Jesus Was a Geographer

So after a long hiatus of writing and blogging, I thought I'd bring back the habit. Hope this proves to be a thought provoking and rewarding read.

Geography is a difficult subject to describe, and even more difficult to understand once within the discipline. The complexities of place, our relationship to our environment, and each other are trying upon an individual to grasp in entirety. Additionally, there are hard truths geographers must deal with daily, truths that often hide nefariously from the general populous of the educated white, middle class of which I am a member. These truths reveal a deep brokenness of urban systems, rural environment interactions, and cultural conflicts festering in the shadows of food trailers, traffic lights, and apartment blocks.


"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds". - Aldo Leopold. I venture to say the same of geographically revealed worldviews. Before being trained in geography, I lived unaware of the damaging effects humankind has on establishing the above wounds. Now aware of such things, I walk in a daily calling to live in such a way that not only avoids any further harm, but dresses the wounds. It really is a hard thing though, especially since I don't even fully understand the ways and things that cause harm, much less how to address them with love and goodness.


The person of Jesus Christ understood a perspective of geographical and ecological wounds and walked in a way of conscientious love towards the brokenness. In doing such, he remains the example with which I will test myself against in striving to live so as to love well and fully. In the next few weeks, I hope to explore these issues more through writing and reflecting. 

-Chris

The Need for Incarnational Love

I am convinced more and more each day that the model Jesus set through the incarnation can no longer be ignored by we who claim to follow Him. If we truly believe Christ's words, "where I am, there shall my servant also be". The first question we need to ask about Jesus is: where?

Where did he come from? Where did he go? Where is he now? We need to establish all these possible places so that we can accurately follow him in them. We know from scripture that Jesus left Heaven to come down to earth. Hebrews 2 says "he partook of the same [flesh and blood]", that "he had to be made like His brethren in all things". And from 2 Corinthians 8:9, "for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that through His poverty you might become rich."

So here's Jesus, the son of God, leaving the comfort and wealth of Heaven and entering the nasty poverty of earth. But he doesn't stop there. He actually becomes poor; he partakes of the same flesh and blood as us, the same sufferings. This is the gospel message. God didn't love us from afar and save us from Heaven. He came to us, lived as one of us in order to love us where we are.

Paul put it this way to the church in Thessalonica: "We were well pleased to impart to you not only the good news of God, but also our very lives because you had become very dear to us," and to the church in Corinth he says "I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some". Paul saw that the life of Jesus was God sharing his very life with us. He saw that Jesus threw his lot in with ours, that he became like us in order to save us, and so Paul recognized the need to do the same in his ministry.

The call to follow Jesus cannot be taken lightly. Jesus did not halfway love us from afar; he didn't save us from afar; and he didn't pop in with ideas to fix things immediately. No, he came to us and made his dwelling with man. He linked our futures together.

Where does that leave us? If we believe in Jesus as Messiah, and we desire to follow him, then we have got to follow his example. The call to follow him and serve and love others is a call to imitate his love. We need to throw our lots in with those we minister to, and like Paul we need to share our very lives with them. We need to live with them like Jesus lived with us on earth. We need to become like them like Jesus partook of the same flesh and blood we have. We need to be like Paul, who became all things to all men. For the poor we need to become poor, living with them, binding our futures together. How can we "follow" Jesus and do anything less?

What does this look like in our lives? Are we really following the Jesus who gave up his wealth, comfort, and power, who “became for a little while lower than the angels”? Or are we living our own lives, satisfied to love others when it is convenient; to love others from afar. If God is love, then love looks to me like sacrificing wealth, comfort and living as one of those we are trying to love, sharing the same hardships like Jesus shared with us.

Chris Mills

"Blessed are the poor in spirit"

A poem I wrote the other day:

Poor

A four letter word

A four letter word unable to describe, unwilling to collide

My world,

My world with reality.

The paper and the pen cannot produce a fine enough line

Cannot create in my mind…the substance…of what is my world

Poor.

I am not, I will not be…but oh you see I am

Defined by a phrase too thin to graze, too slight to phase

Even the flies... who use my eyes for water

What is this word

So unsubstantial, but what else is new.

For like it, I slip through:

the pavement in your swimming pools,

Slide through

the cracks in your Sunday schools,

I am your brother, your neighbor, with no sign of favor

Poor.

Four letters of no relation to those other four

Four letters that deprive me of them.

Poor

Peace be upon you,
C.R.Mills

Test

This is a test only of the emergency alert system.

So I went to Academy the other day with my bro Dean because he wanted some shoes. Then I saw this boomerang and we thought that it'd be a great time waster and loads of fun. It was, but it didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped, as you can see from the video. I guess that's what four bucks will get you though haha.


In other news, some good friends of mine have started a blog/video blog on pop culture stuffs. They're a couple of Austin locals interested in comics, cereal, beer, movies, music, etc... No matter what they're reviewing/blogging about, you're in for a good time with them. So head on over to www.crunchpopblog.blogspot.com for my recommended blog this week and spread the news to you're pals.

Peace be upon you,

C.R.Mills

4CP Friday! I was introduced to this wonderful macro photography of old 4CP style comics by a good friend. Head on over to the four color process blog here. Also, each Friday HiLobrowselects a few good samples. Pretty fun stuff if you're into photography and/or comics.

Check out HiLobrow; middlebrow simply is not the solution.

Peace be upon you,
C.R.Mills

In about three weeks I'll be traveling to New York to be a part of Intervarsity's NYCUP (New York City Urban Project) where I will intern with the Love Kitchen.

I can't believe it. Andrea's been in Kenya on the Kenya Global project for several days now. I'm trying to keep myself busy, so I revamped my blog.

Peace be upon you,
C.R.Mills

Ten is a good number to think

Rambling ideas in my head:

1.Turn of the century trends expressed in Utopian and Dystopian literature.
I've had this idea to write a paper on the human predisposition to write 'prophetically' on governments and society primarily influenced by turn of the century ideas on what culture would progress to. I want to compare novels, beginning with The Napoleon of Notting Hill by Chesterton, Iron Heel by London, Brave New World, 1984, and The Handmaid's Tale, among others. I want to show how there was a trend set primarily by the Gilded and Victorian Age in which authors built off each others ideas and proposed their prophecies of the future. It may end up being a long work in progress.

2. Urban ministry in Austin
I really want to get involved in this somehow and feel like I'm supposed to but am having trouble taking the next step and being obedient.

3. I wish it was cold so I could drink hot coffee and smoke my pipe in comfort
Nuff said

4. Plans for next summer
I really want to travel/mission trip it. Trying to see what God has for me.
STIM w/ Intervarsity?
Trans-siberian Express across Russia/Mongolia?
Backpacking Europe?
Trains/ traveling in south Asia?
South America tour?

5. Trying not to freak out about seemingly standing sill, being patient on God's timing
Why can't I turn all this passion into something productful in the presence? Ah! help me Lord!! haha

6. How much I want to read Fantasy novels all day long.

7. The nectarine I ate yesterday looked like a sunset when I bit into it.
It was just as beautiful as a sunset, yet I almost missed it. Why are the small things that are equally as beautiful as the big often overlooked?

8. I have a constant appetite for strong, bitter things:
Dark chocolate, Black Coffee, Pipe tobacco, liccorice

9. I need to study right now but want to read
London, dragons, crime, magic, romance, far off lands, court intrigue, love

10. So happy that Andrea is seeing New York/ missing her/ excited for her/ wanting her to be happy beyond measure.
K done being sappy =P.

C.R.M

Incomplete poem...you haunt me

Dear Samson my love, does fire harm your soul,

Or ice dethrone your locks, abounding from your crown,

What hair that hangs so elegant in sevens?

My love, my love. Allow me passage.

Unbolt your gates, take hold the hounds,

Those slavering beasts which stand guard.

Let me in my Samson, so I may know your heart.

Delilah sweet flame, Ice holds no grip.

Though burned is my soul, no harm do I take.

My Delilah, my love who shines bright as day

My heart is in embers; it smolders in red.

--Unfinished poem I found in my journal. I meant for it to be a whole dialogue between Samson and Delilah, with many stanzas. I might sit down and finish it one of these days. Why is it so hard for me to finish things I begin writing?!

C.R.M

Ramblings pt. 1

So it's been a bit since I logged something here last. I've got a couple of things I've been thinking about however, and I'm going to try and write them down consistently now. I'm also thinking of starting a separate blog for a story I've been working on for a while so look out for that y'all. Anyways...

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How often I think that if I could simply remove myself from all worldly temptations, or they from me, my holiness (however small) would remain intact.

However, this is not so, because it is too worldly and overly simple a solution to a more fundamental problem. And although I must flee temptation, there comes a point where I must face it, and no amount of distancing myself will conclude in victory. Therefore, a deeper weapon resides for me to fight with. I must take up my crown of humility, which is very likely not a crown of earthly splendor at all. It is, in all likeliness, more of a tarnished helmet.

Take for example the soldier who fights for his King. He wears his helmet for protection, not for glory. However, his helmet represents something, or rather the style and make of his helmet point to where he is from and ultimately who he fights for. In this way, in victory the glory is given to the king when people look at the victor's armor and say, "These are the Macedonians, and they fought and conquered for Phillip."

In the same way, I must wear my humble crown, my tarnished helmet, so that I may be protected and have victory. However, just like the soldiers, my humbleness must point to the king I serve and give him the glory. For soldiers do not wear helmets to bring themselves glory, but out of a necessity to live and to conquer the enemy. Likewise, I should wear my humbleness in order that my death to self will cause Christ to become my reason to fight and that this humility will protect me and ultimately give glory to God in victory rather than myself. For I could not have conquered without remaining humble and admitting that I am weak without Christ.

Therefore, we must take up our tarnished helmets and fight for a glory that is not our own. It is only then, in this way of thinking, that victory will be had time and time again.

C.R.M

Edit: new blog is henryandthehollow.blogspot.com/

Fly away

I am the eagle, I live in high country
In rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky
I am the hawk and there's blood on my feathers
But time is still turning they soon will be dry
And all of those who see me, all who believe in me
Share in the freedom I feel when I fly

-The Eagle and the Hawk by John Denver

I just want to stop studying and go outside. It's no help listening to John Denver sing about the mountains and awesome outdoors.

Top 5 places to visit

So to take a break from studying, I've been dreaming about the top five places I want to visit some day.

#5: Tunisia

#4: New Zealand

#3: Ireland

#2: Chile

#1: Nepal

Trundle this way Black Jack

London, Oh greying london,

How fogging tempest does declare

My fainting apprehension,

To wander midst your fare.

'Allo my fairest lady.

How I thrander through your muck.

Grandeur ne'er more spotty,

Though with pocket in my luck.

Last Thursday I registered for classes next Fall. I'm taking Intro to Roman Archaeology, Advanced Hebrew, Bio for non majors, and Law, Society, Novel in 19c Brit! I'm so freaking excited about reading 19th century British Literature that has a focus in law and society!!! Adam Bede, Wuthering Heights, Dicken's Bleak House, and other awesome novels.

Also, Corey's birthday weekend pics will be up soon hopefully. Anyways, I have to go study for my Hebrew final tomorrow. להתראות (bye)

I want a dog, a porch, and a rocking chair.

Of dusty coloured, boldish thoughts,

Dost thou not think and dwell this morn.

Oh that quite silent, dim rocker rots,

As pen quite rolicks, tampers, fastly jots.

Be ever sure not to wake in scorn,

He that slumbers, frightf’ly slumbers dreams,

So as to wile way the Capricorn.

Wake! Awake! snaps rocker’s seams,

In groaning Petrarch whine the beams.

Oh foul is such that stirs the lord,

Of sky and ground, of squirrel and dreams,

So quickly cut from his river fjord.

Reach out and still the loathsome sound.

For drowsing is the flop-eared hound.

So I'm trying to study Nutrition right now but instead got sidetracked by this poem I've been working on, and this video by M. Ward.

An Attic for a Brain

"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it."

So I've been reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes lately which I must say has been quite a relief from the day to day grind. Its nice to escape to some place where a clever man smokes his pipe and deduces the nature of a man from the cigar ash on his coat sleeve. Romanticism will always be near and dear to my heart and there's just something about the detective novel that fills my head with lofty aspirations of how a simple gesture of the hand, a quaint orange fleck on the shoe, or perhaps a mis-trimmed beard can mean beautifully deep connections to lives.

Anyways, I believe a Spring Break recap is in order since I have failed to record my adventures here. Well, I went to New Mexico with my family and visited my dad's cousin on her ranch. It snowed almost a foot! The snow is probably my favorite thing God ever made. (Next to Andrea =P) Then we went to Santa Fe and skied a lot and just chilled. Here's some pretty sweet photos of our trip.

Studying, Spring, Burgers

My ipod:





I do not know what I would do without you. I listen to you while studying, reading, walking, and driving.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent almost entirely in studying. I listened to every Explosions in the sky album...Twice. And three Sigur Ros albums...twice, without even realizing it. Haha so yea.





















My playlist right now goes something like this:
1. Heartbeats - Jose Gonzales
2. With all my heart - Clem Snide
3. Ill be yr bird - M. Ward
4. Place to be - Nick Drake
5. Gentle hour - Yo la tengo
6. Stephanie Says - The Velvet Underground
7. Needle in the hay - Elliot Smith
8. Lua - Connor Oberst & Gillian Welch
9. Long way home - Mates of State
10. I don't know what i can save you from - Kings of Convenience




Andrea and I, after much studying, finally completed our tests and packed up to come to Houston. We went to P Terry's for lunch before leaving and let's just say it was a great way to conclude the week/start the break. The weather was awesome.

I'm off to New Mexico tomorrow morning so bye. Have a nice springy weekend and week.











Chris

Come with me pretty baby

Andrea and I just went to Hyde Park Grill together on Friday. It was amazing and such a great time not to mention that the fries are out of this world. Basically anytime spent together in Hyde Park, Austin is a great time and I can't wait to do it again soon. Bike ride maybe? Yes, I think so.

There's also this really awesome Grocery Store there which I just learned today has this awesome mural on it. The guy on the left is supposedly painted after Will Ferrel. They filmed a movie in Austin with him in it some years ago.

And I just found this video of Mates of State performing Tom Waits' Long Way Home in Austin like a year ago. Then I remembered we went to that show so I got super stoked. I love this song and Mates of State just makes it all that much better, and I'm pretty sure I can hear Andrea and I talking in the background in the beginning haha. It looks like it was filmed on the same side we were standing anyways. So its possible...maybe.

"You know I love you baby, more than the whole wide world. I'm your woman and you know you are my Pearl. So let's go out past the party lights where we can finally be alone. Come with me and we can take the long way home."

Chris

Respectable Birds and Such

Honored friend of the fowl,

Bescreech this way.

Along the undertoe, that sleepy, knolly knoll.

Belone this path.

Amidst the granules, these earthy, grav'ly grolls.

Shine forth atrocity unsheathed.

To bat again,

To beat,

A sinner's tale so far bequeathed.

Unto our morose ear

-Oh such a hear we hear.

Like boastfuling blads lone Artem's sham.

So do us mortal's fear.

The trump,

-Oh yes tis poet's bliss,

We sinkers fel would say.

So gape thy mouth,

Slith out thy tongue.

And fess your fowled jay.

---Poem written the other day when I started thinking about the word knoll. It just kind of evolved from there.

Chris

The Beginning

So today marks the start of what promises to be a pretty intense week of midterms and starts of research papers. But starting a blog seems to keep those thoughts at bay for right now so lets go with that. Although dreading the start of booknosing in Hebrew and my Seafaring class, this week is also going to bring an awesome vacation at the end of it. I know New Mexico with the family is going to be a blast since two summers ago Alaska was thrilling and beautiful.

Anyway, I'm really excited to use this blog for my writings and such. Perhaps even a photograph or two like the above of a pond in Alaska. Not sure what else to say so there it is for now. Maybe a poem or two later.

Chris