Done

I am officially declaring A Light to My Path a closed blog. I will no longer be posting here.

Please feel free to check out my other blogs and see what I've been up to:

Words from Around the World
Praying for the Earth

Odes to Solomon

I ran across this hymn while reading for class and found it so, so beautiful. The first five verses especially really struck me as encapsulating so well why I write, and the rest is just beautifully-written praises of God. We can never praise Him enough!

1. As the occupation of the ploughman is the ploughshare, and the occupation of the helmsman is the steering of the ship, so also my occupation is the psalm of the Lord by His hymns.
2. My art and my service are in His hymns, because His love has nourished my heart, and His fruits He poured unto my lips.
3. For my love is the Lord; hence I will sing unto Him.
4. For I am strengthened by His praises, and I have faith in Him.
5. I will open my mouth, and His Spirit will speak through me the glory of the Lord and His beauty,
6. The work of His hands, and the labor of His fingers;
7. For the multitude of His mercies, and the strength of His Word.
8. For the Word of the Lord investigates that which is invisible, and reveals His thought.
9. For the eye sees His works, and the ear hears His thought.
10. It is He who made the earth broad, and placed the waters in the sea.
11. He expanded the heaven, and fixed the stars.
12. And He fixed the creation and set it up, then He rested from His works.
13. And created things run according to their courses, and work their works, for they can never cease nor fail.
14. And the hosts are subject to His Word.
15. The reservoir of light is the sun, and the reservoir of darkness is the night.
16. For He made the sun for the day so that it will be light; but night brings darkness over the face of the earth.
17. And by their portion one from another they complete the beauty of God.
18. And there is nothing outside of the Lord, because He was before anything came to be.
19. And the worlds are by His Word, and by the thought of His heart.
20. Praise and honor to His name.
    Hallelujah.

(This is an early Christian (specifically gnostic) hymn, from about the second century AD. No, I'm not particularly gnostic, but this hymn doesn't strike me as very gnostic either (yes, I'm basing that on a quick peruse of wikipedia). This version of Odes of Solomon 16 came from The Gnostic Society Library)

Writing and Christian Creativity

I just finished my review for Scribbling in the Sand, and it brought up so many thoughts that didn't really fit into a book review.

I intended this summer to be a summer of writing, both for myself and for actual money. It was quite a failure--like I mentioned before, I don't do very well with the non-structured summer life, and I let my obsessions get quite out of control. I feel like I learned a lot, but I wish that I had already known it as well as I thought I did.

At the end of the summer, I still want to commit to writing more. In part that was why I started these blogs. Writing still terrifies me sometimes (remember this post? Yeah, I still feel like that all the time). It's such a leap of faith sometimes, if not all the time. At other times it's just plain difficult. I have so many ideas running around in my head, and it's hard to pick between them. There are so many other, easier, less productive things that I also want to be doing.

And how do I allow God to work through what I'm writing? Scribbling in the Sand brought up the idea of your art being your worship, or a form of worship. How is what I write worship? Yes, sometimes when I write--on good days--I feel such joy as I write, feel that God is sitting right by me, guiding my typing hands. Other days I feel nothing but struggle, and I wonder if I should write at all on those days. On good days I can see how my story worships God, on other days I can't. Is it enough of a worship to write in obedience? Should the story also be a form of worship? It's hard to feel as if a description of people playing cards is a form of worship. It's hard to feel as if a fight scene is a form of worship. It's hard to remember that maybe the overall plot is beautiful, even if the moments aren't always. Is that alright?

And where is my writing going? What about seminary?

I pray that God will guide me as I try to navigate this while also going to seminary. I know that He'll be right there beside me no matter what I'm struggling with. I feel Him right here even as I ask these questions.