mighty mustard seed

Ugliness.

thesunshinepolicy:

Ugliness is…

The broken down typefaces of typewriters that can only punch out consonants

Broken speeches and broken sounds 

That only click with the tireless motion of a writer that is sick of the story

Ugliness is…

When some keys are stuck and so they are avoided

But what about the Z’s and Q’s, don’t they get a say?

Ugliness is…

You say, we don’t really use those letters any way, so no matter. 

But then we can’t write out zeal or spell out qualia. 

Ugliness is…

Living in a world where you can’t use those words. 

Especially where Z’s and Q’s are worth so much in scrabble. 

Scrabble, babble, rabble. 

Ugly, Ugly, Ugly. 

When words are missing, then they can’t be written in their completion. 

Because you are magnificent. 

Like the word zeal, like the word qualia. 

And I wish your story could be written out to its fullest. 

Can I mourn for missing letters? 

Because poetry without Z’s and Q’s is not quite poetry. 

You need the whole alphabet to be free. 

To be really happy. 

You could have been the perfect poem…

but you are missing the Z and the Q to make it complete. 

Ugliness is…

when the writer can’t write the story because of missing keys. 

Faith & Knowledge Part II

[by MightyMustardSeed]

All faith begins at a starting point, and it starts by acknowledging that, “In God we live and move and have our being.” This confessional statement speaks of a deeply rooted and intimate connection between us and our creator, God, and that by faith we seek and understand.

But, I don’t think that by “understanding” we somehow gain access to a full comprehension of these existential and theological concepts.  Even something as common as love is so profound, beyond definition, yet so full of life.  The thing about understanding God is that the more we know, the more we realize we don’t know, yet while we don’t know everything this doesn’t mean we cannot experience God in deeper ways.  ‘Good theology’ is not intended to hold all the answers but points to the great mystery of God’s love and how all of creation fits into this Grand Narrative of Redemption, Reconciliation, and Wholeness. 

I also think that faith is more than just a “conversion” to religious propositions per se, i.e. “I believe that such and such…”   In Latin, the word for our modern-day understanding of faith as belief is called “opinio”. Yet we know our faith in Christ is more than just opinion.   Interestingly, in the original biblical translation, there is no occurrence of faith appearing in this propositional sense, hence, there is no “I have faith that…”  Instead, the Latin word used in the biblical sense for faith as belief is “credo” which means “I set my heart”.

In the New Testament, there are many occurrences where the Greek word for faith (pistis) is even used without a direct object, signifying that faith is a quality or human virtue, like courage.  All that to say is, I don’t think as Christians we are meant to convince anyone of their propositional beliefs in a strictly religious sense because in the case for Christ, knowledge is only a tool, not the end.  Knowledge can help affirm religious beliefs but it’s faith in Christ that brings us to life and love. So the biggest challenge for me has been, “What value is greater knowledge without greater Love?”  Because I do acknowledge that these two things go hand in hand.  In other words, Faith and Reason are not inimical to each other when we get to learn the context, history and theology that underlies the things we believe.  It is good to have knowledge of the faith we set our hearts on.  But this journey we’re on is not to be wise in human knowledge alone, but to be wise in God’s love, and presumably that takes faith, like courage. The challenges of faith, love, and learning :)

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” [Galatians 2:20]

DK’s story.

Hello. I’m 23, and I quit school in my third year of university because I was depressed and exhausted. I lived at home during my year off, and mum and dad made me go to church. I can’t believe I’ve been coming here for a year now, because most of the time I’d sit in this room with my mind elsewhere, full of hate and anger at God, and at people who loved God.

During this year off, Sunday mornings began with mum trying to drag me out to church. During the one hour car ride, whenever mum spoke of God, I’d yell ‘God doesn’t exist’, and when the day finally came when I moved out, I wouldn’t go to church. I remember my mum’s face when I said that. She’d cry silently in the passenger seat as dad kept driving. She tried to hide her face from my siblings and me, but I knew what she was doing, and I didn’t care.

Continue reading…

The Gravity of Grace.

[by thesunshinepolicy]

Yesterday night I went to an event on sex trafficking, and was asked the question, “What do you think is true freedom?” 

I thought about it and I guess there are two different ways that people can perceive freedom. 

One can feel free, if everything in their life is perfectly planned for them. Everything from which school they will go to, what friends they will make and keep, what career they will do and where they will reside and raise their own family.  It is freedom because you never will have to think for yourself, you just do what you are told and everything works out for the best.  But it is also incredibly predictable and boring. 

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Faith & Knowledge Part I

[by MightyMustardSeed]

Faith & Knowledge.  Certainly these two things go hand-in-hand, and I am still learning the depth and complexity of this relationship.  Since entering into a masters of theological studies, my new-found experience of knowledge as facts had led to a new-found experience of faith, that is… until my theological knowledge about God started to cast a shadow over who God is.

Before I knew it, my questions seemed as juvenile as my beliefs: Is Jesus really the Son of God? Do I really believe that?! Is Jesus God incarnate? That’s Ridiculous. And so my enlightened ‘knowledge as fact’ was not so enlightening after all because I was still hungry for the Truth, still desiring to know more of the Truth that came to me when I first believed.  I realized in that moment the depth of Jesus’ words: “The kingdom of heaven belongs to [children] such as these.” (Matt. 19:14)  But a child-like faith is anything but childish, just as my questioning was anything but juvenile.  These are the beginnings of a profound knowledge of what faith truly is.

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“It’s A Piece of Cake:” Mere Christian Musings

[By Daeshin]

It’s a piece of cake for us to forget how thankful we can be. So easily we are blinded by our “big problems” that we cannot recognize all of our “small” blessings in life. How many times have we missed an opportunity to give thanks? I guess that’s why we need specific times during the year to remember to be thankful, to remember that God is the God of the big and the small; and the small can go such a long way.

Not so long ago, I took my son Heesung out to play at Chapters.  Considering I didn’t have a coffee at home, I decided I would make a stop at the Starbucks, which is conveniently placed close to the children’s area of Chapters.  As we approached the counter, my son took sight of a chocolate lollipop and in baby Korean said, “eeto, eeto” (meaning “this one, this one”) while pointing at the teeth-destroying, chocolatey sugar bomb.  I was trying to persuade him to eat a croissant instead; while in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but think what my wife would say when she saw that I used our tight student budget to buy our son over-priced junk food and a coffee that I could have had at home.  Seeing my failing efforts, one of the workers stepped forward and intervened.

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P.U.S.H

[By MightyMustardSeed]

Today I started volunteering as a teaching assistant with a program that helps young single mothers in an “inner-city” community earn their high-school equivalency of education. In particular, I helped tutor a woman named “Nadia” - a recent refugee from Africa, taking care of a newborn, plus three more kids at home, and a husband who left their family and rarely came around. Her story broke my heart, and yet this woman sitting next to me was so kind, gentle, and courageous.

We started sharing more after class, and the Holy Spirit opened up a floodgate. Nadia told me she was a Christian but her husband was not. Instead, her husband was “the kind of man who does not fear the Lord.  Do you understand” I nodded, and she continued, “But God says, ‘Fear of the Lord is the first step to wisdom.’” She said she continually prayed for her husband to change, but she knew it must come from the heart because God gives us free will. 

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