Saturday, September 13, 2014
Sunday, September 2, 2012
The Little Things
Everyday life. Everyday life is an adventure in and of itself. Anyone who is reading this will probably think, "Duh" or "Sheesh, cliche much!?" Regardless, it is something that is a new part of my journey and it is something that I am starting to do. Most of us simply live others try to live simply. This is not just some monetary slogan, it is an event slogan. Either you are busy, or you aren't. Either you try and get things done or you don't. Either your day is fretted or it is fret-less. Do you get what I mean?
I have a girlfriend, a car, some cash in my pocket and I am sitting here thinking, WOW! this seems vaguely familiar. Have I been here before, I wonder? Six years. It has been over six years since I was last in this position. Then I had a girlfriend, a car, and some cash in my pocket too. But then it was all meaning-less, hope-less, and going nowhere. It has been six years since I left everything for Christ and I am now in exactly the same type of position I was then but now, while the same, everything is different.
Post-Rivendell each thing seems to be more colorful if not at least more meaningful. I cry at what I use to laugh at. I laugh at what I use to cry at. What is different? I am beginning to wonder if it is not the little things. While little individually, collectively it feels a little overwhelming. I am hope-filled, not knowing where I am going still but definitely knowing I am headed in the right direction. Little things make all the difference or at least they seem to be making all the difference.
*shrug*
I have a girlfriend, a car, some cash in my pocket and I am sitting here thinking, WOW! this seems vaguely familiar. Have I been here before, I wonder? Six years. It has been over six years since I was last in this position. Then I had a girlfriend, a car, and some cash in my pocket too. But then it was all meaning-less, hope-less, and going nowhere. It has been six years since I left everything for Christ and I am now in exactly the same type of position I was then but now, while the same, everything is different.
Post-Rivendell each thing seems to be more colorful if not at least more meaningful. I cry at what I use to laugh at. I laugh at what I use to cry at. What is different? I am beginning to wonder if it is not the little things. While little individually, collectively it feels a little overwhelming. I am hope-filled, not knowing where I am going still but definitely knowing I am headed in the right direction. Little things make all the difference or at least they seem to be making all the difference.
*shrug*
Sunday, July 8, 2012
As usual, it takes me months to update my blog. SO very many have
taken place in the last few months that it appears too much of challenge
to chronicle it all here. However, four key things come to mind:
Graduation, Girl, Dad, and Family.
Graduation:
I have graduated! I did so with honors and special distinction. What a journey Rivendell has been! If you look back to some of the previous posts you will realize that I have been traveling this path for 3 years. This leg of my path is finally complete. I have completed the program which boasts of reading 413 sources and 12,000 pages while asking and answering some of man's greatest questions via some of man's greatest minds, all within the context of man's great story via the bible. God has answered one of my continual prayers: that He would be himself. He is faithful and good. My life is a living epistle of those two attributes.
Girl:
I have in fact met a girl - women really. She is beautiful, pretty, funny, smart, humble, sensitive, and she is even deeper than me (if you can imagine that! :-p). However, this is about as much as I am willing to blog about. After all, I enjoy my privacy.
Dad:
Two months ago, my father died unexpectedly. While it seems silly now to say unexpected for when is it ever capable of being expected?, it has left its mark on my heart. Death is a new experience for me. While troubles and hurdles may be gotten over, death is something that you must learn to live with rather than without. While much could be said about such a topic I find that my innermost feeling is not sorrow for my loss of him but of his loss of me. Before his death I was able to share many of my dreams and hopes with him, in so doing we both eagerly hoped to see the days when those things were to come. Alas, they are here and he is not. It is the joy that he will never experience that brings me such grief. O' that he might have delighted in these things with me.
Family:
Due to my new home here in Minnesota and my unexpected family connections in this area, new relationships have been forming. I have aunts uncles and cousins that I have never met coming forward to make this new place truly a home. I am thankful that so much heritage is here in Minnesota. Who knew!?
Till next time,
Joey
Graduation:
I have graduated! I did so with honors and special distinction. What a journey Rivendell has been! If you look back to some of the previous posts you will realize that I have been traveling this path for 3 years. This leg of my path is finally complete. I have completed the program which boasts of reading 413 sources and 12,000 pages while asking and answering some of man's greatest questions via some of man's greatest minds, all within the context of man's great story via the bible. God has answered one of my continual prayers: that He would be himself. He is faithful and good. My life is a living epistle of those two attributes.
Girl:
I have in fact met a girl - women really. She is beautiful, pretty, funny, smart, humble, sensitive, and she is even deeper than me (if you can imagine that! :-p). However, this is about as much as I am willing to blog about. After all, I enjoy my privacy.
Dad:
Two months ago, my father died unexpectedly. While it seems silly now to say unexpected for when is it ever capable of being expected?, it has left its mark on my heart. Death is a new experience for me. While troubles and hurdles may be gotten over, death is something that you must learn to live with rather than without. While much could be said about such a topic I find that my innermost feeling is not sorrow for my loss of him but of his loss of me. Before his death I was able to share many of my dreams and hopes with him, in so doing we both eagerly hoped to see the days when those things were to come. Alas, they are here and he is not. It is the joy that he will never experience that brings me such grief. O' that he might have delighted in these things with me.
Family:
Due to my new home here in Minnesota and my unexpected family connections in this area, new relationships have been forming. I have aunts uncles and cousins that I have never met coming forward to make this new place truly a home. I am thankful that so much heritage is here in Minnesota. Who knew!?
Till next time,
Joey
Monday, December 19, 2011
Weeks Two Through Five
What a time it has been! I have been to Rome, Venice, Assisi, Fiesole, and now Sienna!
I have had the priviledge of completing E. H. Gombrich's history of art book as well as having wonderful and passionate conversations about beauty and art.
As individuals we have sought answers to questions such as: What is beauty?, What is art?, Is there such a thing as christian art?, or Should christians even participate in art?
Some questions have been brought to concensus but, as with most subjects, any answer reveals more questions.
From these photos I hope that you catch a glimpse into the beauty and majesty that has been preserved and cultivated here in Italy. With regards to a brief explanation of some of our discussions, allow me to let Charles Dickens give you a snapshot:
"How much better,'he said at length, 'to shun all such thoughts and chances, and, in the peaceful shelter of the church, devote your lives to Heaven! Infancy, childhood, the prime of life, and old age, whither as rapidly as they crowd upon each other. Think how human dust rolls onward to the tomb, and turning your faces steadily towards that goal, avoid the cloud which takes its rise among the pleasures of the world, and cheats the senses of their votaries. The veil, daughters, the veil!'
"Never sisters,' cried Alice. 'Barter not the light and air of heaven, and the freshness of earth and all the beautiful things which breathe upon t, for the cold cloister and the cell. Nature's own blessings are the proper goods of life, and we may share them sinlessly together. To die is our heavy portion, but, oh, let us die with life about us; when our cold hearts cease to beat, let warm hearts be beating near; let our last look be upon the bounds which God has set to his own bright skies, and not on the stone walls and bars of iron!'
- Charles Dickens : "Nicholas Nickleby" pg. 65-66
- "For Glory and beauty"
Location:Florence, Italy
Friday, December 2, 2011
First Week in Italy
It has been a momentous fee days. I have had the amazing priviledge of seeing some of the greatest pieces of art man has ever expressed. Pictures of these great works have not come close to the experience of standing before them in person.
As a group we have left the busy streets of Rome and moved to the much quieter hills of Tuscany. With our own private villa a complete with church dating back to the 15th century- we have settled in.
This trip has begun to open my eyes to a whole new language of the created order. Form, line, color, space, and composition. These are the tools of an artist. As I cultivate an "eye" for such things I have been drawn in a new way to the Great Artist. Beauty, what a thing to be desired.
God is the root of beauty. To search for beauty is to search for him. To create is to create after Him. I am beginning to see His creation as the work of art that He created it to be. I will keep you updated on how it goes.
- "For glory and beauty!"
As a group we have left the busy streets of Rome and moved to the much quieter hills of Tuscany. With our own private villa a complete with church dating back to the 15th century- we have settled in.
This trip has begun to open my eyes to a whole new language of the created order. Form, line, color, space, and composition. These are the tools of an artist. As I cultivate an "eye" for such things I have been drawn in a new way to the Great Artist. Beauty, what a thing to be desired.
God is the root of beauty. To search for beauty is to search for him. To create is to create after Him. I am beginning to see His creation as the work of art that He created it to be. I will keep you updated on how it goes.
- "For glory and beauty!"
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Update
It has been six months. Looking back always seems a little more surreal and dream like: the bad things falling from memory and good things in amazing technicolor.
Since mathematics I have sailed through physics, biology and am now in my third semester studying psychology.
From mathematics the grounds were laid for any discussion of physics: as physics may, in a sense, be considered math, applied. From the basic assumption that math analogously reveals the triune-nature of God through symbolic language we got to explore what math can do in the physical world. This application was explosive, we were able to do projects outside - finding the height and distance of an object using similar triangles .
Once we understood the physics of an object we moved into Biology- the study of Life. We got to ask such profound questions as: What is life? and What does it mean to be alive? We ended on the conclusion that life, rather than being a substance or force, is more likened to a capacity: A capacity that allows for a Response-Ability.
Standing upon the foundation of God (theology), our grasp of the metaphysical nature of reality (philosophy), the immaterial plans of reality (math), the material effects of those immaterial plans (physics), and the Response-ability given to that material in certain instances (biology), we have now zoomed in on man with Psychology.
Where does man's dignity come from? Where, when, how, and to what extent does his deformity occur? How may he be delivered? And what is his destiny? The answers to come!
P.S. I leave for Italy in 2 weeks. OH BOY!
Since mathematics I have sailed through physics, biology and am now in my third semester studying psychology.
From mathematics the grounds were laid for any discussion of physics: as physics may, in a sense, be considered math, applied. From the basic assumption that math analogously reveals the triune-nature of God through symbolic language we got to explore what math can do in the physical world. This application was explosive, we were able to do projects outside - finding the height and distance of an object using similar triangles .
Once we understood the physics of an object we moved into Biology- the study of Life. We got to ask such profound questions as: What is life? and What does it mean to be alive? We ended on the conclusion that life, rather than being a substance or force, is more likened to a capacity: A capacity that allows for a Response-Ability.
Standing upon the foundation of God (theology), our grasp of the metaphysical nature of reality (philosophy), the immaterial plans of reality (math), the material effects of those immaterial plans (physics), and the Response-ability given to that material in certain instances (biology), we have now zoomed in on man with Psychology.
Where does man's dignity come from? Where, when, how, and to what extent does his deformity occur? How may he be delivered? And what is his destiny? The answers to come!
P.S. I leave for Italy in 2 weeks. OH BOY!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)