Chasing the Sun

This is a poem I wrote while flying during in a sunset. It’s my attempt to express my amazing experience.

 

Chasing The Sun

Traveling along a snowy ground

That floats between the sky,

I find myself without a sound

Or breath enough to sigh.

 

I chase the sun that runs away,

While her hues still remain

Stretched across the cloud covered way

‘Till the moon bids their wane.

 

Oh, how I long to catch her so;

To bring a halt to night.

Though this I want I do not know

How to make end my plight

 

So I travel still, so helpless;

A prisoner in my chair.

I ask is there one who’s done this

While he floats in the air?

Steady Decline

Seems as though the progression of the economy resembles that of my blog:

The Culinary Art

Some things begin to grate on my soul. Like cheese.

Grace takes the shreds and gives them meaning. Like a caesar salad.

Take my life, all of it

I was thinking about these words as I was performing my usual ponderation of the purpose of life routine over some late night coffee:

What good is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul?
What good is it to make a sweet sound, but remain proud?
In view of God’s mercy, I offer my all

So take my life, let it be everything, all of me
Here I am, use me for Your glory
In everything I say and do, let my life honor You
Here I am living for Your glory

- Tim Hughes Living For Your Glory

Charades

My roommate, Ric, showed this video to me the other day. He said it reminded him of the crazy, acting out stuff I do (is there a better term for that?). Anyway, I agreed.

Chance is Romance

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell.”
- C.S. Lewis The Four Loves

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite thinkers. This statement really hit me; that to love, the greatest of which is to sacrifice and to put others before yourself unconditionally, is most certainly a risk. When you do that, you become completely vulnerable to heartache. Yet you find that it is so rewarding.

This quote was actually the thought behind the song I wrote for the short film, “To Take A Chance”. The verses were:

To love is to hurt, to try is to break
To take a chance is sweet romance
Jump out and find.

To love is to wring for all to see
Your broken heart, but yet you sing.

I’m glad God allows people like C.S. Lewis to put such awesome thoughts into words.

Review.

Not blog for a week. Check.

Move down to Richmond and write a song about it. Check.

Furnish room with gift card to Target from Pillar. Check.

Not blog for another week. Check.

Get caught up and ahead in school. Check.

Have a great time with Aletheia, go sharing on campus, see false gospel preached in streets, learn a lot. Check.

Visit Stafford, practice with some of the most talented musicians for a special occasion, and see good friends. Check.

Have a few awesome Stafforidians, King Georgians, and Fredericksburgians come down twice in one week. Check, check, and check.

Get a sore throat, congested sinuses, and feel miserable for a few days. Check.

Get behind in school again. Check.

Not blog for a third week and some. Check.

Good to see everyone again.

“To Take A Chance”

Here is another thing I did when I still had loads of schoolwork piled up. My buddy’s media company was participating in the 48 Hour Film Project, and called me up to write original music for their short film. As the weekend progressed, I ended up doing a little more than I had expected, but it was a lot of fun and was definitely an unforgettable experience. Without further ado, here’s what we produced:

“To Take A Chance”

Meanwhile, remember, there’s a mountain of schoolwork floating over my head.

“The Time is Now”

As a response to my blog from a few days ago, I want to give you a taste of some of the things I waste my time with when I’m putting off some school work. 

When I started my online courses back in January, one of the first things I did to make “better” use of my time was toying around with GarageBand (the MacBook recording program). This what I came up with while procrastinating reading about John Smith and Jamestown:

“The Time is Now”

I named the song before I began my ranting on procrastination… Such irony…

Rest, O My Heart

Yesterday, it really hit me how utterly foolish it is to put off school work (or any kind of work for that matter). As I was sitting at my desk, immersed in my text books, I knew that I still had five chapters to read, a quiz to take, a final exam, and two projects that include summarizing every book of the Bible in eight to ten sentences (which, at the time, was all due last night). Not to mention that it had been two weeks before that I had only just begun to delve into my eight week course which consisted of three text books totaling 1000 pages, seven quizzes, a final exam, and two projects. That fact that I only have two-thirds of the projects remaining and a 96 average so far is great. Thankfully, Liberty University’s internet provider is having problems so they extended all classes till Wednesday this week.

But! I came to the conclusion that if I keep doing this, if I keep procrastinating these online courses (which leads to other areas of work as well), I will surely die of heart failure by the time I’m thirty. My heart is still throbbing with pain from the stress of yesterday’s load of school work plus staff meeting with Aletheia and band practice that night. I think I only managed to eat a bagel and some pretzels the whole day, too.

So I came to this conclusion (one that I’ve come to many a time but that I pray will stick this time):

That rest can only exist after work is done; without work, there could never be rest.