Alright, now for an explanation. For any of you who spent Sophomore year at Covenant High school in the glory days (when Henry V was taught how its supposed to be taught), you will have had your life changed by learning two of the most rousing speeches ever given to encourage troops to fight. The first of these is in the middle of the siege of Harfleur. His men are retreating and he tells them “once more to the breach, dear friends, once more!” They take Harfleur and continue on to beat the French at Agincourt.
I retreat on a regular basis. And this despite Jesus’ words to Peter when he said that he will build his church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Jesus is taking the breach as he sits on the throne and has invited us to participate. I probably won’t talk about all of the ways that I retreat on this blog - some things just don’t need to be published on the internet - but rather I hope that this will be a means of me thinking through some of the ways in which retreat is not possible or desired. The picture of the earth on the bottom of the page is a reminder that all of the earth is to shout for joy to God. Of course it’s not shouting for joy all of the time; in many ways it’s groaning in pain. But that’s where the fighters need to go to the breach and take the siege. So this will probably be my thoughts and reflections about things that I’m thinking through and learning, but most likely it will mostly be about life, what I doing with friends and the like. One of the most important things to realize is that loving the “mundane” is one of the best ways to take ground. So there will probably be more mundane that high falootin’.
One of the best writers ever about the joys of the mundane is G.
K. Chesterton. Today is the anniversary of the publishing of an obscure short story written by him in 1901, which would define his work as a popular philosopher and critic. In honor of him, and because this conveys some of the struggle of loving all of life and going to battle with against it all to bring it into subjection to the King but also constantly wishing things were different, here’s one of the million brilliant quotes that speak to the beauty and messed-up nature of life.
"For our titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the old acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre’s castle, to be stoned, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening. "
Fierce delight and fierce discontent. That’s what I want.
I retreat on a regular basis. And this despite Jesus’ words to Peter when he said that he will build his church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. Jesus is taking the breach as he sits on the throne and has invited us to participate. I probably won’t talk about all of the ways that I retreat on this blog - some things just don’t need to be published on the internet - but rather I hope that this will be a means of me thinking through some of the ways in which retreat is not possible or desired. The picture of the earth on the bottom of the page is a reminder that all of the earth is to shout for joy to God. Of course it’s not shouting for joy all of the time; in many ways it’s groaning in pain. But that’s where the fighters need to go to the breach and take the siege. So this will probably be my thoughts and reflections about things that I’m thinking through and learning, but most likely it will mostly be about life, what I doing with friends and the like. One of the most important things to realize is that loving the “mundane” is one of the best ways to take ground. So there will probably be more mundane that high falootin’.
One of the best writers ever about the joys of the mundane is G.
K. Chesterton. Today is the anniversary of the publishing of an obscure short story written by him in 1901, which would define his work as a popular philosopher and critic. In honor of him, and because this conveys some of the struggle of loving all of life and going to battle with against it all to bring it into subjection to the King but also constantly wishing things were different, here’s one of the million brilliant quotes that speak to the beauty and messed-up nature of life."For our titanic purposes of faith and revolution, what we need is not the old acceptance of the world as a compromise, but some way in which we can heartily love it. We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an ogre’s castle, to be stoned, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening. "
Fierce delight and fierce discontent. That’s what I want.
