Writing Journal (Day Two)

Not that yesterday's was any good, but today's will likely be worse, since I don't have all day to tinker with inspiration.

I started off this morning with a self-indulgent bit before work, fully intending to finish it while on break. But when I got to break, I found a voicemail from my mom and a text from my sister saying that Sgt. Daniel Thompson, a guy I graduated high school with, was killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday. (See story here.)


Naturally, I scrapped the first one and started one with the intent to memorialize him. Except it sounded like a hundred other poems that had been written. I scrapped that one, too, and wound up with this one.
_____________________________
Prayer for Daniel

The cuts on my hand
Seem like nothing compared to
The life your friends lost.
The extra bread he gave
Does not console me,
For I need little consoling.

I have but one simple memory of you:
In our eleventh year of school,
You showed me a poem
Written for your girlfriend.
The toothy grin you gave me
When I told you it was good
Will soon be buried under stars, stripes, and sand.

May you find peace on the other side,
For you did not find it here.
May those you loved behind
Carry your voice and smile in their hearts.
You will meet them in the hustle and the bustle
Of the Resurrection morn.
I pray that that is not the last you'll see of them.

Writing Journal (Day One)

Today's poem is inspired by something I almost said in a message to a friend. I was suggesting she show up somewhere just as the event was starting and used the phrase "the edge of time." The message I sent actually used the phrase "barely on time."


I opened up the windows in the living room and busted out a pencil and notebook for this one. I prefer doing poetry on paper rather than keyboard (it's the opposite for prose, though). Give myself some natural light and a comfy place to rest.


Then came the walk to the grocery store for breakfast/snacks and milk. Saw a man picking up large branches that had been buried under the snow and saw a couple of cute little girls each going into the store with their respective parents.




Then came the bike ride, where I came up with the ending of the poem.



____________________________
The Edge of Time

The edge of time,
It stands to reason,
I sthe abysmal leap
Into the season.

The ray of hope
Is clouded over.
No light now shines
On this four-leaf clover.

Breaking earth
From all that matters,
Soon enough,
This ice will shatter.

Glory wins,
Then glory fades.
The brightest sun
Shines through the shades.

Lenten Writing Challenge

I just saw an event today on facebook challenging/suggesting current members of WREN to write 40 Poems or 40 pages in 40 days. So...starting Feb. 25 (that's this coming Wednesday), I'm going to participate.

I'll most likely be starting off with poems, seeing as all of the fiction I want to work on is trapped on Lucy. So close and yet so far...

Wish me luck. I'll be posting the results of the challenge here, under the title "Lenten Writing Challenge."

Reading Journal

Haven't read a whole lot, but was really struck by the account of the apostle Thomas that Johna MacArthur gave. Was also intrigued by MacArthur's relaying of the story of Lazarus. He had some interesting things to say about Christ's reason for tarrying before going to Bethany. I intend to study the story more closely for myself before I decide whether or not to agree with MacArthur's opinion on the subject. Maybe the JST has some insight that he wouldn't have considered.



His description of Thomas, though, was interesting. Most people call him "Doubting Thomas," because he didn't believe in Jesus's physical resurrection until he could touch the wounds himself. MacArthur points out that the other disciples didn't, either. It's just that Thomas wasn't in the Upper Room because he was so sorrowful about Christ's death that he didn't want to be around his friends. So he didn't believe that the other apostles had seen the resurrected body.



On pages 187 through 189, MacArthur describes Thomas's personality and the love that he had for our Savior. I wish I could quote the entirety of it all. But this excerpt from p. 188 sums things up nicely, and is one I find quite inspirational.

"Thomas obviously had a deep devotion to Christ that could not be dampened even by his own pessimism. He had no illusion that following Jesus would be easy. All he could see were the jaws of death opening to swallow him. But he followed Jesus with an undaunted courage. He was resolved to die if necessary with his Lord rather than forsake Him. He would rather die than be left behind and separated from Christ."

I think the motivation behind the book (which I'm almost finished with) can be summed up with this sentence on page 195:
"If the faults and character flaws of the apostles seem like a mirror of your own weaknesses, take heart. These are the kinds of people the Lord delights to use."

Reading Journal

I've made it through almost half of "One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven." And it's clearly written by someone who makes his living by giving speeches. I've got to give the guy (Mark Cahill) credit: he's got some interesting ideas. Like putting tracts in cases of pop and beer at the grocery store as a way to "witness." A word that's overused in the book, in my opinion.

I'm really interested to get to the chapters on what, specifically, he says when "witnessing," because the early, generic, motivational chapters really don't do much of that. Just him sharing stories of people he's run across spattered around his encouragement and directions. I find that, while his heart is near the right place, he is severely misguided. (And I haven't even read the chapters where he provides textbook answers to common questions yet.) That being said, I tend to make an effort to find wit and/or wisdom in all that I read.
Here's some now...

p. 39
This guy has a lot of stories about witnessing to prostitutes.
"Whenever I tell this story, it ruffles people's feathers. One person asked, 'What if someone from your church drove by and saw you picking up a prostitute?'
I answered, '...they would probably say, 'There goes Mark again witnessing to a prostitute; let's pray for him.' Then they would probably pray that if I ahd picked up that prostitute for the wrong reason, the Spirit would convict me so that I would not do anything to discredit the ministry."

p. 40
"I want every person I meet to be in a relationship with Jesus."

p. 56
"Are you sure you want to witness by your actions alone? I definitely don't want to do that, because sometimes my actions don't portray my Savior in a very good light."

p. 74
"I guarantee that you will be dead a whole lot longer than you will be alive."

p. 76
"Don't put your head on your pillow tonight unless you know exactly where you're going to spend eternity."

p. 79
"Personally, I don't have time for temporary friendships (that is, just hanging out with people who don't know the Lord). I do have a lot of temporary friends, but it's for the purpose of making them eternal friends."
Interesting concept....

____________________________

Because I was getting fed up with the word "witness" and it's various forms, I switched over to "Twelve Angry Men." Here are some insights I've found since the last time I posted about insights from this book.

p. 124
"Many people are just as imbalanced as John was....They place too much emphasis...on love....Some are merely ignorant; others are deceived; still others simply do not care about what is true. In each case, truth is missing, and all they are left with is error, clothed in a shallow, tolerant sentimentality. It is a poor substitute for genuine love. They talk a lot about love and tolerance, but they utterly lack any concern for the truth. Therefore even the "love" they speak of is a tainted love....
"On the other hand, there are many who have all their theological ducks in a row and know their doctrine but are unloving and self-exalting. They are left with truth as cold as facts, stifling and unattractive. Their lack of love cripples the power of the truth they profess to revere."

p. 125
"If you pursue anything in the spiritual realm, pursue a perfect balance of truth and love. Know the truth and uphold it in love."

"The authentically Christlike person knows the truth and speaks it in love. He knows the truth as Christ has revealed it, and he loves as Christ loves."

Holy smackdown!! (And, yes, I mean that both ways.)

p. 136
"And yet his love never slid into indulgent sentimentality."
I found that very poetic.

And this just occurred to me: I was talking with one of the sisters on my new Visiting Teaching list, and she commented how much of a page-turner the gospel of John was. And every single one of those quotes was from the chapter on John. Even things written about John are impressive. His awesomeness permeates even that which only mentions his name.

Reading Journal

During the month-long hiatus from this blog, I started and finished "Stranger in a Strange Land." It's apparently the most famous sci-fi novel ever written. Which explains why I've heard of it. A kid from work loaned it to me; he'd been bugging me to read it for a while.

Overall, I liked it. The premise, anyway. Humans make an expedition to Mars and a woman gives birth to a child conceived as a result of an affair, so she leaves him there. He gets raised by Martians and brought back to Earth. Loddy-doddy-this, loddy-doddy-that, I'm going to spoil the ending (since a truly good read is more about the journey than the destination, anyway) by telling you he runs off with the first woman he met and they establish a religious-based way of life. There were more parallels to Mormonism than I would expect from a European author in the early 60's, although I hesitate to say that. The hesitation comes from the unparallels.

I was also bugged by some editorial errors. I've returned the book, so I can't provide actual anecdotes, but there were things that editors should have caught. I don't know why they haven't. The loaner insisted that every mistake was intentional. And while there were some that I could view as intentional (you're going to have broken speech when you have a Martian learning English, after all), some of them were inexcusable.

Another downside to returning the book (on the day I was given the internet back, of all days) is that I can't reference any quotes I found particularly intriguing. However, there was one that struck me enough for me to write it down elsewhere.
p. 363
"Love" is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

I'm still, erm, pacing through "Twelve Ordinary Men." Once we got to the especially ordinary ones, it got less interesting. I also just started a book called "One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven." And the answer to your question (I know you're asking because that's why I started reading it) is: ministering to a non-believer. Not really far enough into it to be able to say much. Maybe it'll help with my new church calling as a ward missionary. Funny, but I just now realized that the former owners of this house were professional missionaries for some other evangelical organization.