My ingenious, wonderful, creative, amazing brother has his very own blog! (finally!)
And it's quite awesome, to say the least.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 20
Speech & Debate: my 3 year summary.
This year has concluded my final year of speech & debate. While I wasn't able to go to nationals this year, my brother, as you've probably heard, took FIRST place at Nationals. :)
You'd think that as a speaker/debater, I'd be able to come up with the words for this post -- but this post has been in-draft for weeks while I tried to think of how I wanted to put things.
Out of all the things I've learned in debate, one of the biggest
things I've taken away is that it's okay to be speechless.
Yes.
Good speakers are good listeners, just like good writers are good readers, and good artists are good observers.
But even more than that, becoming a good speaker is not knowing how you want to communicate, but what you want to communicate. And more often than not, it takes a couple speechless, red-in-the-face moments in front of a crowd of people for me to realize what my message really is, and why I'm doing this in the first place. We have to be vulnerable before we can be strong.
It's the grueling pain of experience that makes your message powerful and passionate.
You see...you really have almost no control over your own coherency during a speech & debate tournament. At least, I don't. I don't know about other people. But sometimes I have great rounds and sometimes I have terrible rounds and while it sometimes may or may not have a relation to the amount of caffeine I've ingested, there really is no way to have complete control over the outcome.
Sometimes, I draw a totally ridiculous topic in impromptu, sit there dumbly for my entire prep time, and then get up and give a brilliant speech. Sometimes I draw a great quote but stumble over every other word. Sometimes I've got an ingeniously crafted response to my opponent's argument, and I still lose. Other times I win even though I made clear contradictions in my cases.
I've come to realize that you can't decide what the outcome is going to be. You can't choose how things will turn out and no matter how good you are, it doesn't mean you'll always do well.
Sure, there's a lot of style, talent, and personal love for it that goes into public speaking, but those are not the things that make you a good communicator.
What makes you a good speaker is your passion for your message that you are sharing.
Communicating is not about getting other people to do things, or trying to make them understand you, and it's certainly not about winning a medal. It is not about proving to others you are more right than someone else,
Communicating is about sharing what you love with those around you. It's about taking that passion that you have and allowing it to run wildly into the lives of others so that they can experience the same delight that you have.
Communicating is about letting your message be your energy, when you have none. About letting what you have to say be the thing that drives you even when you think you can't keep going. And you don't need things to be just so in order to share it, either.
I had a persuasive round this year that was absolutely horrible. I forgot a line said something dumb like "oops I'm sorry, I lost my place...>AWKWARD PAUSE< and stumbled over my words. It was semi-finals.
But what I've learned is that God doesn't need me to be up to my standards of perfection in order to share His message.
In fact he even says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weaknesses.
I'm not really sure how God's perfect strength could be "made perfect" through the weakness of
a fallen, despicable human being -- but what I think this verse means is that this great, beautiful, mighty God can somehow work wonders through our shameful, awful weaknesses.
It's that moment you have...in a speech round, as you are reciting the speech you've practiced over and over again when suddenly, nothing in that moment is more important than your judge understanding and taking to heart what you have to say.
Through speech & debate I have learned the importance of hard work, the value of a small amount of time, and the precious closeness of some of my dearest friends. I have laughed, cried, sweated, and yes, literally bled. I have over 15 trophies and medals, at least a foot's height of judge's ballots, and am skilled in the art of packing for a 3-day tournament in under 2 hours.
In 20 years though, my guess is those trophies will be in a box somewhere. They won't last, but what will are the messages and truths I have learned.
There are many chapters of my life which I am not ready to close. Many which I have clung to desperately as if my identity depended on them, things I could not let go for fear that without it I might not know who I was.
But this time I okay with the ending, because I know that the experiences I have gained will go with me from years to come. I have taken something powerful from this.
It may have been my last year of speech, but my life as a communicator does not end there -- the end of this chapter is just the beginning of a new one. I'm off, I'm running, arms open to the experiences and adventures ahead.
You'd think that as a speaker/debater, I'd be able to come up with the words for this post -- but this post has been in-draft for weeks while I tried to think of how I wanted to put things.
Out of all the things I've learned in debate, one of the biggest
things I've taken away is that it's okay to be speechless.Yes.
Good speakers are good listeners, just like good writers are good readers, and good artists are good observers.
But even more than that, becoming a good speaker is not knowing how you want to communicate, but what you want to communicate. And more often than not, it takes a couple speechless, red-in-the-face moments in front of a crowd of people for me to realize what my message really is, and why I'm doing this in the first place. We have to be vulnerable before we can be strong.
It's the grueling pain of experience that makes your message powerful and passionate.
You see...you really have almost no control over your own coherency during a speech & debate tournament. At least, I don't. I don't know about other people. But sometimes I have great rounds and sometimes I have terrible rounds and while it sometimes may or may not have a relation to the amount of caffeine I've ingested, there really is no way to have complete control over the outcome.Sometimes, I draw a totally ridiculous topic in impromptu, sit there dumbly for my entire prep time, and then get up and give a brilliant speech. Sometimes I draw a great quote but stumble over every other word. Sometimes I've got an ingeniously crafted response to my opponent's argument, and I still lose. Other times I win even though I made clear contradictions in my cases.
I've come to realize that you can't decide what the outcome is going to be. You can't choose how things will turn out and no matter how good you are, it doesn't mean you'll always do well.
Sure, there's a lot of style, talent, and personal love for it that goes into public speaking, but those are not the things that make you a good communicator.
What makes you a good speaker is your passion for your message that you are sharing.
Communicating is not about getting other people to do things, or trying to make them understand you, and it's certainly not about winning a medal. It is not about proving to others you are more right than someone else,
Communicating is about sharing what you love with those around you. It's about taking that passion that you have and allowing it to run wildly into the lives of others so that they can experience the same delight that you have.
Communicating is about letting your message be your energy, when you have none. About letting what you have to say be the thing that drives you even when you think you can't keep going. And you don't need things to be just so in order to share it, either.
I had a persuasive round this year that was absolutely horrible. I forgot a line said something dumb like "oops I'm sorry, I lost my place...>AWKWARD PAUSE< and stumbled over my words. It was semi-finals.
But what I've learned is that God doesn't need me to be up to my standards of perfection in order to share His message.
In fact he even says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weaknesses.
I'm not really sure how God's perfect strength could be "made perfect" through the weakness of
a fallen, despicable human being -- but what I think this verse means is that this great, beautiful, mighty God can somehow work wonders through our shameful, awful weaknesses.It's that moment you have...in a speech round, as you are reciting the speech you've practiced over and over again when suddenly, nothing in that moment is more important than your judge understanding and taking to heart what you have to say.
Through speech & debate I have learned the importance of hard work, the value of a small amount of time, and the precious closeness of some of my dearest friends. I have laughed, cried, sweated, and yes, literally bled. I have over 15 trophies and medals, at least a foot's height of judge's ballots, and am skilled in the art of packing for a 3-day tournament in under 2 hours.
In 20 years though, my guess is those trophies will be in a box somewhere. They won't last, but what will are the messages and truths I have learned.
There are many chapters of my life which I am not ready to close. Many which I have clung to desperately as if my identity depended on them, things I could not let go for fear that without it I might not know who I was.But this time I okay with the ending, because I know that the experiences I have gained will go with me from years to come. I have taken something powerful from this.
It may have been my last year of speech, but my life as a communicator does not end there -- the end of this chapter is just the beginning of a new one. I'm off, I'm running, arms open to the experiences and adventures ahead.
Thursday, June 14
The Games I Play
I've been holding off posting this because, as I've mentioned before, I don't like the possibility of being categorized as one of the screaming fangirl masses. Argh. Here it is anyway. And for those of you who haven't read the series, you can still read this post. =)
My original thoughts about The Hunger Games was mostly that it was a fad, a typical thing-that-everyone-was-into, and that while it's a great series, it wasn't all that deep.
And to an extent, that's still true. It really isn't like Plato or Lewis or even Kate DiCamillo. The second time I read the series through, I was hoping to glean brilliant quotes as I went, and there just weren't any. But there is one genius thing for which I must give Suzanne Collins credit, which I believe most of the screaming fangirl populous doesn't get...which is sickly ironic, especially since they've now made it into a movie.
I'm starting to realize how right she was in the whole series: about the Games. Apparently most of my intelligent peer group understood this way faster than I did...perhaps because I just let myself live in its alternate reality for so long.
My life...is a Game. I'm my own tribute in my own Hunger Games. Fighting to stay true to myself and my values while living in a world that is constantly pushing me to play by their rules while they broadcast false generalizations to the public in order to control the masses.
I have to submit to some form of government. I have to follow the rules when I sign a job contract. I am fighting, always fighting, to stay true to myself, to not be defined by anything else but my Creator. Living in a culture where looks can kill, in a place where media and technology pushes us to form a presentable self that is perfect and conformed -- but is not truly who we are.
Media is mostly a lie. Have you ever watched a video editor at work? Have you ever seen the kind of material they slog through in order to make a finished product? My brother makes movies, and as you know I'm a huge fan of them, so I'm definitely not bashing them.
But they're illusions. They're false realities. Do you know how many takes it took to get that scene right? How many voice overs, sound recordings, lighting changes, and script edits it took to make that 2-minute shot you see in front of you? The costumes, the makeup, the rehearsals. It's not what really happened. In real life they had dozens of cameras and sound equipment hovering over them while they pretended to fall in love or jump off that cliff (onto the cushy trampoline at the not-so-deep bottom).
Video editing -- putting it all together to make it look nice -- is a frustrating process. I've never done it, but I've been in close observation of people who do. You have hundreds of angles of the same shot to choose from, and the splicing and dicing and hours it takes to even get a single scene done can be agonizing.
We allow ourselves to be infatuated with this alternate reality and then become frustrated when our own doesn't line up: but the truth is, it will never line up, because the alternate reality simply is not true. Movies, media -- they are all false perceptions of reality that were jacked up to look fancy, to make us think our lives should be something that they are not.
Television, news, facebook, social media: it's all edited to what people think the world will want
to see and hear. It becomes not only a false perception of reality, but a false perception of yourself.
And not only that, but we soon become a slave to it. I still fight my own slavery to the internet. I'm a compulsive email checker. It's like I have to check it every other half hour for some odd reason, in case I miss something awesome. I've probably clicked on the open gmail tab next to this post about 6-10 times in the last hour as I've been writing this post, despite the fact that I know a little (1) will show up if I really have a new email.
I'm a slave. I'm a piece in the Media Games.
We become slaves to false selves. To somebody that does not even exist. To a system that's making us numb, dumb, and complacent -- just like the people of Panem: blindly and hopelessly supporting an atrocious, disgusting game. What other terrible things am I blindly supporting?
Or perhaps worse -- what horrible things in this world am I refusing to take a stance on, to fight against? The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
In the Hunger Games, the gamemakers could do whatever the wanted to get the kids to kill each other. From materializing fireballs from nowhere to creating animals that screeched the voice of someone you knew, they cut the cameras away from the things that they didn't want the public to see, and only showed the gory fighting.
I feel like that's the culture I'm living in. Dressing up the media to make you think your life should be a certain way. Yeah, we don't kill each other -- but maybe we're even worse. We're building up false realities and ideas of perfection and labels and trying to fit everything into it. We're not murdering physical bodies, but we're destroying our souls.
But somehow...somehow, Katniss and Peeta managed to overturn the system. They refused to play the Capitol's Game.
What do we need to do to overturn the system of our culture? Is it even possible? This is the call for something beyond ourselves, the cry of our soul to our Maker. Somehow, none of this is possible without Him. I honestly don't know how yet, but that's the kind of quest that I'm on. The kind of purpose I was made for.
To discover the One who defines me and conform to His version of what my life should be: not my culture's. And then somehow...share that truth with the world that I live in.
Yet another beautiful reason why I love the word 'transcendence'. Watch this video again, or for the first time if you haven't yet. The message is so, so powerful.
It's that moment when you realize that your life has been lived in the face of a projector screen. And suddenly you feel that pull, that call: you were made for more than this. You have a greater purpose beyond letting everyone else just shine their light on you -- you have your own light to shine.
To fight the good fight, you need a drive. You need a purpose -- and it doesn't come from yourself. It doesn't come from your culture. It comes from your Maker.
It's my own, literal, real life Hunger Games.
My original thoughts about The Hunger Games was mostly that it was a fad, a typical thing-that-everyone-was-into, and that while it's a great series, it wasn't all that deep.
And to an extent, that's still true. It really isn't like Plato or Lewis or even Kate DiCamillo. The second time I read the series through, I was hoping to glean brilliant quotes as I went, and there just weren't any. But there is one genius thing for which I must give Suzanne Collins credit, which I believe most of the screaming fangirl populous doesn't get...which is sickly ironic, especially since they've now made it into a movie.
I'm starting to realize how right she was in the whole series: about the Games. Apparently most of my intelligent peer group understood this way faster than I did...perhaps because I just let myself live in its alternate reality for so long.
My life...is a Game. I'm my own tribute in my own Hunger Games. Fighting to stay true to myself and my values while living in a world that is constantly pushing me to play by their rules while they broadcast false generalizations to the public in order to control the masses.
I have to submit to some form of government. I have to follow the rules when I sign a job contract. I am fighting, always fighting, to stay true to myself, to not be defined by anything else but my Creator. Living in a culture where looks can kill, in a place where media and technology pushes us to form a presentable self that is perfect and conformed -- but is not truly who we are.
Media is mostly a lie. Have you ever watched a video editor at work? Have you ever seen the kind of material they slog through in order to make a finished product? My brother makes movies, and as you know I'm a huge fan of them, so I'm definitely not bashing them.
But they're illusions. They're false realities. Do you know how many takes it took to get that scene right? How many voice overs, sound recordings, lighting changes, and script edits it took to make that 2-minute shot you see in front of you? The costumes, the makeup, the rehearsals. It's not what really happened. In real life they had dozens of cameras and sound equipment hovering over them while they pretended to fall in love or jump off that cliff (onto the cushy trampoline at the not-so-deep bottom).Video editing -- putting it all together to make it look nice -- is a frustrating process. I've never done it, but I've been in close observation of people who do. You have hundreds of angles of the same shot to choose from, and the splicing and dicing and hours it takes to even get a single scene done can be agonizing.
We allow ourselves to be infatuated with this alternate reality and then become frustrated when our own doesn't line up: but the truth is, it will never line up, because the alternate reality simply is not true. Movies, media -- they are all false perceptions of reality that were jacked up to look fancy, to make us think our lives should be something that they are not.
Television, news, facebook, social media: it's all edited to what people think the world will want
to see and hear. It becomes not only a false perception of reality, but a false perception of yourself.And not only that, but we soon become a slave to it. I still fight my own slavery to the internet. I'm a compulsive email checker. It's like I have to check it every other half hour for some odd reason, in case I miss something awesome. I've probably clicked on the open gmail tab next to this post about 6-10 times in the last hour as I've been writing this post, despite the fact that I know a little (1) will show up if I really have a new email.
I'm a slave. I'm a piece in the Media Games.
We become slaves to false selves. To somebody that does not even exist. To a system that's making us numb, dumb, and complacent -- just like the people of Panem: blindly and hopelessly supporting an atrocious, disgusting game. What other terrible things am I blindly supporting?
Or perhaps worse -- what horrible things in this world am I refusing to take a stance on, to fight against? The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
In the Hunger Games, the gamemakers could do whatever the wanted to get the kids to kill each other. From materializing fireballs from nowhere to creating animals that screeched the voice of someone you knew, they cut the cameras away from the things that they didn't want the public to see, and only showed the gory fighting.
I feel like that's the culture I'm living in. Dressing up the media to make you think your life should be a certain way. Yeah, we don't kill each other -- but maybe we're even worse. We're building up false realities and ideas of perfection and labels and trying to fit everything into it. We're not murdering physical bodies, but we're destroying our souls.
But somehow...somehow, Katniss and Peeta managed to overturn the system. They refused to play the Capitol's Game.
What do we need to do to overturn the system of our culture? Is it even possible? This is the call for something beyond ourselves, the cry of our soul to our Maker. Somehow, none of this is possible without Him. I honestly don't know how yet, but that's the kind of quest that I'm on. The kind of purpose I was made for.
To discover the One who defines me and conform to His version of what my life should be: not my culture's. And then somehow...share that truth with the world that I live in.
Yet another beautiful reason why I love the word 'transcendence'. Watch this video again, or for the first time if you haven't yet. The message is so, so powerful.
It's that moment when you realize that your life has been lived in the face of a projector screen. And suddenly you feel that pull, that call: you were made for more than this. You have a greater purpose beyond letting everyone else just shine their light on you -- you have your own light to shine.
To fight the good fight, you need a drive. You need a purpose -- and it doesn't come from yourself. It doesn't come from your culture. It comes from your Maker.
It's my own, literal, real life Hunger Games.
Wednesday, June 13
I have no words.
But the NATIONAL CHAMPION FOR EXPOSITORY SPEAKING.....has some pretty good ones.
That's right folks. I'm proud to say I'm related to this kid, who WON NATIONALS, who is pretty much one of the most awesome brothers ever, and has, to my knowledge, given the state of Washington its first ever speech-championship title in the hall of fame.
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present to you The Art of Storytelling.
That's right folks. I'm proud to say I'm related to this kid, who WON NATIONALS, who is pretty much one of the most awesome brothers ever, and has, to my knowledge, given the state of Washington its first ever speech-championship title in the hall of fame.
Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present to you The Art of Storytelling.
Thursday, June 7
That's Right.
My brother's humorous interpretation of the math textbook "The Life of Fred" is FEATURED ON THE LIFE OF FRED WEBSITE.
Check it out.
I'm so proud of this kid. Right now he's competing at Speech & Debate Nationals, with his epic debate analogies and wicked amazing expository speech. As are my beloved club members. So missing them right now.
Update (4/8): LE BROTHER IS IN SEMIS AT NATIONALS. :)
UPDATE (4/9): FINALS FINALS FINALS OH MY GOODNESS RAYMOND IS IN FINALS.
Check it out.
I'm so proud of this kid. Right now he's competing at Speech & Debate Nationals, with his epic debate analogies and wicked amazing expository speech. As are my beloved club members. So missing them right now.
Update (4/8): LE BROTHER IS IN SEMIS AT NATIONALS. :)
UPDATE (4/9): FINALS FINALS FINALS OH MY GOODNESS RAYMOND IS IN FINALS.
Wednesday, May 30
See Where It Leads
It's that call for something beyond you.
For something Greater.
Purpose. Drive. Peace.
That's what this song is about.
Pardon the Bulgarian subtitles. I can't find a normal one. =P Here are the lyrics. Really, listen to the whole song, it's good.
It's our calling.
When we step aside
From the center of our lives
When we learn to love mercy
More than being right
Pursuing peace and honesty
Can I love mercy more than being right? I've thought a lot about that especially with debate lately. Debate, it seems, has recently been a battle of who is more right. But in reality, it's not about proving who is more right, but about what you learn along the way. It's not about being right but -- when it comes down to it -- about being honest and loving.
Yes, there really are loving ways to debate personal freedom and economic security.
Starting down the road of selflessness
And seeing where it leads
Lately I've been obsessed with the idea of not jumping into anything without knowing what it might hold. I've been consumed with trying to know that whatever choice I make, the outcome will be successful and fulfilling. (Who do I think I am, God?)
When was the last time I just started down a path just to see where it lead -- as opposed to always worrying about which one will take me to the best place possible?
Am I that daring? Could I surrender my precious dreams for something greater that I can't yet see? It's not just a dream like a dream of being a famous gymnast or a world renowned debater.
No, this is the dream of thrill, adventure, laughter, friendship, happiness, contentment. Of being a person of worth on my own merit. The dream of being confident, capable, likeable. The dream of having control over my life and what happens in it - as if my own thwarted agenda will make me content.
It's the dream of a fulfilled life. What better could there be right?
My 7th grade teacher taught me that the key to happiness is fulfilling your purpose. But do you have any idea how stressful (not to mention impossible and vain) this kind of a dream this is? I wasn't created for this kind of purpose.
I was created for something more. A purpose that only a wildly glorious Creator could instill. And somehow, it's one that only he can fulfill.
There's a better way to live.
For something Greater.
Purpose. Drive. Peace.
That's what this song is about.
Pardon the Bulgarian subtitles. I can't find a normal one. =P Here are the lyrics. Really, listen to the whole song, it's good.
It's our calling.
When we step aside
From the center of our lives
When we learn to love mercy
More than being right
Pursuing peace and honesty
Can I love mercy more than being right? I've thought a lot about that especially with debate lately. Debate, it seems, has recently been a battle of who is more right. But in reality, it's not about proving who is more right, but about what you learn along the way. It's not about being right but -- when it comes down to it -- about being honest and loving.
Yes, there really are loving ways to debate personal freedom and economic security.
Starting down the road of selflessness
And seeing where it leads
Lately I've been obsessed with the idea of not jumping into anything without knowing what it might hold. I've been consumed with trying to know that whatever choice I make, the outcome will be successful and fulfilling. (Who do I think I am, God?)
When was the last time I just started down a path just to see where it lead -- as opposed to always worrying about which one will take me to the best place possible?
Am I that daring? Could I surrender my precious dreams for something greater that I can't yet see? It's not just a dream like a dream of being a famous gymnast or a world renowned debater.
No, this is the dream of thrill, adventure, laughter, friendship, happiness, contentment. Of being a person of worth on my own merit. The dream of being confident, capable, likeable. The dream of having control over my life and what happens in it - as if my own thwarted agenda will make me content.
It's the dream of a fulfilled life. What better could there be right?
My 7th grade teacher taught me that the key to happiness is fulfilling your purpose. But do you have any idea how stressful (not to mention impossible and vain) this kind of a dream this is? I wasn't created for this kind of purpose.
I was created for something more. A purpose that only a wildly glorious Creator could instill. And somehow, it's one that only he can fulfill.
There's a better way to live.
Friday, May 25
My 5 favorite words.
I used to think it was crazy that a person could have a "favorite word." It's like....buddy, there are billions of words in the English language. How can you have a favorite?
Alas, reader, I have come to discover that the number of things I used-to-think-were-weird-but-now-find-amazing is slowly increasing. Darnit, I think I'm growing up.
So here we go. My top 5 favorite words (as of right now):
5. Beauty
Our culture has such thwarted views of beauty. We think that beauty is fashion, beauty is perfection, beauty is makeup, it's in looks, it's having things. But beauty is so much farther beyond that.
Hannah Farver gives an awesome definition of beauty in her book "Uncompromising."
"Define beauty in a pair of scissors." [I said]
"Scissors aren't beautiful!" [Daria] cried indignantly
"How do you know? What makes a pair of scissors beautiful?"
Daria grabbed the pair of scissors on her desk.
"They're...uh...scissors are beautiful...because of how well they function."
"So if scissors work the way their maker wanted them to work, then they're beautiful?"
Beauty is not defined by the external looks, but by internal purpose.
Have you ever had a boyfriend, or a best friend, or a really adorable nephew, or somebody -- who made something for you? And if you were to advertise this gift on tv or in magazines, you probably wouldn't get a lot of interest. But it's precious because of who made it for you, and why they made it.
I feel like the word "beauty" is thrown around so much that it doesn't have the depth of meaning that it really should.
Beauty is defined by the sheer wonder of the purpose a thing was created for -- and of the Creator Himself. This is why trees are more beautiful than computers, flowers are more beautiful than cell phones, and my dog is more beautiful than your ipod.
Man made things are pretty, but God-made things are beautiful.
This is why you are beautiful. Your soul, the very essence of your being, your purpose, your existence, is simply....delightful. Wonderful.
Beautiful.
Which brings me to my next favorite word:
4. Purpose.
I think I've mentioned my 7th grade teacher a couple times on this blog now, and I really wish I had some way of contacting him so that I could tell him how much his theology class impacted me. He taught me that you will be happy when you fulfill your purpose.
There is something driving, invigorating, wildly fulfilling about the word purpose. To have a purpose is to know that you have worth. Your existence is not meaningless. There is no higher calling than fulfilling the purpose for which you were created.
"I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too." -Hugo (::squee!:: another opportunity to quote "The Invention of Hugo Cabret")
We were created for relationships: to love God and to love other people.
But I also think we were created to seek, and to never stop seeking. The funny thing about relationships is that they're ongoing. You don't simply "arrive," and you will never be done. You are always seeking to know a person better, talk to them more, and so on.
Part of our purpose is seeking, climbing, working to discover the truth. I used to think that "purpose" was a goal you were trying to achieve. But now...I think it's more the reason you are trying to achieve it.
Which brings me to...
3. Quest.
I can't mention how much I love this word without mentioning one of my favorite books, "The Tale of Despereaux."
"And what, may I ask, do you intend to do with the thread?" [said the Threadmaster]
"Save the princess." [said Despereaux]
"Ah, yes. The princess...and how, exactly, will you use a spool of thread to save a princess?"
"A rat has taken her and hidden her in the dungeon, so I have to go back to the dungeon, and it is full of twists and turns and hidden chambers. And I have to find her...and I have to lead her back. I...I will use thread."
"I see, I see," he said. "You, my friend, are on a quest."
"I don't know what that is," said Despereaux.
"You don't have to know. You just have to feel compelled to do the thing, the impossible, important task at hand."
A Quest. Impossible. Important.
The wonderful thing about the word "quest" is that not only is it a journey towards an end, but something about it implies that you are not merely on it for the gold at the end. There is more to this journey than simply reaching the finish line. There are discoveries to be made, souls to make friends with, beauty to be found -- all along the way.
When you're climbing a mountain, you're obviously trying to get to the top. But the top is not what it's all about. There's also the journey upwards, the path that you take, the things you discover on the way. That's what a quest is. Learning, discovering, uncovering new and exciting things that continue to press you forward, closer to the top of the mountain, but making everything beautiful along the way.
2. Truth
To be honest, the power of the word "truth" sometimes makes me shudder a little. Truth is not a fairytale, truth is not in my head, it transcends what I feel and what I think and is not subject to anything or anyone. It simply is. It is more than a teaching, more than an idea, more than a topic of discussion.
It reaches beyond the confines of religion and soars above even the limits of Christianity. It baffles our tiny, ant-sized views of reality. Truth does not change because God does not change, and God is truth.
It's something that, once discovered, is unshakeable, unstoppable, and changes your life forever.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Bringing me lastly to...
1. Transcendence
I don't know exactly why, but I have always loved the word "transcend."
"To transcend something isn't just to get past it or to move on from something, but it means to completely overcome something in life." -Lindsey Stirling.
Transcend means beyond. It means above, it means throughout. Something that transcends this world is something that is not limited to this world - it is so far beyond this world. It can't be held captive, cannot be defined.
So many things in this life are temporary. They are finite, fluffy little things that only last for a short amount of time. I often look at the futility of it all and wonder why does this matter?
I feel like the answer lies in all of the first 4 words that I listed. Beauty, Purpose, Quest, and Truth.
Part of what I loved about The Hunger Games was that it didn't end happily ever after. The world was still the imperfect, broken world, and injustice would always be there. But it was worth it because of what they were seeking to do. There was a higher cause, a higher truth, a greater purpose. Transcending the brokenness.
Beauty...purpose...truth...they transcend the futility in this life. They go beyond the frustration, disappointment, complacency, anger, and confusion -- to a truth that is beyond myself. A truth that is greater than me.
This...this truth is so far beyond the realms of our world. It is beautiful, it has purpose, because of the God who defines it. Therefore, not only is it beautiful, but it is in this quest for truth and beauty that we find our purpose, that the glory of God can transcend into our tiny world and shatter our lives with his truth.
And now, the inexplicable happiness inside of me for having used my 5 favorite words in a single sentence is kind of overflowing.
Do you have favorite words?
Alas, reader, I have come to discover that the number of things I used-to-think-were-weird-but-now-find-amazing is slowly increasing. Darnit, I think I'm growing up.
So here we go. My top 5 favorite words (as of right now):
5. Beauty
Our culture has such thwarted views of beauty. We think that beauty is fashion, beauty is perfection, beauty is makeup, it's in looks, it's having things. But beauty is so much farther beyond that.
Hannah Farver gives an awesome definition of beauty in her book "Uncompromising."
"Define beauty in a pair of scissors." [I said]
"Scissors aren't beautiful!" [Daria] cried indignantly
"How do you know? What makes a pair of scissors beautiful?"
Daria grabbed the pair of scissors on her desk.
"They're...uh...scissors are beautiful...because of how well they function."
"So if scissors work the way their maker wanted them to work, then they're beautiful?"
Beauty is not defined by the external looks, but by internal purpose.
Have you ever had a boyfriend, or a best friend, or a really adorable nephew, or somebody -- who made something for you? And if you were to advertise this gift on tv or in magazines, you probably wouldn't get a lot of interest. But it's precious because of who made it for you, and why they made it.
I feel like the word "beauty" is thrown around so much that it doesn't have the depth of meaning that it really should.
Beauty is defined by the sheer wonder of the purpose a thing was created for -- and of the Creator Himself. This is why trees are more beautiful than computers, flowers are more beautiful than cell phones, and my dog is more beautiful than your ipod.
Man made things are pretty, but God-made things are beautiful.
This is why you are beautiful. Your soul, the very essence of your being, your purpose, your existence, is simply....delightful. Wonderful.
Beautiful.
Which brings me to my next favorite word:
4. Purpose.
I think I've mentioned my 7th grade teacher a couple times on this blog now, and I really wish I had some way of contacting him so that I could tell him how much his theology class impacted me. He taught me that you will be happy when you fulfill your purpose.
There is something driving, invigorating, wildly fulfilling about the word purpose. To have a purpose is to know that you have worth. Your existence is not meaningless. There is no higher calling than fulfilling the purpose for which you were created.
"I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too." -Hugo (::squee!:: another opportunity to quote "The Invention of Hugo Cabret")
We were created for relationships: to love God and to love other people.
But I also think we were created to seek, and to never stop seeking. The funny thing about relationships is that they're ongoing. You don't simply "arrive," and you will never be done. You are always seeking to know a person better, talk to them more, and so on.
Part of our purpose is seeking, climbing, working to discover the truth. I used to think that "purpose" was a goal you were trying to achieve. But now...I think it's more the reason you are trying to achieve it.
Which brings me to...
3. Quest.
I can't mention how much I love this word without mentioning one of my favorite books, "The Tale of Despereaux."
"And what, may I ask, do you intend to do with the thread?" [said the Threadmaster]
"Save the princess." [said Despereaux]
"Ah, yes. The princess...and how, exactly, will you use a spool of thread to save a princess?"
"A rat has taken her and hidden her in the dungeon, so I have to go back to the dungeon, and it is full of twists and turns and hidden chambers. And I have to find her...and I have to lead her back. I...I will use thread."
"I see, I see," he said. "You, my friend, are on a quest."
"I don't know what that is," said Despereaux.
"You don't have to know. You just have to feel compelled to do the thing, the impossible, important task at hand."
A Quest. Impossible. Important.
The wonderful thing about the word "quest" is that not only is it a journey towards an end, but something about it implies that you are not merely on it for the gold at the end. There is more to this journey than simply reaching the finish line. There are discoveries to be made, souls to make friends with, beauty to be found -- all along the way.
When you're climbing a mountain, you're obviously trying to get to the top. But the top is not what it's all about. There's also the journey upwards, the path that you take, the things you discover on the way. That's what a quest is. Learning, discovering, uncovering new and exciting things that continue to press you forward, closer to the top of the mountain, but making everything beautiful along the way.
2. Truth
To be honest, the power of the word "truth" sometimes makes me shudder a little. Truth is not a fairytale, truth is not in my head, it transcends what I feel and what I think and is not subject to anything or anyone. It simply is. It is more than a teaching, more than an idea, more than a topic of discussion.
It reaches beyond the confines of religion and soars above even the limits of Christianity. It baffles our tiny, ant-sized views of reality. Truth does not change because God does not change, and God is truth.
It's something that, once discovered, is unshakeable, unstoppable, and changes your life forever.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Bringing me lastly to...
1. Transcendence
I don't know exactly why, but I have always loved the word "transcend."
"To transcend something isn't just to get past it or to move on from something, but it means to completely overcome something in life." -Lindsey Stirling.
Transcend means beyond. It means above, it means throughout. Something that transcends this world is something that is not limited to this world - it is so far beyond this world. It can't be held captive, cannot be defined.
So many things in this life are temporary. They are finite, fluffy little things that only last for a short amount of time. I often look at the futility of it all and wonder why does this matter?
I feel like the answer lies in all of the first 4 words that I listed. Beauty, Purpose, Quest, and Truth.
Part of what I loved about The Hunger Games was that it didn't end happily ever after. The world was still the imperfect, broken world, and injustice would always be there. But it was worth it because of what they were seeking to do. There was a higher cause, a higher truth, a greater purpose. Transcending the brokenness.
Beauty...purpose...truth...they transcend the futility in this life. They go beyond the frustration, disappointment, complacency, anger, and confusion -- to a truth that is beyond myself. A truth that is greater than me.
This...this truth is so far beyond the realms of our world. It is beautiful, it has purpose, because of the God who defines it. Therefore, not only is it beautiful, but it is in this quest for truth and beauty that we find our purpose, that the glory of God can transcend into our tiny world and shatter our lives with his truth.
And now, the inexplicable happiness inside of me for having used my 5 favorite words in a single sentence is kind of overflowing.
Do you have favorite words?
Wednesday, May 23
1 down, 33 more to go.
I really haven't been posting much of my own words lately. Either that or it's just a heavy criticism of other people's words. You're probably sick of the fangirl and music posts. And the infrequency.
Sadly, the only excuse I have for this is my own wall of fear (and maybe a touch of college work).
"What if nobody reads it?
"What if they don't understand what I'm trying to say?"
"What if they don't like it?"
...and probably the greatest one:
"What if they disagree, or they hate it, but instead of telling me so, continue their lives in quiet disdain of my own???"
Silly me. Not only have I created (hopefully) imaginary critics in my mind, but I have let those imaginary critics shape me. I'm letting myself be tied down by things that might not even exist.
Yes you, little imaginary reader, (wait, you're not imaginary. What I mean is, your imaginary critical self. Wait, are you critical in real life? This is getting complicated.) have unknowingly shaped my fears as a human being.
I have -- get this -- 33 drafts in my blogger folders. Thirty-three.
Some of them date back to 2010, but most of them are within the past few months...thoughts that I've kept to myself -- partially due to my overkilling perfectionism, but mostly for fear that my own lack of coherency will somehow make you think I must not be a decent person.
What is this...this fear of other people's opinions? I feel as if we all keep our deep dark secrets to ourselves, for fear that nobody else feels the same way...when in reality, we are all keeping the exact same deep dark secret.
I realized the other day what a petty thing it is to live for. Internet acceptance, I mean. Seriously? To incessantly check my email and/or blog in hopes that someone has clicked the "like" button is really just sickening. Why do I care? (I'll write more about that later...actually, I think it's in one of those 33 drafts...ha.)
Who am I to limit myself to the criticism of others? Am I going to let my own preconceived ideas of comments that don't even exist shape my own discovery of truth?
No siree!
So here come a few of those 33 drafts. Some of them are ones I was planning to post anyway and just never got around to it, but the idea is to get the guts to post stuff I'm unsure about.
We'll see how this goes.
Sadly, the only excuse I have for this is my own wall of fear (and maybe a touch of college work).
"What if nobody reads it?
"What if they don't understand what I'm trying to say?"
"What if they don't like it?"
...and probably the greatest one:
"What if they disagree, or they hate it, but instead of telling me so, continue their lives in quiet disdain of my own???"
Silly me. Not only have I created (hopefully) imaginary critics in my mind, but I have let those imaginary critics shape me. I'm letting myself be tied down by things that might not even exist.
Yes you, little imaginary reader, (wait, you're not imaginary. What I mean is, your imaginary critical self. Wait, are you critical in real life? This is getting complicated.) have unknowingly shaped my fears as a human being.
I have -- get this -- 33 drafts in my blogger folders. Thirty-three.
Some of them date back to 2010, but most of them are within the past few months...thoughts that I've kept to myself -- partially due to my overkilling perfectionism, but mostly for fear that my own lack of coherency will somehow make you think I must not be a decent person.
What is this...this fear of other people's opinions? I feel as if we all keep our deep dark secrets to ourselves, for fear that nobody else feels the same way...when in reality, we are all keeping the exact same deep dark secret.
I realized the other day what a petty thing it is to live for. Internet acceptance, I mean. Seriously? To incessantly check my email and/or blog in hopes that someone has clicked the "like" button is really just sickening. Why do I care? (I'll write more about that later...actually, I think it's in one of those 33 drafts...ha.)
Who am I to limit myself to the criticism of others? Am I going to let my own preconceived ideas of comments that don't even exist shape my own discovery of truth?
No siree!
So here come a few of those 33 drafts. Some of them are ones I was planning to post anyway and just never got around to it, but the idea is to get the guts to post stuff I'm unsure about.
We'll see how this goes.
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