Who are You?

The Eastern Shore of Lake Tahoe, also known as Galilee Image via Wikipedia

 

Some years ago, a good friend of mine had encouraged me to begin a blog.

“Why do I want or need a blog?,” I asked him.

“You write very well, and a blog would seem to be a natural outlet for your thoughts,” he said.

Never being one whom chronicled or maintained a “dear diary” in my youth, I was quite amazed to hear his words. I had, however, been periodically sharing thoughts with my kindred and friends via e-mail. Alan was kind enough to host my writing for quite some time, gently guiding me through the technical process.

As things go – at least according to the Law of Entropy – things tend toward deterioration, decay and chaos. In other words, they move from order to disorder. And in time, because of the age of his servers, the bulk of traffic and the increasing complexity of software, he began migrating his servers to another resource, at which point he also began encouraging me to move my blog, which I have, and which you are now reading.

I had purposed to republish my original writings – and inspired by a recent status update posting I’d made to FaceBook – piqued my desire to republish this one post immediately.

Some background: I was in Lake Tahoe, NV at the time of the writing, staying with an extended family member, having traveled West in response to a spiritual urging I sensed. The events surrounding the same are another story in themselves, which I shall reserve.

Without further ado, I give you…

Who are You?
Posted: April 7, 2008 5:58 pm by KG4***

Who are You?

Okay… I admit it. I love Rock-N-Roll… so put another dime in the juke box baby!

Though that song was originally written in 1975 by the rather obscure duo of Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker of The Arrows, it became a trademark song – topping Billboard’s U.S. music chart at #1 for airplay and sales for seven weeks – for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts when they re-recorded it in 1982.

Often times, when I’m driving through town, I’ll have the 150 watt-amplified stereo/CD player in my Grand Cherokee cranked up. It’ll be so loud, in fact, that I chuckle when I see the side-view mirrors vibrate.

Some music simply demands to be played loudly, and not just rock-n-roll. One such piece is “O Fortuna” from Carmina Burana.

Discovered in 1803, and dating from circa 1230 A.D., the Carmina Burana is a collection of poems about life, which were written primarily in Latin (though some may include Late French, or Early High German passages), mostly by clerics and traveling scholars. It contains four basic categories of poems, which include songs or poems 1.) with satirical or moralizing lyrics, 2.) celebrating springtime and love, 3.) about gambling and drinking, and 4.) with religious content.

Set to music by Carl Orff in 1936, the Carmina Burana, when performed in its fullest capacity – full orchestra with a 150-piece choir – will rock your house. The intensity of the performance itself, in combination with the demonstration of an extraordinarily broad dynamic range (from extremely quiet/soft, to a vigor only slightly below the intensity of a space-shuttle blast-off) is an acoustical wonder to behold.

A fascinating note, (for those who particularly enjoy Pat Sajak and Vanna White on the television game show program “Wheel of Fortune”), is that, though exactly unclear when, the original “Wheel of Fortune,” or Rota Fortuna, originated in antiquity, and is symbolically seen in much ecclesiastical art, even today. Symbolically, it represented the “inexorable rise and fall of fortune,” because as one side goes up, the corresponding and complementary side goes down. The concept also is that the wheel or circle symbolizes not only equality, but that shapes (indeed, geometry itself) may also symbolize concepts of the Almighty.

Consider the Trinity, the triangle, the Star of David (two equilateral intersecting triangles, one inverted upon the other), or the three intersecting circles (also known as “Borromean rings,” a type of “Venn Diagram” in geometry, which is known in Christendom as the “Tripod of Life”) which symbolize the Trinity.

One thing stands for another.We learn of the nature of things that we don’t understand by using something that we do understand to which we compare it. In other words, we analogize. We speak in symbols, using allegory. Christ did similarly, by speaking in parables.

In fact, language itself is allegorical. Symbols throughout the ages which have been and are placed upon stone, wood, paper and metal stand for those things – ideas, emotions and conditions – which we wish to express.

So how do we express the Almighty? How do we express a Being whom is pure love? Indeed, how can such a One be known?

Yet when we discover that One, we inexorably discover our own shortcomings, selfishness, resentments and problems.

Pete Townshend of the rock group “The Who” sang of such a discovery in the 1978 song, “Who Are You?”

“I know there’s a place you walked
“Where love falls from the trees
“My heart is like a broken cup
“I only feel right on my knees

“I spit out like a sewer hole
“Yet still receive your kiss
“How can I measure up to anyone now
“After such a love as this?”

BMI Work #1662190
Composed by Peter Townshend, Dennis Blandfor

Yet beyond the question, lies another. And that question is directed at us.

Christ asked that question of His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I am?’,” and followed up with, “Who do you say that I am?”

We may know the story. Jesus then begins to tell the guys how it’s all going to go down, how history was going to happen. It’s recorded in Mark’s gospel in the King James version of the Bible that afterwards, “He began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

Peter didn’t like how that story sounded, so he cried out and rebuked Jesus. Perhaps he said something like, ‘What the $!%#$ are you talking about? Are you crazy? That is NOT going to happen!’ We can only imagine…

Yet, He knew His purpose, He knew His destiny. He KNEW why He was born, He knew His mission, and He was determined He would fulfill it.

That same question is asked of us by Him.

Who are you?

Our identity is a fact in God’s heart. It is His job to identify our identity to us. We are not who we think we are, nor are we comprised of any events which we may have experienced – good or bad. We are not a string of failures or successes which we suffer or enjoy. We are who He says we are.

Our destiny is to be made like Him. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” -Romans 8:28a “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” -Romans 12:2a

God wants to transform us, not our circumstances. All of our our own shortcomings, selfishness, resentments and problems are experienced by unbelievers. “The same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” 1 Peter 5:9b

Brotherhood? Peter calls them brothers? (Yes, that’s for another discussion.)

So… who are you?