Conquered Tongues

I was driving to work this morning, listening to some music, when I began thinking about Brazil (I'm going on a mission trip there in late July) and how the people there speak Portuguese. I thought about how Portugal planted their language in the people there when they planted their flag in Brazilian soil. Countries that colonize other areas of the world impose their languages upon those people. Essentially, natives in countries that are colonized have their tongues, as well as their land, conquered by the colonizing country.

So, the natural extension of this stream of thinking was this: who has conquered my tongue? It seems like an important question to me, because whoever has conquered my tongue has most likely conquered me.

I know from time to time
That hope seems but a foreign land
A distance that we cannot reach
A language we cannot speak
- 'Everyone' by Sleeping At Last

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. - James 3:3-12

Tame Cars, Aslan, and Only Children

I passed by a goose with its gosling today. They were grazing beside the Garden State Parkway, about three feet away from the shoulder. This surprised me, since so many loud cars sped by them. Yet, they were so calm, and didn't even seem to be aware of the metal monsters rumbling by. Either that, or they somehow believed these metallic beasts to be tame, always heeding the lines and never daring to cross over into their grassy territory.

For the majority of my waking hours, this is how I live my life. God is all around me, and indeed, in me. Yet, for some reason, I go on grazing the same old empty things, acting as if he is the one who is tame. I live as if he will never dare cross the line into my ignorant serenity, though I know from experience and further education that invasion is the very business he is in. He is always trying to rouse me from my ennui-saturated tameness, urging me to become wild with him. If his blood runs through my veins, how could it be any other way?

Just like Aslan, I know that God is not tame. He does not heed any lines. It is a sign of utter irreverence and fatal idiocy to think otherwise. So, I am a disrespectful idiot who would be on a quick trajectory towards hell if it were not for the very thing that I constantly ignore: God's penchant for invasion.

I am glad that he is not tame, but I fear the full meaning of it.

I'll end on a tangent.

I listened to a radio segment a couple days ago discussing the difficulties that families are enduring in the places hit hardest by the earthquake in China. One thing the reporter noted was the fact that because of the one-child policy enforced by the Chinese government, there were countless stories of couples losing their only children. While some couples counted themselves fortunate for breaching the law and having more than one child, the majority of them were deeply grieved because the children they lost in the earthquake were their only ones. Families of three were horribly pared down to two.

I genuinely hope and pray that these couples would find comfort in the Gospel, which tells us that God also endured the loss of his one and only child. He is neither far nor unfamiliar with their pain and sorrow.

Creed and Ed Sing to Angela's Baby

"He wants us to move the island."

Okay, I'm completely back in love with LOST. I'm so tempted to go on a giddy schoolgirl rant here, but I'll refrain.

By the way, if you want to read really insightful weekly recaps of each episode, you must read Jeff Jensen's column.

I just want to say two things:

1. Keamy is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite characters on the show.



2. Locke = Jacob



LOST owns me.

The end.

Myanmar

IFRC

World Vision