Tuesday, November 22, 2011

"I think you need a Doctor."

"It was a better life. And I don't mean all the travelling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things — that don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. That you don't give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away." 
-Rose Tyler, "Parting of the Ways"
I have recently become a Whovian.     I suppose it was partly due to the fact that everyone wouldn't stop talking about the Doctor.   Eventually, I became so intruiged that I watched the first episode.   And the next.  And the next.


And I realized why people love this show so much.


Doctor Who touches at something deep within me.   I don't watch Who for the effects (really, who could?), the sci-fi, the time travel, or even the humor.


I watch Who because something in The Doctor strikes a chord in me.


A desire for heroism.   A love for truth and justice.   A struggle against both evil in the world and evil inside your own soul.


The Doctor may be an alien.   He may be 900+ years old.  He may have two hearts and be a Time Lord who describes time as  'wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff."


But he's also incredibly real, despite his quirks.     He loves.   He hurts.   He acts in meaningful ways.   He tries.  He fails.   He gets up and keeps fighting.    He strikes a beat in me, a deep desire for courage, a belief in beauty, a desire for right to triumph.   A spirit of mercy.


I think I've realized one reason people love The Doctor.  Of course, there are many reasons.    Maybe I'll explore them around here sometime.   But right now, this particular one is what's hitting me.
  
We are attracted to The Doctor because we're all looking for someone like him.    Someone to save the world, but more importantly, to save us.   Someone to sweep into our mundane lives.   Someone to jump into our suffering and defeat the fears and tragedies that haunt us.    Someone to give us a reason for living.


We're all looking for a Doctor.     He's a hero.   He's a savior.   He appears in times of need and fixes everything.   He loves his people and sacrifices all he is for them.    He fights even at enormous costs to himself.     He is someone that his companions can trust with their very lives.    
In our world that so often denies the very existence of right and wrong, a world that says there is no meaning in life...is it any surprise that when we see someone like the Doctor something in their heart starts beating wildly?


I love The Doctor.     But I'm starting to realize more and more that the reason I love him is because so many of his traits point back to the Great Physician, the greatest, truest Doctor of all.       Jesus, the real Savior of the World, who conquered through love and sacrifice, who always fights for His people, who is merciful and just, who lives eternally.


Because, though The Doctor is just a story...


Jesus isn't.


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Read this extremely delightful blog post, written by a fellow novelist, Nairam, for the reasons she loves The Doctor.    I completely and wholeheartedly agree with her.    And her entire blog is full of awesome posts, so I send you thither!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Somewhere in Tomorrow

"It will come, sometime.    Some beautiful morning she will just wake up and find it is Tomorrow.  Not Today but Tomorrow.  And the things will happen...wonderful things.   She may find out what is at the end of the harbor road...that wandering, twisting road like a nice red snake that leads, so Elizabeth thinks, to the end of the world.    Perhaps the Island of Happiness is there."
-Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Windy Poplars 
When Tomorrow comes.   Oh, how I long for Tomorrow.   I long with the deepest part of me for some bright future where everything nasty will vanish and blow away.   I'm always waiting for Tomorrow, whatever Tomorrow looks like from where I am now.      When I become a teenager.   When I get my driver's licence.   When I graduate.   When I publish a book.   When I get married.    Something in me wants something that is not today, with it's cares and hurts; not today's circumstances.   Not today's tears.   Not today's failures.   Somewhere, in my envisioning of Tomorrow, I've made myself believe that al will be put right.

But that's a myth outside of heaven.    It's a lie that fades away as Today melts into Tomorrow and I fid that where some problems and pains have passed on, new ones have replaced them.     I'm still the same me, no matter whether I'm in Tomorrow or Today.

And I'm still not satisfied, still looking beyond the sunset towards the next Tomorrow on the horizon.

Oh, that it would sink in that the Tomorrow I've always longed for is Heaven!    It's not something I'll grasp on earth.   But some days that just doesn't click.

So I drown myself in stories of valour and fantasies of a world where I am everything that I want to be.   And I shy further away from today.  

I want Tomorrow now.   I want everything to be fixed the way I want it ---now.    I want to be the person of my goals ---now.     But I'm not.

So I look to the sunset and it just seems so far away, and the durt under my feet is just a little too real.

So I need help to look at Today and see its purpose.    I need a Vision that includes homeschooling and dirty dishes and small group meetings and writing.  

Because Tomorrow will always be in the future.    On this earth, nothing is ideal.   But as I walk this life, as I live in the not yet, as I wait and long with groaning for my true home --- I want to live a extraordinary life.        Loving God, loving people, even when the difficulties of Today cast a dust cloud over my vision for Tomorrow.

Because Tomorrow, the true Tomorrow, is coming.
And I can't wait.
God, help me to live Today.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

glass houses

Glass Houses
A NaNoWriMo inspired poem


People living in glass houses
Throwing stones at each other in fear
Throwing sticks, throwing blocks
Throwing words like arrows

People living in glass houses
Stuck inside cause they’re scared to come out
Stuck alone, going solo
Stuck behind walls of sheet glass

People living in glass houses
Not moving cause they’re terrified of pain
Not laughing, not crying,
Not loving nor smiling or living

People living in glass houses
Maybe one day someone will break in
Maybe somebody will crash down those walls
Maybe shatter those houses of glass