I have a heart for people--I want to help, I want to love. I just have a hard time putting myself out there. It's not because I don't know how--I don't know where to begin.
I want to be the lightning--
unpredictable;
There is no beginning or end--
it just happens.
It doesn't think where it will go--
it just goes.
But lightning is fleeting;
it never has a lasting effect.
Does anything on earth last?
Everything is but a breath--
A peal of thunder--
it rolls for moments, then
disappears...
Since life is so brief, I want so much more to impact the people around me. It seems like an impossibility to touch people's hearts, so I find comfort in the words of Zechariah 4:6. "Then he said to me, 'This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," says the LORD of hosts.'" I looked up what the Hebrew word for Spirit meant in this context, and found that it means "wind, breath, mind, courage, blast." It usually imparts warlike energy and executive and administrative power.
I know that I can do nothing to make someone believe. I can only trust God to work in each person's heart. Too often, I find myself like Martha., "As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She has a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed-or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.'" (Luke 10:38-42).
I need to stop doing, and start being. I, like, Martha get caught up in the preparations. I think "if I say this and this, maybe a person might come to know Christ." I think about all the ways I can try to convince someone to believe the same as me. The truth of it is if someone can be talked into something, they can just as easily be talked out of it. Becoming a Christian isn't following a series of steps and processes and then getting a "Salvation Certificate." It is stepping into God's presence, and being in an intimate relationship with God Almighty, knowing that He has saved you from the death you deserve, instead giving you eternal life with Him. Likewise, being a Christian is not about realizing you love God but realizing God loves you. It is realizing that God is near enough to you to hear the faintest whisper of a thought in your heart.
When I come into conversation with someone who is not a Christian, I don't pray "God, give me the words to speak to them so they can know you," like I used to pray. Instead, I pray "God, let your presence be upon me so this person can feel your presence." God's Spirit is the most powerful force, so why--and how--do we forget His importance?
Showing posts with label poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poem. Show all posts
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Rain
The rain falls down,
washing away the grime of today,
cleansing and preparing the way for tomorrow.
The angry clouds loom overhead,
pouring out their wrath.
Tomorrow they will vanish
and humbly let the sun
shine its favor over the land.
Blue skies will seem foreign
yet clear and welcomed.
Flowers which have hidden their petals
from gloom now blossom
in the radiance of the new day.
The saying "The grass is always greener"
now rings true--
The grass is greener than yesterday,
but it is unknown
if it will be greener tomorrow.
Raindrops slid down the window pane,
blurring the view of the world;
Now, it is crystal clear,
displaying the world like a vivid painting
by an artist with a colorful imagination.
The purity and simplicity
of the world revealed;
The clouds drifting slowly
over the edge of the distant horizon.
Hope.
A soft breeze, rustling the leaves.
Hope.
A new day,
a new beginning.
Hope.
washing away the grime of today,
cleansing and preparing the way for tomorrow.
The angry clouds loom overhead,
pouring out their wrath.
Tomorrow they will vanish
and humbly let the sun
shine its favor over the land.
Blue skies will seem foreign
yet clear and welcomed.
Flowers which have hidden their petals
from gloom now blossom
in the radiance of the new day.
The saying "The grass is always greener"
now rings true--
The grass is greener than yesterday,
but it is unknown
if it will be greener tomorrow.
Raindrops slid down the window pane,
blurring the view of the world;
Now, it is crystal clear,
displaying the world like a vivid painting
by an artist with a colorful imagination.
The purity and simplicity
of the world revealed;
The clouds drifting slowly
over the edge of the distant horizon.
Hope.
A soft breeze, rustling the leaves.
Hope.
A new day,
a new beginning.
Hope.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Television News
Before I explain what television news teaches us, I want you to read the following poem by Walt Whitman...
"I Sit and Look Out"
--Walt Whitman
I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and
upon all oppression and shame,
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish
with themselves, remorseful after deeds done,
I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying,
neglected, gaunt, desperate,
I see the wife misused by her husband, I see the
treacherous seducer of young women,
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love
attempted to be hid, I see the sights on the earth,
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny, I see
martyrs and prisoners,
I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots
who shall be kill'd to preserve the lives of the rest,
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons
upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these--all the meanness and agony without end I
sitting look out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.
Every time you turn on the television, you are bombarded with what is referred to as news. Good news, bad news, breaking news, weather news... The list of types of news goes on. Yet it's mostly all bad or unimportant. Constantly, we hear about murders, rapists, fatal accidents, police chases, uprisings, natural disasters, and other catastrophes. We watch in stunned silence some times, other times we shout out in frustration (mostly after political news reports).
I recall a time I became overwhelmingly angry at the news. I was tired of hearing about tragedies and exaggerated statistics (we all remember the "Summer of the Sharks" the news talked about... The reporters made it sound like sharks were preying on innocent people when, really, there were no more shark attacks that summer than any other year). I was becoming depressed because I was only hearing about the problems, and not hearing anything that was good about our world.
Whenever I see a report about a fire that's happening in a faraway place, I can't help but think "Why should I care? What does it have to do with me?" Sometimes, I feel this way even when the news story is about a nearby town. I would always change the channel, feeling a million times worse than before I watched the reports. There was no point for me to watch the reports because the situations were all out of my control, out of my reach.
The more we watch bad news, the more apathetic we become. I realized that after a couple days of being surrounded by tragedy after tragedy, I didn't care anymore. Joseph Stalin (yes, the Stalin that led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) once said "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." This is coming from a man who killed off about 20 million people during the 1930s.
Just like Walt Whitman's poem said, I feel like I sit and watch, and do nothing about it. Our main problem is not complacency, being self-satisfied and unaware of possible danger. Our problem is knowing all the information in the world and doing nothing with or about it. The Bible says in James 4:17 "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."
When I feel like I can do nothing about the world events I watch, I know I can pray. Prayer is the most simple, yet effective way to make a difference. Who knows? Maybe your prayers will lead you to be the change in the world.
"I Sit and Look Out"
--Walt Whitman
I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and
upon all oppression and shame,
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish
with themselves, remorseful after deeds done,
I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying,
neglected, gaunt, desperate,
I see the wife misused by her husband, I see the
treacherous seducer of young women,
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love
attempted to be hid, I see the sights on the earth,
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny, I see
martyrs and prisoners,
I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots
who shall be kill'd to preserve the lives of the rest,
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons
upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these--all the meanness and agony without end I
sitting look out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.
-----------------------------------------
Every time you turn on the television, you are bombarded with what is referred to as news. Good news, bad news, breaking news, weather news... The list of types of news goes on. Yet it's mostly all bad or unimportant. Constantly, we hear about murders, rapists, fatal accidents, police chases, uprisings, natural disasters, and other catastrophes. We watch in stunned silence some times, other times we shout out in frustration (mostly after political news reports).
I recall a time I became overwhelmingly angry at the news. I was tired of hearing about tragedies and exaggerated statistics (we all remember the "Summer of the Sharks" the news talked about... The reporters made it sound like sharks were preying on innocent people when, really, there were no more shark attacks that summer than any other year). I was becoming depressed because I was only hearing about the problems, and not hearing anything that was good about our world.
Whenever I see a report about a fire that's happening in a faraway place, I can't help but think "Why should I care? What does it have to do with me?" Sometimes, I feel this way even when the news story is about a nearby town. I would always change the channel, feeling a million times worse than before I watched the reports. There was no point for me to watch the reports because the situations were all out of my control, out of my reach.
The more we watch bad news, the more apathetic we become. I realized that after a couple days of being surrounded by tragedy after tragedy, I didn't care anymore. Joseph Stalin (yes, the Stalin that led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) once said "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." This is coming from a man who killed off about 20 million people during the 1930s.
Just like Walt Whitman's poem said, I feel like I sit and watch, and do nothing about it. Our main problem is not complacency, being self-satisfied and unaware of possible danger. Our problem is knowing all the information in the world and doing nothing with or about it. The Bible says in James 4:17 "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them."
When I feel like I can do nothing about the world events I watch, I know I can pray. Prayer is the most simple, yet effective way to make a difference. Who knows? Maybe your prayers will lead you to be the change in the world.
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