What People Deserve (Spoiler Alert: Dexter, Season 3)

I have a really hard time figuring out what exactly people deserve.

To be even more precise, yet unfortunately more abstract, I guess I don’t even know what it means to “deserve” something. According to whom or what? I think we derive what it is we think we deserve from what others tell us. Okay, that just sounds convoluted. It’s this: Someone or some group gave us law, for instance; they set up the rules of the game, brought us out of our theoretical state of nature. And, accordingly, if the law says I deserve X, then I deserve X. No questions asked.

Music

I wonder what attracts people to certain types of music. I find myself with peculiar tastes. Although a number of my friends like bits, pieces, chunks from my collection, no one of them likes every artist and every song I do. It makes sense, but I don’t understand why.

To take a step back, I doubt that anyone anywhere shares my tastes, because a large player in preference is degree. For example, I might like one song, but love another. I can’t imagine someone with not only the same tastes as me, but also the same degrees of preference. You get the idea.

O Holy Night

As the rush to finish the first semester of my second year fades away, I look up, and it’s already Christmas. I’ve heard the music, and I’ve seen the lights, but I’m still surprised it’s come so soon. And, yet, not soon enough. To all my friends at school, back home, and elsewhere across the country, I wish you a Merry Christmas, and I give you this offering of my heart.

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

And the soul felt its worth—isn’t that amazing? Think about it. For thousands of years after man’s fall in the garden of Eden, the human race was lonely, out of touch with God. It struggled to find peace, and it struggled to follow the law. And then one day, when the world wasn’t even looking, heaven kissed earth and gifted it with Jesus.

At that moment, the soul felt its worth. It knew what Jesus meant. Having endured so much pain for so long, the weary world felt a thrill of blessed hope. At long last, it could rejoice. No longer would it be enslaved to a law impossible to keep, and no longer would it wage bitter, endless wars. When it looked upon that baby, it saw the Savior of the world whose law is love, whose message is peace.

On that silent night, a baby entered the world and gave hope to the soul. Yet its birth also marked the moment it chose to die. Jesus could have stayed in heaven. Jesus could have called a thousand angels to save him as He hung on the cross. But for you and for me, He didn’t. On the cross, He kept the promise He had made years before on the night He lay as a babe in a manger.

The soul felt its worth in that it knew Jesus would die so that it would live. It wanted to be something wonderful for Him. I wonder if that’s how we feel. I know the world is cynical, and I know that law school is no different. And, yet, I know that when our parents make sacrifices to make our lives easier, we want to do even better for them. Because they’ve given so much to us, we feel as though we are worth something, and so we strive to improve ourselves for them.

Jesus didn’t simply make our lives easier. He died on the cross for us. Yet I wonder if we feel more worth in the eyes of our parents than in the eyes of our Savior. I wonder if we do more for our friends than for our God. I wonder if we look to glorify our employers and professors more than our Jesus.

Go back to that night in Bethlehem. Who came to earth? Who lived to die? Who loved without condition? Who gave you hope? Even if you don’t feel it, you’ve been priced infinite by your creator, and that’s pretty awesome.

Take a few minutes, listen to this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0WIJw8JVeU), and reflect on its words.

I hope you stay warm, enjoy your family, and appreciate the day your soul found its worth. If you have any questions, you know where to find me.

Merry Christmas!

True Olympic Spirit

I really don’t mind the recent news stories about those persons protesting the Olympics. They’re protesting Communism, only the greatest evil of the twentieth century. They put to shame modern-day “civil rights” protesters, the Cindy Sheehans of this world.

 

They oppose, quite simply, a government full of monsters.

 

In America, it’s worthwhile to debate gun control and global warming. And, yes, it’s fair to criticize the Bush administration for poor planning and overabundant spending.

 

But at the end of the day, we Americans go to bed blanketed by freedoms that those who sleep under the oppressive regime of Communism can only dream of.

 

It follows that, for most Americans, the Olympics symbolize nothing important. We don’t possess a “League of Nations” mentality because we see nominal value in an organization that offers us little that we don’t already have.

 

I wonder, then, how the Chinese athletes view the Olympics. Is it any more than a venue where they can play out their lifelong drama and showcase to the world the art they’ve spent every waking moment perfecting? I imagine so.

 

I imagine they see the Americans and wonder what it would be like to live in a place so prosperous and free.

 

I doubt they’d care about gun control or global warming. I bet they’d be thankful for President Bush, despite his faults. And I think they’d prefer America’s freedom to China’s bondage.

 

So to the protesters fighting against an evil—and for an ideal—greater than themselves, keep up the Olympic spirit!

Essay 4 of 4: Fellowship Purpose

Preface: I wrote this, the fourth and final installation in the series of essays required for a particular summer job application. I held off on its posting until I received the job; I figured it would have been rather foolish to post an essay expressing my interest in a summer position I didn’t receive. Blessedly, God landed me the Blackstone Fellowship, and I’ll be heading out to Phoenix on June 8 to start it up . . .

For the first few weeks of law school, I stumbled as the learning curve dragged me along. At no previous time in my academic career had I, with such desperation, strained to understand a simple reading assignment. Even the first reading of Milton’s “Lycidas” made more sense than the first case I read for Property and the essay that followed.

Essay 3 of 4: Life Purpose

Although I’m not studying to become a professor, I wouldn’t consider myself the black sheep of the family. My mom, dad, and sister—all undergraduate English majors—now teach some brand of literature, writing, or public relations. I, on the other hand, teach nothing, and my prospects in that direction don’t look too promising. Of course, that’s only natural, because I don’t feel called to teach. Instead, for the time being, I feel called to litigate. In fact, I’m so confident that the law is where God wants me that, if I knew how genes worked, I might say it’s in my DNA.

We as a family do, however, have a similar passion: education. We simply have a different means of promoting it. I’ve read too many stories about the ACLU, the NAACP, or some prejudiced school board denying students—almost always Christians or conservatives—their basic freedoms to sit by idly and do nothing. Now that I’m finally in a place where I can fight to preserve these freedoms, I’m chomping at the bit. As Rudy might say, “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life!”

October Sky

As I studied Contracts tonight (from 1-3 am), I also watched October Sky on the USA network.

Two things I guess I didn’t realize: first, USA has really good late night shows and movies (e.g., Monk, Psych, Fast and the Furious II . . . er, October Sky); second, October Sky is a perfect movie.

I didn’t get choked up just once, but several times, and if you know what I think about Hallmark cards, then you’ll know I’m not one to buy into clichéd drivel. The movie is simply that touching, that real. Every piece seems to fit just right, and, best of all, it’s all true.

The night isn’t long enough for me to tell you why I picked the word “perfect” to describe October Sky. Perhaps you’ll just have to take a couple hours and watch the movie for yourself.

If you do find that time, you won’t be disappointed, and you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say, truly, life is beautiful.

Thought of a Lifetime

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

—CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Essay 2 of 4: Spiritual Pilgrimage

I attended a Christian school for twenty-one years, sat through chapel four to five times a week for over a decade, studied the Bible in at least one class during each semester of my academic career, and went to church on Sunday morning almost every week of my life. I guess you could say I grew up in a “Christian” environment. And, sure, whenever I look back on my childhood and wonder why God chose to bless me, I shudder, smile, and sometimes even shed a tear. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, except when I think about the future. Based on all that He’s put me through and all that He’s saved me from, I can confidently surrender to His will as He leads me into the next stage of my life.

Essay 1 of 4: On Books

I grew up surrounded by books. My parents wouldn’t have had it any other way. The son of two English professors, I read more than most my age. As a little boy, I let my imagination run loose in the texts I devoured, and I loved the experiences. Naturally, though, as I got older, I wanted to escape the texts and explore the world with my own hands and feet. Or at least, I wanted to explore my world: Thornwood Acres, my neighborhood.