The Word is Alive

Looking out from His throne,

the Father of light and of men

Chose to make Himself known

and show us the way back to Him.

Speaking wisdom and truth

into the hearts

of peasants and kings,

He began to unveil

the Word that would change

the course of all things.

Musicals as Literature

"Midnight. Not a sound from the pavement. Has the moon lost her memory? She's smiling alone. In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet, and the wind begins to moan." This lyric is famous as a part of the incredibly popular solo "Memory," from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, "Cats." It is an emotional and impressive piece. However, how many people actually stop and just think about the words?

An Inconvenient Truth: "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

There are two questions that determine a person's worldview. The first is "what is the nature of God?" The second: What is the nature of man? This second question can be answered in two ways, namely: man is basically good, or man is basically fallen, sinful, and evil. The first is presumed in such books as Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" (an excellent book in almost all other respects) and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein (which also has its redeeming points)." The latter is set forth in Robert Louis Stevenson's remarkable story, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

"Taken in" or Let Out: Faith in "The Last Battle"

C.S. Lewis' finale to the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, is my favorite book in the entire world- and I like a lot of books. Somehow, Lewis managed to sneak a sense of inexpressible wonder and glory into the lines that gives me goosebumps every time I read it (or listen to the excellent radio dramatization done by Focus on the Family- but I'll save that for another time). If anyone needs proof that Lewis was a genius, they need merely note that he somehow managed to weave the End Times, Life after death, joy, his view of salvation as it relates to this life (namely, the one detailed in the Screwtape letters: that this life prepares one either for Heaven or for Hell), and many, many other ideas into a two-hundred page children's book. One of the most important of these ideas is faith. Lewis introduces two views of faith very effectively, and demonstrates the truth about them.

The Importance of Words

Has it ever occured to you how incredibly amazing words are? Consider: a series of symbols and sounds that allows humanity to express itself- not only its physical self, but its emotional self- its soul. Literature is equally a part of and seperate from humanity. Without the human voice, the human hand, and the human imagination, language would never exist. On the other hand, the written word can outlive its writer by thousands of years.