Isolation

YES: in the sea of life enisled,
With echoing straits between us thrown.
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone.
The islands feel the enclasping flow,
And then their endless bounds they know.

But when the moon their hollows lights,
And they are swept by balms of spring,
And in their glens, on starry nights,
The nightingales divinely sing;
And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
Across the sounds and channels pour;

O then a longing like despair
Is to their farthest caverns sent!
For surely once, they feel, we were
Parts of a single continent.
Now round us spreads the watery plain—
O might our marges meet again!

Who order'd that their longing's fire
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
Who renders vain their deep desire?—
A God, a God their severance ruled;
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

To Marguerite; by Matthew Arnold

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On The Human Intellect

With respect to intellectual achievement, many in history had great knowledge. Their cerebral passages were filled with infallible logic and countless files of information. The understanding, to which they clung, however, was of their own intellect, based on a self-serving sense of scholastic superiority. Knowledge and human understanding is nothing without a deep-rooted faith in the source of all knowledge. In a Darwinian worldview, how can any man trust his brain, a deceptive product of what he believes to be years of development. The belief that all knowledge comes from within ourselves would be frightening, as evolution might not be complete, so the intellectual tenants to whom we cling may be inaccurate. Within the chaos of human ignorance, God gives us an opportunity to believe in the one who is infallible, one who is omniscient and omnipotent. Faith is having complete trust in the sovereignty of God and this is the foundation to all understanding. Through God’s redemptive work of sanctification, God provides us with the understanding that brings our faith to completion. God’s Word, the Bible, is the key to understanding, but He speaks through history, the arts, the works of men, and many other mediums. Faith is the starting foundation, upon which God fills us with his Spirit and opens our eyes to his wonderful presence in all parts of our human existence.

nate.

Faith Seeking Understanding

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iceberg.

I'm not feeling too profound tonight. Actually, I'm feeling quite tired. The past two weeks have been pretty killer with lots of stuff to work on and too much to do on the weekends. Between our homecoming weekend and going snowboarding, I have missed seeing those whom I enjoy the most up until last weekend, and I am wearing out. School life is picking up. Calculus is hard again, physics is frustrating to the point of anger, and my bedtime has once again shifted back to an average of 12 or 12:30 (no good). Socially, I have had some interesting weekends spending, surprisingly, a lot of time with GDS friends at homecoming festivities. The game was fun and the dance was actually very fun and relaxed, but still, little sleep. The next weekend, after much deliberating over a time to go, I went snowboarding with my cousin and his two sons, both about 10 yrs old. I love snowboarding, and it was a great time riding, but the boys wore me out and I was very tired of talking by the end of the weekend. My weeks have been filled with mindless noise, and I am feeling the weight of it all. As baseball now is starting up, my free time is slowly closing and the light under the doorway is dimming. At Core, the video on silence really hit me hard in the midst of my busyness, even in the context of church events and worship practices. I sat, in silent reflection, and saw all that I pack my life with. Looking over the next two weeks, things are not looking good and I feel like I've become a giant iceberg, slowly floating along, completely unaware of all that his beneath. In my tiredness, I enter survival mode, only moving to get through the next 40 minutes of spanish, or trying to survive the last 20 minutes of batting practice. I'm not sure quite why I wanted to write this out, but I'm not going to provide any happy Bible verse to end this with, that would be untrue of my sentiments. I will just leave you where I am at, waiting for the ice to break.

What is that sound high in the air

Murmur of maternal lamentation

Who are those hooded hordes swarming

Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth

Ringed by the flat horizon only

What is the city over the mountains

Cracks and reforms and bursts in violet air

Falling towers

Jerusalem Athens Alexandria

Vienna London

Unreal

A woman drew her long black hair out tight

And fiddled whisper music on those strings

And bats with baby faces in the violet light

Whistled, and beat their wings

And crawled head downward down a blackened wall

And upside down in air were towers

Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours

And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.

In this decayed hole among the mountains,

In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing

Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel

There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.

It has no windows, and the door swings,

Dry bones can harm no one.

Only a cock stood on the rooftree

Co co rico co co rico

In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust

Bringing rain

(From T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland")

nate.

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