in the stillness //for the sounding

Baking Pies

If, say, a mother bakes a pie—
Cherry, apple, perhaps raspberry—
Flaky, perfectly perforated crust,
Filled with her own mother’s
Loving trials, trials, trials! and
At last, her trophy-winning triumph—
And then places it in an open window
Facing the cul de sac—
Her whole wide world—
She shares the warm, wafting
I-am-home-again aroma
With the hungry gardener
And every spiteful domestic
Pageant runner-up—
With all of God’s creatures that
God should send by—

And shares her kitchen with
The flies


D.R.G.

A Kite and Tree

I haven’t tumbled in a while. Here’s a poem.

A kite and tree
Seem destined enemies—
One born to flit and soar
In the clouds over the moors—
The other tethered to the ground—
Branches reaching skyward, proud—
As if to snatch the kite
From its reckless flight
The tree gropes for the twine
As for the tree gropes the vine—
And dragging the kite to rest—
It is drawn into its breast
And there will stay
Until the tree time decays—
O God! For their sake
May their silly quarrel fade!
For they now must exist
Not in lifelong loneliness—
But forever clinging close—
Face to face, nose to nose—

An inevitable marriage indeed
Is that between a kite and tree


D.R.G.

Gentlemanly How-To’s

In these modern times, the folkways of a gentleman seem to be lost on most males 18-30 years of age. Social graces have depreciated in the past several decades at a seemingly exponential rate, and unless special pains are taken to learn them, there will be little to no legacy of class passed on to the next generation.

Here are several blogs with a focus on gentlemanly etiquette, style, and grooming that I enjoy and find helpful.

http://www.gilt.com/manual/ (Thanks to Philip A. Edsel, Tumblr user andersonedsel, for finding this one)

http://www.socialprimer.com/

Godspeed, gentlemen.

~DRG

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

I have never described myself as an environmentalist. Growing up in the outspoken central Austin Hyde Park neighborhood, home to many University of Texas students and professors, I developed a biased attitude against environmental activism. I wrote it off as something for loud liberals. I thought, there are so many human causes y’all could be advocating for, and you choose polar bears? 

I was ignorant.

I am learning that environmental issues ARE human issues.

Blue Gold: World Water Wars is an informative, passionate film discussing the global water crisis that I encourage anyone that loves humans to watch. I was moved when learning about the new Corporate Colonialism that uses the privatization of water to turn enormous profits. Multinational corporations buy a region’s water supply—many of them developing countries—and in some places sell their water back to them at prices more expensive than Coca Cola.

Because people can’t afford the water, they resort to drinking from water-borne pathogen infested streams. This is why one of the leading causes of death in the world today is from water-caused, preventable diseases that could be avoided if they simply had clean, affordable water.

It’s a huge, overwhelming issue. But the first step is to stop not caring where our water comes from and educate ourselves.

Thoughts on Election: God as the Perfect Father

I preach in a High School and Junior High student ministry in Austin, Texas called TeenRock, and we like to party. I preach the gospel, from the Bible, because I believe it is the word of God. And I am preaching tomorrow.

My text will be Galatians 1:11-17, my primary text is 1:15-16:

“But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.”

My thesis is: “God hand picks people to be saved because he is gracious and merciful; He is responsible for our faith, and he gives us a purpose.”

As I sit at my dining room table sipping coffee from my “YOU MAY ALL GO TO HELL AND I WILL GO TO TEXAS” Davy Crockett mug*, I’m working through a few things, and seeing as I need to write in order to organize my thoughts, I thought I’d let y’all in on the process:

God is the perfect father.

One reason I love the doctrine of election is that it reveals God to be the ultimate, perfect dad. He loves his kids, and nothing can stop him from saving us—not the Law, not our sin, not our free-will, not our intellect, not our rebellious, God-hating nature—nothing can stop God from saving his kids because he is sovereign and all-powerful in our salvation as in all things, and because Jesus on the cross defeated every obstacle to our salvation. He acts independently of us—he’s not just saving us from Hell; he’s saving us from us and our inability to love him or desire his salvation.

Thought experiment:

Imagine yourself as God’s kid. He’s your dad. You live in a quaint house on a busy street. He’s told you not to play in the street many times, even written this rule in magnetic letters on the refrigerator, but you’re a kid so you play in the street anyway. As you’re sitting in the middle of the road playing with your jacks and marbles and pick-up-sticks, a large truck starts speeding towards you. It’s probably an idiot 18-year-old blaring dirty rap music.**

Now, if God merely stood on the curb yelling at you, knowing your inability to hear his voice or obey him because of your rebellious, hard heart, “I told you not to play in the street! Come back or you’ll get hit by that truck,” he would be an unloving father. Indeed, he would be a weak father who is unwilling to put himself in danger to save his child. You would get hit by the truck and die, and God would not be a father worthy of praise. Rather, he would have failed as a father.

However, this is not what God does. The gospel story tells us that God runs out into the middle of the street, at great risk to himself, and picks you up to carry you to safety. He has to override your will with his to save you from certain death. To take over your free-will to save you was not unloving; in fact, it was the most loving thing he could have done. He was acting as the perfect father.

It should be noted: I am not suggesting that God owes us salvation, nor is he bound to grant it to anyone. He acts freely in his grace giving. But he has claimed a people for his own possession, namely, the elect, and he has promised to save them. I am not speaking of him being a weak or unloving father in relation to those whom he has not purposed to save; rather, I am speaking about him in relation to those whom he has purposed to save—these are God’s children, and to quote a great teacher whom I admire very much: “There is not a child on a beach in Africa that belongs to God that he will not save. He is the perfect dad, and he never fails his kids.”

My prayer for all the kids in TeenRock tomorrow is that their worldview would fundamentally change knowing that God their Father saved them by his grace; they did not save themselves through their morality, intellect, spirituality, sports ability, good looks, musical talent, etc.

With that, I’ve worked through what I needed to work through for tomorrow. I hope that you fall more in love with God and learn to trust him more deeply as your perfect Father.

Good night, sleep tight.

With Love Always,

DRG

*I deeply desire that no one go to Hell. But I do love Davy Crockett, and Texas is as close to paradise on Earth as far as I’m concerned.

**I love rap music, but that’s another post.

View From My Desk: In Words

“It’s going to rain, folks,” says the weatherman.

Three strangers stand by tall windows looking out over a swimming pool. Soft light flatters their wrinkled faces, filtered through pregnant, overcast clouds. They stare, not at the pool but towards it, not really looking at anything, just enjoying their present anonymity in silence. They half-consciously sip their Starbucks americanos and pumpkin spice lattes (is it that time of year again?) in syncopated synchronization, the way turn signals will sometimes flash together as everyone waits at a stoplight. It starts to rain. Each droplet breaks the water, the ripples creating a reverberating mosaic across the pool.

Social Media Overload

I publish a post on Tumblr. It sends that post to Facebook and Twitter, which then sends it to Facebook again. My Facebook wall is cluttered with redundant posts which are, for the most part, chocked full of Twitter @ replies and hashtags irrelevant to my average Facebook friend. I appear on my own wall more than anybody else. Facebook has become less a social networking site for me than a dump for my “real” posts.

I am experiencing Social Media Overload.

For this reason, I am now using Tumblr as my primary blogging platform and turning off all “send to Facebook” settings from Twitter.

Sorry to clog your news feeds. I hope if my posts have been excessive and annoying, you’ve had the audacity to “hide” me or even defriend me. I would pat you on the back if you did.

With love,

DRG