a spring poem

i wrote this on a whim; it flew out of my head while i was "chatting" on facebook, actually. my hope for you is that, today, you begin to see God in a new way, with the eyes and faith of a child...

branches and twigs and leaves
crunching, stepping, branching out
i find wisdom in the trees, solace in the sky
my Lord speaks to me through the things i see
he gives me pieces of himself through the grandeur
through the beauty of his creation he speaks
i feel his love again, like sunshine through the waving branches
its pure and light, and feels warm on my face
i've longed for this time, for this moment, and now it's here
i feel new again
i feel recreated and fresh
i know my father loves me, that he always has
and now i can see it
how good God is!

Change is hard... but good? [Part 2]

When I think about change, I remember this picture by Norman Rockwell... I suppose the caption would say, “Change isn’t always good”, playing off the commonly held opinion that "Change is good."

It’s a phrase that was put to use most recently by President Obama as he campaigned for the White House. He was promoting change: left, right, and down the center. He made promise after promise regarding the changes he would make, and has gone on to try and follow up on those promises. I guess to this I would say, "Change is good, as long as it's in the right direction."
The funny thing is, when I was a kid, some of my favorite books were about change: Peter Pan, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and The Velveteen Rabbit. I want to end this post by giving you a section of The Velveteen Rabbit, a story about a boy who got a toy rabbit for Christmas, and how the rabbit became real. As you read this, look for it’s correlation to life. I think it speaks.

“What is REAL?” asked the rabbit one day. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes.” For he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or who have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
The rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him…
Time passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit anymore, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real, shabbiness doesn’t matter.

Change is hard: according to Peter Pan [Part 1]

“I’m never going to change. I’m never going to grow up!” Peter Pan shouts from the inside of one of my favorite storybooks.
You know, of course, that Peter Pan is not the only one who’s ever resisted this seeming enemy called “change”. I mean, what about Calvin? Oh, you know, the legendary six-year-old spiky-haired kid from the comic “Calvin and Hobbes”. There’s a comic in Calvin and Hobbes where Hobbes asks, “Are you making any resolutions for the new year?” and Calvin answers, “Nope! I want everything to stay the same as it was this year.” Then he goes on to explain:
“This year was lousy, but at least it’s familiar… I hate change! It’s too disruptive! When things are different, you have to think about the change and deal with it! I like things to stay the same, so I can take everything for granted! …Besides, things keep changing for the worse! The longer I live, the more complicated everything gets! I say let’s stop here before life gets any harder! From now on, no more change!”
So he finally stops ranting, folds his arms and waits… but two frames later, he’s off and running, shouting to Hobbes, “I’m bored. Let’s do something different.” And of course, Hobbes is replying with “Some things don’t change.”
Ok, ok. So I have to admit that I was totally with Calvin at first. Several years ago, I had this conversation (more like a debate, actually) with a friend. My position was “Change is bad”, and his was a refutation of that. Actually, it took several weeks of ongoing conversation (if I’m remembering correctly) for him to reach his final point, probably because I was arguing so hard for my point that it was hard for him to get a word in edgewise. But he finally got around to putting in his final word, and that was “Change isn’t necessarily bad. It can be very hard, though.” And of course, I knew he was right. So did Calvin, apparently.
I’ve got a couple more examples, but I’m going to have to spare the detail at this point, in order to reveal the reason for this post. Straightaway then, I guess, to the reason that I have been thinking on this subject. You see, I heard news from two of my favorite bands lately that there is some big change coming. This upset me much at first. Anyhow, the news is this: that Delirious? is breaking up and will create no new records (unless some sort of compilation comes out), and will tour only a bit more, ending somewhere around the end of 2009… and that Peter Furler, lead singer for the Newsboys, will no longer be touring with the band, but will be replaced by Michael Tait, who used to be with DC Talk. As far as I know, Peter will still be recording with the band, but is giving up touring to be able to spend more time with his family.
Of course, these changes will be hard on the individuals themselves, and not only for myself. Still, I feel a twinge of pain as I lament the effect the changes will have. I used to count myself among the “rockers” (groupies, really), going to all the shows and hanging in the mosh pits, buying every new cd as it came hot off the line. Now I’m a 20-year-old college student, working each day and studying by night, seeing weekend after weekend disappear as each one is given to something more important that “rocking out” at the shows.

It was tough, to watch this change occur in my life. Probably one of the hardest things I’ll ever do in my life is to give up the things I want to do, in order to include the things that need to happen. But it’s a necessary difficulty, and will be rewarded, I’m sure.

[I hate to say it, but this is going to have to encompass 2 entries, since I have more to say on this, but I’ve reached my self-imposed length limit. Forgive me; I’ll put the rest up tomorrow.]