Stuff in my mind as I went through this wonderful week:
for Sunday
11 Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth:
Say to the daughter of Zion,
“Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”
12 And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.
Isaiah 62:11-12
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Matthew 21:1-11
7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. Mark 11:7-11
35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Luke 19:35-40
The Triumphal Entry
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”
John 12:12-20
In a world of pain, we shouldn’t be hurting each other. We’re to love one another.
And if that’s tough, well, pick off some palm leaves. Lay your coats down on the road.
Stop looking at each other and look beyond – behold, Christ rides on a donkey.
Let’s all say, ‘Hosanna’ together.
Bear One Another’s Burdens
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:1-10
from Friday
I was telling myself recently about how it wasn’t really as exciting to go out and shoot anymore. Everyone’s taking the same sunset, everyone’s even taking the same sunrise, with phones that have very good quality cameras, and/or with gear that’s already far better than what I have. What was the point? It wasn’t ministering to them…
…and, I guess, even with all that I was saying about me shooting primarily for me, I have to admit that it wasn’t ministering to me as much anymore. And that one time that sea water crept into my 55-200mm lens and essentially converted it to an expensive paperweight? Well, you can call that the final straw.
It wasn’t like I quit shooting. Like that one time we all drove to the Mountain Province, last February? Well, I was full-on photography mode, on top of being out for business matters. The church events? Sure, I had the kids take most of the pictures, but I took time to do some shooting, myself. I’m proud to say that I still ‘got’ it.
But the question remained – what’s next? With all that’s observed, with all that’s been lost – what’s next?
I love how the Lord answers these questions where you least expect them.
Earlier this afternoon, I was at my ‘office’ (really, a desk where our administrative pastor used to hang out), serving time I committed for counselling the kids in the school ministry I participate in. This time around, the kid assigned to my time slot was actually like a younger brother from another mother – in other words, a kid from a group of kids whom I was more or less vibing with, if that’s acceptable for me to say at my age.
I thought we were going to be talking about games we played, and all that – well, we did – but we took some time in particular talking about what he’s been going through, and what he was doing to sort of navigate through it. He merely responded with, ‘creation’.
I asked him to explain. In a nutshell, he said that he was making cards, illustrations, using Roblox to create RPGs(?!), and so on – I mean, I found this amazing already, considering that when I was his age, I was consuming a hell of a lot more than I was creating.
But there was one more point that I drew inspiration from. Little did I know that my good brother from another mother was also, at his age, getting into the relationship scene. Although it was all online, well, it was getting to him. Not to get into too much detail, I was fascinated as he talked to me about a certain someone he met… who suddenly disappeared from his life. Easier now, considering all you do is delete your account.
Apparently, though, the pain is the same. The pain and anxiety associated with sudden disappearances led him to overthinking… and led him to add another ‘character’ to the RPG he was realizing.
See, I didn’t tell you earlier that as he was making his RPGs he was basing his characters off of real life experiences and feelings. Some characters were his friends, some were him, and some were – well, some were people who eventually hurt him.
And if you were following along this website full of my chicken scratch for a good length of time, you’ll know that I experienced something very similar to the pain this young man was telling me about.
It dawned on me there – the answer to my question was the quote we both created in our conversation, before I prayed for us and ended the session:
Creations are memories.
Creations are prayers.
I suppose, in the near future, I’d be attempting to create beyond writing, delving back to my expansive library of photo-memories, and composing them as prayers.
Cutting it off here. Have a good weekend, everyone.
God bless you.
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