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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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| Ode To A Spider |
Spider, spider, as brown as bark,
With pointed legs and bristles dark,
I shivered in my very core,
When glanced I you upon my floor.
How dare you sir, invade my home;
And make my house your place to roam!
At once I knew what I must do,
And quick as rain I fetched my shoe.
The sneaker strikes, your body warps,
No coffin for your curled up corpse,
No velvet cask, no pomp, no plush,
Just water swirling as I flush.
When done you were, I stopped and mused,
What makes me long to see you bruised?
What drives me on to loathe you so?
Why could I not just let you go?
The truth be told, it was because,
I have no say in what it does.
Were it able to heed my voice,
And do my will by its own choice,
I suppose it wouldn't creep me out,
For I would say, "Don't stir about!"
And if it heeded my command,
I'm sure it's presence I could stand.
Sure it's icky when it's dangly,
Or darting 'bout on legs so gangly,
But if it stayed in my back yard
I'd have no cause to see it marred.
Spider spider, so brown as bark,
The time has come to disembark,
Your willfulness I won't abide,
That's why you've sailed the porcelain tide.
-Daniel van de Laar
I embellished the poem a little, to make it rhyme, but by and large that is the tale of my morning.
As I was coming down the stairs into the foyer this morning, this rather large brown and hairy spider darted across the stairs just as I was walking past. I started at the icky movement, and that loathing of all things icky took control of me, and I quickly killed the thing. It didn't die the first strike or the second, but finally expired on the third strike. I chalk that up to having found a somewhat defensible corner rather than to any personal robustness on the spider's part.
As I was lacing up my shoes however, I pondered why it was that I killed the thing. What was it about the spider and about me that were incompatible? As I considered it, I realized that the main thing that offended me was that it was a "wild" arachnid living in my home. I had no control over it. Perhaps it would crawl on me in my sleep? Maybe it would find it's way into some food? If the thing lived in my back yard, I would suffer it to live, but having found it in my house, I was disposed to dispose of it.
Of course, that got me to thinking about God and sinners, and how a sinner is not unlike a rebellious spider in the eyes of God. The sinner will not obey, and God is within His right to punish that sinner as He sees fit.
Now, the analogy isn't perfect, as it is universally accepted that big, gnarly, hairy, spiders are "yucky" and people are created in God's image, and therefore have more dignity than the spider, etc. But the analogy isn't so far off that it is unintelligible. We are, compared to God, less than spiders, and our sin makes us far more "icky" than our appearance.
When the scriptures say that creation declares the glory of the Lord, it isn't meant to be poetry, it is the literal truth. Creation declares the glory of God, to all, and it is evident to those who have eyes to see it. |
posted by Daniel @
8:27 AM
 
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| 4 Comments: |
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Hey, now! I can handle being called depraved, but "icky" is just going to far.
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David, if it helps, I have always considered you more depraved than icky.
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Daniel, I can't tell you how that warms my heart.
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I am hoping that David R. writes some music for it, and puts it out on his next album.
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Hey, now! I can handle being called depraved, but "icky" is just going to far.