July 17, 2007
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These Are a Few of My Favorite Things…
So here is a collage of some of God’s created gifts that I love the very most.
I received an email from a certain friend in which they drew a connection between God’s creation and courtship, and how it is almost as if God was courting her and inviting her into a deeper love and relationship through His creation.
Basically, she’s spot on.
You see, God’s creation was never an end in itself, but a means to a greater end: relationship with God. All of His many created gifts were and still are signs and evidence of His great love for us. We are not to fall in love with creation, but the Creator.
Creation, I feel, is like an engagement ring (hence my agreement with the courtship connection). Creation is a beautiful gift that is not only for us to enjoy and treasure but is also a symbolic invitation from God to come into a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him. Creation invites us closer to God not as a bribe but as a gift, not to entice or convince us but as a humble offering from a God who very much wants to be united with us in love.
Beauty, especially for me, is a very full experience of this invitation. Beauty takes us out of and beyond ourselves. Have you ever experienced something so beautiful that you felt all tingly, or gasped, or felt lightheaded, or your heart raced, or you felt like crying, etc.? This is your spirit, your very heart trying to reach out toward God through the beautiful created gift that you have just witnessed. I experience this in women especially. Women, I feel, are the height of created beauty and there are women in this world who’s hearts, who’s souls and who’s being literally bring me to my knees because when I see a woman, I know that I am literally seeing God’s own beauty reflected in a mirror of Creation. To me Woman is the closest physical experience I will have of God’s beauty until I meet Him face to face after I fade from this world and enter the next. My friends can attest to those who don’t know me that I get all manner of breathtaken when particular women enter my sight! And it isn’t a matter of lust (again my friends can attest), but more a matter of humility, of admiration, and genuine praise and thanksgiving to God for such a wonderful gift as Eve and all the women who have come after her. For me, Women help me come closer to God.
To some people, knowing this about me makes it seem like entering the religious life is a sort of contradiction. Well, it isn’t: wanting to become a priest does not make me a woman-hater! It merely means I have to learn to love women in a different sort of way than I would if I had felt called by God to marriage. I have to learn how to love women in Christ’s way. In many ways, I have come to love women more by entering this life. But enough about me!
What are some created things that bring you closer to God? What takes your breath away? What takes you outside of yourself and causes you to reach out to God?
The tragic thing about this world (actually, one of the many things) is that we fallen humans often forget the whole purpose of God’s creation and become, in one way or another, idolators. We worship created things. We become utterly dependent on created things. We fall in love with created things. Addiction, obbsession, greed, lust, revenge, envy… all of these things stem from an unbalanced relationship with creation. God’s creation was and is meant to be enjoyed as a gift, it was never meant to replace God.
Another thing to think about: creation is meant to lead us to the Creator. This is important because it helps to bring the whole world into a greater context of an important Christian principle and reality: the Resurrection. Christ has defeated death and promised that those who die in Him will rise again in the fullness of time. Our world, since His own rising, is no longer a world doomed to die but a world transitioning and fading into a greater and truer existence. This world is the bleak and simple seed of another more perfect, glorified and beautiful world yet to come. Love the imperfect in this world not for itself, but because of the flower that it is promised to bloom into!
So many people in our lives live in a way that saddens, angers or frustrates us. There are good people that are wasting their lives with drugs, sex, alcohol, laziness, violence, etc. When we see people like this, it is very easy to look down upon them as lesser or to become angry with them. Instead, I invite you, in the spirit of love Christ encouraged us all to live, to realize that those people have a lot more in common with you than you might think. Those types of people are seeking for the same fulfillment, satisfaction, comfort, pleasure, meaning, purpose and love that we seek with God. A full relationship with God is more fulfilling than any career, more satisfying than any paycheck, more comfortable than any recliner, more pleasurable than any drug or drink, more meaningful than any club’s mission statement, more purposeful than any goal and more loving than any amount of sex a person could ever experience. Yet that desire to be close to God is present in all of us, and it is the person of prayer that finds it most fully. The drug addict and the priest experience the same deep desire to be close with God and to experience satisfaction, but the drug addict has gone about it the wrong way. The addict relies on a created thing not to help bring him closer to God, but to do the work for him. The addict, the alcoholic, the promiscuous person, the obsessed worker, etc. all suffer in the end because of their reliance on a created thing, a finite thing.
FAITH is infinite, so is HOPE and LOVE. God is infinite, and therefore only infinite things will be able to fully allow us to come to Him, though God’s creation, imbued with some of His greatness and love, can help elevate us closer. They cannot, however, take us the entire way. One of the many challenges of the Christian, then, is to seek a balance with God’s creation, neither becoming fully absorbed and dependent upon it nor shunning it completely as evil. Our purpose is not to eat, drink and mate but it is to praise, reverence and serve God. His creation is here to help us in this great purpose, so use and enjoy God’s creation so far as it brings you closer to Him and helps to fulfill your own created purpose; distance yourself from creation so far as it hinders you. Pray, too, for those who are trapped in creation, who are unable to see God through it and mistakingly see it AS God. Pray for them and live as an example for them to follow and love them not for what they are, but who they truly long to be- perfect children of God. Love not the seed for being a seed, but love it for the flower it shall become. These people, this entire world and universe, is fading not into nothing, but it rather is growing into something greater and one day Christ will return and all creation will bloom into its full splendor as it was always meant to! As Christians we must invite others to come along on that journey of growth by praying for others and by living lives that point far beyond ourselves to the God whispering deep within our hearts, “Grow….”
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Comments (33)
The cookies are a particularly nice touch.
I’ll have to remember to bring some next time I visit.
And yes, the bulk of this entry is what I’ve been experiencing, failing at, re-learning, and succeeding again here with many of my roommates and fellow students. I do not agree with many of the things they do, but I love them anyway. Sometimes it even hurts, but it wasn’t supposed to be easy.
This was a very beautiful entry, and I thank you.
In response to your comment:
That was the hardest I’ve laughed all day!!! And now I really need to watch Mask of Zorro again when I get back to the States in two weeks.
Your friend picked up on a great symbol in that God wants that sort of passion for Him.
If God put us here to serve him, doesn’t that make him a wee bit selfish? Building an entire world to serve? No being should have or need six billion servants.
I’m not being anti-God or anything (I’m a deist, not an atheist) I’m just curious.
To respond to Captain’s question, I often wondered that myself and have come to the conclusion that God didn’t intend for us only to serve him, but if you think about it, when you serve him and try to follow his ten commandments as guidance, you create a lot less stress for yourself and a lot less suffering for you and those around you. In serving God, we serve eachother and it makes life a lot more enjoyable for the people around us. I hope that makes sense. There is a lot about life that I am trying to figure out for myself as well, but learning is the beauty of the life that He gave us. It’s so scary yet refreshing and exciting at the same time
I hope all is well with you Brother. I will send your package when I get home-that way it won’t travel half the country to get to you-it’s kind of fragile. Love and miss you lots!!
One question about your post though-why do you feel that the universe is growing into something greater when people are more selfish than ever (it seems like anyways). People are not very neighborly to one another, there aren’t as many people attending church or wherever they go to worship their creator, and it seems as though people just aren’t very faith oriented but feel that they themselves control their own fate and the world around them? I just don’t feel like our universe seems as promising as you feel it is
Sorry I sound so pessimistic, I just don’t see what you mean.
Thanks for explaining your thoughts. I love hearing other people’s views on God and religion.
As a loosely-named Deist, I believe that the original beings at the dawn of time were created by a God who believed in something greater for the galaxy. This was his purpose, and through evolution, we became human. God bestowed us with gifts like intellect, reasoning, and human emotion. It is for this reason that we should be ever grateful to him and thank him for these gifts. (But a difference is that we don’t pray for things like our meals, as they are a human creation. Though it isn’t strict, most Deists do not pray. I’m one of them, but to each his own.)
Interesting post. I believe that I lay somewhere with laziness and faith. I don’t drink. I don’t do a lot of things to excess besides lounge around on my couch in my apartment, watching the best of whatever the entertainment world has to offer.
Love your collage, too. Lot of good things in that list… I don’t know what a collage of favorite things would look like for me. Probably a spiderweb/Spider-Man, Star Wars, film projector, Browncoat, type of images compiled… And Skittles.
Hope you have a great week!
Many thanks for the lovely and much-needed conversation.
No, my dear, I’m afraid you didn’t… I am in possession of no Dracula music. Yeah, I can’t remember how to spell it in English apparently; I was getting confused with the German *Karriere*, which I can spell perfectly, ha!
We will certainly miss you and I will do my best to spread the word that you said hello! Have a good week and weekend anyway!
Do you have a flag?
I’m thinking SLU definitely *is* the right place to be.
I like their campus. And they’re freakin’ huge library. They have some cool statuary there as well, unlike other colleges…
Class reunion was pretty interesting. Nothing’s really changed from high school except some last names and some people’s career paths. I had fun hanging out at Rhino’s for the evening and several of our classmates liked the five-page letter you wrote about why you weren’t with us. You were with me and Odeen in spirit, though.
Hard to believe 5 years have gone past already. The next five will probably pass jsut as quickly. Hope you get those novitiates moved in and have a great week!
Read through the comments from captain_jaq: God did not create us to serve; if we look in Genesis, we can read that God created man as “just below” angels, and for companionship. God wanted a being (humans) that would not be able to see His full Glory, but still choose to love Him, unlike the angels and other heavenly beings who can “see” better than we are able to know who God is, His full extent of power, and nearly choose to serve and love Him under compulsion. We, as humans on the other hand are free-er (so to speak) to choose whether to love and serve, or ignore God because we are not able to see Him in Glory; if you saw God in all His glory, wouldn’t you feel much more compelled to revere and serve Him than perhaps you do at this moment in your life?
Regarding your comment: that’s awesome! What’s it like to be in the noviate program where you’ve consistently have people entering into the program, or exiting it as they make their vows?
Thank you very much! It is so exciting to be entering in only FOUR days! Pray for me as I embark on this new journey. I shall keep you in my prayers as well. So, what order are you in? That is so awesome that you will be making vows in one year! WOW! God is so good and He just keeps calling and calling our hearts to a deeper relationship with HIM! God bless you and reward you!
So, when is your next trip back to Tipton scheduled for. Maybe if I know a little sooner, I can try to swing it off of work.
Hope you have a great week!
Haha, you’re funny! I’m glad more than one person reads my blog.:)
I guess some people would see your comment as a typo, but I’m leaving it as is, because I think it hits on a deeper level just how important Christ is, and how much more beautiful His sacrifice is in comparison to anything on this lowly earth.
Alright, two things:
1. Please, let me know when you come back to Tipton next. (319) 321-5294, or sean dot odeen at gmail dot com (Woo, spam filter style) – I’m officially graduated and here until I gain employment.)
2. I finally started reading the New Jedi Order. Good stuff.
Alright, that’s it. Go be a jedi. Do or do not, and all that.
She said something about inviting you to her nephew’s baptism; I hope you get to go!
I’d agree with you about that. Man alive. It just irks me that when I spend $20 on a DVD that it doesn’t have all of the special features it could’ve had originally. I mean, I know I buy a few of them, but the resale value of a lesser DVD when a newer, better version is available definitly goes down. I mean, look at Serenity. The Collector’s Edition came out, and resaled copies sell for under $5.
Legacy of the Force: Inferno looks to be relatively short. Have a great week!
Helloooooo! I loved your comment on the “Why do we hate Catholics” topic the other day. I commented also. Well said, my dear.
Thanks for the comment and the gardening metaphor, and I picked up your letter from the PO box yesterday. Glad you’re feeling better, too. I just contribute long silences to busyness; now I know better.
A picnic with *two* beautiful people, eh?
So glad to see you.
Just in case you haven’t read Inferno yet, I’ll keep spoilers to a minimum in my next post. After reading, though, I really think the publishers realize that Jacen Solo/Darth cadeus may not be able to be redeemed, especially after several of the events in the novel. Also, keep an eye out on those crazy Wookiees, especially after Cadeus takes his first unguided steps down the path of the Dark Side.
Hope you have a great week!
TTM is shorthand for Trichotillomania. I’ll save you the trouble of googling the DSM IV TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV Text Revision) and just say that its an impulse control disorder that causes me to pull out my hair. Usually I’m okay with pulling but right now I’m stressed out enough that pulling isn’t the best course of action.
Thanks for the prayer. I can’t say whether or not I felt it’s effects. I’m not entirely out of the woods just yet, but it’s getting better. I go through gum like chain smokers go through cig packs.
I know. At least I’m comfortable enought with God that I can get angry with him one moment and apologize the next.
got your card. don’t worry about not updating very often - I’ve seen longer spells (like last August).
So what exactly is a relationship with God (please do not give the sunday school answer) for you? Could you describe it for me (the thoughts, emotions experienced during this time)? I’m just curious.
Well, *of course* Challenge was going to make it in the list of the top five most relevant objects in my life!
This is beautiful.