"...Because This is Poetry of Terrible Beauty"

I got a little too ambitious on the elliptical machine Tuesday night while going for a PR (personal record) and seriously aggravated my right knee, so much so that I had to abort a ride on my indoor trainer a couple days later. Saturday was the first day that I could push it on my CompuTrainer but still, I had to hold back some because I didn't want to risk developing any sort of recurring injury. Moderation has never been something I've been very good at. The metal men still got the best of me on my ride Saturday but I'll be back!

Tammy took her paints out last week and got busy making cards for my mom for a Valentine's Day gift. They're smallish 3" x 5" cards that she can use to send "thank you" notes to friends. She made at least 15 of them, each unique. I think she did a great job. I cropped a few and stitched them together to show an example of her work (photo to the right) on my blog. It's clickable for a more detailed look.

I had a dream a few nights ago that Tammy and I were talking about our faith and I was expressing concern that I was feeling so adrift in mine. I don't cry often but in my dream, I was sobbing as I tried to explain to her that I don't see how I can get back to where I was. I remember feeling profoundly sad.

But in reality, it's really not my faith so much that's adrift although there is a part of it that seems forever changed, it's my faith in the church that has taken the biggest hit. It's the realization for me that I'd bought into something that I thought was so much more than it really was; something I would later come to find was fundamentally flawed and woefully discriminatory at its core. How did I not see that for so long?

Of one thing I'm certain: I don't anticipate warming up to the idea of organized religion for a very long time if ever again.

Sunday morning, with my dream still fresh in my mind, I received an email from a friend I hadn't heard from in a while. He'd sent me a link to a video and was wondering if I'd watch it and give him my thoughts on it. Tom was part of our small group from church that we dissolved this past fall. The video proved to be very timely for me considering what I've been going through with respect to my faith. I needed this shot in the arm.

It's about a guy who uses Biblical scriptures that point to specific events and then with the use of a computer program he's able to dial back the movement of the stars to the dates referenced in the scripture to see what the night sky reveals. The program doesn't just approximate the position of the planets. It's actually very accurate and can precisely pinpoint their relative positions all those hundreds of years ago.

What he finds is nothing short of amazing and at times very moving. Considering the title of the video I was expecting his research to focus on the Star of Bethlehem and not much more but he goes considerably deeper, tying in prophecy from Joel and Revelations which I found to be awe-inspiring when you watch how he unfolds it in front of you.

To quote the man behind the video upon discovering what he reveals in his findings: "I remember the night when I found the eclipse at Christ's crucifixion. I remember it because of what was happening to me when I found that the moon was back at the foot of the Virgin and when I further found that the moon went into eclipse at the moment my savior expired on the cross and I remember exactly what I said, I don't think I could ever forget it. I looked up at the sky and I said, my God, what did you do because this is poetry of terrible beauty that showed me a side of God that I had not seen. It showed me a God that would write poetry to record both the coming and the passing of my Messiah and then he let me find it."

Profound for sure.