Posted in Beauty, General, Outdoors, Photo, tagged Beauty, Outdoors, Photos on March 2, 2009| 2 Comments »
To say that snow is uncommon in my little town would be an understatement. And when it does come it tends to fade quickly. We had three inches last night and cold enough to retain it half a day today. I am so thankful for its beauty and God’s creativity!
Spring delayed Not bad sledding Would you like icing on that?
Posted in Beauty, General, God Thoughts, Poem, tagged Beauty, God Thoughts, Poems on January 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The more we see of God the more our praise will be raised and our lives be purified. Oh that this might be true of you and me:
What praise can this feebled mind impart
Or glory give to God
But He commands the soul
Lift up words and life to make a start
Tell of wonders in the world abroad
Of land, sea and sky
Sing with the birds and waves
Praise with them, for silence would be odd
With the angels up above exalt
See His untold beauty
Awe at His purity
Oh a change in manner would result
Before God’s high throne see all that’s true
Know deepest wisdom’s way
Feel total power sway
There have all that’s right and good in view
Posted in Beauty, General, Photo, Remembering, Sustaining, Why?!, tagged Photos, Remembering, Sustaining on August 16, 2008| 2 Comments »
Eagle Cliffs
Pecks Corner Shelter
I decided not take tents which meant we had to stay in shelters. This of course saved weight for us all and gave the young people the new experience of staying in a shelter. The first one, Laurel Gap Shelter still had the old design, dark with a chain link fence over the open side to keep out bears.
The Year of the Fir Cone
Posted in Beauty, General, Poem, Strength, Why?!, tagged Beauty, Poems, Why?! on August 10, 2008| 1 Comment »
Here is an oldie but a …. well you’ll have to decide about that. It certainly isn’t an easy one to get nor was it easy to do. I sometimes get hung up in my own devices poetically. I’m sure the poetry suffers but it’s about the challenge. Hopefully the message does not equally suffer though it may need to be gone over several times to see. So, with that somewhat disparaging introduction, see if you can figure out what I was intending to talk about by clicking on Source and Reality
Posted in Beauty, General, Random thoughts, Why?!, tagged Beauty, Random thoughts, Why?! on May 21, 2008| 3 Comments »
No, the movie wasn’t like the book, and I think some of the original intent was lost by obscuring it in more introspective and mature themes. But taken as a story alone it had merit to rightly excite the imagination on some points. Perhaps some will read the book who would not have otherwise.
I can hardly believe that I have seen two movies in the movie house in less than one month. It is amazing on several fronts. I could comment on several aspects and themes within the movie but one theme and two scenes most caught my attention. Both scenes involve the subway station. The first one, escaping out of that gray world of immature fights and flirts, was the most visually striking of the two, but it was the later that forced the deeper message on me. In that instant just before passing between the tree trunks from Narnia to the railway tunnel in London, knowing what bliss and purpose you have, to understand what mundane and ridiculous existence you return to is so stark a contrast. Then to be a moment later clothed not in royal attire, feared and loved by all, but eyeing fellow travelers with suspicion and disdain at their sad attempts. But wait. This is a narrow view of the transition. You now have a newer, higher perspective on your mundane existence. You are a king, a queen, and a son of the Most High. You are looking into this difficult world with eyes of confidence in your calling, pity for those unknown by the Most High, hope for your future, and purpose in your every choice and action. For this reason the interpretation of Susan kissing the handsome Caspian and then being accosted by the schoolboy is only half correct. For whatever distractions C.S. Lewis has Susan falling to later on, she is fully enamored of Aslan when in Narnia. In the mundane, out of control world you serve the Most High, not thoughts of blissful relationships. As Lewis said in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory” concerning “beauty, the memory of our own past [of a blissful moment]”, “they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited…we remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy…For a few minutes we have had the illusion of belonging to that world.” But what does Lewis say attracts us to that world? “To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son-it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain.” He goes on to describe a second sense of glory, “to shine as the sun”. “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words-to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.” And how does that effect our everyday? Lewis says, “A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside.” Ah, the retreating walls of the subway into Narnia, heaven. But no! Narnia in all the stories is not heaven. The new Narnia beyond the thatched, stable door in “The Last Battle” represents heaven. So what is Narnia and when am I going to answer my last question? Narnia is a higher plane we live on like the Promised Land (more on that another day), closer to the Savior, more attuned to our position and purpose. In the everyday existence, Lewis reminds, we must “remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare…There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal…But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” We await total heaven but let us live in the higher plane of His presence looking in on the our everyday lives with new eyes of seriousness and relaxed confidence.
I urge you to read “The Weight of Glory” by C.S. Lewis. It is easily found online.
Posted in Beauty, General, Random thoughts, tagged Beauty, Random thoughts on October 28, 2007| Leave a Comment »
I was buying a gift for my wife the other day that needed wrapping. Given the lateness of the hour I had the store clerk wrap the gift. While I was waiting I began noticing the trinkets in this particularly tasteful gift shop. Besides candles and cards there were many personal accouterments. On the counter was a large display of earrings and necklaces. Curious as to which ones might be of a style my wife would like I looked more closely. The present “in” style is for less gaudy with pieces that are or seem to be bits of feather or tooth or something natural. Many, however, had the additional item that was a triangular, dish-shaped bronze or silver colored piece of metal behind the bit of feather. Suddenly, it occurred to me that some of these looked exactly like fishing lures, some even like well tied fly fishing lures. Oh, of course I mused. They are lures, just for bigger fish. I wondered where the hooks were.
Everyone loves symmetry. As I was reminded as I am participating in a curriculum workshop at William and Mary College this week, “Physicists love symmetry”. Observers of beauty, whether of your beloved’s form or “peak flower” bloom or architecture or tree bole or interior decoration, love symmetry. Music and poetry have popular appeal when there is symmetry. Mathematician’s even do proofs (ugh!) to have symmetry (1≡1). You don’t have to be OCD to appreciate or seek or manage for symmetry. God has made you with a built in desire for it. When a musical chord is not resolved (all notes simple multiples that resonate rather than produce dissonance) you cringe because of the interference of the sound waves that is displeasing. The “off key” sound is purposeful to produce tension in your spirit but is resolved in good music (judgment call I know, but it is also the very argument of this post). God has even put symmetry into the seemingly asymmetrical. For example, leaves do not always appear symmetrical. But informed geometers know that deep within their structures are molecules attaching in symmetrical structures that build upon each other in what the mathematician calls a fractal (a repeating mathematical progression; clear example: the shape of a nautilus seashell). And the physicist loves the symmetry because it points to simplicity and structure, the evidence of truth and therefore of satisfaction to the physicist. So how about the most asymmetrical object or idea you can think of. Does it have a hidden symmetry we have yet to find or evidence of a degradation from its original or intended form? I suspect that if God is the author of it there is symmetry to be found. It matches His nature and points to Him.
Exploring nature, ancient civilizations, art, photography, and written reflections through stories, visuals, and cultural inspiration.
"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart…" Matthew 15:18
Pointing to the One who made, saved, and sustains
CreatorWorship 
Bored to Death
Posted in Beauty, Cultural commentary, General, God Thoughts, tagged Beauty, Cultural commentary, God Thoughts on May 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
On my classroom wall is posted the statement, “Bored is not a circumstance; it’s a state of mind.” From the frequency of gaming, surfing the web and channels, and various other vicarious pursuits of entertainment coupled with short attention spans and lack of excitement for anything short of amazing I would say it is a common state of mind. Other evidences may be harder to see: boredom with marriage, the job, the church, or life itself. As Thomas Dubay puts it in The Evidential Power of Beauty boredom is “an insipid tedium with existence itself. Reality [is] a colossal blah.” (p.73) What is the cause of this state of mind? Part of Dubay’s answer is as follows: “The personal inability to perceive truth and beauty is related as first cousin, if not sibling, to a lack of wonder, which in turn, often if not always, arises from jadedness, from a perduring and even disgusting boredom caused by excess and overindulging” (p.72) He is in fact repeating himself because jadedness means dullness brought on by excess. So many people are seeking out more amazing, more sensually beautiful, or more violent stimulation to stave off boredom but these things are causing it. In fact, “fully jaded men and women, old or young, marvel at nothing.” (p.73) One area where this dullness is resulting in a desire to ramp up the stimulation is the immodesty of dress in public and in every form of media. I think that the following statement relates to this idea: “It is one of the notable sadnesses of our time that so many are incapable of fascination with the deeper levels of human beauty, especially those rooted in the spirit, levels that far transcend physical attractiveness.” (Dubay, p.64) To summarize, boredom occurs because over stimulation dulls the mind so that it cannot in turn “perceive truth and beauty”.
But if over stimulation were the primary cause would it not be eventually self-correcting when the stupor of dullness persists? Would not the bored soul stop pushing forward into continued boredom? I believe the answers are no. The bored person is addicted to the stimulation of senses because he or she is trying to fill a great void, an emptiness in their soul brought on by their own sin or very frequently the hurt caused by someone else’s sin. Jeremiah 2:13 says that people “hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Obviously the answer is not pouring in more stimulation to relieve the boredom or hurt because the void can never be filled that way. As a friend of mine said recently, when people are so focused on themselves they cannot help but become bored. They need to focus on something outside themselves.
You may say, “What’s the big deal. Someone is bored. Get up and do something; get over it.” I am not referring to a momentary Tuesday afternoon lack of something to do. As I have observed it this boredom is a growing disease that is robbing people of purpose and happiness. To the unbeliever I would say, you need Jesus who can heal your sin and your hurts. As He has said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) God’s salvation is sufficient but that salvation will need to be worked into a person’s life through a growing relationship with God that will heal hurts. The believer who is bored has either given up ground or never taken it from the enemy. The first part of the verse above about broken cisterns says, “My people have committed two evils: The have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters”. Our primary focus must be God. Part of the solution for the believer may be to fast from mere entertainments and seek more profound beauty. “Cease striving and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Seeking God will increase your thankfulness and erase the dullness of reaction to beauty and truth. The dullness of boredom can be erased by knowing and serving God rather than things or ideas or self.
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