Heliotropes, Searching for Something More

Are you ready for my attempts to be deep? Here we go...

Over this last semester in my World Literature class, I've had a very interesting time trekking into the thoughts and dreams of many influential writers who have also tried to be very deep.  I know this is weird, but I have actually really enjoyed studying some of the works that I've read in this class, even though the reading itself was often a little too heavy for my liking.

I kept noticing one specific idea throughout almost all of these stories, especially after digging deeply into the texts and trying to understand the societal and personal desires that drove the writers forward.

This one concept can be summed up excellently by a great analogy that one of my friends once said. He explained that each of us have a hole in our hearts, shaped like a circle, and every time we try to fill it with something that isn't God, it's like trying to stop up this hole with little cubes. Instead, the only way we will ever be satisfied is if we let God, who is shaped like a cylinder, fill us completely and correctly.

So, that's what it is; that's the common thread throughout almost every work of literature I read this year: a deep desire for something more and an underlying feeling of unease whenever another "cube" was tried out in God's place. Of course, none of these authors really seemed to really mention God directly, but their deep, heartfelt yearnings and pleadings pointed to wanting...more.

And let me just say, as soon as I began to think about this concept, I began to see it, over and over again throughout art, literature, and essentially any type of medium that communicated the deepest yearnings of the human heart.

It reminds me of a word that I learned quite a while ago that has always stuck with me for some reason: heliotrope. "Helio" is the Greek word for sun while "trepo" is the word for turn. A heliotrope is a plant that always turns towards the sun; it sense the light and grows towards it.

In a manner of speaking, we as human beings are also heliotropes; looking at the thoughts and dreams of mankind clearly shows this pattern of turning towards the Son, knowingly or unknowingly, on our quests for something more.

Let me show you a few of the spontaneous examples that I've found over the last few weeks. They don't all have important significance or anything, but I personally enjoy them.

Music- Coldplay- "Cathedrals in my heart." (from Every Teardrop is a Waterfall)

I absolutely love this line from this song. It shows some type of yearning for a bigger purpose, a bigger look up into the expansive universe and our part in it. 

Writing- Henry David Thoreau- "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."

This was in the context of Thoreau's work called Walden, which spends several, rather difficult-to-read passages describing how we can come across new, unanswered questions about our very purpose  in life by going out in nature. But, towards the end, he says this outstanding line. It seems to ask the question, if we aren't conforming to the mundane life of this world and we're wishing for more, what if it's because there IS something more? He doesn't even answer who or what the different drummer is, but his words reach up and out, wondering what drives these inward desires for more. 

Film- Christopher Nolan- "Maybe we’ve spent too long trying to figure all this out with theory. Love is the one thing that transcends time and space." (said by the character Dr. Amelia Brand from Interstellar)

This film is incredible, first off. Second, this quote is absolutely amazing, despite the fact that Dr. Brand is talking about romantic love in this sentence. In fact, this mind-blowing film seems to pass right over light, typical mentions of romantic love seen in most movies and get to a deeper matter. What exactly is love? What can explain it and how are we somehow able to feel it for others? The characters in the movie even directly discuss how evolution can't explain the phenomenon of loving others. 

I feel like this blog post is going in so many different directions right now, and that's because I'm trying to talk about something that is so huge and cannot really be explained, just felt.

That is, again, this desire for something BIGGER.

I've come across opinions from people who refuse to believe in God and try to put everything into small terms. They almost seem afraid to stretch their minds into the unknown; they want to discover and know everything. But honestly, can't we all see and feel that there has to be something greater than ourselves out there? Science is constantly changing; there is nothing certain about our own knowledge, so we need to trust in something more.

Romans 1:20 says, "For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God."

We ALL innately know Him; that's an absolutely amazing thought.

So what now? What do we do with this? Well, we can see evidence of our God through the circle in each of our hearts. We can also realize that every single person that we meet in the world has this same circle in each of their own hearts. What will we do with this fact? Will we point them to the ultimate Cylinder with our words and actions or just to another cube?

The Wind- another poem

A picture from the beach trip I was on this week, which is when I wrote this poem. Nope, it's not the best picture. But I chose it because it juxtaposes the wonder of the beach and the sunset with the normality of the random street and of everyday life, which is what I attempted to do in my poem too.

Background on this poem:

One of the strongest images of God that I've seen over the past few years is seeing Him as the Controller of the wind and where it blows. So, I decided to write a poem about a few of the situations in which I've felt God's presence strongly, through the wind. After writing this poem, I discovered that the Greek word πνεῦμα, pronounced as "pneuma", actually means both "wind" and "spirit"! I also came across this Bible verse, which seems to tie into the entire concept perfectly:

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Job 3:8

The Wind

[Awestruck wonder]

On the outstretched beach,

Toes in the sand

Endless, boundless sea.

Blasting my face with brine,

Making my soul come alive-

The Wind.

[Inexplicable peace]

On a sluggish, bobbing dock,

Notebook on my lap

Tranquil, swirling lake. 

Rippling my hair gently,

Breathing life into me-

The Wind.

[Daily joy]

On a ragged stretch of asphalt,

Feet moving methodically

Cheery, dancing trees. 

Turning my face to a smile, 

Warming my heart with joy-

The Wind.

[Calmed anxiety]

On an open, rocky field,

Shoulders burdened with unease

Dry, crackling grass. 

Brushing my face lovingly,

Blowing hot teardrops away-

The Wind.

They once told me

When I was too young to understand:

You're like the wind;

Unseen, unknown, unimaginable.

And full of power and love.

Maybe I'm beginning

To understand now.