 |
| Alex Boye |
I actually was thinking about this post last night and debated writing it first, but then I realized the last post was actually a good set-up for this one, so they are coming to you out of the order in which they came to me. Like tonight, last night was one that had me up past one, but last night I was listening to the song above on repeat rather than writing. It has been some time since I last had a song which made my hopes for the future soar like no other. When I was trapped at home, it was the song "Bound for the Promised Land" as sung by the MoTab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir is somewhat unwieldy...) and after leaving home but still a bit disconnected to the idea of having any real role in this world it was "Could It Be Me?" by Charlie Daniels. (Yes, it's a shocker - I actually have a country music CD!) The progression has apparently stepped on to Alex Boye's new "I Am Gold". (Read the article in the link - background on what it means and why I've tried to insert the music video for your listening while you read.)
As I closed my last post, my weather app on my phone includes news headlines and I've mostly stopped reading them because they're all about people doing horrible things that only seem possible if they've lost all feeling for the humanity we all share. From what I've seen on the other Christian accounts on twitter as well as conversations with people, Christians in general (not just Mormons) see this time as the final period before Christ comes when the world begins trying to tear itself apart. In earnest. (Sorry, Oscar Wilde, in this case, being earnest is the last thing we want to be important...) 'Perilous times shall be' and 'men's hearts shall fail them' because of fear. Something of a gloomy prospect, no? Natural disasters abound, wars threaten in every direction, corruption is old news, and people who should be friends turn on each other for foolish reasons. I'd say turn off the TV, but I still don't have an antenna, so I can't actually watch it. (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts next week, though, so I'm working on it!)
This month, Salt Lake City, Utah had its first ever ComicCon, breaking the standing record with 50,000 tickets sold for a first time event. I didn't go, but I did read a few articles about it as well as the comments (I like to do that, remember?). A couple of pertinent themes were: one - the idea that anyone interested in the hero genre is a geek; and two - that America has been growing ever more attuned to the hero genre (witness the predominant box-office theme of late).
If finding value in the stories that give hope makes one a geek, then apparently I am a geek. News to me... That modern America would respond to stories of cataclysm confronted, survived, and overcome is no surprise, however. It is the idea of optimism and the willingness to face what comes to the best of our abilities that lets so many find the hope, the good even when the world is so dark. It is the Christian's knowing that Christ will come and restore peace and balance and sanity to the world that lets us look beyond to better days. And in seeing the Gold at the end of the effort, we find the evidence of the good things to come even as everyone else thinks we've lost our marbles. :)
Hebrews 11:1
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment