em | 21 & learning

I can't remember the last time I uploaded something on Tumblr that wasn't just linked to my Instagram. 

Though I thoroughly appreciate the little squares of color through which we share our stories and lives, there will be nothing as telling of a person's thoughts (or lack thereof) than his or her writing. A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the maxim goes. But this is based on the assumption that the picture and the words are describing the same thing, holding onto the same feeling, grasping at the same nuances. 

Sometimes, I think, these pictures and words are totally disparate. 

I'm in a geology class this semester to fulfill a requirement in the College called Physical World. I am unexpectedly enjoying it so far, but I'm crediting this to the fact that we are covering the solar system (I always did have a romanticized liking for constellations and stars) and only beginning to explore smaller, less important rocks which don't take on the names of our planets. 

Studying the universe, literally examining the entirety of what exists out there, in space, in the vastness of our galaxy which is really trifling in size when compared to the rest of infinity -- it makes you wonder. Our problems are so slight; our crusades that frontline them so big. When did humans ever decide one group was more indispensable than the next, or that lives -- palpable, emotional, real -- could be so easily discarded?

It is mind-boggling to even begin to wrap your head around the theories that exist surrounding our forever-elusive outer space. 

Planet Earth is so simply intricate; was it all thanks to an auspicious series of events? How many times will we be left awestruck at Mother Nature before we realize a painter's hand has taken his time to stroke her and all of her colors with immaculate detail? 

My eyes are closing so I will end with the unfailingly eloquent C.S. Lewis:

First — if you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second — There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you — of kindness and consideration and respect — not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

All Usher jokes aside, today's message really hit home for me. The pastor spoke about how we so often associate confessions with exceedingly religious imagery perpetuated by contemporary media's depiction of it -- nuns and monks, sacred and vulnerable, secretive and mysterious. Or in my case, middle school radio throwbacks.

Either way, we seldom affiliate confessions as natural human tendencies. The crucial part of confessions coming from people is that we humans are current, changing, constant beings. We are not going to turn into humans -- we are living, breathing ones that inhabit a world of self-deception. We store grenades of guilt in our brains, justifying our mistakes and iniquities over and over in our heads until we are left with week, month, year-old excuses that we dig ditches for and cover up with scraps of dirt. 

What God does for us is unmask the sorry hideaways we create for ourselves. He replaces our guilt with the perfect track record of Jesus, willingly choosing to give us all clean slates and canceling out our culpable conscience by turning our calls of desperation into ones of reconciliation. 

What's even crazier is that we are permanently--permanently--in a state of sin. We are perpetually imperfect and yet his grace is ridiculously great enough to replace every single human being's wrongs with more-than-rights, for all of time.

Hope hearing this makes you smile as much as it made me smile.