I watched the movie Inception last night. Very heady, and one of those movies that gets your brain going on and on about things. When that happens to me, I start to analyze my life, write poems, and examine my beliefs. The post and poem below are the result of that, so bear with me!

Faith

Molded and shaped I sit and wait
An empty vessel
A jar made of clay
I am not finished
This I know
For the Bible told me so.
Malleable, vulnerable Covered in dust
Looking left, looking right
Not knowing who to trust
Keeping fingers crossed
My heart beating fast
I take a step forward
And then two steps back.
Not knowing where I’ll go
Or how long it will take
It’s quite a perfect gamble
When my soul is at stake.
Choosing light over dark
Staying right
Knowing wrong
So much more to learn
I have to stay strong.

What is faith? It’s more than just belief in something that cannot be seen. In one of my English classes, I had to write a paper on faith. The topic wasn’t faith, mind you, but the book we read, The House Of Mirth, called for the topic to be brought up and discussed. I have this habit of bringing Biblical principles into the classroom and applying them to what I learned. It is the filter through which I see the world, so I can’t help myself. I was raised that way, and so the principles I stand on therefore have Biblical roots. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this. My views are my views…I can put them out there and people can choose to agree or disagree as far as I am concerned. If they disagree, I am happy to hear them out.

When I was younger, I was homeschooled. I never stepped into a public school until tenth grade. Growing up and moving out was a bit of a shock for me. I had been sheltered. REALLY sheltered. I didn’t just see the world through Bible-colored glasses, I was plain blinded. I became friends in college with many people with different beliefs, and the blinders came off. I was confused. I wanted to be accepting. It took me awhile to realize that I could have my own beliefs and share them and still have respect for others and their own beliefs. If someone took the time to hear what I had to say, it was only fair that I hear them out as well. I learned a lot more about my own principles by comparing and contrasting, because I had the opportunity to question my beliefs, and bring those doubts to the surface.

I felt a lot like a had been in a dream, and then suddenly woke up to find that nothing was as I thought it was. My values and beliefs were the same, but the application to the world around me was completely different. My faith was what I held onto. The book of Hebrews explains, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV). The key words are ‘substance’ and ‘evidence’. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. I hope I will fit in, I hope I will know what to do next in my life, and I hope that everything will work out. Faith is the basis, or the substance of that belief. It substantiates that belief. Without faith, there is no proof for those hopes and dreams. Faith is the evidence of things unseen. I can’t see what will happen next in my life, but I have evidence that everything will be alright. I have faith that I will be pointed and guided in the right direction. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. Faith is the proof that everything will work out right in the end.

Have you noticed how knowledge is no longer common?

When I was studying communications, I took a class called International Communications. It was very interesting, because we discussed cultural differences, orientations to time and to other people, and communications styles within different cultures. They vary so drastically that what might be a common practice in California can be completely unrecognizable and even offensive to a person in Japan, or Iraq for instance.

I could go on about different examples, but I know that everyone has experienced miscommunications with people from other cultures, so it is evident in daily life. In this day and age, with technology advancing before our eyes, the world has become a smaller place than even when I was a kid. Lines of communication and the technological advances have opened doors for countries like India and China to catch up with the US and Japan, making it more of a level playing field as time goes on.

Thomas L Friedman, (2002 Pulizter Prize winner and Foreign Affairs columnist for the New York Times) wrote a book about this phenomenon called The World Is Flat. I haven’t read the entire book, but he gave a lecture on his book at MIT, and I was able to watch it online. It is absolutely mind bloggling how far we have come, and really helped me understand what our generation is going through as the world continues to develope and evolve around us and technology surges forward.

The US is on a level playing field now…we don’t have the same advantages that we did. The rest of the world is catching up! his isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just a new thing, and to survive, we really need to understand what this means for us as a country, and as individuals.

If you would like to hear the lecture, I encourage you to do so…it is a little long, but worth the time. Here is the link:

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/266

Moving on…

Common Knowledge. It’s just not common anymore. We have been flooded with more new ideas and possible directions than we can manage, and everyone has a different way of managing…thus, knowledge is no longer common.

I wrote a poem a couple years ago about common knowledge, which I have here:

Kommon Cnowledge

There is Something to be said

For What goes without saying.

When Knowledge ceases to be Common

The death is in the mind.

To put in Kommon words,

A roving tongue will

Emulate truth, corroding the untold.

And in that subliminal destruction,

A flood of acid-sharp Cnowledge

Decays the mind

Lacerates the heart

Until Something What’s left unsaid is

Lost,

Replaced by a memory

Of what used to be Knowledge in Common.

I was heavily influenced by E.E. Cummings’ works at the time, and tried to play around with swapping letters, and capitalizing words mid sentence to create more metaphoric value within the poem. I tried to create a sence of irony within the structure and word choices as well.

I wrote this before I took the International Communications class, but I find that it still rings true, and maybe even has more meaning now than it did before…

I challenge you to pay attention tothe chnages around you, and recognize and aprpeciate the differences and similarities. Seek clarification and never rush to anger. The world is changing, and knowledge is no longer common. It is up to us to learn to understand each other. Pray for each other. Encourage each other. Share our knowledge, gifts, and blessings with each other. Focus on the Way, the Truth, and the Life.