Quoted: Little Pirate Man

Unchangeable

     Change.

     I don't like it. I rebel against it. I exert myself in trying to hinder the ultimate inevitable of life. There is nothing I can do, though, to stand against the oncoming rage that this river holds.

     And it's a river called change. And change makes me weep.

     That sounds dramatic, even for me. It sounds desperate. But it is, because I often am desperate. Because I lose sight of what change truly is. Of what change truly means. And all I can see is how change is affecting my plans and how those plans are going to come crashing around my head like an erupting Mt. St. Helen. But I so often fail to see change for what it truly is.

     They tell me change is normal. The media. The scientists. The brains of society. They say that my body is in a constant state of change. (I wonder, then, why I am not in a constant state of weep?) In order for our physical bodies to remain healthy and functioning, they must constantly be turning themselves over and creating newness.

     Donald Miller discusses this concept in his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, as he quotes a friend:

     “People get stuck, thinking they are one kind of person, but they aren't. The human body essentially recreated itself every six months. Nearly every cell of hair and skin and bone dies and another is directed to its former place. You are not who you were in February.”

     My body is adept at change, and yet still my mind doesn't like it. Or perhaps that isn't even possible, because my mind is just as adept. Every word I say, every person I meet, every book I read, changes my mind. I am as a machine that only gets smarter if you show me something new.

     We all are.

     And yet, even as my mind grows as I write this, I still claim to hate change. And I am tempted to say that hate comes from my heart. But how can my heart hate that which it knows strongest through Christ: change?

     I was changed by a God who I could not resist. I could not stand against His change in my life. Then why do I buck so fiercely against all other changes? What is within me that hates it, that despises it, that accepts it reluctantly if I come to accept it at all? 

     Something was very strongly impressed upon me this summer that I had thought little about before I mean, I'd thought about it some, but not much. Not really. And that altering truth was this:

     God is unchangeable.

     And not just that He doesn't want to. It's not just that people haven't tried.

     God cannot change. It is not in His nature. It is utterly impossible for God to change in any way whatsoever.

     I watch a movie. I see a new actor I had previously not seen. I change because something new has entered my mind that had not entered it before. I listen to a new song. I meet a new person. I breath a new breath.

     And yet God knows all. There is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9) He is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

     I am the same NEVER. Nothing about me is ever the same as it was before. And yet I serve a God who knows no change. A God who is unchangeable. And that bring immeasurable hope, because my hope is founded in One who cannot possible change the reason that I hope in Him. Heartbreak, rejection, betrayal, fear, divorce, murder, dishonesty, sin. They are all a result of change.

     Of people changing. Of decisions changing. Of plans changing. Of hearts changing.

     But God exists outside of change. Change is not a part of Him.

     The author Sheldon Vanauken says this in his book, A Severe Mercy, in regards to another aspect of the earthly condition:

     C.S. Lewis, in his second letter to me at Oxford, asked how it was that I, as a product of a materialistic universe, was not at home there. 'Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures?' Then, if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest?

     It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely temporal creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it – how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren't adapted to it, not at home in it. If that is so, it may appear as proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home.

     He is questioning why he hates time. Why he does not feel at home in it. Why it bothers him so. And he realizes it is because He serves and strives to be like a God who is outside of time. He realizes he was created for a timeless place to be a timeless person. And so he longs to be outside of time like his Father. 

     He longs to be timeless as God is timeless.

     And Vanauken's claims made me wonder if that is the very same reason I cannot grow accustomed to change. The same reason I hate it. Because I long to be like and be with an unchangeable God. Christ has changed me, yet still my heart long to be where I will never have to change again. Where it will not creep up on me like a foreboding shadow. Where what I love won't have to be traded away for something else.

     Where I will be perfect.

     In an eternity that does exist, and is most definitely our home.

    

Nerd Girl

I never thought I was a nerd. It never crossed my mind that I could possibly be a nerd. And I'm not about to go labeling myself and saying I am a nerd, because I don't like labels, not on me or anyone else.

So, we'll put it this way: I have some characteristics of a nerd. I'm sure you have the characteristics of some type of person you didn't even think you remotely resembled. It's amazing how much you can discover about yourself.

 I don't have children yet, but I've already named them. Oh dear. Nicholas from Nicholas Nickleby has always held a spot in the options for boy's names.

I am a great admirer of the Sherlock Holmes books and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work, having poured for hours over the short stories, mysteries, adventures and novels that Dr. Watson chronicled.
So my advice to you: don't watch the new movies. I refuse to watch them and so should you. If only the American public would just read the books.

 I admit I have done this. I spent an entire school day reading "Great Expectations" while I should've been doing math or Literature or some other subject I am graded on. But if there was any author this is worth falling behind on school work for, then it is Charles Dickens.

 This happens to me all the time. Most recently, a friend's mother gave the whole "Dark Knight" plot and ending before I had time to run away or plug my ears. I have no hard feelings, but now the movie won't be as exciting. I hope this never happens to you, and I hope I never do this to anyone, though I'm sure I have.

 And no one ever does! For example, what happened today? Frank Sinatra was born in 1915. When the feeling strikes me, I will decorate for random historical events - like the shooting of Jesse James or the sinking of the Titanic - and the family is served a themed dinner. 

I am not ashamed of celebrating the mundane or the unknown.

It makes life more interesting.

Someone asked me what my favorite book was. I told them "Tarzan of the Apes."

Then they asked me why.

I didn't have the time to do the subject justice and the conversation was cut short, but this not the first time someone has asked me to explain a subject I love and I cannot condense my answer without horribly mutating the original subject.

This is when I invite you out for afternoon coffee so I can properly educate you on the subjects I love.

So I guess it is true.
I guess, maybe, I am a nerd.

To live will be an awfully big adventure.

One Day at a Time

 

I am so sorry for the lack of posts on here. I have my list of excuses, but you probably don't want to hear them. I thought I was going to have a quiet, boring summer - but I happen to be blessed with amazing friends who wrecked those plans.

So much for blowing bubbles on the back deck all afternoon.

My days have been filled with book reading, (I am currently tackling Erasing Hell by Francis Chan and The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams,) local sightseeing, parties, rehearsals, family dinners, work, trips, watching the new Spider-man, (definitely a highlight,) camp, and visiting with out-of-town friends. One of these days I'll get around to making that new pencil-skirt and writing to the Queen of Denmark.

What has your summer been like?

I won't be around until probably August, so go enjoy the humidity, the 104 degrees in the shade, and don't regret the end of the day. Tomorrow is always coming.

Quoted: Some Days

When You Need a Friend

You can count on me like one, two, three, I'll be there,

And I know when I'm needed,

I can count on you like four, three, two, and you'll be there,

'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do...

- Bruno Mars

Change Something

Quoted: Keep Calm

This is honestly a motto which I have followed in life. It's amazing how far a fake British accent can take you sometimes. Try reading Ozymandias with a British accent.
The poem will never be the same.

Who else loves the "keep calm" signs? I didn't even know what they were until the royal wedding last April. (Which, yes, I did get up and watch on TV. The best part was the Westminster Boys Choir singing This is the Day.)
Now these signs enchant me am I am saving every cute one I find. The original is the best, though:



A bit of history:
These signs were issued by the British government in 1939 at the start of WWII, intended to raise British public morale in the event of invasion. For some reason, it didn't really catch on, and only a limited number were printed.
They were rediscovered in 2000, and have now been parodied to no end. As I said, they were pretty popular during the royal wedding.

Some others:

This is for everyone who grew up reading Sherlock Holmes. I actually had my own "Speckled Band" experience this morning, (which was the first Sherlock mystery I ever read.) Except, it was not a snake coming out of the bedroom vent, but a very large spider coming out of the bathroom vent.
My worst fears were realized.

And I thought big spiders only lived out west.





Or, in the event that passing things at the table with the force doesn't work, wave your hand across someone's face and tell him that these aren't the Droids he's looking for.


This is quite possibly the best way to stay calm. I spend my days singing anything and everything, and it usually takes a very irritated family member who is wishing peace and quiet to get me to stop.
As Christina Rossetti said, "My heart is like a singing bird."


There. I just gave you eight very good reasons to keep calm, so we should all be calm for at least a little while, now.

And do not be surprised if more of these signs come up on my blog from time to time. We all need ridiculous reasons for why we should not be so stressed out. Or at least I do.

And Call it Love

Quoted

Quoted

Being a Christian is more than attending church on Sunday. It is living out our faith, day by day, in our words and our actions. If we proclaim to be Christians, we need to proclaim it every single day.
Not just on Sundays.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Quoted

Quoted

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.”

-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Quoted