December arrived like spraining an ankle by an unseen force.
Where am I in life? Where, or with whom, do my deepest convictions lie?
I feel, despite the deepest of conviction in my faith, at least, that there are people who will quietly understand my message, and people “shouting out loud” (in whatever fashion), who think they do, but don’t. That’s the portrait of This morning’s mood, for my own setting-the-scene, for what I am about to share:
I’m posting one or two videos per day: all based on things I deem interesting, relevant to me, keeping the goal as being insightful as well as helpful, hopefully, to those with, maybe something “missing” from their lives, that I can provide a map towards.
Let me provide quick hand-drawn co-ordinates toward whereabouts of a ticket to gratitude, sprouted from what I discovered in my early-to-mid teens. I find joy in the littlest, tiniest and most gentle of things, but I’ll tell you right now and juxtapose that against this:
I was once told that the nature of the Lord’s grace was to spare us our lives, when every one of us is fit for punishment.
When the first Saw movie came out, I was just a kid. I don’t remember watching the whole entire thing, but I remember watching YouTube clips of it, and reading the synopsis, and listening to the soundtrack I probably downloaded with a virus, on limewire or frostwire. (Charlie Clouser, right?) The whole movie’s premise fascinated, haunted and changed me at a young age. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it about the main character, “Jigsaw”, punishing people in creative ways, that mirror what he sees as sin? No, well, actually he makes the victims do it themselves, usually. As jigsaw himself has some battle with cancer, which he will die from, he sets these traps for people that he feels justified in exploiting. The crime is often some form of ungratefulness, or refusal to see life as a miracle, letting petty concerns take the wheel, instead of living with a consistent tone of appreciation of life, pretty much to its fullest. I think those that know me, know me as a being that treats appreciation as the great “thou shalt”, just as Jesus Christ’s message was “Forgive. By seven by seventy times, forgive.”
I took both to heart, and still do. The abstract fear of being trapped in one of Jigsaw’s traps changed me for the better, and changed my world-view, permanently. I suppose you could say with some degree of accuracy that the philosophy, and horror, of the first Saw film, enhanced my own, developing faith. This is at a time when Christianity really was on the back-burner. I didn’t understand it, because of what the churches I’d been to had done, seemed to be contrary to the central character, and nature of Christ.
And this is just me understanding that in hindsight. At the time there was just the keen sense and alertness, that Christ, on his return, would find many of the churches I grew up around, a very poor reflection of him, unrecognisable to the churches he set up, and in some cases, maybe even disgusting to him.
Trust in the True Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Yahweh the all-father’s grace. Amen.
The Humble Rock Dove 