Familiar tongue

I recently had the opportunity to spend a handful of days traveling through Europe -- London, Rome and Paris. It was all kinds of wonderful, but one thing I'll share here is how pleasant it was to hear English after going days and days in lands where unfamiliar tongues prevailed. It was refreshing, relieving and comforting.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. - Hebrews 11:13-16

I am reminded that I am a sojourner on this earth, and that I am headed to a land whose tongue will make the language I speak and write with approximate fluency here seem strange and awkward.

That better country will have a tongue that will resonate with me in a way that no good book, quote or lyric will ever be able to do here. A single syllable will unravel the heavy, convoluted mess of ineffable emotions I've been hauling in my heart for so many years, to reveal a sublime tapestry of brilliance and understanding. I will immediately realize that I am truly known and, indeed, have always been known by the love I've been aching for my whole life. My heart will melt with concurrent waves of sorrow and joy until all that's left is throbbing worship.

When I hear those first words of welcome, I'll know that I'm finally home.

Blagojevich's silence

Well, it's finally over: Rod Blagojevich is now a plain old citizen.

If you want to see the full video of his closing argument, you can watch it here. (Be warned: he talks for about 46 minutes.)

The part I want to focus on is the last minute. Watch it if you can.

If you're too lazy to, I'll spoil it for you and reveal what happens: silence.

It occurred to me that sometimes the best way to appreciate what I have is to see what happens to those who do not.

There are so many people who spend their entire lives defending themselves and in the end it will mean absolutely nothing. All of their resistance to acknowledge the truth, their refusal to admit to their standing with it, will be met with a deafening silence.

When I bear down on the thought of being met with infinite silence at the end of my life, I realize how that is just a scratch on the unfathomed surface of what hell really is.

I am grateful to be one who has someone to defend me, in my stead - whose testimony and pleas demand a ruling in my favor and secure an eventual greeting that will put all the applause that President Barack Obama has ever heard to shame.

Now my struggle is to go beyond this whisper of heaven and to genuinely desire this privilege to be extended to many more.