I’ve decided to post this lovely picture of Ruth:
Archive for January, 2007
Joe is a pretty smart kid. Just yesterday he wrote an essay in an attempt to disprove the theory of macroevolution using the second law of thermodynamics. A slightly greater achievment is his new blog. He says he made it for his grandmother. Please check it out.
So, Shawn is here with us in our great land o’ Pak. I’m actually blogging straight from his dear lappy. Please check out his blog for cool-ville updates and check out some of the wild videos we’ve been making. I think we have a future in the journalism industry. Here’s one of my favorite videos:
Check out the rest at his YouTube site.
Picture this: You’ve been working on some project for a long time. Perhaps you’ve been writing a book. Or maybe you make a movie or painted a picture or created a new food dish or built a road or something. Anything. That which you like doing, imagine that you’ve just done it. To your surprise it is greeted by the public and everyone loves it. You become famous. All over the world (or at least in the circles you like) you are known for this wonderful work that you have done. Now whenever you walk into a bookstore or drive by a certain building or whatever, you see what your hands have made. How do you feel? Pretty good, I’d bet. I imagine what it would be like if suddenly my blog became world-famous or was mentioned by someone famous. Or if I ever finish my other writing projects and they became famous. I’d feel pretty durn good. I think that everyone who does work that can in any way be considered creative have this urge somewhere down in them. The urge to be famous. Or perhaps not famous, but at least known in you field.
I think the desire for recognition or fame is a dangerous thing, especially for people doing an art. Here’s a few thoughts as to why:
- First and foremost, the desire for fame moves your work away from the Source and towards yourself. Artists (at least redeemed ones) do their art either to show off who the Source is or to show their experience with Him. When we want fame we drift away from showing off the greatest thing in the universe to showing off ourselves, a poor substitute.
- If our art doesn’t start to gravitate towards showing ourselves it will at least start to turn into what we think others will like. There is nothing worse than an artist who creates based on what he thinks society will buy or read. There is little point to that sort of art because it only shows people what they already accept and understand. Even those who do their in a counter-cultural way are in danger of doing that way just because their readers like counter-culture stuff.
But I think it’s something that many struggle with. I sure do. I’ll not deny that I have dreams that my stuff may some day be on bookshelves sitting beside famous names and initials. I suppose the deep-down desire for that may not be wrong, but if it ever starts to influence how and what I do, then I have a problem.
So just to re-iterate: point to the Source. I’m starting to think that we are all artists. Whether we write or teach or cook or build or program or learn or paint or simply walk through life trying to show off the glory of God in our lives. We’re all artists try to communicate the greatest scene there ever could be. Don’t get cluttered with useless, vapor-like things like fame and crap. Point to the Source.
PS – Remember how I promised to post a bunch of pictures? I lied.
- Make God look good.
- Make your wife look good.
To that end I want to throw up a few poems that have run out of my brain recently.
I wrote this for Ruth. There are a few things you should know about our relationship before marriage. It was stressful. Some of you might know about the things that were going on then. I won’t go into them here, suffice to say that Ruth desperately needed help at the very beginning of our relationship, in a way forcing me to continue our relationship to marriage. Ruth will bear witness that I was very stressed out for months at a time and felt forced into things a little fast. It seems that God did not trust me to make the choices on my own. I’m so very glad he takes my hands off of the important projects, aren’t you?
Also, mushkil is Urdu for difficult.
I try to think of pretty words,
I want to say what’s true.
Will a line of flowers and birds
Be good enough for you?
Or should I try a little more
And take a little time
And open up my weak heart’s door?
I hope that it will rhyme.
I think back through the recent years,
Rememb’ring all the miles.
I don’t think I forget the tears
But more were all the smiles.
I think of all those stressful days
Before we said “I do.”
Those mushkil, mushkil funny ways
God forced me into you.
”Forced?” you say? It’s true, he forced.
I’d never lie to you.
If, by God, I was not coerced
I’d not be wed to you.
But is that bad? No, I think not.
I think there is no sin.
I’m pleased because this marriage got
Me in the life I’m in.
God does his work in funny ways,
His wonders to perfom,
Working in and through all those days
I was a brain-dead worm.
For in the past I could not see
Nor hear or understand
The joy that would be given me:
The wife giv’n from his hand.
I love the God who broke my will
And forced me in this life
Because my joy is being filled
I have a perfect Wife.
So thank-you, God, who gave me Ruth,
And thank-you, my dear wife.
Because of you this is the truth:
I have the greatest life.
And this one arrived while battling a nasty stress that I realized was used with all the rest as a part of God’s wonderful sanctification program. The yearly dues in this program are pretty steep but the membership bonuses are out of this world.
The burning feeling hurts down in my chest
And takes away my joy and kills my rest.
I have heard you say that it makes me free
But I still want it dead like a pest.
And then your sweet voice whispers in my head.
You say, “Fear not, though you have underfed
On all the glory and grace offered you
From Him to whom you, one day, will be wed.
”The cure,” he says, “is rather plain,
Rejoice and be glad though you are in pain.
Repent then grab the Book and bend the knee.
Start up a glad song and join the glad strain.
”Desire, ye, any love, joy or peace?
Fro sin, death and stress want ye release?
Then abide in me and I’ll be in you.
No end will there be of your joy’s increase.”
This I remember and call to my mind,
How in ages past you looked just to find
A wayward sinner to change and to mold,
To shape and to fashion after your kind.
And so I fight, through days dark, long and hot
And strain and pray and cry a lot.
If I could just kill this sin here in me
Then the great Jesus Christ would be my lot.
Though it’s not I, but the Christ who’s in me
who will overcome and soon make me free.
Your might and your power on my behalf
Will make me, at last, holy and happy.
That’s about it. I’ll post some pictures up tonight, inshallah
Sometimes spontaneous things turn out to be funny. I couldn’t sleep tonight so I got up and decided to blog. While blogging suddenly a thought popped into my head. “I haven’t talked to so-and-so since college! Maybe I should call her now!” I took it as a message from God and started searching the Internet for phone numbers. I didn’t think it would take long because she has a rather odd last name. Unfortunately the province of Quebec disagrees with me as it rendered me dozens of matches. Undeterred I scanned through the ones with city names I recognized and wrote them down, ending up with a list of 12. Out of the 9 people who actually answered the phone 6 of them sounded exactly like each other (a strange, sleep-deprived woman), one was a man who seemed very talkative and the very last number I called was an old lady claiming that the person I was looking for was not a girl from college, but her son who actually lived in Michigan. Needless to say I didn’t get a hold of her tonight. And now I can’t even seem to remember why I told that story.
Anyway, spontaneity is a lovely thing. I mean, what is the best poem? The one that takes eight hours of slaving over a blank page or the one that just seems to perfectly flow off your pen? Usually it’s the one that just flows. It’s easier and seems a little bit more real. We all want some measure of spontaneity in our work. Especially if our work is artistic or spiritual. I’m trying to write more these days. Not just blogs. I’m in the middle of a couple hefty writing projects that I hope to finish before the second coming. I find my writing goes through hills and valleys. Of course, the best writing takes place when it’s so spontaneous when my fingers can barely keep up with the words pouring out of my head. When those times come I love writing and I think it’s the most wonderful job in the world. Other times I just sit at the screen trying to figure out why I even bother. I wonder why I can’t be spontaneous all the time. I wish I had the freedom to sit down and just let the words flow from my fingers and be pleased with what I see as I read it back to myself. I’m sure that regardless of the work you are in to you can relate in some way. We all want that free-flowing sort of creativity or productivity that comes naturally and needn’t be forced. I wonder how we get it. I wonder why good spontaneity is hard to come by.
Though it may seem a little contradictory I think that discipline breeds spontaneity. I look at certain musicians playing away without a care in the word. I watch people write poems and grand stories on the spot. I see people burst into true prayer without a moments notice. I think they can do this because they were disciplined beforehand. A guitar virtuoso has the total freedom to express or even create a musical work of art at the drop of a hat, but only because he disciplined his fingers and mind for years beforehand. I realize that if I ever want to be spontaneous in my work, writing, prayer life, family worship or whatever else, I’m going to have to discipline myself to do it.
So in order to have the sort of prayer life that bursts into true praise at a moment’s notice I need to develop a daily discipline of private prayer. Even when I don’t feel like it. Heck, when I don’t feel like it that itself should be the subject of my prayer. In order to have the sort of writing ability I want I will need to discipline myself to daily writing. Even when I don’t feel like it. It seems funny that scheduled discipline would lead to free spontaneity, but that’s just how it goes. Discipline is the price of freedom. So if you ever struggle creatively or spiritually like this remember that good things are never easy. Good things always have discipline and hard work as pre-requisites. And free-flowing spontaneity is a good thing. And whatever you do in work or in art always make it point to the Source. Otherwise it just doesn’t matter, does it?
Scrolls and tomes of the past were pretty expensive, I’d wager. Think about what would be involved in buying the Book of the Law back when God told Joshua to never let it depart from his mouth. First you gotta make the paper, need a whole lot of it for those first five books. Then you gotta get someone to write it all down. Can you imagine how much time that would take? I bet Joshua didn’t have a handy ‘pocket-Torah’ that he could carry around with him. I’d be bold enough to bet that he didn’t even have his own personal copy of the Law of God. Just too hard, too bulky and too expensive. So how was he supposed to never allow it to depart from his mouth? I guess that every time he got a chance to see the Word he’d read it like mad and memorize all he could so that he could take it with him and meditate on it day and night like he was told to. The same style went on likely with David, Daniel, Jeremiah, John, Paul and the rest. To an extent it was there all the way until Guttenberg. The Bible was very rare and its rarity made it very precious. Those who went on before us treasured it not only because it was the Word of God, but also because of the great pains taken to actually get a copy of it.
I wonder if today, because the Bible has become common-place, we tend to view it as common. We have a jillion versions for single men, married men, single mothers, teens, skaters, rappers, cross-dressing albino punk rockers, and whatever other sub-culture group you can think of. I think we have started to view the Bible as something common. Since the Bible is so incredibly accessible where we live I think we’ve slowed our learning of it. You likely own two or three Bibles. One that’s portable. One for studying and normal reading. Probably another that just looks nice. And maybe a few other translations just because. It’s not so valuable to us like it was back in the day. Maybe because it’s everywhere and we aren’t worried about not being able to read it later.
I think that some people who complain that the knowledge of God as seen in the Bible doesn’t awaken joy in them might have that problem because we imagine that the knowledge of God should be easy to come by. We’re kinda passive. We don’t think we have to sweat through the word to get something out of it. As if unending bliss should be cheap. Check out Proverbs 2:-16:
My son, if you would receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Our buddy Piper points out a few things here. One, notice the verbs I highlighted. Treasure up. Call out. Raise your voice. Search for it. Seek it. These are active verbs. The knowledge of God is not easily come by. Of course, God is the one who gives it, but he does not give it to those who will not seek. Once we apply ourselves to see God in his Word he gives us that sight. It’s kinda funny. I find I am rarely uplifted by the light devotional books these days. But I notice that a theology book or a hard passage of Scripture become increasingly precious if I am ever willing to actually dig into it and chew on it for a while. I’ll end with a couple of quotes.
For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. – George Mueller
God himself has condescended to teach me the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unis libri. – John Wesley
And I commend this book to you. It is available on-line for free.
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Phil. 3:19-21
Looking at the rewards and duties of different religions you can begin to see a trend. For example, the people in this country believe that listening to music or shaving your beard is the worst sin. Or so they tell me. If it were only one or two people who told me this I would assume it was a personal bias or something, but whenever I ask anyone what the worst sin is I get the answer, “Listening to music.” This, of course, doesn’t stop people from listening to music. The other duties prescribed are similar. Wash your hands and face before you pray. Say such and such Arabic phrases and you’ll get 1000 good deeds added to your account. Don’t eat with certain people. Brush your teeth with a certain root from a certain tree. And on and on it goes. And then you get to the end of your life and you get to look forward to your reward. And what is your reward? Pretty much the same stuff that was available on earth, just a lot bigger and better. Palm trees so big you could walk all day under its shade. Rivers flowing with God’s wine. Fair-skinned, black-eyed women. And on and on. Earthly ways to get an earthly reward.
But our citizenship is in heaven. Instead of forbidding music Jesus forbids ill-will. Instead of encouraging me to grow my beard he encourages me to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Instead of giving me outward ceremonies he gives me inward fellowship. My citizenship is in heaven. And when I get there I won’t care how big the trees are, how good the booze it or how many chicks I get. My body will be changed into his glorious body and I will be enraptured with the greatness of God.
Our god is our belly when we turn earthly things into the highest ideal. Whether that be certain washings, styles of songs or dress or whatever. Our glory is our shame when we boast in and rely on the things that God doesn’t care much about while neglecting the things he has told us are important. Our minds are set on earthly things when we create carnal solutions to spiritual problems. When we imagine spiritual bliss in earthly terms and destroy its beauty entirely. Our end is destruction when all these things characterize our lives and we grasp at the physical ‘helps’ that are only given as an encouragement. It is so very dangerous to put our minds on earthly things. It will shipwreck us here and damn us beyond. Because the mind set on the flesh does not submit itself to God. Indeed it cannot.
And it’s all new.
You probably have heard that I’ve been having problems using Blogger. Pakistan and Blogger aren’t getting along these days. I cannot import my blog from Blogger yet. Unfortunately I upgraded to the new and improved Blogger system which WordPress will not let me import. So I may be starting fresh. I’m sure a solution will present itself later.
Anyway, please enjoy these lovely pictures for now. I hope to get a real post up soon.
Brother-in-law and wife.
Ruth and her new friend.
Mom and dad. Cute as ever.
And the two main goons themselves.
The Foolishness of God
Published January 30, 2007 commentary , creativity , musings 3 CommentsIt seems that Jesus doesn’t really understand a para-church organization. Look at this standard he sets! Don’t get an money, no extra clothes, no walking stick or backpack. Just go. Doesn’t he realize you could get burned out that way? The way of Christ is so…illogical. Or foolish. He tells the disciples not to prepare for the journey! Not event a suitcase or a clean shirt, just go! You received the most glorious treasure in the universe, go and bring it to others. Go. I suppose all the things that Christ warns the disciples not to do could become distractions in the gospel. Money, clothes, equipment, literature, shoes. Especially money.
So I was thinking about this passage and how foolish it seems. I was also thinking about how God has crazy-go-nuts, infinite wisdom. His way is the only way that will ever work. Our best strategies will all crumble and die, but if we are will to do the foolishness of God we will win. So I penned a song about it. Here ya go: