For the Life of the World

I've been thinking for awhile that I need to start a blog. A blog that I will love, and actually write in. And I will write in it because it is important. I had a LiveJournal all through high school, and half of college. Then I fell into a horrible depression, and lost not only the desire to write, but the ability to enjoy life. Thankfully, that period of time has passed. Too much time has passed since then, and so many things have happened. Now I find myself on the brink of graduating from college and getting married, and I find myself in awe of the beautiful little things that happen every day, and I need a place to record all of it.

Of course, all the little events of each day matter. And why? In a rather fortuitous turn of events, I picked up a book this very day that put into words why life, the world, time, space, and ordinary events matter. Alexander Schmemann, the great Russian Orthodox theologian, writes in his book For the Life of the World, that the dichotomy we have created between the spiritual and the secular is entirely false, and ultimately a result of the Fall. There are no separate categories for the sacred, and the profane...Rather all that is about us, all that fills the world, all that we know in physical time and space have been created by God to bring us into communion with him. All that surrounds us is whole, is Love, is a divine gift, and it is through this knowledge that we worship God. I like it. Not only does it sound like good theology, but it resonates with everything I have ever known to be true at the deepest level of my being. It appeals to my intellect, but it far surpasses my intellect and penetrates the essence of all that is. Of course, I can't say it even half as well as Father Alexander, whose words I have underlined in bright red ink because I will never be able to say it as well as he has (and I do not need to), and because I stand in awe of people who are able to put truth into just the right words at the precisely right time. Surely, it is an act of grace, a gift of God.

But I do not believe it to be a coincidence that the book I decided to start reading today provided, in essence, the mission statement of my writing: to know God, to thank him, praise him, and bless him through the world that surrounds me. To do this requires great strength, and I am at best a weakling. To know, see, and experience God in everything, at every moment is for now a distant dream to me. It is much easier to slide through life on a lazy river, paying little attention to what surrounds us, and giving even less thought to the meaning of all that we see. So, to put it plainly, this blog is to build muscle. It is to be a daily exercise in truly seeing, and truly appreciating the world which God has to given to us in order for us to know him. I hope that given time I can strengthen my eyes, my heart, my soul to see more and more of the glory of the Lord.

So, it's a start. A very meager beginning. But a humble beginning is better than a brilliant nothing.