Sailing into the Dark World- a poem

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/odyssey1/ss/062508POdyssey_6.htm
A powerful scene from The Odyssey in which Odysseus is tempted by the song of the deadly Sirens.

Sailing into the Dark World

(inspired by thematic elements fromThe Odyssey and Ephesians 6:13-18)

As I sail into the dark world and enter a realm

Of evil and darkness and powers unimaginable

Lord, direct, control, take hold of my ship’s helm

Give me Your armor to battle against the one

Who wagers war again my soul

Whose deceptive guises shine brighter than the sun

I want the belt of truth strapped around my waist

To keep away the creeping lies

And their sharp-edged, bittersweet taste

Put a breastplate of righteousness over my heart

To guard it from flying arrows and piercing swords

That will try to attack me and tear me apart

Strap the gospel of peace tightly on my feet

To keep me calm, focused, and standing strong

Only hearing the sweeter song of Your perfect beat

Place the shield of faith in my left hand

So I can push forward without seeing the end

Trusting You to help me find where I need to land

Present me with the helmet of salvation to defend my mind

From the imaginings, dreams, faulty hopes

The sin-filled hallucinations of every kind

Lastly, bestow the sword of the Spirit on me

So I can respond to every threat with strength

Make me a crewman of Your word so I can truly be free

What's in a Name?

The Hebrew spelling for "Yahweh"

As I've stated before, I am a writer; shaping my words into fiction or trying to put the musings of my mind into tangible material is one of my favorite hobbies. But, I have a favorite type of word, if it can be called that. One of my absolute favorite parts about writing is the study of names. In fact, during my free time, you might find me surfing the web for the most obscure names I can possibly find or combing through a thick volume entitled,"100,000+ Baby Names", for hours on end. 

So, when I discovered the significance of names in Jewish culture and how it relates to my faith, I was pretty thrilled.

 See, back in Bible times, people would name their children according to their current circumstances, inspiration from God, or hopes for their child's future. It was more than just a combination of letters or something that sounded nice; it was a hint into the rest of the child's life. A few examples of names and their correspondences to the destinies of their owners include...

Isaac- "he laughs" (since Sarah laughed when she was told about his birth), Moses- "to draw out" (since he was drawn out of the river as a baby), David- beloved (he was a man after God's own heart, according to scripture), Paul- humble (he discusses humility A LOT in his letters and proves his own humility through his actions throughout the Bible).

Isn't that amazing?! God would inspire the parents of these Biblical heroes to name their children such meaningful, relevant names. 

It's cool, yes, but you're probably wondering, what's the point of this, anyway? How does this relate to a relationship with God?

Well, this morning at church during our worship service, I began to think about all of the names given to God Himself. We say them day after day (in good and bad ways), read them over and over in the Bible, and hear them from the mouths of other people; eventually, they just become average words in our Christian-ese vocabulary.

But, since God's character is often reflected in the ways of His chosen people and the Jewish people value names so highly, why wouldn't God's names be significant as well?

So, today, I'm going to list three of the more frequently-used names of God and a few amazing things about each of them...

1. "LORD"- this is a generic word, yes. I remember when I first learned terms for social classes in medieval days and came across this word. Yes, the "lords" were a medieval social class! But, we need to realize that this is a very different word from what we picture alongside fearless knights and ladies wearing poofy dresses and cone-shaped hats. Whenever we see the word "LORD" printed in the Bible in all caps, that means that it's directly translated from the word "Yahweh" in Hebrew. Yeah, that sounds familiar, doesn't it? We use that in Sunday school culture sometimes, but we often neglect to realize the gravity of the word. Recently, I learned that "Yahweh" isn't even pronounceable in Hebrew! It was spelled Y-H-W-H. We just added in the vowels for clarity. This inability to pronounce YHWH meant something important to God's people; it demonstrated that God was so holy that his name couldn't even be said out loud! The literal translation of YHWH makes God's character even more cryptic than this. It closely means, "I am."

The name "I am" was first introduced after Moses receives the ten commandments and he asked God how he should introduce Him. God simply responded, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14)

Wow. Pretty mind blowing. God has such a unique, holy, and matchless character that a name can't even be given to define His glory! It would be like trying to find the end of pi. It just can't happen.

2. "Father"- we see God called this about a million times in the Bible and probably know it as a normality. But, when it was first introduced to the disciples, I'm sure it was a strange concept. In Matthew 6:9, Jesus actually has to TEACH his disciples to call God this name as he says the Lord's Prayer for the first time. It's the most paradoxical contradiction from YHWH, isn't it? Our God is somehow too holy to be defined, but personable enough to be called a term of endearment. The word "Father" brings a beautiful image to my mind. It reminds me of a comparison I heard from Mike Donehey, the lead singer of Tenth Avenue North, while at one of their concerts a few weeks ago. He explained that the reason why we some of us raise our arms during worship became fully evident to him when he himself became a father and saw his little girl raising her arms up to him. It was an unspoken request that meant, "carry me." 

By telling us to call Him "Father", God wants us to know how much He cares for us and loves us and won't ever hesitate to carry us when we need help. Psalm 91:4 illustrates this so well:

"He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

3. "Jesus"- Jesus translates to mean something like "savior" or "to save". While many people may make the argument that Jesus is an overused name that was given to hundreds of Hebrew boys back in the day and therefore has no significance, I think that it has more power than that. Of course, I need to make another Narnia reference at this point to explain why...

An incredible moment in this series occurs as the Pevensie children hear the name of "Aslan", the allegorical character for Jesus, for the first time. Here, let me quote it for you...

"And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer."

~Chapter 7, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

In the same way, the name "Jesus" has an inexplicable connection underneath it. While the words "God", "Lord", or even "Savior" can sound generic and unobtrusive, "Jesus" narrows down and defines our faith, shows that we identify with the incarnation of our God and His sacrifice for us.

In fact, Philippians 2:10 tells us, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth."

Notice that it doesn't say that we will bow to "God", "Lord", or even "I am" or "Yahweh". This mere fact shows that the true "Author and Perfecter of our faith"(Hebrews 12:2) is Jesus Christ.

So, in the end, what does this mean for us? Well, it simply shows us how huge and matchless and mysterious our God is. He is YHWH, the inexplicable and glorious One, Father, the loving and personable One, and Jesus, the One on whom we build our faith, our salvation, and our lives.

After learning all of this, I hope and pray that we'll all see the significance of God's name differently than ever before. Sometimes, it's easy just to minimize the importance of His name into nothingness or just see Him as a tiny genie in a bottle or an unapproachable, angry judge. But, He's neither of those things. His names tell us all about His real character.

(all information about names comes from the "So That the World May Know" curriculum from Focus on the Family and behindthename.com)

"For Aslan"- a lesson I learned while herding cats

Picture about a hundred 1^st through 3^rd graders, sitting together in a 200-person sanctuary, minus the chairs, at a 5-day kids camp. They are loud and wiggly, many of them are from hard situations that have already impacted them, even at such a young age. They are unruly and constantly trying to cross lines. Amongst the bouncy children, there are a few flustered, but determined teenagers and adults, struggling to contain the kids as the gospel is presented on the sanctuary’s stage. A few weeks ago, I was one of those teenagers, clad in a tie-dye t-shirt, surrounded by ten squirrely 1^st and 2^nd graders that were under my charge for five days. It was a difficult camp to work in, to say the least. We counselors nicknamed it the “herding cats week”. However, throughout all of the chaos, I learned an important truth about my faith: keeping my eyes on Jesus.

The director of the kids camp is an amazing, God-fearing woman who absolutely loves the camp and the kids in it. Over and over throughout the complications of the week, she reminded us of the camp’s mission: Kids camp provides a safe and fun environment to teach the gospel. She constantly emphasized “the gospel” throughout the week. Despite how futile it felt to tell unresponsive young children about Jesus, she still told us to do EVERYTHING with the gospel in mind. We were to plant seeds through loving and showing kindness to every child so that they would associate love with the gospel, since the two are directly connected.

 It made me start thinking. Shouldn’t everything we do as Christians be about the gospel? I believe that we often complicate matters a lot, trying to come up with confusing answers and explanations for our faith. There are philosophical debates that Christians wrestle with and argue over. Sometimes, we get so lost in the fine details of the Christian faith that we forget our driving mission and purpose: the gospel.

I’ve been reading through 2 Corinthians and I ran across a very profound verse. I love the NLT version of this verse, since that’s the version that I generally use. The beginning may be a little confusing, but I’m going to share the entire verse with you, just to provide some context…

“For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No”. He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says. For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascend to God for his glory.”

2 Corinthians 1:19-20 (NLT)

Jesus is God’s ultimate “Yes”. He is the answer to all of our sin problems and lost hopes and dreams. I think it’s a whole new perspective of our faith. When people come to us, lost and confused by the “no’s” of this world, or the “no’s” from seemingly unanswered questions, we have the ultimate “yes”: Jesus Christ.

But, what does this mean for us? I think that it means we need to focus everything on our ultimate “Yes”, the only way, truth, and life.

This entire concept reminds me of the numerous battle scenes from the movies based off of the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. Before the huge battle in The Lion, the Witch, and the Waredrobe, just as the orchestral score prepares to bring in the intense percussion features and the army is lined up in resigned silence, Peter, the leader of the army, lifts his sword and yells, “for Narnia, and for Aslan!”

What are we yelling before we charge into the battles of this cursed world?

Many of us are tempted to yell things like,

 “For my emotional experiences with God!”

“For avoiding hell!”

“For the literal 7-day theory!”

“For the doctrine of my church!”

All of these things are great, but they should never be our central focus. John 14:6 is a very famous verse that puts this well.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

No one can come to the Father except through Christ, so let’s make our battle cry,

“For Jesus.”

He is, after all, our savior, solution, and purpose, and as my pastor says, “the epicenter of our faith.”

Despite the complications of our human nature and the world around us, we need to always remember WHY we’re fighting.

Before a particularly difficult day at kids camp, all of us counselors sang a beautiful hymn that sums up this concept perfectly. To end this post, I’m going to quote its chorus:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."

~ Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Helen H. Lemmel

10 Things I've Learned (and am still learning) during High School

Well, as many of you realize, I graduated from my fine arts school this year. Although my plans for next year are a little complicated (if you know me personally, ask me and I'll tell you all about it. If you're just a random stranger on the internet, just take my word for it because I'm not going to tell you details.), I am essentially starting a new stage of my life next year. But, as I reflect back on my past four years of life, I've realized just how much I have learned. So, here are ten important truths I've learned about high school. Please keep in mind that some of these aren't Biblical truths or anything like that; they're just practical, obvious, or nonsensical facts of life. Let's get started...

1. Take a walk (duh duh duh duh DUH, duh duuuh duh... only people who listen to Passion Pit will understand that).

Literally, I mean take a walk. If you're having a bad day for any given reason, just get up and move. I know lots of kids who will deal with their troubles by thinking about them repeatedly, listening to music, or writing them down. While all of these things are great, I've found that exercising in some way or form works A LOT better. I don't have a scientific explanation for this even though I know there are lots of them out there; just do it and you'll understand.

2. Realize that most Disney movies are secretly aimed towards high school students. 

There's nothing like sitting down and watching Emperor's New Groove, Lilo and Stitch, or Mulan just for kicks. You'll discover a lot of jokes that you never understood until now. 

3. Be strange and own it.

If you decide in your heart to be tastefully different and do it in an unashamed manner, you will probably find awesome friends. Some of my best high school memories with friends include singing songs from the musical Annie while at the top of a roller coaster, spontaneously dancing in a parking lot at midnight, wearing renaissance clothing to school just because, and having wet napkin-throwing wars with friends in another car while at a stop light. 

It's much more fun than doing whatever normal people do in high school. 

4. Understand that your views of people will change a lot.

Some of my best friends today were some of my greatest annoyances a year or two ago. A few people that I only consider my acquaintances right now were my buddies at the beginning of high school. That's the way it is, so don't put too much weight on your current good friends. Take each moment in your friendships as they come and don't be easily offended. 

5. Understand that people will change a lot. 

The really angelically nice kid you know now could become a jerk by his senior year and the irritating, freshman brat that peeves everyone might just be the coolest girl you've ever known when graduation comes around. Don't ever believe that peoples' behaviors right now are the be all, end all of life. 

6. Understand that friendships shouldn't just be about you. 

This is the application of truths #4 and #5. Because people are constantly changing and your view of them is constantly changing, you will be sorely disappointed if you are only trying to make your own life better through friendships. Instead, see how you can benefit others. How can you INVEST in your current friends? Ask questions during conversations instead of just talking about yourself, pray for your buddies, and do spontaneous things for them. If your friendships aren't just about you, then when your friends mess up or change, you won't be nearly as frustrated with them.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, 

"Two people are better off than one, for they can HELP EACH OTHER succeed."

Notice that it doesn't say,

"You are better off with friends because they will make YOUR life better."

It's a two-sided deal. 

7. Invest in people that really matter.

In the summer of 2012, my sophomore year, my parents left for a week-long trip to Bermuda. My brother and I had the opportunity to spend half of the week with some of our good friends that we've known for years and the other half with our grandparents. However, instead of enjoying my time with my brother, my good friend, and my grandparents, I spend a good amount of the week texting some of my friends from school. When I look back on that week, I realize something sad; I don't remember anything that I did with my grandparents or my good friends. The only memories from that week are the text conversations I had with my temporary buddies. Today, I'm not keeping in touch with any of those friends. So, here's my challenge to you: put down your phone for an afternoon and spend time with your siblings. Decide to send a "what's up" text to one of your cousins who lives across the country instead of scrolling down your news feed again. Get in contact with an old friend rather than sending yet another text to that someone that you're temporarily interested in. 

I'm not saying that it's bad to invest in temporary friends. I just think that it's also very important to upkeep friendships and family relationships that really matter. 

8. Stay attentive to God's calling for your life.

You will change a lot during high school. God won't. Malachi 3:6 says this clearly,

"I, the LORD, do not change."

So, keep good habits such as daily devotions. Pray and read your Bible regularly. It's elementary, my dear Watson. By keeping your eyes on God, you won't be so focused on the storm around you. 

9. Don't be a drama queen. 

So many teenagers like to dramatize everything. Don't be that person. If you can appropriately add #firstworldproblem to a description of your current issue, then stop telling everyone about it. 

"Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again- rejoice!"

Philippians 4:4

If Paul could write this during one of his many stays in prison, then there's no doubt that you can be joyful in every situation that life throws at you.

10. Have fun while staying busy. 

Join clubs or teams that allow you to have fun with friends WHILE doing something useful with your life. Marching band did this for me and I absolutely loved being able to spend time with friends at football games, band competitions, car washes, and Dairy Queen visits. It's better to be doing useful things with friends than to just "hang out". Unoccupied idleness is never good in the teenage world. I've seen some of the best, upstanding kids get into trouble, simply because they were bored or restless at unstructured social events or get-togethers.  

So, there they are, the ten things I've learned over the past few years. I'm continuing to learn some of these lessons even now and I hope that we all can continue to take them to heart throughout the rest of our lives- especially #2, because no one is ever too old for Disney. 

Courage, Dear Heart

She wore a yellowed wedding dress and her entire demeanor seemed to represent her lost past. Surrounded by relics of what had never been, her entire life rotted away slowly. The only thing she ever lived for was plotting revenge on other helpless souls, hoping to avenge her own pain and suffering. 

I know, she sounds like a nasty person, doesn't she? 

Well, the character I just described is the main villain in the book Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Her name is Miss Havisham. 

She was rejected unexpectedly by her fiance. At the last minute, as she was preparing for the wedding, he ran away and eloped with someone else, leaving her with absolutely nothing. Because of this, Miss Havisham became bitter, turning against any forms of happiness or joy. She locked herself in the depths of her house and kept up all of the things from the wedding, allowing them to all slowly rot away. Miss Havisham even adopted a little girl and trained her to purposefully break little boys' hearts, in some form of sick revenge.

Sounds awful, doesn't it?

However, as I read this story, I saw a bit of reality in it. I've met people who hold onto their pain in a similar way, allowing bitterness to rot them away and paralyze them from living life. It makes me especially sad to see Christians like this since their bitterness goes against an amazing promise given to us by Jesus in the book of John:

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV)"

So in other words, Jesus has given us all we need to live life to the full. But, if we're constantly holding onto our pain and grief from the past, we won't be able to truly move forward and live the life he has planned for us.

This isn't as easy as it may appear; after all, the verse tells us that there is a thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy; he will do everything in his power to steal away our joy. He knows how to whisper lies to us, convincing us that we must dwell on our own pain and suffering. But, God has given each of us a gift to help us battle these attacks: courage. 

The dictionary defines courage as,"strength in the face of pain or grief." 

King David talks about this in Psalm 29:11,

"The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace."

This whole concept reminds me of another book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis from the Chronicles of Narnia series.

In one scene of this book, the crew of a ship (the Dawn Treader), must sail into a giant patch of darkness, in search of a man who went missing. This scene used to always scare me as a child, especially since the darkness itself had some magic within it that caused the poor crew to see mirages of the things they feared most. But, after sailing through darkness and fear for quite a while, one of the crew members, a young girl named Lucy, makes a breakthrough. The following passage is especially meaningful to me since an allegorical character representing Jesus, a lion called Aslan, makes an appearance.

"Lucy leant her head on the edge of he fighting top and whispered, "Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now." The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little- a very, very little- better...

"Look!" cried Rynelf's voice hoarsely from the bows. There was a tiny speck of light ahead, and while they watched a broad beam of light fell from it upon the ship. It did not alter the surrounding darkness, but the whole ship was lit up as if by searchlight...Lucy looked along the beam and presently saw something in it. At first it looked like a cross, then it looked like an aeroplane, then it looked like a kite, and at last with a whirring of wings it was right overhead and was an albatross. It circled three times round the mast and then perched for an instant on the crest of the gilded dragon at the bow. It called out in a strong sweet voice what seemed to be words though no one understood them. After that it spread its wings, rose, and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little to starboard...But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, "courage, dear heart," and the voice, she felt surer, was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face."

Chapter 12, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This passage describes courage in such a profound way. In the midst of darkness and adversity, Lucy called out to Aslan and he answered by whispering, "courage, dear heart."

In the same way, God gives us courage to face our troubles, whether they be big or small.

Over the past two months, I've seen this truth manifested in three of my friends' lives. Adversity hit them in shockingly unexpected ways as both of the families represented by these three friends lost a parent. Seeing their lives get turned upside down in this way made me realize that they have every reason to be bitter and every right to dwell in their grief. However, they have done just the opposite. I've seen each of these friends step up in COURAGE, continuing forward in their faith with strength. In fact, one of my friends told me this in a text only days after his mom passed away:

"God's plans are perfect and wonderful, even if we can't fully understand them at the moment."

Seeing their endurance through these hard weeks made me realize something important; while there is a time to grieve and learn how to live through such events, God didn't intend for us to live in our sufferings. As John 10:10 said, he has given us life to live to the fullest. My pastor actually talked about this a little while ago; he explained that we can either use our hard circumstances to keep us weighed down and lost in adversity or we can let God take the troubles and use them for His glory.

As C.S. Lewis once said,

"hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny."

As I look at my three friends' lives and see how their faiths have grown immensely through their courage, I can already tell that God is planning extraordinary destinies for each of them.

The question is, will you let Him do the same for you?