Okay, so I'm not drowning, but college life is little demanding. Plus, one of my roommates is writer. When I see her typing away on her latest novel, I feel inspired to spend my free time doing the same. Thus, my blog has suffered. But I'm alive, and I wasn't about to let October go by without a single post. So here we go.
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| Leorio from Hunter x Hunter, studying hard. |
"Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night."
There are four more verses in this Psalm, but that last part of the first stanza was the focus of my journaling. I've heard a lot about loving and meditating on God's word throughout my life, especially lately. Chapel not too long ago was about Psalm 119 - which, at 176 verses, is the longest chapter in the Bible, and it's all about treasuring God's word/law/statutes/etc. If someone is going to spend that long of a poem/song all on a single topic, it must be important.
Where is my love for what God has to say? Where is my delight?
God's word gives life; I've experienced the joy of it for myself. So why is my love for it so small? I succumb daily to distraction, to my passing fancies. To be completely honest, I am often unwilling to give up my selfishness to pursue the Lord, whom I call my Friend and King. Why is it?
We consistently look up to those who set everything aside to pursue their goal - be it worldly intelligence or prestige, saving the world (superhero movies and shounen anime!), becoming an awesome writer, climbing to the top of the aniblogging world, or serving God.
I look up their determination, to their sense of priority, to their willingness to sacrifice everything. Why? Probably because it's a reflection, albeit distorted and humanized, of part of God. These people understand what it means to delight and mediate on a single ideal.
I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy with Lil Sis when she came to visit (her show choice, not mine). And old, amazing heart surgeon was talking to a younger colleague with ambitions to be just as good as him. He told her that when he went to bed, the last thing on his mind was heart surgery. He meditated day and night on his practice. It was his delight, his life, his identity.
I love the shounen anime I watch. The characters often set aside everything to focus on their goal. Gon from Hunter x Hunter doesn't allow childish play to distract him from mastering Nen. That's not to say he never plays, but his mind is always on the goal. In the same anime, Kurapika's goal of revenge, self-destructive though it may be, consumes his life. Everything he does is mindful of it - he meditates on it day and night. "Delight" may not be the right word for what Kurapika feels, but he's not pursuing delight anyway.
There's Lee from Naruto, whose determination to succeed as a ninja causes him to spend most of his days thinking about taijutsu. He delights in it. Tennis is always on Echizen Ryoma's mind. Edward Elric rejoices whenever he and Al make a breakthrough on their search for restoration. He mediates on the goal, thinks of it day and night; it identifies him.
When you delight in something, you meditate on it. When you keep thinking it through, mentally digesting it, you delight in it. And as this cycle of mediation and delight continues, it becomes and integral part of who you are.
I return to the opening line of Psalm 1: "Blessed is the man."
I know the blessings that come from delighting in and meditating on what God has to say. But that's so much easier to write than act upon. I'm thankful I go to a school where classes encourage me to study and love the Bible - even if those same classes keep my from my blog and the latest anime. Perhaps, someday, with God's help, I'll approach His word with delight and focus to rival a shounen hero's.
*Picture is from the ending sequence of Hunter x Hunter
My favorite teaching on the study of The Word of God went something like this, "Every time we open our Bibles, it should feel like reading a love letter from God, because that is what it is. We should have the same excitement and joy as we learn God's ways, because he is our lover." I have to admire that I am not there yet, but it is my goal. I want to be so in love with Jesus that it is a pleasure to be captivated by what he has to say. So genuinely in love, that my ways would become more like his ways.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update and keep up the good work. 頑張て
That analogy is another on my mind. It's a good goal. It's hard to fall more in love with Someone you don't spend time with. The more I read and meditate on what Jesus has to say, the more I love Him, which leads to more reading. When I let myself get distracted and get my priorities mixed up (in other words, most days), the cycle falters.
DeleteThank you for your response. ^_^
just swung by to check on your blog. Sry it's taken me a while to come back... where's the naruto entries that I can comment on ? :D Ashesreignited
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! I'm a bit behind on Naruto right now. :(
DeleteAnd behind on replying to comments on my blog... sorry about that. I hope to post about Naruto again before too long. Life's changed a little now that I'm in school.