.....a lyric from one of many versions of Arirang (Very old traditional Korean folk song). I've included a link, listen to it, it's breathtaking.
Click and Listen to Arirang -Traditional Korean Folk Song
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Beginnings are naturally headed toward endings.
And endings point the way to new beginnings.
A child cries out her new life
as a mother exhales the last breath of her former self, willingly.
Winter kills Fall, as snow thumps down and covers wet leaf.
Then spring finally liquefies winter and she flows away gracefully.
Young puppy tries to catch its tail. Over and over. Happily.
Geese fly south when it's cold and return again when it's warm.
Old man returns to being hairless, teethless, and helpless.
As he remembers his childhood fondly, he is ready for the end.
Nature lets go. Nature is endings and beginnings. We are nature.
Why can't I let go?
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"Anyone who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God"
.........Jesus (Luke 9, 62).
Sounds pretty harsh eh? And are we all meant to be booted out of heaven cause we can't seem to let go of the past? Or we try and we mess up? I am sure the answer is no.
I really wondered what his means for a while. Whenever Jesus sounds like a hard-ass I know something is not right in my understanding of what he was saying. I waited. I prayed. I think I figured it out. (This is how it usually goes).
If you think of being a farmer, and riding on a plow, and turning back and focusing your attention there, you would naturally lose your ability to drive your plow straight. You would end up driving in all kinds of directions and messing up your field, or crashing, tipping your tractor, or worse. Basically having a few plowing issues and not riding along with ease, listening to his tunes, enjoying the sunshine, like a farmer should. We are all meant to live at ease and in harmony, like a happy farmer, you might say.
In order to know where you are going, you have to keep your eyes on what's ahead of you, and not spend your time looking back at where you have come from. Straight paths come from forward focus, and knowing the direction you are headed, and once you are going straight you can relax and enjoy (and that is part of the essence of the Kingdom of God, for now at least).
I guess it's pretty hard to live like a happy farmer with beautifully plowed fields when you are busy looking back at what you did when you were an angry lost unhappy farmer, who seemed to make an entire mess of his land.
Jesus, I love the way you look at things.
Thank God for fresh fields to plow.
Click to see trailer for an amazing movie. "Spring Summer Winter Fall....and Spring"
I'm not much for straight roads. How boring the maps with straight streets and rectangular spaces.
ReplyDeleteI like circular paths, spiral paths.
Maybe that's the feminine side of life. Jesus was a man. At least he is portrait as such. The males of his time (and after) translated it all that way.
The plow, and the fields to plow are symbols. The universal Jesus used language that he hoped could be comprehended by folks of limited vision. He tried to speak the language of their time.
My mother used to say to us, "If you have said A, you also must say B. Meaning if you start something, you need to stick to it. If you want to accomplish something, and work for it,it opens new visions. ( New visions into the Kingdom of God?)
There are many truths in scriptures. It needs reading beyond the lines, and not taking everything literal. We are limited creatures with limited languages.
netty
Thanks Netty, your insight is so true.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting because my poem is about circular paths and my commentary is about looking forward-(or straight ahead), yet they are tied to the same theme for me.
I love the language Jesus uses, the symbols, the circular, spiral and otherwise, paths he speaks in at times. I find it really interesting and inspiring. A big problem in our world is literal interpretation, limitations, and thinking 'inside the box'
Thanks Netty!
Also consider the scripture from a Jewish perspective. Jesus was a Jew, and it is important to honor that fact by reading the gospels from the perspective of his life and times. There are many references to the imminent arrival of the messianic age, and the overthrow of the Roman occupation. In some ways, the scripture verse is a revolutionary statement. Be ready.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to interpret the gospels for our own lives, I think, as long as we're recognizing we're doing that- and not thinking our interpretation to be the one Jesus meant.
Hey, T, I should also say I loved your poem!
ReplyDeleteXena, I think part of the problem many people have today is that when they read scripture, they fail to recognize what happened before or after the part they read, or what role was the main speaker taking and who he was addressing. I love to go back to scripture I have seemingly always 'known' and read it again as an adult, considering all of these factors. Also considering translation can throw a slant on things we may not realize. A very bright man I know translates out of several versions and dwindles right down to the Greek on the smallest of words and it seems to affect the entire meaning. All of these things can cause an overwhelmed feeling before even daring to understand things on my own. Then revelation comes along and allows me to trust my own understanding from a deeper, more supernatural place. Soon after, I usually get some confirmation in one way or another from an authority wiser than myself, which sends me spinning into the receivership end of my Father's love and encourages me to keep on welcoming and trusting in 'revelationary interpretation'(my own words).Some who have never experienced the power of being confirmed by our Lord would probably call me crazy or ignorant. But that's ok. At the end of the day, I love the layers and levels of Jesus's words and story, the way it 'lives' and changes, and I appreciate a magic that is present in this story that is second to no other book I have ever read.
ReplyDelete