Fill your heart with what's important

quotes, passages, and words that speak to my heart

"Fill your heart with what's important & be done with all the rest"


"I'm not sure what I'll do, but -- well, I want to go places and see people.  I want my mind to grow.  I want to lie where things happen on a big scale."  F. Scott Fitzgerald

Bring your own sunshine

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.  --Gandhi


If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
or cool one pain,
or help one lonely person
Into happiness again
I shall not live in vain.
--Emily Dickinson

beside still waters

Passage from As You Like It, by William Shakespeare (the Magnificent Bard)


Act II, Scene I, Lines 1-17


Duke Senior:
Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet,

Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods

More free from peril than the envious court?

Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,

The seasons' difference, as the icy fang

And churlish chiding of winter's wind,

Which when it bites and blows upon my body

Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say

'This is no flattery. These are counselors

That feelingly persuade me what I am.'

Sweet are the uses of adversity

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 

Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

What remains:

-natural beauty, the ability to find good in nature, ability to find answers in nature.  

God placed Adam in the garden, with dominion over living things, but he lived in a co-dependent relationship with nature.  We should, too.  Take time to look around you and appreciate what you see.

Genesis 1:20-31, ESV

    And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

    And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

    Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

        ........

    And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

    

a new chapter

As the school year is winding down, I am busier than ever trying to keep up with exams, papers, work, and spending quality time with my friends at school. Blogging is not top priority, but one thing I learned during the semester is that writing down my thoughts and concerns helps me to sort through the craziness of my day and remember the things that are most important. In one of my classes, we were asked to keep a "commonplace book," or a book of quotes, passages, and sources, that was ultimately going to help with our research, but served more as a way to keep up with the readings and themes throughout the course. traditionally, commonplace books were used by people (especially authors and scholars) as a way to keep up with research and ideas. Rather than using it for research, I think having a place to collect quotes, passages, other blogs, videos, and sources is a useful idea. I plan to carry over the commonplace book idea and incorporate it into this blog.

What remains is the title of the blog, which is ultimately a reference to love (1Cor13:13) and the Word of God (Matt24:35), which are one in the same in the form of Jesus (John1:1, 1John4). Like I said in the initial post, there are common themes and trends throughout history that I have noticed in the small amount of studying that I have done. These themes tie together the movement of God in generations, and can be seen in so many forms.

In saying that, I am in a North Carolina history class this semester, and we talked a lot about the Great Revival of 1800. Here is a quote I came across when studying Francis Asbury, a Methodist pastor:

In a letter to his family, Asbury writes:

“I wonder sometimes how anyone will sit to hear me, but the Lord covers my weakness with his power….I trust you will be easy and more quiet. As for me, I know what I am called to. It is to give up all, and to have my hands and heart in the work, yea, the nearest and dearest friends….Let others condemn me as being without natural affection, disobedient to parents, or say what they please….I love my parents and friends, but I love my God better and his service….And tho’ I have given up all, I do not repent, for I have found all"

Asbury confesses that he would give up everything that's important to him in order to better serve his God, thus leading America into a period of great revival.  Christianity is still prominent in America, though some say God is absent.  Personally, I think the trials we are facing in our society prove that God has not forgotten about us.  Satan would not be attacking a nation so persistently if he had nothing to fear.  The enemy is out to get us, out to win us back.  In the end, he won't win.  Satan loses and Jesus triumphs.

I believe that our generation will experience the "Third Great Awakening."

New technology is making it easier for Christian communities to connect and unite together in a way that we have never experienced.  In fact, while the the first two Great Awakenings were a tremendous blessing in terms of promoting Christianity in the US, they also were instrumental in segmenting the Christian community into denominations that would eventually despise the other factions.

Now, however, there are countless churches popping up that are non-denominational, drawing from the more skeptical, "I'm not traditional enough for a First Baptist Church" people.

Technology is not only making it possible to reach a new generation of people, but it is also allowing Christians in California to communicated and fellowship with Christians in New York City and Sydney, Australia.  Christians are able to indirectly participate in missionary efforts, like the fight to end human trafficking, by following key leaders on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

I feel God's presence in our nation, and I believe that we are on our way to another great revival.

tale as old as time

Since this is my first post, I want to explain what this blog will be about and why I decided to create it.  Over the past few years, my mind has been opened to a new way of thinking, a new way of analyzing, and a new way of understanding.  I’ve come to realize that analyzing literature and art is more a way of thinking than it is the actual results of the analysis.  What I mean is, learning how to examine a passage or painting creates the capacity to think about occurrences in everyday life in a similar way.   This is why I firmly believe that a liberal arts education, while parts of it seem irrelevant and useless, prepares our minds to process day to day information in a more effective way. 

I love art history and medieval studies, but it’s very rare in today’s society to find people that share that same interest.  Instead of imposing my interest on you, I hope to extract modern-day/relevant topics from ancient and medieval culture.  What I think we will find is that there is a common theme, a common story, which has been and will always be repeated throughout time.  There is a unifying factor that ties every generation through a common struggle, the struggle between good and evil.  It’s deep concept that I won’t explain now, but it’s something worth considering as I explore various generational trends and ideas.

One thing that God has taught me recently is that He is omniscient, meaning He knows everything that has happened, is happening, and will ever happen.  Yes, I knew that before recently, but it wasn’t until I began reading the writings of Martin Luther, viewing the Gothic architecture of medieval Europe, listening to the hymns of the 19^th century, and watching the sermons of Billy Graham that I realized how God spoke through people that had no contact with each other, but who sought similar goals and shared the same ideologies.

Some of the first people I want to look at are Martin Luther and Mother Teresa.  Martin Luther because I have studied him so much in my history classes, and because a lot of what he said about salvation coming through “faith alone” (not by works) is coming back to haunt us in today’s society.  I want to talk about Mother Teresa because she saw the face of Jesus in every person and obeyed God’s command to love them as she loved herself (something I think we forget in all the business of our everyday lives).  I will post on Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions; how they began and evolved over time.  I plan to write about Gothic cathedrals and how the medieval man saw God’s divinity in a way that I think has been lost in our culture.  I think this sounds like a good start, but who knows where the blog will actually go once I get started.  If anyone has ideas, please share!!