A Few Brilliant Ideas...

Stuck in my past,
I am no longer
Who I want to be
But who I was.
Fear cripples me
I long for peace - no

Rising
Jesus died
facing a grave
What is hope?

Remember what you have learned...
Remember what you have learned...

What is hope?
facing a grave
Jesus died
Rising.

I long for peace - no
Fear cripples me
But who I was
Who I want to be
I am no longer
Stuck in my past,

So, it feels like a lot more than 5 days has gone by, yet time defies this assumption. I accidentally prematurely posted something on my blog wemusttellthem.blogspot.com. You should check that out.

Pendulum

Air rushes through hair.
Mountains cave.
Oceans sink.
The sun burns.

In a quiet room in a house in Concord,
sits a grand father clock that has knowingly conquered.

Air rushes through hair.
Farms are cropped,
Forests chopped,
and rainbows glaze over.

The clock smiles, in the way that he always does,
keeping track of the time, in the house full of schemas.

Hours are made timeless.
Activity consumes in-activity.
Gravity falls.
And we forget.

The pendulum inside the clock swings back and forth,
and as it watches the people, it find a secret.
These people with plans and ideas and thoughts,
have no concept of time, which they practically wrought.
Without a watch on their wrist, or a clock in their home,
and even then dust grows thick as it feels its gears groan.
yet this is the way that the people must be,
unaware that they're free, self-enslaved with the key.
Giving themselves up, hiding time where they can no longer see.


So the grandfather clock pulled down deep in his gears,
and with a deep crack, Mr. Time disappeared.

Does anyone remember the 90's TV show Teletubbies? Probably wins my own personal award for the creepiest 90's TV show, which is quite an impressive feat, considering other shows like The Comfy Couch. Here are of the few things you've always known about Teletubbies but never said out loud:


1. Noo Noo is a serial killer


5. Dipsy has mad dance skills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E9Z0-ppTl0#t=557
This is totally why he was always my favorite. GO DIPSY, SHAKE THAT THANG.

6. The practical ramifications of having a television in your stomach are completely ignored
These creatures have television inside of their stomachs. Why do they even move? I mean with Netflix, they would never even have to move, and if they get hungry, they can change the channel to the food channel. Problem solved. There are so many creative things you do with a television stomach.

7. The sun is a baby.

Why? No one knows. I just... someone had to be on drugs to even think of this.

8. The pinwheel drug dispenser

I have a theory that this pinwheel dispenses drugs to the inhabitants of this place, leading to hallucinations such a baby-faced suns and creepy vacuum cleaners. Then their antennas capture the drugs, which are then in turn converted into TV power.

9. The show's British accents make it worth watching
Let's be honest, we really only enjoyed this show because, British people. I mean really, how can you resist the silky narrator voice? Plus, the little British children. Ahhh.

10. NBC/Comcast is EVERYWHERE...

I didn't forget to post, it's just over at platonicinterlude.blogspot.com

I forgot to add Will to the list, that has been updated. You can find his blog at: http://contemplativewhimsy.blogspot.com/. Due to my failure to remember to list his name, I gave him the very special title of Patrick Star, who is very near and dear to my heart. Also, I accept Simeon's Subchallenge. It is was a hard day one, we lost quite a few: Tirzah, Nathan, Aaron, Na'chelle, Nick. That brings our number down from 18 to 13. However, in Nick and Nathan's defense, they did tell me they planned on posting semi-regularly these next couple weeks. Allen Lai has a questionable post dated February 2nd, but I'll let it slide, because it was there when I checked at 12:30 and it's the first day. The rest of you however... Bom voyage. 

I talk to people a lot. You probably do too. This a good thing.

I can often predict what my friend and family members will say because I've spent a lot of time talking to them. I've also spent a lot of timing listening. That's how friendships are built, this communication back and forth, verbal or otherwise. People could rock climb every day, side by side, but if they never talk, they don't know each other. They're not friends.

Friends talk. Friends listen. Friends communicate.

I have a friend named Valerie Niemann who I used to go running with my freshman year of college. We talked a lot about all kinds of things and after a while she said to me, 'Stevie you're not listening to me.' At the time it was meant more jokingly, but as the joke was repeated, I became aware of how serious this really was. My statement always started, "No, I'm listening, but what the point I'm trying to make is..." Too many but's. I don't always listen. Worse, I don't always hear, or take the time to understand what people are trying to tell me. And listening is so fundamental to a good friendship. I'm super thankful for that lesson that Val taught me. So if you're reading this, thanks Val. God used you to show me how little I really did listen.

There's a repeated statement by Jesus in the book of Mark, "He who has ears let him hear." Which means some of have ears, but we're not hearing.

As I've learned how important listening is, and how vital it is to my friendships, God has taught me some of the differences between a true friendship.

Listening is certainly part of it, but there's a particular type of listening that I want to examine that defines a deeper level of friendship.

Each person is divided into two segments: the person they are and the person they want to become.

Simply put, a friend is a person who knows who you want to be, not just who you are.

It's hard for me to demonstrate what this looks like without a specific example, but the details of describing who someone I know wants to be is a very personal thing. I wouldn't feel right in explaining this without specific permission, so I'll use a dummy-case to prove my point.

I have a friend named Jake. Jake loves to play the piano, he works for Irregular Mechanics, he spends a lot of time with his girlfriend Jessie, he is emotionally unstable, and he really likes pretzels.

That's great, I know who Jake is. This might let me buy things for Jake when he's feeling down. It helps me talk to Jake because I know where he works, and so I can start conversation about his work. I even know that Jake may flip out on me because he's emotionally unstable, so I'm totally prepared for that moment.

Yet, is knowing who Jake is enough to help me care for Jake the way a real friend would?

Maybe, but I don't think so.

Knowing that Jake dreams of being a professional writer, that he wants to be the type of guy that his girlfriend can lean on for support, knowing that Jake wants to see himself grow up and stand for what he thinks is right. Without these, instead of helping Jake be who he wants to be, at best I'm doing damage control. At worst, I could actually be encouraging him away from his dreams, crushing his hopes.

We've all had that person, who doesn't really know how important something is to us, and yet tells us that we're not very good at something. It hurts, and you begin to wonder whether that person is truly your friend. Sometimes they're loving you by telling you the truth, but in many cases they say what they say out of ignorance. There are cases where the most loving thing you can do for a person is to speak unwanted to truth in their lives. But in order to do it with wisdom, you have to know who that person wants to be. Sometimes people want to be things they shouldn't, but as a true friend it becomes your responsibility to help them avoid those things, rather than get them.


I talk a lot, and I've been learning how to listen. I want to know who you want to be, friends. I want to tell you who I want to be. Together, maybe we can help each other become those people, or stop each other from becoming the people we ought not be.

Christian, together, maybe we can become a little bit more like Christ, because that's ultimately who we want to be like, but we're complex creatures with many troubles and needs, and it's beautiful.

Let's be friends, shall we?

A nugget, a pearl.
Something that we find
after long searching and long suffering.
When we meet it, it slices us across the face
leaving a bruised imprint,
mottled black and purple.

Wisdom is not necessarily painful,
but it always leaves its mark,
and often times it is just as lacerating as foolishness.

In the core of this gem, carved and glowing with a fantastical glow,
is a hard rock.

It is not so spectacular as the gem's outer layer.

In fact, it has been called many things:
obvious, mundane, hurtful, even unnecessary.
some of these description are, once again,
not untrue.

If they all were it would be particularly offensive
since the stone is truth.

One is never exactly sure of what form this rock will come:
One time a stone.
One time a jagged rock.
One time the cool tones of marble...

Truth is many things to many people, and one thing to all people.
Truth is invariable, steadfast, strong: a rock.

But truth is also like the seed from which blooms a beautiful flower,
the petals sighing gently in the morning mist.
This flower is wisdom, with a pungent odor.

It either drives away

or attracts.

Without the seed there is no flower,
but without the flower, one knows not what to do with the seed.

Wisdom is truth,
but truth is not necessarily wisdom.

This is why you have met adults
who seem more like children
than you, the thirteen year old with the bad haircut.

It is possible that you have misjudged them,
that their wisdom is more subtle than your understanding,
but alas,
it is not always the case.
These adults wield truth, as the saying goes
"you learning something new every day."
And although their truth is vaster, wider,
they lack the pearl,
the blossom of the flower,
the smile of wonder on the face of a mother holding her newborn child.
They have truth, but lack the knowledge of what to do with it.
They lack wisdom.

Wisdom is elusive, it crops up in the oddest places:
the sleepover at a friend's house,
the football game on Sunday,
the walk in the park,
and sometimes in the places where you expect it.

But rarely, it seems.

Wisdom's shape is never fixed, which makes it able fit in the notch in your wall
which appeared from pressing your thumb against it too hard,
or in the shopping cart at the grocery store.

It is situational, dressing itself appropriately for the occasion,
wearing a tie to work on the day of the big promotion,
and hiding behind the wall while your friend calms down, remaining just around the corner.

Yet with all this, what I yearn for most
is a special type of wisdom:
a universal wisdom...
that has applications the size of the galaxy
and a length of eternity.

If once or twice, I stumble on this wisdom
it is my duty to fix it in my understanding,
to work it into my life,
to hold it dear,
and never.
ever.
forget.

For a man is not proven foolish by what he hasn't learned,
but by what he has forgotten.