Viimeiset veneet - part 4

I wasn't intending to write this part so soon after the previous entry. Nevertheless I received some inspiration today to do so, and here it comes.

The verse 4 of the song:
Huominen päivä jos kädestä Herran, joillekin meistä viel lahjoitetaan.
|: Rukoillaan rohkeutta ihmisen verran, sielulla sielua koskettamaan. :|

Rough English translation: If tomorrow will still be given to some of us by the hand of the Lord, let us pray to have a person's amount of courage, to let our soul touch one another.

Again the translation does not convey the message, I'm afraid. The poem is beautifully picturing something, a prayer, a deep wish. Whenever I've sang this, it has acted as a prayer by me to my Lord. I am sincere. I pray I can have the courage to let my soul out, to open myself up, so that I can touch someone else's soul, experience a piece of real life together. The hard part is not the latter one but the first one: to open up myself. To dare to live, dare to reach out, dare to put myself into other people's skin and experience what they are going through. Dare to give up, dare to surrender, submit, dare to cry in front of others, dare to hold true to true convictions, dare to suffer.

What a powerful prayer, and I'm such a weakling praying it. The irony lies in the honesty that I don't even necessarily want the courage to dare, because it implies pain, difficulties, tears. Then again, I long for the fellowship, the deep unity with my Lord and people around me, which would be impossible if I just live in my on restricted world without opening up myself. I don't want to have only small-talk, fake smiles, superficial chats. I want to be sincere, true to every person I encounter. I want to be encountered by sincere people, true to themselves and willing to share their lives with me.

No one is worthy, but hopefully there are people who are willing, I want to be willing.

One problem in my daily life is time, I'm not available to people, due to job, need for sleep, food, time with family. I am limited. That's why the prayer for courage, so that I would be able to choose for the time I do have according to what I desire, not according to what by pleasure-seeking "flesh" desires. Ah the wonders of spiritual world, the true reality behind the visible scenes. If only, if only I could learn to remain true to my Lord and true to myself, then perhaps also learn to be true to people around me.


Lord, if you still grant me days in this world, please give me courage to lead a life full of your splendour. A life worth living and each moment well treasured. I pray that I can share you and share myself to others, I pray that I can live with others in deep fellowship. I pray I can start with myself, my family, and extend to people I deal with everyday. I pray that you give me the wisdom to use my time, my little energy and ability that you have granted me, to achieve the dreams you installed into my spirit. I pray I can become a vessel to help others to achieve the dreams you have put into their hearts. Thank you Lord for caring, thank you for sustaining, thank you for making this life worth living.

And one day, this is already partially jumping to the last part of the song, there will be no more sorrow, no more weakness, no more dissatisfaction, for you will have fulfilled everything. Everything. The grandeur of you is what I long to exist in.

Viimeiset veneet - Part 3 - New year of 2010

A new year has begun, namely the year of 2010 A.D. I started off the new year with excitement, a sense of something new in my life. Certainly, there are certain hopes accumulated for this year, and there are some changes promised as well. I'm eager to see how this year will turn out to be, but the bottom line is as our youth pastor preached a week ago: this is going to be a good year! Not necessarily easy, but a good year, for that is the promise we have in Jesus Christ.

The song Viimeiset veneet has reached its third part in this post, and there are two more to go. After the wonderful description of the nature in the first two stanzas, the song begins to touch the lives of us human beings, relationships, challenges, and eventually the eternity.

Here are the words of the third stanza:
Useimmat päivät pian unholaan vaipuu, joitakin kauemmin muistella saan.
|: Kipein ja suloisin niistä jää kaipuu, yhdessä jotka me taivalletaan. :|
And quick translation into English: Often our days go by into the vague past, but there are some days that I will not forget. The most painful and most wonderful of those moments will be yearned, by those of us who tarry along together.

Unfortunately I'm afraid I couldn't fully express the feeling of the stanza in English, hopefully you got the idea. This verse basically says, that our lives are often lived only looking ahead and seldom thinking back to the days past. This ways we tend to forget the treasures of the moments spent with each other, and maybe we cannot even cherish the now -moment we have. When we do think back, the days and events we remember are often those most painful or most wonderful to us. Of course we'd like to remember only the wonderful moments, but it is the painful ones that mark the growth we have had.

This verse, as well as the whole song, is really expressing how I feel about life. I think back to my past, and often memories bring a smile to my face. Sometimes, the painful events of the past makes me shake my head and cry in my heart: oh Lord, wish I could have been closer to you at that time, wish I would not have done that or said that. By myself, the memories just bring smile or inner cry, but when spending time with old friends, memorizing old times together, there are laughter and a deep sense of fellowship. Life, lived with good friends, is truly a blessing from God.

When the year changes, we often want to think back to the one past and look ahead to the new one beginning. It is amazing that my Lord is with me, pointing to me the treasures behind me, as well as guiding me to the new ones ahead. With Him I can rest assured that there will be joy, and will be pain, but in the end I will be with Him, sharing what we've experienced and gone through together. In the end there will be eternal laughter, and a deep sense of fellowship. I guess that is the fellowship and living style Jesus wants us to have, and that's why He said He is not calling us his servants anymore, but friends. "What a friend we have in Jesus ..."

One remark I've noticed in my life, it has been much easier to relate and have fellowship with friends who are also friends of Jesus; it has been much more difficult to have real and deep fellowship with friends who are not friends of Jesus. It is sad, but I believe that those friends can also become friends of Jesus, in which case we will experience deeper connection between each other, and have laughter and fellowship with Jesus for eternity.

Not a minor issue.

Viimeiset veneet - part 2

It's again been a long while since last blog entry. No excuses here. Again there has been several topics popping into my mind, but not yet becoming "materialized" into blog text.

As I've started this series about my favorite song, I'll continue where I left last time. Now the second stanza of the song:
2. Viilenee hiukan jo hyväily tuulen, joutsenet oikovat siipiään.
|: Kanteleen soittajan uupuvan kuulen, sirkatkin riisuvat pois kenkiään. :|

A quick English translation: The tender touch of the wind has become cooler, swans are already stretching their wings. I can hear the zither player becoming sleepy, even the crickets are taking off their shoes.

This part basically continues to draw the image of the wonderful nature God has created. In the evening, when the busy goings of the day is calming down, one can almost hear and feel the exhaustion of the well lived day time. It is good to know, that we are meant also to rest, not only work and run as robots. The tender breath of the evening wind, the natural actions of the creation preparing for the night, the admission that I am tired, all leads to the peaceful moment, where I can just lie down and close my eyes in solitude. Yet, I am not alone, God is with me through His creation. His faithfulness is the reason I can entrust myself totally to Him. I don't need to worry about the night and its horrors, or whether I will wake up in the morning at all; I need not to worry about what tomorrow will bring, or what illness or pain I will need to bear; all is in His hands, mighty and loving hands.

Yesterday with my Chinese cell group, we read from the Bible the place where Jesus spoke about God dressing the flowers of the field and feeding the birds of heaven: Book of Matthew, chapter 6, and verses 24 to 34. This place spoke to us, despite it being very familiar and often read. The freshness of Jesus' words speaks to us everyday, because we have the tendency to worry, to control, to want to know. In the group we discussed about what it means to worry, what it means to not worry, and where is the balance. We concluded that to worry helps us to act out, not to worry tend to keep us ignorant of things that need to be done or issues need to be prepared for; then again, worry also often takes away the bliss of living a fully trustful life toward Jesus, the ability to live simply. Then, not worrying about life also might mean that we neglect the responsibilities we have and live as fools.

All in all, the balance is here: to live our lives fully at each moment, doing our best in what we are supposed to do, and leave the rest to God. To seek His kingdom is not something spiritual only, but certainly includes to work and provide for the family, to keep fit, to care for family and friends, to be the shoulder for the mourning ones, to be the ladder for the learning ones, to be the support to the weak, and be the companion to the joyful. To seek God's kingdom is to live fully His words and life in everyday life.

The verse 2 of Viimeiset veneet comes down to life, to everyday life, the little moments that may appear vain but actually is all that matters - it is only those little moments that we have. Every choice matters, every decision counts; every action of heavenly nobility is precious, and every moment is evenly valuable. Rest and solitude is certainly part of the plan that God has for us, I hope I can learn the lesson to keep and enjoy those moments.