Roaring Waters (Şile) & Robed Majesty (on High)

  I may blog some highlights from our time visiting Şile with family. However, the waves provided insight into  passages of Scripture which have never stood out to me before: the ones about the roaring of waters and the charcter of God. Then, I 'stumbled upon' the psalm below. I'll include my two observations as captions for the pictures.

The roar of the waves is constant and unfading, only our consciousness of it fades.

            The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty;

                        the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.

            Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

            Your throne is established from of old;

                        you are from everlasting.

           

            The floods have lifted up, O LORD,

                        the floods have lifted up their voice;

                        the floods lift up their roaring.

            Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

                        mightier than the waves of the sea,

                        the LORD on high is mighty!

           

            Your decrees are very trustworthy;

                        holiness befits your house,

                        O LORD, forevermore.

                       (Psalm 93 ESV, emphasis added)

Before the roar of the waters, minor sounds fade or disappear. 

Patriotism vs. Nationalism: America & the Olympics

 So, as I said before, I'm watching the Olympics.  Plus, I love America (and other peoples).

  I also love reading the stories of great athletes who either have overcome great difficulty to be at the Olympics or who have achieved greatly. A couple stories stood out to me in this cycle, and I'd strongly encourage you to read them, and then I'd encourage you to listen deeply to the meaning of those stories, especially if you are American!

 Listen to the stories of Ibtihaj Muhammad and Yoshihiro Uchida. At first glance, you may here the story of the American dream succeeding - America, Land of Opportunity! But, if you listen a little longer, you will hear a different story: you will hear a story of success through hardship, often unnecessary hardship driven by prejudice or difference. Yes, these are people who succeeded against great odds, but this is also a story of a country that has still not lived up to its own ideals of being a welcoming land of opportunity to all. Fascinatingly, both of these stories are stories of patriots, people who have lived through dark sides of America, people who know that America has not reached her ideal, but who have not abandoned that ideal in their own lives. May we learn to be better humans and better Americans, through their lives.

May she be a  great bridge, not a blip!

96 years old, still mentoring!

Henry Van Dyke summarized my personal view of a proper patriotism in a line from his poem, "America for Me":

We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.

This is a view that does not deny the broken places but does not deny the good places either. May we be honest patriots and not blind nationalists! May we pursue both justice and peace, truth and grace!

TCK Olympics

 I am a TCK; for those of you who might not know what that means, it means that I spent a significant part of my formative childhood years in a country (Suriname) other than my passport country (the USA). However, TCK stands for Third-Culture-Kid... in other words, kids like me grow up odd: we don't quite fit either country or culture, but are a mix of both. There's all sorts of stuff that I 'should know' from high school, as an American, that I simply missed. Anyways, all that's important because otherwise it becomes odd to say, 'I love America' in the next, related post.  I, also, love Suriname, as well as my country of adoption, Turkey. They have taught me much that I'd never have known if I'd only been American.

 I'm watching the Olympics, for example, and my past gives me a variety of countries to root for; and mostly their areas of competition don't overlap too much, so I can root for all my countries. While I love watching Americans win medals (especially swimming), probably my favorite experience in the Olympics is watching someone earn a gold medal for the first time ever for their country! Most of my life in Suriname was lived with the banknote below as part of the national currency.  Who's that? ANTHONY NESTY: first ever Surinamese Olympic medalist and, four years later, first ever gold medalist! Hero!

This year, at least four countries have won their first medal, and I got to watch Hoang Xuan Vinh win a gold medal as the first medalist for Vietnam! Great experience! What could be more fun to watch than this?

Is it any wonder he's emotional?