Forthcoming from the Author

The state of romantic relationships (friends and my own), has been pretty prominent in my mind lately. This has lead me to do things like post the last weblog entry, or post "Girls 101: Ask the Experts" on the hall bulletin board. (It's a Breakway magazine interview with four 18 year old females about the qualities they look for in a guy.) In the midst of all this, however, I can't help but wondering if, to paraphrase the song "American Pie," Satan's laughing with delight over the campus's romantic obsession. As the saying goes, "Too much of a good thing is bad." Have we elevated something as good as finding a spouse to idol level? I think we have.

I've come to the general conclusion that considering the current state of affairs here, there probably isn't a girl for me currently here at Boyce. That may sound a little dire, and yes, "probably" leaves a chance for a much welcomed surprise ("One and a million... So you're saying there's still a chance!"), but at the same time, it's also surprisingly freeing. It allows me to be a brother to my sisters, and I think that the more brothers a female has, the better, with the same going vice versa. What a novel concept, friendships for the sake of edification and life together. Glad I thought of this first. As an added note, I think that true, genuine friendships which spend much of their time in groups and quality time one on one or in smaller groups allow for the birth of pure romantic relationships. Not that this is their goal or even their consideration, but rather, a possible, and if it occurs, a welcome result.

It seems to me that in relationships, as in any fact of life, we walk on a tight rope strung over a chasm. It doesn't matter if you fall off on the left hand side, sin masked as freedom (1 Peter 2:16), or on the right hand side, sin masked as morality and piety (Colossians 2:20-23). Either way, you fall. It doesn't take a deep intellect to recognize the destruction that mercenary dating has unleashed, it just takes open eyes. It also doesn't take deep philosophy to recognize that our Muslim-esque segregation of the genders is unhealthy either.

"Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." - Gal 6:2 (HCSB) This applies to so much more then confessing sins. We must do life together.

If you're Mike Hilliard or John Letoto, you might wonder what the "H" the title has to do with the contents. One "Family Movie Night" at the Butterworth household, my brothers and I made the huge mistake of letting our parents go to Rent-A-Flick without a proper chaperone. As a result, they rented The Princess Diaries, starring Anne Hathaway, the legendary Julie Andrews, and Mandy Whore. I survived. After watching it, I thought about how unrealistic it's view of romance, beauty, and all those things was. It's the Disney ethos: "If you're life is cruddy just say Bippity-Boppity-Boo and some fairy godmother will make it all better." It inspired me, and the next day I sat down and wrote a short fairy tale about true love. It's called The King's Own. The story needs some major revamping to bring it slightly out of Josh Harris's shadow, not to mention a major stylistic overhaul. Getting to the point, once I have finished the editing process, I will post it here.

The State of the Dates (Prognosis: Not Good)

I don't think I've ever written a "rant" blog before, and I don't think that this is one either. I am frustrated to a certain extent, however, and I need to voice this to all my readers, provided I have any. So here it goes: Taken as a general rule, Boyce guy/girl relationships seem to be amazingly skewed. This is unnervingly apparent this banquet season. This is the first time in 3 semesters that I have really "entered the fray," as it were, for banquet season, so maybe this happens everytime. Even so, that still doesn't make it right. Put simply:

"Why are all the wrong girls saying yes, and all the right girls saying no?" Some pointed questions, directed at both genders. I'm not targeting people: I'm targeting attitudes.

For the Ladies:

1. Are you waiting for the BBD (the Bigger Better Deal)? Is that why I have two friends who were turned down 5 times a piece?
2. Do you really believe in courtship? If so, how's that going to transition when you've found the ideal guy? Do you realize, that if you hang out with a guy quite a bit (not necessarily a bad thing), that you ARE in the accepted definition of the word, dating, him?
3. Do you expect us guys to read your minds? Is that why you often send no signals whatsover?
4. Do you realize that many of you are constantly being flirtatious?
5. Do you realize how dumb it is to hang out with one guy exclusively for a week, then move on to the next one? Do you have any qualms about that?
6. Do you know what to look for in a guy? There are amazing guys here who are going to make a huge impact for the kingdom that you totally ignore.
7. Have you really submitted your ways to the LORD? Have you bought into the lie that you have to be married before you leave here or married to be in ministry? Consider the example of Amanda Paramlee, an IMB tent-maker missionary to an Unreached People Group in Taiwan. She's in her mid twenties and unmarried. What if God's calling you to do the same?
8. Could you be honest about the fact that you don't have it all together, and in reality, you sruggle on the inside? that you have fears and doubts and problems and insecurities too? Could you maybe, just maybe, change your ice princess gown for the apron of a true unnoticed servant?
   

Don't think that my dearly loved brothers (and me) are going to get off easy.

For the Guys:

1. Why is it, that considering all the requirements/characteristics/common traits of ministers of the Gospel, that you've chosen being "the husband ofone wife" on which to focus?
   
2. Have you even heard of the concept of servanthood? Don't you realize that Christ cherishes, loves, and was tortured to death for his bride? Is that not submissive, passionate, fond, costly service? Why is it then that we still dwell on fulfilling our own needs?
3. If you really want to make a "statement" why don't you take the girls that no one thinks to ask to the banquet?
4. For that matter, why is it that you only ask the pretty or popular girls as "a friend" to the winter dinner?
5. Why don't you stand guard over you sisters instead of trying to steal their hearts and affections?
6. Why don't you affirm your sisters?
7. Why do you think that just because you're attracted to a girl, and you've "prayed about it" that God must have "predestined" that she fall madly madly in love with you?
8. Why are you so shallow? Why don't you include the attitude of the heart in your definition of how hot a girl is?

There. I said it and I stand by it. There are probably zero people out there who agree with every word that I wrote. I don't care. This is my take on "the state of the dates."

Knowing God through Love

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.
13 This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given to us from His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
17 In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. 19 We love because He first loved us.

Keeping God’s Commands

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from Him: the one who loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4:7-21 (HCSB) [Coming soon to a Boyce Dorm Meeting near you]

Noise Ratchet: 1999-2004 RIP

It is with great great sadness that I write this post. I checked my e-mail only minutes ago and discovered that Noise Ratchet, the best band that you've never heard of, has decided to call it quits. My only consolation is that one of their last three shows will be in Phoenix the day I fly back from Louisville. Here's hoping I get to go.

Instead of me telling you about the band, I'll let the band's lyrics tell you about them and their heart. All of these are from their album Till We Have Faces.

"For You I'll Be Forgetting Me"

Decorations fell,
A red and green wives tale.
A silver line surrounds
Rooftops and black clouds
Are on their way to me.

Happy Birthday to me
The forgotten King

Open hand outstretched
To receive their prize.
But I could give you anything,
Yes anything
You’re everything to me.

"The Train" [This might be my favorite]

Dawn is here again.
And I can't save myself.
No I can't.
So can I ride the train
With you to get there?
'Cause I hear it's beautiful
Where this train is gonna stop.

So can I ride with you
Can I ride with you

I step up to get there,
So can I hold on to this.
I step up to get there,
'Cause then it's all bliss.

You can save me,
You can drive the train,
Cause I won't burn the bridge again.
I don't think I could live without one.
Because without one,
We would fall into deep, deeper water.
I do every day.

"My Day"

I woke up today
In a sick, sick world
I opened my eyes to see
It’s just a hurting place

My God can break its fall
In a world of hearts not beating at all
Its chances are leaving with time
Its kill or be killed evolution lies

Day after day has gone by
I try and I try to realize
What I can change
What’s falling apart.

"Till We Have Faces"

In photographs we define ourselves
Beneath the blanket of fashion
The things we fear the most
Are caught by our eyes in a mirror
We will decompose

Until we have faces
Identity abides
In what we claim is the truth,
Till fact and faith collide

Until we have faces
My heart is set on you.
But time and time again,
My eyes believe in lies.

To desire and dread
A war we can’t explain.
One fights to remember
Another to forget himself
A face we own forever,
But our heart can always change.

If you've stuck with me this far, you probably now realize what a gem they were and are, believers living out an authentic faith in the real world. They were not some cheesy antiquated pop band singing songs of week theology to a fat choir. They were artists. And in my minds eye, they were some of the greatest lyrical preachers in ages. May God bless you Noise Ratchet as you go on your seperate ways. Check out purevolume.com/noiseratchet for more.

Prodigal Heart

A poem I wrote a while back. I feel led to share it.

Your inheritance

Is a thing of the past.

All of it spent

On nothing that lasts.

The breasts of a cheap whore,

The buzz of strong wine,

Don’t give satisfaction,

And take it with time.

Prodigal heart,

When will you come home?

You’ve been running so long,

And you feel so alone.

When your money ran out,

Your friends all did too.

You wake up alone,

No one’s sleeping with you.

If you’d rise from your pillow,

Give the mirror a glance,

You’d see a stranger staring right back.

Prodigal heart,

Is it time to come home?

You’ve been running so long,

And you feel so alone.

You feed the pigs

‘Cause you’re to proud to beg,

You pass over grace,

And choose slop instead.

Each night in the mire,

You spend with the sows,

Births longings for heaven

From deep in your hell.

Prodigal heart,

Why won’t you come home?

You’ve been running so long,

And you feel so alone.

Often at night,

You can’t get to sleep,

You spend the time wondering,

“Can I be redeemed?”

When rest finally claims you,

You toss through the night,

Dreaming of life,

That has been made right.

Prodigal heart,

It’s time to come home,

You’ve been running so long,

And you feel so alone.

Your feet hit the road

That you’ve traveled before,

But only this time,

It’s taking you home.

Prodigal heart,

Can it be true?

Your Father’s not waiting,

He’s running for you.

Sanctuary!

I am a refugee from the land of Xanga, and I am unsure if or when I shall return to my native URL. I made the mistake of starting a blogring for students who attend my college, and to my chagrin, it has become one big political brou-ha-ha of an opinion war. Besides, a certain Hawaiian friend of mine has been testifying about Blogger for a while.

A few words of intro before we begin. The is The Rime and the Ancient Starsong. The title draws from two of the best poems I've ever read. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a story of sin and redemption. Crux to its plot is the Mariner's murder of an innocent albatross. Calvin Miller's The Singer is a book length epic. Written just over 30 years ago, it tells the story of the Troubador, sent by His Father, the Earthmaker, to sing The Ancient Starsong of redemption. Sound a little familiar, like maybe he's talking about Jesus? (Coughhh, he is). My pen name is Ecygtheow, taken from Semus Haney's amazing translation of Beowulf. Ecygtheow is Beowulf's father, and his name means "Sword Servant." I think there's a lot of depth in that.

We've met, now let us begin the journey together.