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In January I was at a used book sale (right after which i got pulled over….) and found this old book featuring the complete works of Edmund Spenser. I remembered reading some of his poetry in high school but other than that had no idea what he was famous for (The Fairie Queen). Still, it was only something like 50 cents, so I plunked down the change and got the book. The opening poems are a series based on the months. Each month has its own storyline and theme, but each builds on the other. I’ve yet to finish the series, but it has inspired me to try something like it.
So here are the first two months of my series. Each month from here on out I’ll hopefully post that month’s section of the poem…so stay tuned! And comment please. I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on these.
{January}
January–quite contrary:
We ring you in with scintillating hope,
But cold winds slow any momentum we gain,
Chilled to the bone under Death’s hand and pain.
Who can ascend your snowy slope?
Our human lights fail to shine e’en a little
In your dark valley of tundra and ice.
Feeble our movements, great is your vice!
Our steps grow slow, our joints turn brittle.
Should 12 months pass in such darkness and gloom?
{February}
February–like a fairy!
You flit in with promise of warmer love.
The paradox lies in the cold that still tarries,
How unforunate the hearts your avalanche buries.
Yet cannot hope still fly from above?
And Love is the thing–the Person, the Promise!–
That lets us raise our heads to the chilling wind.
Though bleak is the hour, though sharp is the bend,
A sunrise will eventually break this darkness.
And a hope for 12 months begins to bloom…
There’s an obsession among Christians to know the future in a detailed way. They believe they can look at numbers and clues in Scripture and figure exactly how the end will come. They only thing they don’t know is when the end will come (unless they side with Harold Camping, *cough cough*). This study of the end times (otherwise known as “eschatology”) is intriguing, but it’s also confusing. Can the future really be known in such detail?
A couple months ago I began a study in the book of Daniel to try my hand at this prophecy stuff. The first 6 chapters were rather simple since they were mainly stories. The latter half, however, was a real headache. It was somewhat simple to pick up the gist of what was happening, but the digging deeper into the imagery wasn’t as nice. Why do rivers feature so prominently? What’s with the number 4? Can all these numbers be taken literally? What exactly does “times, time, and half a time” mean?
What I found is that end times prophecy isn’t child’s play. You don’t just barge into the heavenly conversation and instantly pick up what’s happening. Not even Daniel understood what was happening most of the time. He often had to ask clarification questions and do tons of fasting and praying in order to “get” what was going on. So to understand prophecy takes devotion, commitment. I’m afraid too many Christians are scared of prophecy and the weight it carries and so never bother to actually study the text. This can lead to bad doctrine or “wishful-thinking” theology.
I also noticed that to understand prophecy takes wisdom, the type that only can come from heaven. This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point. The more you devote yourself to understanding Scripture in general, the more you grow in wisdom. The more you grow in wisdom, the more your understanding of prophecy becomes. This in turn leads to the next point:
To understand prophecy takes time. In the final vision’s conclusion (Daniel 12), Daniel seeks an answer to how long the things mentioned in the vision will take. He wanted a specific timeline. None is given to him. Instead the answer is somewhat vague, but within it is this idea that as time passes and as the time of the end draws near, those who are wise will notice the coming end. Granted, this is harder and takes more discipline than simply putting together a bunch of numbers and deciding how long the end will be and whatnot, but it’s a more enriching course.
Of course, there’s so much more to learn from eschatology. I think i’ve only just set foot on the iceberg, but I’m willing to dive deeper. Maybe it’s a little uncomfortable to not have a tailor-made schedule for the end, but just knowing that God will be victorious regardless ought to be enough for me.
In between more serious posts, let me just remind all 3 of my readers that you can find a song I’ve written on the awesome website Noise Trade…for free. So if you haven’t checked it out and downloaded it and told all your friends–and especially all your enemies–you should go do so now…here’s the link:
