Humility, Repentance, and Readiness

The book of Joel was written, by Joel, as a sign of warning to the people. There had been a great catastrophe, which was sent by the Lord, and Joel is telling the people to cry out to the Lord for his help. In the beginning of the book, Joel presents the catastrophe that the people are facing, the locusts, and tells them to ask the Lord for help and turn from their wicked ways. He then begins to talk about an army of locusts and the coming of the Lord. The Lord promises to take care of his people and that he will judge those who will not follow him. People who treated God's people as property, or wrongly will be judged as well. Although the Lord promises to save his people and bless them, it is conditional based on the fact that if they return to their wicked ways, he can remove his blessing and send judgement instead. Joel ends the book by discussing the blessings of the Lord for his people and Jerusalem some day being completely liberated from all enemies. Major themes that Joel shows in this book are humility, repentance, and readiness.

In chapter one, verse five, Joel speaks to the drunkards and commands them to wake up and weep. I found this verse very interesting because this was the only act of sin, or rebellion against God, mentioned in the whole book of Joel. When practicing lectio divina and asking the Lord what Joel meant by this verse, it was clear to me that drunkenness may also be considered self-indulgence. The people had become numb and completely oblivious to the lifestyles of sin that they were living in. When I think about the world today, I realize that the same issues that Joel was addressing then, need to be addressed now too. We, the church, have become numb in our own self-indulgence and sin. We repeatedly say the Lord's name in vain, sit through movies that are a disgrace, and we even go to places that were designed to disrespect the name of the Lord. Yet, we repeatedly do these things because they have become part of our culture or everyday lifestyles. We are too selfish or "drunk" on ourselves that we do not see the wrong.

Then in verse fourteen, Joel is commanding the people to declare a holy fast and to cry out to the Lord. He not only mentions fasting in chapter one, but twice more in chapter two. Joel describes again and again how important it was for the people to devote themselves to prayer and intercession. People today may not find themselves dealing with actual locusts that are plaguing their lives but they do face trials and even great catastrophes. These crises overwhelm not only their lives but their communities, schools, and families. The only thing to do in these situations is to fast and pray. Fasting to me, is one of the biggest forms of humility. Going without food, drink, or even objects that take up my time, proves to the Lord that I cannot do it on my own and I am fully relying on him for every need in my life. In showing the Lord that I am fully dependent on him, I am ridding myself of the self-indulgence that Joel was talking about in chapter one, verse five.

The beginning of chapter two explains Joel's urgency or warning to the church. He says,"Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming." He's not whispering or even casually discussing the coming of the Lord. He tells them to blow the trumpet because the trumpet was used to signal approaching danger. The sound of the trumpet would raise fear in the people and "wake up the drunkards." He talks about the day of darkness and gloom coming. I think he is referring to the day of judgment that will be scary, dark, or gloomy, for those who have not been following him. Joel even asks in chapter two, verse seventeen, that the priests and ministers lead the way. They should lead their congregation back to a place of humility and prayer to the Lord. The coming of the Lord is very soon and we must return to him and turn completely from our wicked ways.

At the end of chapter two, Joel is predicting a day that the Lord will "pour out his spirit on all people." He basically is seeing the Lord sending his Holy Spirit being poured out while people are receiving blessings and gifts from him. These gifts may be prophetic gifts that the Lord has been waiting to give certain people but because of their "self-indulgence" he has not been able to release the gift to them. Sin hinders us from receiving all that the Lord has for our lives. Joel sets his book up by showing the people what they are doing wrong, telling them to repent, and revealing to them what the Lord desires to give them. In verse twenty-nine, he even makes sure that the people know that the gifts are for everyone, men and women, with no regards to race, gender, or age. The Lord desires to pour out his spirit on us.

We read this book in class and even spoke this book out loud while walking outside. If I did not fully understand then, what Joel meant, I do now. I literally wept as I read this text and even prayed about it, only to read it again. As I look at my own life and see the self-indulgence or "drunkenness" of things of this world I repent and ask the Lord to forgive me for worrying with things that do not even pertain to him. When I think about all the gifts and blessings that the Lord has not been able to give me, I become sick. We have to return to him completely, humble ourselves, and warn others about the coming of the King. I feel like this mission or goal was what Joel was doing all along.

Symbolism

I see many forms of symbolism everyday and I am so used to seeing them and obeying them, such as the stop sign, that I do not really think about how amazing it is that a symbol can mean the same word to everyone, everywhere. I really learned a lot in reading this chapter.

I honestly never knew that figurative language could be broken down into two types. I also had never heard of a trope in any of my previous English classes.

I think it is really cool when authors title a poem or story an actual object and then the whole story is about people but the two can be compared. When I have read stories like this, I think of the stories that relate to these objects when I see them. I have heard in a psychology class that identifying situations with objects often helps people while coping. Who would have thought that symbolism would help people cope with their problems?

Waiting

The word "waiting" is used and performed every single day of our lives. There are so many things we have to wait for: doctor appointments, fast food, love, babies to be born, a good sale at Macy's and plane flights. There is even a country song that is playing on the radio right now by Brad Paisley, entitled "Waiting on a Woman." He sings about how women are always slow, even to die, but he does not mind waiting on his woman.

"Waiting on Godot", made me think about the word "waiting" even more. These two men are sitting and waiting on a man that they really do not know much about. The author, Beckett, never tells his readers why they are waiting or why this person they are waiting on is so important. He builds suspense in his story by showing that they are "waiting for the unknown" and it leaves his readers hoping that by the end of the story, they will understand why.

We as Christians are much like the two men in this story. We know more about the Man we are waiting on but we are all waiting on someone we have never really seen or physically heard. This brings me to my next point about the story. These two men had a lot of faith in Godot. Faith is difficult to have sometimes, especially when waiting. However, waiting makes it all the worthwhile. Even though the men had crazy conversation and actions while waiting, I truly believe waiting brings character. There are things to be learned while waiting.

Dr.Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog

I uploaded a picture onto my blog to show what I believe Dr.Horrible's heart looks like. He was heart-broken because Captain Hammer got to have Penny and no matter what Dr.Horrible did, she would not be with him. I believe he had the innate desire to get ahead and to be apart of the "group" but I think the desire grew stronger because of Penny.

The end of the film, Penny dies during a fight between Dr.Horrible and Captain Hammer. A lot of people will do anything while coping with a broken heart. Although Dr.Horrible had placed a band-aid over his stab womb in his heart, it still hurt. The pain would not go away so he had to do something about it.

We see this kind of thing happening in reality. Middle school girls physically fight after school, women shoot their cheating husbands or vice versa, and people refuse to let go of the hurt and pain. I have decided that Dr.Horrible needs serious counseling. I doubt he would go, since he is so pleased with himself but it would be the best thing for him. He could wind up hurting someone else. Maybe out of his heart-brokeness he wants to hurt other people. We will never know the true thoughts of Dr.Horrible.

Movies

In my last blog I wrote about my trip to Lake Bonny, I'm sorry. Today I want to blog about movies that I have seen recently.

I'm beginning to hate my Introduction to Literature class. I do not really hate it, but you will understand what I am saying by the end of this blog. I used to be able to watch a movie peacefully. One day Professor Corrigan talked about characterization in our class. Characterization does not take place solely in books. Anyone can point out characterization in plays, movies, or anything that is created.

I was watching the classic, in my opinion, Sweet Home Alabama, on Friday night with my best friend. I've seen this movie nearly a hundred times except this time I viewed the movie was completely different. I started thinking about the author's motives for making the character say certain things, dress certain ways, and even act certain things out. This movie was a great one to play "question the author" with because there are city slicker sophisticated people and then there are country hick rednecks. These actors in real life do not portray these characteristics.

I have found that it is a lot easier to understand the plot and author's perspective but studying the characterization they created. I appreciate the things I have learned from my class. Everything is done for a reason.

Lake Bonny

This morning I visited Lake Bonny for this assignment and I stayed for an hour. While I was there I did something I have never done before. I pretended as if I was an explorer in a nature film, almost like the Crocodile Hunter or any show similar to that. I was walking on the boardwalk and heard a noise in the trees and turned swiftly as if I wanted the camera to get a good shot of whatever it was rumbling the trees. As soon as I looked, the bird had buried itself into the trees. And then I thought to myself, humans and the birds look at trees completely different. Humans tear down trees, as if they are a bother, to build homes. Humans also complain when there aren't any trees for shade at a hot football game. They only want the trees if they can do something for them. This is why humans are selfish. Birds look at trees as a play ground for hide and seek with their friends. They even look at trees as a shelter from the wicked humans hunting them. Some mother birds make a nest and lay their eggs in trees. It's amazing to me, how many functions trees actually have. They're very important. I will honestly never look at a tree the same way again.

I forgot to take my camera to Lake Bonny so I found this image online of trees. This picture means so much more to me now. Driving down a road full of trees on both sides will never be just another road to me. It will be a gift because I know these trees are homes to many animals who may have been evicted from their last tree home.

I am glad Professor Corrigan gave us the opportunity to learn and appreciate nature through poems and visits to the park because I would not have visited the park on my own. I can honestly say that I will probably revisit the park.

The Poems

We have been reading a lot of poems in class lately. I was dreading this part of Introduction to Literature class, I'll admit. However, I am beginning to enjoy the poems we have read and I am learning how to read and understand them.

For homework we read a few poems. The poem that stuck out to me is entitled, "Praying." This poem grabbed my attention right away, probably because I pray everyday and I wanted to hear what the author had to say about the topic.

The first stanza says, "it doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot." This line is powerful to me. People, atleast I know for myself, go before the Lord attempting to find the best words to say almost as if they need to impress him. They forget that he knows our every move and word. Our prayers can be, and need to be, genuine. "This isn't a contest but a doorway into thanks," this line is powerful as well. I already discussed how people would try to impress or make it a contest. But the phrase a "doorway into thanks" is powerful as well. We should look at prayer not as a way that the Lord can do something for us, but as a way to bless and thank him.