dew was still on the ground, but one knew around two o’clock they would be replacing that long sleeve shirt for a cut-off during the afternoon chores. A man woke his son particularly early this morning, just as the sun was poking through the trees. The son woke with a jump after remembering what he was waking up for in the first place. His grandfather was taking him squirrel hunting.

“Be careful, Joe! And remember to wear Orange so other hunters can see you!” his mother called after him.

“I know!” He replied, while starting the walk off the front porch and down towards his grandfather’s pickup.

“How’s doin’ Joe,” said Grandpa.

“Pretty good, how ‘bout you” Joe said.

“Good”

They rode out of the suburbs and into the winding roads of the country. There wasn’t much talk except a ‘beautiful morning’ and ‘how is the family.’ Meanwhile Joe sat in the front seat, looking at the camouflage, the orange attire, and the 16. Gauge shotgun, and trying really hard to look cool and contain his excitement. After all, he was 11, and it was his first time actually going on a formal hunt. He had shot many squirrels off bird feeders in the backyard, and the chipmunks that enjoy taking refuge in gutters had grown to fear him, but he has never really been roaming the mountains, just two guys and their thoughts. The grandfather never really talked much. That’s one reason he loved hunting.

They parked on the side of the road and hopped out of the truck. The grandfather grabbed the shotgun out of the back and started loading it. The boy jumped a little when his grandfather cocked it, but then they continued on their way.

They did a lot of quiet walking along the mountain, but didn’t see much. It didn’t matter to the boy, he was in his element; the woods.

“This is strange” Grandpa said. “When I’m hunting deer, all’s I see is squirrels. Now there’s none. Maybe we should sit for awhile.”

So they sat real quietly and then the boy spotted something. It was a squirrel sitting in its nest high up in a tree! Grandpa handed him the gun and the boy started to take aim. He put the bead right on the animal. He got nervous when it came time to pull the trigger. After all, he only shot a shotgun once before, two years ago.

Joe asked, “Do you want to shoot the first one?”

Grandpa asked “Why?”

“Oh never mind” Joe said. So he brought the gun up to his shoulder and aimed again. He could feel the adrenaline from his toes to his fingertips.

BOOM! The gun went off.

“That wasn’t that bad” Joe thought. “Did you see where it went?” he said to his Grandpa. The truth was, he had his eyes closed.

“I think so” Grandpa said.

They walked over to the place they thought they saw it drop. After walking around for about ten minutes with no luck, finally Grandpa found it in a gopher hole.

“It’s a blue jay,” he said, lifting it up.

“Wow, that’s weird. Looked like a squirrel to me,” said Joe.

It was getting later in the day so they decided to call it quits. They went to the grandfather’s house down the street, had a cup of tea, and then he drove his grandson back home. He couldn’t wait to tell his parents all about it.

Joe blasted the radio as he drove down the highway, windows rolled down, tapping the steering wheel to the beat of the song. It was a beautiful morning, around seventy-two degrees out already. His mom gave him the job of picking up his sister from college three hours away. The funeral was the next day, and she didn’t have any other way of getting back home. As he drove along with the wind blowing through his hair and the morning dew just starting to burn off, he thought of his grandpa. He thought of the memories he’s had with his grandpa, and knew he will think of him from now on when he’s enjoying a beautiful morning like this one.

Timshel

There is this one song I always loved by Mumford and Sons called “Timshel.” I never knew why it was called “Timshel” until recently. One line reads “And you have your choices/ And these are what make man great/ His ladder to the stars.” I always thought that those lyrics were rather profound. All we really have as human beings is our choices. Love would not exist without our power of choice. If Adam and Eve did not have the choice to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life then we would all just be God’s robots and any love we had for him would not be real. We wouldn't be able to be separated from God even if we wanted to. So we are left with our choices; To follow God or not to follow God; To love or not to love; To be at that party and not sleep with that girl even though you could have.

I was down at Liberty University in Virginia attending College for a Weekend, which is for highschoolers who are looking for a college and want to try Liberty out. I found myself in bookstore browsing around while my friends were looking at T-shirts and Flat- Brims in the other section of the store. I saw this book “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck and decided to try it out.

I started reading it once I got home. It seemed to progress rather slowly, but I liked the language and the stories so I kept reading. Halfway through I lent it out to one of my friends, but got it back and picked it up again. There is one part when they discuss chapter 4 of Genesis. This is the chapter that tells the story of Cain and Abel. Roughly the book discusses three different translations of chapter 4 verse 7 of Genesis. Now bear with me here, because I’m going to go into scripture but I believe there is something real important in this.

After God asks Cain why he is angry about is sacrifice not being looked on with favor, God declares with this verse. The King James Version says, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” Pay attention to the “thou shalt rule.” This is a promise to Cain that he will conquer sin.

The American Standard Version says, “If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door: and unto thee shall be its desire, but do thou rule over it.”  Now pay attention to the “do thou.” This is very different. It is not a promise, but an order.

Now to the original Hebrew. The Hebrew word for that part of the verse is Timshel. The true translation, or what most likely the author meant, was “thou mayest.” “Thou mayest rule over sin.” This “thou mayest” gives man a choice. Thou mayest conquer sin or thou mayest not. You may or may not conquer sin.

So God gives us this choice. Francis Chan once said, “Its crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe - the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self sacrificing love.” This God who loves us, loves us enough to give us a choice; to enter into a life of joy, real deep down joy, or not to. Not happiness but joy. I've been lost so many times in my life, but God is always there and ready for me when I’m ready for him. God is just waiting for you to choose him.

Fear

Fear limits us. Let's face it. It's a significant restraint. I'm one of the worst people at doing things that make me afraid. I love my comfort. I love taking the back seat. Things very easily make me uncomfortable.

        My one friend seems to be the opposite and jumps at a chance to do anything for a dollar or a laugh. I guess its one thing that makes it good for me to be around him. One time I was at a coffee shop with him and my dad said he would give him twenty dollars to talk to any girl in the coffee shop for five minutes. Well he first offered the bet to me, but when I refused he asked my friend. Five minutes is a long time! But he gave a quick glance over both shoulders and said, "OK." There were two girls sitting at a table in the corner, and he held a conversation for five minutes. It was pretty funny, but mostly just made me squirm in my seat.
        If fear is a problem in your life, I would consider facing it. The important thing is not to be afraid of failing. Failing most of the time does not cost anything significant. If you have a fear of girls, ask the next girl you see on the street to marry you. If your afraid of being in front of people, get up there and sing a solo. Life is better spent that way. Everyone loves and respects people who try. Find out that you are allowed to fail. Then you will be able to live life with less limiting you.

Go

Let me share a part of a book with you that I recently read in a book called "Radical" written by David Platt.

               "I remember when I was first preparing to go to Sudan, a nation impoverished by years of civil war. The trip was going to cost me around three thousand dollars. It wasn't easy to travel into Sedan since they were still at war, and we would have to charter a plane and spend a few extra days to make that happen. I remember one dear lady in the church coming up to me and asking, 'Why don't you just send the three thousand dollars to the people in Sudan? Wouldn't that be a better use of money than you spending a week and a half with them? Think of how far that money will go.'

                I wrestled with that question. Was I wasting these funds in order to go when I could simply give the money instead? Should I even be going? I continued wrestling with that question until I got to Sudan. There I had a conversation with Andrew that shed some light on the question.

                 Andrew was sharing with me about his life in Sudan over the last twenty years. He had known war since he was born, and he described facets of the suffering and persecution his people had been through.  He described various groups, most of them government or secular organizations, who had brought supplies to them during that time, and he expressed thanks for the generosity of so many people.

                 But then he looked at me and asked, 'Even in light of all these things that people have given to us, do you want to know how you can tell who a true brother is?'

                I leaned forward and asked, 'How?'

                He responded, 'A true brother comes to be with you in your time of need.' Then he looked me in the eye and said, 'David, you are a true brother. Thank you for coming to be with us.'"

                This story hit all the right notes for me. Human beings were not created to sit, make money, and give tax deductible donations to specific causes. It's a great notion, but not for me. I am obsessed with the real, the raw, the dangerous. I am a firm believer that the deepest need in human beings isn't tangible but spiritual. Above all I want to understand. To share others grief. To learn true struggle. To find true joy. My life has to mean something when I die. When I'm in heaven a jacket I gave won't mean as much as a life I touched. To "go and make disciples of all nations" is a command, not an option to be debated upon. When I go and serve, it changes my heart, my priorities, and accesses my soul. That is something that's laid up as treasure in heaven. 

                 Commit a goal to support an international injustice. Whether that means to go, to donate, to encourage, or to raise awareness, it's something God meant for you to do. If done with a glad heart, it will be rewarded. I promise. God promises.