How oft I've wished to run away
To see what lies beneath the stars
These city lights they kill the night
Keep blind those who were blind to start
I can't recall the days
When all I could say
Was how wonderful
A maker I have
How long I've waited for a time
When where I dwell is by the tree
That bears fruit that produces life
And keeps me satisfied, complete
Can you recall the days
When all we could say
Was how glorious
A maker we have
My God, we'll sing
How marvelous you are
My God, I see
A place more majestic
Your hands have made
Both plants and cement buildings
Divine artwork
Creator of all things good
How deep a longing weighs in me
To live with people, live with life
To see wild creatures grow around
Architecture so profound
Then we'll relive the days
When all we could say
Was how loving-kind
A father we have
Do you remember how things used to be
Well they'll be better than that when we're fully redeemed
These wretched bodies new, the heavens breaking through
We'll be here in the city on earth
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Need-pleasures and Appreciative-pleasures
I was reading “The Four Loves” by C.S. Lewis again and something I didn’t fully understand hit me. Lewis talks about how there is a difference between Need-pleasures and Appreciative-pleasures (Need-love and Appreciative-love). An example of a Need-pleasure would be a glass of water when you are thirsty. When your mouth is parched and dry and you get a glass of water, the water quenches your thirst and pleases you greatly; but when you are not thirsty, water does not please you the same way. It is pleasing when it is needed; but when it is not needed, it fails to have the same pleasure it had. An example of an Appreciative-pleasure would be something like coffee. One never truly needs coffee, but we enjoy it for its taste and flavor. It is sheer delight (in it’s most innocent form) that causes one to drink coffee, whether that’s for the warm feeling it gives on a cold winter morning, the smell of the coffee beans as you open up the bag, or the diversity of flavors and blends from different parts of the world. I use the example of coffee intentionally because it is an example of an Appreciative-pleasure that can turn into a Need-pleasure when it becomes abused by the one who initially enjoyed it not out of need. People get addicted to coffee and, where it once was an Appreciative-pleasure, it becomes a Need-pleasure. So there is such a thing as a Need-pleasure that turns into something other than a pleasure: it turns from a key that once unlocked the door to pleasure into the lock on the door that kept the pleasure closed up to begin with. You no longer enjoy the thing simply because it is what it is; rather, you enjoy it because your body needs it to function.
And where there is a need, when that need is quenched, the pleasure is oftentimes quenched along with it. When you satisfy your thirst, you also satisfy the pleasure that comes along with drinking water. The pleasure leaves when the need leaves. When the need becomes a sort of vice, like when coffee becomes an addiction, so the thing that brought pleasure will potentially be turned into a vice as well. You will no longer drink coffee because you appreciate it, you will drink it because you need it. This doesn’t mean that all Need-pleasures are negative or vices. One's addiction to coffee might be a vice, but our addiction to water is never a vice. We need water to live, but we will never need coffee to live. C.S. Lewis says “Our Need-love for God is in a different position because our need of Him can never end either in this world or in any other. But our awareness of it can, and then the Need-love dies too.” The Need-pleasure we get in Jesus is a good thing because, like water, we desperately need our relationship with him to be right, which is only possible through faith in the gospel of Christ. When anybody becomes a Christian, there is usually some aspect of Need-pleasure that gets satisfied in Christ; oftentimes there is a temporary pleasure we receive just like water is a temporary pleasure when we are thirsty. People look to Christ to fill their temporary needs, just like the 10 lepers who came to him and were healed in Luke 17, 9 of which only received the temporary pleasure of being healed. Only one leper came back and received the pleasure of his greater need. Jesus does give people pleasure in and through temporary things sometimes, but most people do not come to him to satisfy their greatest need, a need that is everlasting. We have a greater need than being healed physically in this life: we have a need to be reconciled to God; in this we find a Need-pleasure that we will always have and that will always be satisfied in Jesus.
Lewis says later in that paragraph “There seems no reason for describing as hypocritical the short-lived piety of those whose religion fades away once they have emerged from ‘danger, necessity, or tribulation.’” If our Need-pleasure for Christ does not turn into an Appreciative-pleasure, it will (possibly) die off as soon as the need goes away. The Need-pleasure the 1 leper found in Jesus of physical healing turned into an Appreciative-pleasure, "Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks" (Luke 17:15-16). When one sees that Christ comforts them in trials, they become satisfied in their trials by Christ. But as soon as the trial ends, so does their need for Jesus to be their comfort. If they do not find pleasure in Christ simply for who he is, appreciating him out of sheer delight, their pleasure in him will die because it was based off of a temporary need. There are needs that aren’t temporary, and we will always have a Need-pleasure that is satisfied in Christ, but when all our pleasure in him consists of those needs that are temporary, no real or lasting pleasure will be found in him. There must be in every Christian a need that will always exist and will always be satisfied in Jesus, and there must also be in every Christian a pleasure to praise Jesus simply because of who he is. "Need-love cries to God from our poverty...Appreciative-love says: 'We give thanks to thee for thy great glory.'"
And where there is a need, when that need is quenched, the pleasure is oftentimes quenched along with it. When you satisfy your thirst, you also satisfy the pleasure that comes along with drinking water. The pleasure leaves when the need leaves. When the need becomes a sort of vice, like when coffee becomes an addiction, so the thing that brought pleasure will potentially be turned into a vice as well. You will no longer drink coffee because you appreciate it, you will drink it because you need it. This doesn’t mean that all Need-pleasures are negative or vices. One's addiction to coffee might be a vice, but our addiction to water is never a vice. We need water to live, but we will never need coffee to live. C.S. Lewis says “Our Need-love for God is in a different position because our need of Him can never end either in this world or in any other. But our awareness of it can, and then the Need-love dies too.” The Need-pleasure we get in Jesus is a good thing because, like water, we desperately need our relationship with him to be right, which is only possible through faith in the gospel of Christ. When anybody becomes a Christian, there is usually some aspect of Need-pleasure that gets satisfied in Christ; oftentimes there is a temporary pleasure we receive just like water is a temporary pleasure when we are thirsty. People look to Christ to fill their temporary needs, just like the 10 lepers who came to him and were healed in Luke 17, 9 of which only received the temporary pleasure of being healed. Only one leper came back and received the pleasure of his greater need. Jesus does give people pleasure in and through temporary things sometimes, but most people do not come to him to satisfy their greatest need, a need that is everlasting. We have a greater need than being healed physically in this life: we have a need to be reconciled to God; in this we find a Need-pleasure that we will always have and that will always be satisfied in Jesus.
Lewis says later in that paragraph “There seems no reason for describing as hypocritical the short-lived piety of those whose religion fades away once they have emerged from ‘danger, necessity, or tribulation.’” If our Need-pleasure for Christ does not turn into an Appreciative-pleasure, it will (possibly) die off as soon as the need goes away. The Need-pleasure the 1 leper found in Jesus of physical healing turned into an Appreciative-pleasure, "Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks" (Luke 17:15-16). When one sees that Christ comforts them in trials, they become satisfied in their trials by Christ. But as soon as the trial ends, so does their need for Jesus to be their comfort. If they do not find pleasure in Christ simply for who he is, appreciating him out of sheer delight, their pleasure in him will die because it was based off of a temporary need. There are needs that aren’t temporary, and we will always have a Need-pleasure that is satisfied in Christ, but when all our pleasure in him consists of those needs that are temporary, no real or lasting pleasure will be found in him. There must be in every Christian a need that will always exist and will always be satisfied in Jesus, and there must also be in every Christian a pleasure to praise Jesus simply because of who he is. "Need-love cries to God from our poverty...Appreciative-love says: 'We give thanks to thee for thy great glory.'"
Higher than I
This was a fun poem to write! The first line in each section has 8 syllables, the second line in each second has 16 syllables. FUN FUN FUN!!!
I do not understand your ways.
You allow, no, command the pieces to fall the way that you want.
I can’t see things the way you do.
You always see beyond today, beyond what I would like right now.
I can’t seem to grasp your workings.
You take a thing I really want and hold it back, away from me.
I do not think I trust your ways.
In my mind I know that you are good and desire the best for me.
But in my life I can’t believe.
It will not play out practically and work out like my mind believes.
Why can’t I trust in who you are?
And trust your ways are higher, greater, deeper than all mine could be?
Oh! That I would truly feel it!
Know it deep inside my heart, hold it in my innermost being.
Though I doubt your plans for me, Lord,
You remain true to yourself: you’re good, gracious, faithful, unchanging.
I do not understand your ways.
You allow, no, command the pieces to fall the way that you want.
I can’t see things the way you do.
You always see beyond today, beyond what I would like right now.
I can’t seem to grasp your workings.
You take a thing I really want and hold it back, away from me.
I do not think I trust your ways.
In my mind I know that you are good and desire the best for me.
But in my life I can’t believe.
It will not play out practically and work out like my mind believes.
Why can’t I trust in who you are?
And trust your ways are higher, greater, deeper than all mine could be?
Oh! That I would truly feel it!
Know it deep inside my heart, hold it in my innermost being.
Though I doubt your plans for me, Lord,
You remain true to yourself: you’re good, gracious, faithful, unchanging.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Jesus the Righteous
Who is like our God, became man
Who humbled himself even unto death
There is none more worthy of praise
Jesus, the righteous, the ancient of days
He reigns with power and sits on the throne
Of grace; he gives mercy like none there is known
None can wash as clean as you do
No one can save me from sin, none but you
Nothing can heal or mend broken hearts
None but Jesus; worthy thou art
Who can stand when weighed down by cares
When life makes me weary, when life seems unfair
Who can pay my ransom for sin
Jesus, the righteous, for me, was broken
Who can die and raise in new life
In silence, so humble, he suffered and died
From the grave he rose the third day
Jesus, the righteous, whom death could not slay
He reigns with power and sits on the throne
Of grace; he gives mercy like none there is known
None can wash as clean as you do
No one can save me from sin, none but you
Nothing can heal or mend broken hearts
None but Jesus; worthy thou art
Who humbled himself even unto death
There is none more worthy of praise
Jesus, the righteous, the ancient of days
He reigns with power and sits on the throne
Of grace; he gives mercy like none there is known
None can wash as clean as you do
No one can save me from sin, none but you
Nothing can heal or mend broken hearts
None but Jesus; worthy thou art
Who can stand when weighed down by cares
When life makes me weary, when life seems unfair
Who can pay my ransom for sin
Jesus, the righteous, for me, was broken
Who can die and raise in new life
In silence, so humble, he suffered and died
From the grave he rose the third day
Jesus, the righteous, whom death could not slay
He reigns with power and sits on the throne
Of grace; he gives mercy like none there is known
None can wash as clean as you do
No one can save me from sin, none but you
Nothing can heal or mend broken hearts
None but Jesus; worthy thou art
Monday, July 19, 2010
Pen and Tree
I spill my thoughts with pen and tree
It's such a joke, honestly
Cuz in my mind, my very being,
I'm given to a heart, you see
I can't explain, through pen and tree
Exactly what is happening
Affections lie so deep within,
Are married to my whole person
They can't be bound to pen and tree
Then thrown aside so thoughtlessly
To sit and then, by time, just rust
Become a hardened, breaking crust
And though I love my pen and tree
And though they do medicate me
They will suffice just one more day
Until my arms and words obey
It's such a joke, honestly
Cuz in my mind, my very being,
I'm given to a heart, you see
I can't explain, through pen and tree
Exactly what is happening
Affections lie so deep within,
Are married to my whole person
They can't be bound to pen and tree
Then thrown aside so thoughtlessly
To sit and then, by time, just rust
Become a hardened, breaking crust
And though I love my pen and tree
And though they do medicate me
They will suffice just one more day
Until my arms and words obey
Friday, July 16, 2010
Peace in Release
Oh! How do I release to you
The things I want and hold on to?
How do I give up those desires
I feel are placed upon my heart
By you, and not just by myself?
How do I put them on the shelf?
I do not know how to release
I do not know how to give up
Is there something I'm missing?
A word phrase not on my listing?
A rock I haven't over-turned?
A book I haven't fully read?
God! I feel like I'm crazy
I know I am not being lazy
Please teach me to fully release
So in you I can find some peace
The things I want and hold on to?
How do I give up those desires
I feel are placed upon my heart
By you, and not just by myself?
How do I put them on the shelf?
I do not know how to release
I do not know how to give up
Is there something I'm missing?
A word phrase not on my listing?
A rock I haven't over-turned?
A book I haven't fully read?
God! I feel like I'm crazy
I know I am not being lazy
Please teach me to fully release
So in you I can find some peace
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Beauty of Nature
I'm reading the book "Miracles" right now by C.S. Lewis. It is an amazing book. READ IT.
I was reading chapter 9 titled "A Chapter not Strictly Necessary" and thought Lewis described very beautifully how Nature is truly herself only when seen in light of something or someone bigger, namely God. I decided to post the last paragraph on my blog because I love Lewis' romanticism with Nature and the hope he had that one day it will be redeemed.
ENJOY!!!
"Only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little away from her, and then turn round, and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature's current. To treat her as God, or as Everything, is to lose the whole pith and pleasure of her. Come out, look back, and then you will see...this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas: this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, canaries, fleas, gases, tornadoes and toads. How could you ever have thought this was the ultimate reality? How could you ever have thought that it was merely a stage-set for the moral drama of men and women? She is herself. Offer her neither worship nor contempt. Meet her and know her. If we are immortal, and if she is doomed (as the scientists tell us) to run down and die, we shall miss this half-shy and half-flamboyant creature, this ogress, this hoyden, this incorrigible fairy, this dumb witch. But the theologians tell us that she, like ourselves, is to be redeemed. The 'vanity' to which she was subjected was her disease, not her essence. She will be cured in character: not tamed (Heaven forbid) nor sterilised. We shall still be able to recognise our old enemy, friend, playfellow, and foster-mother, so perfected as to be not less, but more, herself. And that will be a merry meeting."
I was reading chapter 9 titled "A Chapter not Strictly Necessary" and thought Lewis described very beautifully how Nature is truly herself only when seen in light of something or someone bigger, namely God. I decided to post the last paragraph on my blog because I love Lewis' romanticism with Nature and the hope he had that one day it will be redeemed.
ENJOY!!!
"Only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little away from her, and then turn round, and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature's current. To treat her as God, or as Everything, is to lose the whole pith and pleasure of her. Come out, look back, and then you will see...this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas: this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, canaries, fleas, gases, tornadoes and toads. How could you ever have thought this was the ultimate reality? How could you ever have thought that it was merely a stage-set for the moral drama of men and women? She is herself. Offer her neither worship nor contempt. Meet her and know her. If we are immortal, and if she is doomed (as the scientists tell us) to run down and die, we shall miss this half-shy and half-flamboyant creature, this ogress, this hoyden, this incorrigible fairy, this dumb witch. But the theologians tell us that she, like ourselves, is to be redeemed. The 'vanity' to which she was subjected was her disease, not her essence. She will be cured in character: not tamed (Heaven forbid) nor sterilised. We shall still be able to recognise our old enemy, friend, playfellow, and foster-mother, so perfected as to be not less, but more, herself. And that will be a merry meeting."
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