Hinduism, meet Jesus: Post for 9/30

It amazed me how well the story, This Blessed House, was perfectly timed with the Hinduism section in my World Religions class. No joke. We just started learning about Hinduism last Thursday. I really enjoyed being able to understand Sanjeev's and his wife's perspectives on finding the Christian symbols throughout their house in a more in-depth way. The author expresses Sanjeev's unease with keeping the symbols in his house but didn't really give a further explanation of why he didn't like it. There was also no explanation of why she loved the symbols and he didn't despite the fact that they shared the Hindu belief. Did you know that many Hindus actually believe that Jesus existed and that he was a divinity? You see, they believe in one creator who is distant and does not and cannot speak to us. The way this creator speaks to people is through manifestations of himself which are known as the gods to the Hindu people. Many believe that Jesus was a manifestation of divinity, of their creator. I also find it interesting that some Hindus that believe in Jesus often have pictures of Jesus, especially Catholic images, hung in their shops, restaurants, and homes. This brings us back to the story. This Hindu belief of Jesus as a manifestation of divinity helps us to make sense of why the wife, Twinkle, was okay with and even excited about finding and displaying these Christian symbols around their home. Why didn't the husband like it? Maybe he was one of those Hindus who doesn't believe Jesus is divine at all and was just an influential man. There are also Hindus who don't find worshiping Jesus appealing because of the cultural context of him around the world. Maybe that was what he was thinking? To be honest, I don't even think that I would have those symbols in my house either and I am a Christian. I wouldn't want to get too caught up in the symbols and no longer focus on the relationship that God wants with us. He doesn't want us to worship symbols; He wants us to worship Him. Plus, I think some of those pictures and statues are just kind of creepy looking.

An Art Class (But Technically Not): Post for 9/28

When I heard about this assignment I was pretty excited. I love painting and art and creativity. I like to read a book or listen to a song and have images come to mind. Sometimes they are entire pictures. Other times they are just colors and patterns. When I read Joel it was difficult not to walk away with some vivid imagery. In fact, my hardest challenge was to pick what to paint from all of my many options. I ended up taking information from various parts of Joel and cramming it all into one picture. I used the passage on the locust, "What the gnawing locust has left.... the stripping locust has eaten". Part of Joel talked about fire, "For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness and the flame has burned up all the trees of the field". The book also mentioned, "The sun and moon grow dark". I just imagined this barren wasteland. No leaves on trees or grass. A tree on fire. Darkness. Locusts flying all around and landing on the plants to eat them. Not a pretty image.

When we got to class Professor Corrigan told us that the assignment was not intended for those who could actually paint. I thought, "Aw man! That was why I was going to like this assignment!". Then he mentioned how much time we had to paint. Thirty to forty minutes. I kept thinking how I wouldn't have enough time to paint what I wanted. I started to over think the assignment. I had to tell myself to stop and think about what I wanted to do. I told myself not to worry about whether or not I would finish the picture. I did, but that is beside the point. The point is I had to slow down and think about what I was doing and why. Why each part was important. I made myself not fix the many mistakes I made or I would have been there much longer. Actually, I might still be working on it because I would always be seeing something else that I could fix. Instead of focusing on the art involved in the assignment I started to focus on the literature part.

Talking to the Alligators: Post for 9/23/2010

As you all know, today in class we participated in an activity that was a bit more unorthodox than usual. We went and sat by the alligator infested lake and read parts of the book of Joel out loud. I am not the most outgoing person in the world so it was a little strange to me. Some people yelled, others didn't say anything at all. I spoke out loud in a normal voice. I read through the scripture and spoke the passages out loud that had anything to do with the land, crops, or anything of that nature. The only exception was the statement, "Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness." That one I said to the alligators. When I spoke out loud to the grass about the field being ruined I thought to myself, "No! I don't want to speak this over this land!" We have the power of life and death in our tongues, correct? I know I was just being silly, but then I thought about how it would have looked if the grass really had died and turned brown. I thought about the lake and how it could be dried up. The alligators wouldn't live there anymore, if they were even still alive. It was definitely a depressing thought. Especially when you think of it all being on fire along with everything else that is going wrong. But then I get to the part when God promises them deliverance. It tells us that the pastures have turned green so the beasts are not to fear. The tree bears fruit again. The locusts stop eating everything. This was a much easier thing to speak out loud. I didn't mind speaking blessings over the land. I imagined that the lake was fuller. I could feel the grass under my feet while I was sitting and I was thankful it was still there. I think I even heard the alligators swimming in the weeds.

The Book of Joel: Post for 9/21/2010

So often we hear quotes from the Bible that are taken out of context. I didn't think that I had ever heard anything out of the book of Joel until I came across a frequently quoted piece of scripture, "And your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions". Just before that statement are the words, "It will come about after this that I will pour out my Spirit on mankind". What came before? What was the prerequisite for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? In the previous section of scripture we see that the people had been delivered from the troubles they had been facing. God was blessing them for returning to Him and staying with Him. As I continue to look back further I start to see all of the different trials they went through. It speaks of darkness and gloom. There was starvation and drought. There were locusts that came. Am I saying that, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, all of these things have to happen? Of course not!! I am just trying to say that some people expect it to be so easy to receive prophecies and visions and dreams when in reality it isn't. In order for God to bestow upon the people in the book of Joel these gifts they had to go through a lot. When we come to God and He puts us through trials and tests it helps us grow. I think He is building us up so that we can handle the tremendous responsibility these gifts are. I also think that, though we don't go through actual starvation and drought and darkness, we get something like it. We all go through dry places in our walk with God (drought) and sometimes we feel He isn't giving us what we need(starvation). Sometimes we can even think that God isn't there (darkness). Sometimes the enemy tries to find ways to attack us, often through things or people that are important to us (locusts). I believe that when we get through these trials we come out stronger and God blesses us for staying with Him.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Post for Thursday September 16th

Our reading assignment to do before Thursday was to read Professor Corrigan's article "Darkness, Questions, Poetry, and Spiritual Hope". I am going to focus more on the "darkness" part of the article. If there was no darkness then we could never tell what the light was either. The Bible tells us that we, as Christians, are the light of the world. If you think about it, if there was no sin or worldly temptations, the "dark", you couldn't really tell that we were the "light". There would be nothing to compare the light to, no opposite that wants the light to lessen so the opposite can grow in size and intensity. I think sometimes it takes darkness for us to truly appreciate the light we have. When we see the sins and the situations that make up what is darkness it makes us happier and feel blessed to be in the light, at least it does for me. Funny thing about darkness, every time the light gets closer and more luminous it retreats further back and shrinks. If we think of that in terms of the enemy and us we have a little bit of the spiritual realm revealed to us. We see that every time we step closer and take a strike at the enemy they retreat. They run and hide. They are fearful of the light. Light destroys them. We don't really have to be afraid of the dark. Darkness is much more afraid of the light. Light can increase in intensity and grow on its own. Darkness depends on the lack of light to increase and grow. Darkness can only advance if we, the light, back off and give it the opportunity to. Why be afraid of something we control? The darkness is afraid because we control it! Did you that the dictionary definition of darkness is the absence or deficiency of light? I'm not sure where I am going with all of this but it is what comes to mind when I think of darkness, especially in spiritual terms.

Cemetery Visit Post for Tuesday September 14th

Instead of going to Tiger Flowers Cemetery, I went to Townsend House Cemetery. I stayed for at least 40 minutes. As a commuter student, it was difficult for me to make a trip to Tiger Flowers Cemetery that fit in my schedule. Townsend is less than five minutes from my house. It is also where my great-grandmother was buried when she died in 2006. Her name was Alice. I can't say that I ever had a period of mourning for her when she died. Before you think I am cold and heartless I have to explain why. I mourned her loss even while she was still alive. You see, we knew she was dying. She had dementia, which slowly causes memories and knowledge of everyday tasks to be lost. She hadn't been right for a long time, probably around six or seven years before she died. For the last three years or more of her life she didn't know me by name. She thought I was a woman named Joanne who was almost forty by then. She was still thinking of Joanne as a teenager just as she still thought of me as the little girl she made rice crispy treats with. You want to know something funny? Alice had lied about her age so many times over the years that she didn't even remember what year she was born in. We had to put off getting her headstone until we could find out her real birthday. Her favorite thing to eat was McDonald's chicken nuggets. She got her hair done every Friday because she always wanted to look her best. At least until she started to get worse. The loss of my great-grandmother wasn't nearly as tragic as C.S. Lewis' loss of his wife. I can't pretend to imagine what he felt like, even after reading A Grief Observed. In fact, I think the book showed me that I know even less about grief than I had thought. As I walked through the rest of the cemetery I wondered how many people buried there were still remembered and missed. I also wondered how many had been forgotten. I saw headstones there with death dates before the 1850s and even more that I couldn't read because age had made the etchings unreadable. I am including a few pictures from the cemetery. I know that nobody else visited this one so I want you to see it, too.

Post for Thursday September 9, 2010

I decided that I would paint a picture for the blog this time. Because we are reading A Grief Observed, I figured that it would be appropriate to paint tears in someone's eyes. C.S Lewis mentions crying. He says, "But the bath of self-pity, the wallow, the loathsome sticky-sweet pleasure of indulging it-- that disgusts me."(p.4) This statement compelled me to paint tears.

Post for Tuesday September 7, 2010

When I saw the Star Wars reference in Chapter 3 of our textbook I laughed. There has been a marathon of all six episodes on TV yesterday and today. I watched every one of them with my dad. Can you say NERD? But, it is okay. It really helped me to better understand the concept presented when the text mentioned Star Wars; that music is key to the theme of a film.

As I watched every episode I noticed how certain music would play for certain characters, especially Darth Vader. When the action picked up so did the music; it would get louder and created a sense of urgency. When there was a romantic moment between Leia and Han Solo or Anakin and Padme the music would become softer and more elegant. Music sets the tone and creates an atmosphere for a situation. If you had an epic fight scene you would find it odd if the music was fit to inspire tears. Music helps you connect emotionally to a movie. How do you think silent pictures worked? The characters never said anything. Sometimes there would be dialogue written on title cards but that only goes so far. Gestures and facial expressions can sometimes be misread. Music played a large role in how the audience responded to what was happening on screen. If there hadn't been any music, the film would be made primarily of people making funny faces and flailing about.

Have you ever seen a movie, or even a TV show, that didn't have some type of music in it? I can't think of one. Wouldn't it be weird if there was never any music in films or TV shows? I think it would be almost awkward. Would they be as memorable? I don't believe so. Would you be able to relate to them as well? Would you feel sympathy for the characters? Would you feel the love they feel? The pain? Sorrow? Joy? Relief? Probably not. Imagine Darth Vader walking down a hallway in the Death Star. No music is playing at all. I would be thinking something along the lines of: Why is this taking so long? Who is the freak in the space get-up? Why does he breathe like that? Is he supposed to be intimidating? Ha!

Literature Post for Thursday September 2, 2010

The view of love portrayed by the world (including the people in our story, What We Talk about When We Talk about Love) is vastly different to the Christian view of love. Love, as defined by the world is something like:
Lust. Lust is the foundation of the feelings you have for your significant other, be they your spouse or boyfriend/ girlfriend or some other title. When you stop lusting after them you stop "loving" them. If you look at our story it mentions that every one of them had either been married or lived with another person before. What happened to those relationships? They were built on a foundation that easily crumbles with time and troubles. The people involved didn't make that constant choice of "I am going to love them despite our disagreements and our faults".
Obedience. Women obey their husbands. The character by the name of Mel in the story tells his wife to, "Just shut up for once in your life. Will you do me a favor and do that for a minute?" He is expecting her to submit to him. He is not even regretful later on about his harsh words to her. I know that God tells us that men are the authority in the household but I am sure He did not mean for them to be cruel.
Violence. The character of Terri in the story was abused by the man in her last serious relationship. Though he beat her, she still insisted that he loved her. But why would you hurt someone you love? We are seeing the situation of abuse more and more often. So often the abuser's excuse is that they hurt the other person because they loved them. I just don't understand how that works. If you love someone wouldn't you rather protect them from pain instead of being the one who inflicts them with pain.
Envy. People often become envious of what another has or what they themselves don't have. They think that the other spouse is prettier, kinder, not as whiny, not as demanding, etc. If you truly love another person why would you even look at another? We should enter into a relationship accepting the good and the bad. We shouldn't look for what we think is "lacking" in a spouse in another person. Even Mel in the story tells the other man's wife that, if he didn't have his wife and her husband wasn't his best friend, he would fall in love with her. I'm not really sure what to say to that.
As Christians we think of love quite differently. We think of love in a 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 perspective. “Love is patient, love. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” I believe this is the way love was supposed to be.