Sunday, 13 December 2009

  • Rebirth - (Why I Write)

    Recently, I realized  that I have been a rather vampiric blogger, living on the musings and words of others without giving anything back, accumulating new friends and subs without generating new posts. So today, I am doing the unthinkable and turning over a new page in this journal. Starting a new volume, as it were, for those on xanga who still use this platform and might be interested in what I am thinking.

    So without further ado, I give you my purpose statement in brief, beginning with a quote from my soul brother, Fyodor Dostoevsky...

    “When I fall into the abyss, I go straight into it, head down and heels up, and I’m even pleased that I’m falling in such a humiliating position, and for me I find it beautiful. And so in that very shame I suddenly begin a hymn. Let me be cursed, let me be base and vile, but let me also kiss the hem of that garment in which my God is clothed; let me be following the devil at the same time, but still I am also your son, Lord, and I love you, and I feel a joy without which the world cannot stand and be.” ~ from The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

     

    I am a wanderer on the path of the Only One, seeking the center of the mystery.

    I am a poet, staining my fingers with ink as I ask the questions that propel me forward.

    and I am barefoot, choosing to embrace what God brings me, both pleasure and pain.

     

    Welcome to my fellowship! I hope that as I grapple with questions and wrestle through doubts that you will grow along with me, experiencing whatever grace the Breath of God brings into your life. Join me in pursuit of real truth and real passion for a radical life.

    Whether I write on peace, love, death or taxes, I hope that my musings and poetry will not only help me center my thoughts on the Only, but give you insight into me. May we journey long and journey well.

    Thanks for reading,

    Conor ap Padraig, Son of the Goodly-Wise

Monday, 31 August 2009

  • entering the new world...

    So I stepped off the ship on Saturday afternoon, off to explore the new horizon.

    Let me tell you something.

    It is better than I could have imagined, and classes haven't even started yet.

    Here's why:

    1. I really, really enjoy chapel. I have so missed it this summer. Thanks to Scott Feather for the inspiration.

    2. I have the best breakout group ever. (Hightower, your cookies rock the world!) We will be taking over campus by the end of the semester.

    3. My room is in Beta 2 South, undoubtedly the most incredible hall of guys on campus.

    4. I now have coffee filters. Thanks.

    5. I really get along well with my adviser. Dr. Burkholder, we're going to have four great years!

    6. Did I mention Hightower's amazing cookies?

    So here I am, by the grace of God, taking Grace College by storm. I hope you are enjoying your early fall as much as I am.

    collegian

Saturday, 20 June 2009

  • For So Much More

    I've been forgetting a few things lately during the Waiting part of life. So, here's a little reminder to myself, in list form:

    The Things You Know are True:

    1. I am not perfect. No one is perfect. But in Christ, I don't have to be perfect. His power is made perfect when my best is not enough.

    2. I am not God. But when I am still, I can know who God really is.

    3. As I once wrote, the past cannot be an anchor weighing me down. Instead, I must allow the past to be a wind driving me forward into the future.

    4. What can separate me from the love of God in Christ? Oh, that's right -  Nothing!

    5. Joy is not conditional upon how I feel at the moment. It's a gift that God wants me to enjoy every time I breathe.

    6. Life is a big, scary adventure. But I've never let that stop me before.

    7. Underestimating Jesus for a minute or two does not change who he is.

    8. I have been set free. Indeed.

Tuesday, 19 May 2009

  • Feeling... exhilirateausted.

    In keeping with my current pattern, it's time for my monthly entry. In keeping with my current habits, it's time for me to make a list, something I've been doing a lot on paper and mentally thanks to graduation.

    At Least 5 Stray Thoughts  from the End of All Things aka April/May

    1. I think that the conflict between the Urgals and Elves can be chalked up to one key difference between them: the Urgals are complementarian and the Elves are egalitarian.

    2. Is a graduation ceremony really necessary at all? Or since we're definitely having one, can we follow it with some sort of Celtic celebration, preferably with fiddles and dancing?

    3. I belong to Jesus. Not to America. Not Reagan's America. Not Bush's America. Not Obama's America. Not even Washington's, or Jefferson's, or Lincoln's. In fact, I might be ready to be done with America altogether. This kingdom is tiring me out.

    4. Having said that, I implore the U.S. government to stop torturing suspected terrorists. How can violating one's civil liberties in the name of a nation that prides itself on personal freedom possibly make sense? Please. Either stop trying to defend illogic and just admit you don't care about justice at all or resume governing by just laws.

    5. Living in Indiana is tiring. Lately the weather has been quite bipolar, and consequently, so have I.

    6. Speaking of Indiana, I am tired of hearing about Obama's commencement speech/ honorary J.D. from Notre Dame. I'm more concerned with being in the world with the revolutionary love of Jesus, thank you. No matter who the President is, the message of reconciliation is more important than any politics to me. Also, where were you the past eight years while our government was torturing? (Refer to #4).

    7. I may or may not be a dispensationalist, but I am definitely passionate about growing in the knowledge (in the sense of the Spanish verb conocer - to know personally and by experience) of Jesus. My dad hasn't given up yet.

    8. I love SpringHill. I love Oakridge. Not working at camp this summer is a weird feeling. Pray that I will find the labor of love that Jesus laid out for me to do right here. I miss all you guys!

    9. It is wonderful to have my beautiful sister home for a while. I enjoy our little mutual interruption thing that we've got going on.

    10. I am not a potato.

    Of making many books there is no end...  

    and much study wearies the body. Praise God for summer.

    This time next year I will be looking back on my first year at Grace College. Though I don't know what lies ahead, I praise God for placing me in this free-verse poem called life and for gifting me with a purpose.

    Thank you for enduring my ramblings and for being fellow-travelers on the road less taken.

    '09!  

     

Sunday, 19 April 2009

  • Yo No Sé (I Do Not Know)

    One day,

    I stumbled into mystery:

    Great and grand and marvelous -

    I somehow tripped from darkness

    Into light - and saw at once

    the undiscovered country:

    Great and grand and utterly enormous.

     

    Someday - I hope -

    I will understand the

    HEIGHT

    and

    DEPTH

    and

    B     R           E               A                D           T              H

    of Terra Incognito,

    That land unknown, yet knowable

    And find its center from the edges inward.

     

    For now though, at the outset of my journey,

    I will cling to what I can grasp -

    My square inch of this  

    Kingdom's vastness,

    My small glimpse of the  

    Fullness of the divine

    And stay warm in the

    Wideness, the wildness

    of the Unknown

     

barefoot_nomad

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    • Name: Connor
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    • Member Since: 3/4/2007

Missives from the Road