Violent Men and the Kingdom of God

"We are to regard existence as a raid or great adventure; it is to be judged, therefore, not by what calamities it encounters, but by what flag it follows and what high town it assaults. The most dangerous thing in the world is to be alive; one is always in danger of one's life. But anyone who shrinks from that is a traitor to the great scheme and experiment of being."
-G. K. Chesterton

Bitter-sweet

George Herbert has some real insight into our relationship with God during times of testing and judgment:

Bitter-sweet
Ah, my dear angry Lord,
Since thou dost love, yet strike;
Cast down, yet help afford;
Sure I will do the like.
I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sour-sweet days
I will lament and love.

May God give us a similar trust in the good purposes of God.

Happy Chusok, Everyone!

Water Seasons

Swollen waters flood
Fields of rice beside the Han
Cranes nest in the grass.

Red dust is settled
Monsoons wash air and soul clean
Drenching land with life.

Last hike up Soyo
Leaves twist past the waterfall
Then home for Chusok.

The New Year whips snow
Through rocks where boughs hang heavy
On the So-namu.