Tis' The Season

As you may have noticed, I have written below two poems. They are both poems that a little bit fit with where I am at this Christmas Season. I am struggling to ignore the darkness that has so penetrated this world. I am finding it difficult to sit comfortably in my wool socks and sweater, fully loaded with Christmas baking without a second thought towards a large portion of the world. How many people have the opportunity to stop and actually celebrate Christmas? What about those who are frozen on the city streets? What about those who are fighting to survive until tomorrow, not to mention today. What about those who are losing their families to HIV Aids or war? Do most people on a global setting actually have time to think about what Christ did and what Christmas is about? I do not even know if I have taken sufficient time to meditate on that.
Why do I get to be comfortable?
I do not know the answer to why I have been graced with so much...but the only answer that seems to surface is hope. We have hope in Christ, even in the darkest circumstances we still have hope in a loving savior.
What about you; reader? What are your thoughts? Any advice or good solid theology?

Tale of Many Tales

Tales and tales of heartbreaks I hear
Though none bring true depth to what becomes clear
No words, no pictures, no stories would tell
The implications of when my heart shattered; fell.

A brewd of hungry lions less damage would do
than the pain inflicted on me by you
I refuse to drown in the ocean of tears
However my pain is the least of my fears

Explain the change that took on your heart
What stole you? Broke you? Then tore you apart?
I watched, and wept from the distance you held me
I prayed that it would leave you be.

I stare into your clouded, dull eyes
They tell tales beyond your attempted disguise
Where is the sparkle, the joy and delight
that through your eyes used to take flight?

What ales you and steals your very soul?
What has replaced the heart, the passion, the goal?
All that is worthy, noble and true
Not long has it been since those defined you.

A battle is raging within you and for you
Have your eyes been shut so you can't see through?
Someone is longing to protect you from harm
To guide you away from the devils charm.

I beg you to turn, to remember His love
To remember the hope beyond and above
A hope and a future;gifts that He offers
A hand to hold in a pit full of scoffers

Your heart, your soul, allow His love to save
Let Him rescue you from the place which you are enslaved
Focus your eyes back on truth and on life
Not on futile pleasures which bring endless strife. *

~Charis Vaags

Broken Unknown

This is where the rubber hits the road
All that is common is overload
Her timing in life has been misplaced
to her surroundings, she is disgrace

Does anyone hear her crying?
Does anyone know her pain?
Or does it all go unnoticed?
Does her spirit sink to a place of shame?

This is where she can't feel her toes
Under the winter-bitten bridge where she's stowed
Warn out finger gloves all full of holes
The shelter's free blanket wont keep out the cold

Can you see the frost bite;
Her skin pale white?
Do you realize how much
she tries to put up a fight?

If you meet her some day
what is it you will say?
Or will you walk by?
Will you pretend it's okay?

Read the story behind her broken eyes
Trace the lines on her face
Where are they from?
They speak no lies.

Who will tell the story
of the un-kept
the unknown,
unwanted
reject?

~Charis Vaags

Fake Plants

Hmmm...Let me ask you a question. What do you think about fake plants? Are you the type who likes to add a little green to your surroundings but do not want to have to water and care for green things that actually breath and drink? Or are you someone who loves to have a jungle in your front room? Big plants, small plants, exotic plants, red plants blue plants? What is your take on the situation?

I am personally a non-fan of fake plants. I like plants, they make living space feel clean to me. I find it nice to have something that is recycling and utilizing the air that you breath out. How cool is that. I like to have something that grows, and is pretty. Plants do not have a soul but they are alive. It is so nice to know that an inanimate object like a plant has still been given structure and ability to function. What is even more amazing is that there is the ultimate of creativity and science who has thought all this up.

I think sometimes we miss the point. What kind of mindset was formed prior to manufacturing fake plants? Why would we settle for a cop out of what has been created for us. Personally I would much rather immerse myself in God's intriguing creation than to settle on a fake version of it.

How many things in life are like this? How many things are we settling for sub-par levels on? Do we skirt around having real relationships and settle for shallowness? Do we strive to do the bare minimum rather than trying to be as productive in the life we have been given as possible? So we settle for fast food rather than taking full advantage of a nutritious meal? Do we watch movies rather than discovering our own story? Do we settle for an image that someone else has set and paint our faces before going out each morning? It would seem there are a lot of subjects in life in which we choose the fake. I do not know.

I really am not against people who like fake plants, or eat fast food, or even wear makeup. I do wonder why we do what we do. What worldview lingers at the root of these practices? I think it is a good thing to pull things up by the root and look at them. I apologize if I am rambling....but I think that that is what a blog is for not?

Enjoy your greenery!
*

Mama We! A cha cha cha!

Sometimes I like to pull out the very little kinyarwandan that I know just to add a little bit of diversity. The title directly translated means " Whoa Mama...hiyiyi".

If you are reading this, you have most likely noticed that I have only just began to post again since like 2 years ago. I was just reading some of my old posts and boy do things sure change. Watching others as well as yourself grow up in and interesting thing. It seems to happen very fast. Any of you with younger siblings would no exactly how this feels.

I sometimes like to look at where I have been and see where I am now because it enables me to be more thankful for how Christ has brought me so far. And in a few years it will be even farther. Just a thought.

It is good to take a minute to realize how much there is to be thankful. This blog is called Jubilation way. A way that is to be sought out and found. But it is a way of joy in it's most genuine form. Only a regular interaction with Jesus can manufacture this true joy. So here I am, continuing onward in the way of Joy, sometimes straying from it but still going.

Highschool....AGAIN?

Well hello,
I know it has been a long, long time since I have written on here. But I figured I would start this blog up again.
So this last year has been a roller-coaster of a year. From September of 2008 to June of 2009 I had the opportunity of traveling around with 11 other wonderful people. We were a traveling arts team, spreading the gospel and Christs love all over, including Rwanda, Africa and England. Yes, it sounds very exciting and let me tell you, it sure was. But I will try to write about some of my experiences with that another day. Today, I want to write about Highschool...again?

Yes, I have managed to land myself back in Highschool. No, I did not fail grade 12. I graduated in 2007 with all the required courses and marks. I am back in a highschool taking fashion design. I am taking five classes everyday, from 8:45 until 3:30. How weird is that. I am really enjoying it.

I am learning a ton and decided that gaining some more sewing and designing skills to the ones I have accuired would be a good thing to do. The funny thing is, I get to have this whole high-school experience from the perspective of someone who has been there and grown out of all of it.

Just to give you a little background, I went to a Christian private school with approximately 300-400 students for my entire school career. That's right, kindergarten to grade 12. So unlike all of my four older sisters I did not get sent to scary public school in Oakbank in grade 10. I have always sort of miffed about that however because I have always felt a little naive to what really goes on outside of the bubble and how to respond to it as a follower of Christ. Here is the funny part. I've gotten to have a solid foundation in my faith in education for all those years and now I am at a huge....900 student public school. It is like culture shock but not really. I have to learn all those hallway traffic rules so that I do not keep getting run over by people. There are SO MANY PEOPLE! It is crazy. I am loving getting to know them.

I am in classes with grade niners, tenners, eleveners and twelvers. So I get to know a lot of youth. Which I love, because I love youth!

Funny story. I went to a grade 12 assembly where they were talking about new rules and how the grade 12's had to come to class or they would fail and all that good stuff. It was like a blast from the past. They were talking about feild trips to universities and representatives from those Uni's coming to persuade you to go to their university, and how they were the oldest and needed to be good examples. Already they are talking about grad dresses and parties! Yikes. Apparently, Graduating from Highschool is one of the most powerful experiences...snicker snicker*

Well, I just thought I would share some of this blast from the past experience with you.
*