Farewell to 2008

"Farewell we call to hearth and hall!
Though wind may blow and rain may fall,
We must away ere break of day
Far over wood and mountain tall."

~J.R.R. Tolkien

I don't know why, but I've been thinking of this poem lately. With all the goodbyes I've had to say in the last year, I'm rather ready to say goodbye to 2008. When I was studying the definition of life back in March, one of the scientific attributes was that to be alive, you must change. I used to hate change, but in recent years have grown almost fond of it. Tomorrow I shall be different than I am today, and I thank God for it. Change may be an attribute of lifishness (I may have a post later on this word, the coining of which came from "life" and "fish," so lifishness is the bad/fishy part of life), but it is part of the hope of life as well.

As Revelation 3:16 says: "So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth." Go forward or back, but if you stay where you are you'll be stagnant and useless.

We shouldn't fear change, just because we don't know it. Or as they said in "Rosencranz and Gildenstern are Dead": "We do not know what death is, it is illogical to fear it. It might be... very nice..."

And so, plunge boldly forth into the new year! Go live, go change, but after you change, be sure to come back and reintroduce yourself to me :-)

Love vs. Idolatry

I used to have a time-measurement for love (i.e., "it's not love unless it lasts for a year"), but that only takes one aspect of love and misapplies it. You can worship an idol for your whole life, but it is still an idol. What is an idol? It is not alive, therefore non-relational. "God" can be an idol, but only if you do not know Him. That is the difference between our God and others: He makes Himself known, therefore He we can love Him. He is also the only one who can wholly love us, since He is the only on who wholly knows us.

Most of us don't even love ourselves, for our cheerful ignorance of our flaws causes us to idolize ourselves.

When it comes to loving others, our humanness (or pride) wants to fill in the gaps we don't know about our friends/family/ crushes, so that we can think we know/love someone, but we are only "in love" with the image we projected upon that person, which is idolatry.

By saying all of this, I don't mean to discount the love you have for someone you haven't seen in a long time. I don't wish to put an expiration date on love, but as humans we can change a lot in a short time, so if you go a while without talking to someone, it may end up that you are loving who they used to be, not who they are.