What is that feline thinking about as it may be unknowing of the photographer behind it? My thought is that the quality of this picture and its content inspire me and provoke my thoughts tonight. However, I wouldn't be surprised if this cheetah is either intuitively smelling out its prey or discerning if he could ever be fast enough to catch the sun before it entirely sets.
My writing deals with one subject this morning: interpretation.
Sometimes, it frightens me how significantly history/social behaviors/etc. can be so affected by interpretation. The Bible and the Constitution are two major texts that lead readers to extremes. At this point, I wish I had the mental capacity and the wit to offer a stimulating analysis of how people should consider interpretation. I don't. My loudest call at this time is how blindly a person often reads something. A person often reads something with the motive to prove a point, he only searches for self-application, or he could only consider one area that the text is speaking towards but dismiss the rest.
I'm learning we are in a high tide of emphasizing. We don't necessarily deny the truth of something, but we rank one aspect over another. There is this contemporary Christian song out called "It's Gotta Be..." or something close to that title. The musician is vigourously promoting the idea of viewing a relationship with the Lord as falling in love. Yet it saddened me that he compromises the idea of giving our allegiance to the Almighty. Simply because you are proving a point doesn't mean you sacrifice the truth. We cannot choose to view God as only attributes that bring us that earthly comfort that we seem to enjoy. "Not as I view thee, but how You know yourself to be."
Though I am at a confusing stage in grasping firm concepts of truth and living above reproach, I retain my observations along the way. I know we cannot place ourselves above the law. My mentor, Stephen Jenks always used to say, "When read correctly, the Bible reads the reader." As I approach my Bible reading these days, I pray that I am doused in humility but also full of grit. I do intend to test the spirits, specifically my spirit of intepretation. Life is fraught with giving things meaning: When we meet someone, we shake hands with them; not because we have to, but that has been made into a formal gesture of greeting.
This topic is too far above me. I feel like I have written incomplete, if not false things tonight. I am willing to stand corrected. I am also willing to seek out and receive truth that is eternal, lasting, and transformative. He is the Messiah that won't just redeem our hearts, but our psychologies...the barren earth, all of creation, and thank goodness that he shall put the government on his shoulders. We often don't know the gravity and cost of these words, but for those who yearn for redemption (not just those who smile at the thought of it), we are bold to say, "Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!"
All this because a photographer captured a moment. A moment I interpret to be stunningly beautiful. And like a sufficient film that lets you ponder one last compelling question, I finish with a jovial spirit and a wink:
What is beauty?
Stephen Jenks!!
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