Month: October 2010

Poem Inspired by a Survivor

(Inspired by the speech of an abortion survivor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPF1FhCMPuQ) 
Wisdom cries from the lectern
Pours out a deep anguish of the soul
In a fiery sermon that pierces hearts.
A pretty face and a sweet smile
‘Planned’ by a Mercenary
To be emulsified in the womb.
But ‘Destined’ by the Redeemer
To see the light of day.
And Become the light to the dark souls
Bringing fire down from the Heavens
Setting ablaze those feeling snuffed-out
By the militant opinion-makers.
The spectacle of spell-bound admiration
Of the strong for the weak
Of the fit for the mis-fit
Of the complete for the challenged
A reflection of the ‘Image of God’
Making strong the weak,
Fit the mis-fit, complete the challenged.
For such is the glory of God!

A Super Handsome Jesus???

Malcolm Muggeridge in his book ‘Christ and the Media’ in which he was damning critical of the Media, said that the Fourth Temptation of the devil to Christ was to offer to give him a Worldwide TV channel. I doubt that that TV channel would have been a good idea, even if the Media was good per se, because the Truth about the greatest Man that ever lived is that He did not have a photogenic profile, not even to the prophets of more than two millennia ago.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Isaiah 53:2b
This is a prophecy about Jesus’ appearance. With creation of the cosmos, God created beauty, yet He chose for Himself an ugly profile because I think He wanted to show that He would win people over not through their eyes but through their hearts. 
Some theologians say that a credible reason why the Jewish Priests of that age found Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah to be unacceptable is because the Jews were used to having ‘handsome’ and charismatic God appointed leaders. Their Matriarch, Sarah was an astoundingly beautiful lady. Moses was very beautiful even as a kid. Bible speaks good of David’s handsomeness. So the expectation of a handsome and charismatic Messiah was ingrained into the psyche of the Jewish Priests. “How could perfect Man, the Messiah, look so imperfect?” Isn’t it ludicrous that a Man who was to reverse the fall would in His very body be an epitome of the ugly consequences of the fall.
Jewish Priest made the mistake of miss-attributing value to Jesus, our mistake isn’t much different either. We envision Jesus as a 6’2 lean-muscled male with sharp Caucasian features and flowing hair and neatly trimmed beard. In picturing Jesus as a guy who’ll give our most handsome models a run for their money, posterity has done the most disservice to the image of Jesus Christ.
This photogenic image misrepresents what Jesus’s essence is, in the state of His assumed humanity. What made Jesus special was not His pleasing disposition or pleasant looks. He had neither. Jesus Christ’s essence was derived from the ‘relationship’ He had with the Father. The long lonely hours He spent praying to His Father and enjoying His presence is what made Him special in His humanity. When Jesus’ disciples couldn’t exorcize a guy, He exorcized the guy said to the disciples that failed because they did not pray ‘much’.
When Jesus’ Godly value is predominantly envisioned by modern man as being a peaceful good looking dude, and not as a prayerful God who took the form of man to show man how the life of a perfect man should look like, it is not too surprising that many modern Christians too derive their ‘personal value’ from their good-looks as seen by others as ‘religious’ or/and ‘sexy’, suiting ones personality, instead of deriving their value from their prayerful ‘relationship’ with the Father in Heaven.
A regular concerted daily Prayer time is a lost virtue among many modern Christians who pursue their happiness through their eyes, in the TV, rather than through their heart, in the heavenly Relationship. Both the ancient Jews and the Modern folks miss Jesus because they see Him as He is not, through their eyes and not through their hearts. Even God may not help a person who does not find his/her pleasure in prayer. 

Are we predestined to feel frustrated?

I seldom chat on FB. But yesterday, a friend from Church and I were chatting about the frustration in going through the cycles of applying for jobs attending interviews and going through this almost endlessly repeating loop. I commented, “God sometimes predestines us to be frustrated so that through the frustration when we look at Him, we see a different aspect of Him and ‘cherish’ Him for who He is”. I was trying to think of a good analogy to explain this… then I remember something. When I was a kid, I used to cry sometimes and that was when I would long for my mother’s countenance. When I was a kid, probably 7 years old, one afternoon, I was crying at school. My mother to my surprise came to school and the moment I saw her all my fears disappeared and tears were gone. My mother is many things to me but I specially cherish memories of my finding rest in my mother’s embrace only because there was an opportunity for me to get frustrated and I was willing to look up to her countenance for comfort.
Likewise, life gives us opportunities, through the frustrations, to look up at God and ‘cherish’ a unique comforting aspect of that relationship. God is glorified when we find Him the utmost comfort. So I think we are predestined to be frustrated so that we’ll have an opportunity to experience the comforting nature of the Blessed One. Our every day frustrations are not pointless irritations of an otherwise tolerable life, they are rather pointers to a need for a cherished countenance in a special Relationship. These enervating frustrations find its lasting meaning in that ‘cherished’ Relationship.
When we go through frustrating experiences, the challenge is to ‘truly’ look up at Him. We are perhaps more like Peter, we start looking up at Him, but soon are looking at the perilous waves come at us.  We get lost in our frustrations until we are pulled up and embraced into His bosom. Then looking back we have a greater appreciation for seeing Him in a different light and love Him all the more. But, we should be better than that. We should strive to be viscerally conscious of Him so that even as we are going through the frustrations,  we can ‘look up’ and delight and rest in His loving Countenance instead of having to ‘look back’ after the frustrations are over and retrospectively appreciate Him.
Blessed are the frustrated for if they look upwards, they can see God.