Title: Small things, ugly things, slow things
Contents
small, ugly, slow
(Romans 7:22-24)
In my inner man I delight in the law of God/ I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my heart and bringing me captive to the law of sin which is in my members/ O wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from the body/ I will give thanks to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, with my mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin. Amen.
Now, 2006 is fast approaching.
Personally, I feel the speed of time through my skin at this time of year. Then your mind will be busy as well. But every time that happens, I force myself by saying, 'Let's go a little slower!' Because if you don't, you won't be able to finish the year properly. Perhaps the boundary between 'finishing' and 'starting' is ambiguous, but by making such a boundary yourself, you gain a certain vitality of life.
Today, I would like to share with you three personal issues that have caught me in the past while living in the countryside, and will continue to hold onto me in the future.
The first one is small.
This is an issue that has guided my life in one direction ever since I read Schumacher's book 'Small is Beautiful'. By parodying it, I asked questions that could not be reversed about the phenomena we face in our lives, from 'black is beautiful'.
In reality, grand discourse and fetishism prevail. It seems that there is no place to set foot if it is not a big thing, and everyone runs towards the big thing. But is it a 'small thing' Taryeong in this age?
But I decided to hold on to this.
I prayed that a miracle would happen to me when I couldn't hear the sounds of life that small things give me, and if I didn't see the beauty of small things, I was deaf.
March 20, 2002. It was the day of the US invasion of Iraq. My heart was tired. But that day was actually another day for me personally. I went out to the mountain because I was frustrated, and it was the day I met the 'revengecho' of Mt. Halla. Since then, I have been immersed in the world of small flowers. I learned how to communicate in my own way with the flowers that I only looked at as good, the little things that God made.
The second is ugly.
When I was in Jeju, I had the opportunity to pick tangerines without pesticides. When I sent it to some of my acquaintances, there was an uproar saying it was so delicious even though it was ugly. It's not 'too much', but perhaps it was effective that no pesticides were used.
In a world where appearance, appearance, and outward appearance are emphasized.
So both of you are trying to wear luxury goods, and plastic surgery has become a daily routine. So, those who cultivate inner beauty have become obsolete. In the end, the culture of lightness and frivolity decorates the fool box TV. And it gets contagious.
But in the midst of this, I see that there is a longing for 'ugly things' inside constantly. And if you dig deeper, you will find that the things we used to call 'ugly' were never ugly. Rather, it is that there are people who see the beauty contained in the ugliness, or in other words, the strength contained in the weakness. There are people who see 'hope' through the 'ugly things' that have been pushed aside, and there are people who see 'hope' in religious terms.
Being 'handsome' or 'ugly' is often a social prejudice.
Even at the time of Jesus, the poor, wanderers, the sick, women, and children were 'ugly things' in their own eyes, but Jesus was only interested in those 'ugly things'. So, in the end, the 'ugly things' opened the way for them to become the subjects of the kingdom of God.
The third is about 'slow', that is, 'slowly'.
We are living in the age of speed. However, in this age, living 'slowly' may sound like a silly story. The reality is that 'Hurry up!' has become a slogan, but we look back on whether we are going fast.
I decided to go slow.
Even when climbing a mountain, if you go slowly, you will see a lot of things that you could not see when you go fast. It's not even out of breath. The purpose of hiking is not just to get back to normal. It is important to see the summit, but it is also meaningful to pay attention to a flower blooming along the way.
Even as I wrestle with these small things, ugly things, and things that are slow, the words of Romans 7:24, ?쏰 wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death!??resound like lamentation in my heart.
Faith is life, not words, and enlightenment is not intellectual bliss, but concrete life. In this age, I don't think we live in evil because we do not know what is right, but we believe that we live in evil because we have greater things, pretty things, and fast things above our faith.
Who is going to break this vicious cycle?
You have to start with yourself. But that's not easy. So I am conflicted.
However, I am grateful that I live by holding onto these conflicts. Without such tension, life and faith might have been blind.
It sounds contradictory, but in the kingdom of God, small things are never small. Ugly is never ugly. Slow is never slow. This is my confession.