Forks!

       So, for whatever reason, there is a fork near our school, it's about halfway between the school and the bike shed, and almost every day I go by this fork. It is a markedly bizzare place to find a piece of cutlery. I would wager it was secretly stolen from the cafeteria. But anyway, I saw this fork for the zillionth time today, and something inside me seemed to pity the poor thing. This is a post about how we are kind of like this fork. Or at least how I percieved this. 
        Now, I see this fork every morning and afternoon. But it moves, and since the wind isn't really strong enough to lift a piece of metal like that, I would assume it spends its day being kicked around. Across the gravel, every morning and evening, getting kicked and scratched. Today was a rainy day, and the ground was loose and muddy, so today the fork was covered in dirt and mud. I noticed this fork, and something within me seemed to feel for this fork. It's nothing like me, it's small and looked about as useless as a wet match, but something in me wanted to care for this fork. So I just kind of went with the flow, and picked it up. The first thing was to clean the mud off this fork. It was covered in mud. I took off one of my gloves, and this reminded me of the intimacy God shows with us. He wants to be close to us and relate to us on a personal level, to wipe us clean with his own hands.
       So I'm wiping the filth off this fork, and my hands are getting filthy. there's mud all over them. I have taken this fork's dirtiness upon myself. But, I can wipe it off and make myself clean. This fork has no such capability, it could never clean itself. And as it started to become clean, I noticed all these words on it, things that told me who made it, what qualities, it possessed. It said: "Stainless steel". This was a fork that could be cleaned and made as good as new. Anyway, the question is now coming, how am I going to take this home? I decided to put it close to me, in my pocket. It might risk messing up the other stuff in my pocket, but I didn't really care. So once I got home, I wanted to cleanse it more thoroughly. I noticed the hardest parts to get clean were the parts where it had been scratched. The mud ran deep into these gouges, and I really understood that, because I think it's hard to allow ourselves to be made clean when the problem is deep inside a would we have been dealt. 

    And that's how I think we are like forks. The fork is now upstairs on my bookshelf next to 5 stones and an acorn, other representations of lessons I have learned. I like this fork.

Thoughts

I was thinking some , and reading some today, and I noticed a few things that might seem kinda obvious. I'm doing this thing where I swap between reading a chapter of old testament, and a chapter of new testament day by day, and reading the old testament is kinda different. I suppose that's another blog though. At any rate, I was looking back over how man in general, and israel has messed up, and it's so sad, but also almost funny how dumb we can all be, but also kinda beautiful that God still loves us and gives us our 45292th chance when we screw up. As we all know, God gave us the perfect world, and we decided to turn away.  kaplowy, our first big mess up. Cain gets jealous and kills Abel. Another big mess up. Most everyone on the face of the planet (except for noah and his family) decide to do whatever they want, and there has to be a flood.

The israelites eventually become enslaved by egypt, and suffer years and years and years of horrible slavery. Through moses, God delivered the Israelites using amazing miracles that would probably make my head explode if I actually saw them. He leads them through the Red sea, and drowns all the egyptians chasing them. He then leads them through the wilderness using a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. I think I would have liked the fire one better, that one sounds pretty awesome to me. But I guess cloud would be pretty sweet too! And after three days, they have not had any water, and begin to grumble against Moses. I can really relate to that, I mean, sometimes when things don't happen when I want them to, or when I expect them to, I know I can lose sight of God's omniscience. Like God's gonna come back and say "Sorry, I was on the phone, what did I miss?" But he always knows what we're going through, and went through it, and worse, himself. I guess me and the Israelites lose sight of that sometimes. They finally hit the promised land, and God has said to them that he will deliver the people currently occupying it into their hands. But the guys currently occupying it are giants. Huge guys. The people Moses sent to spy on the promised land come back, and with a few exceptions, tell the Israelites that it's all over, the current tennants are freaking garganuan, we're doomed. And for this, they have to wander in the wilderness for 40 more years. They set up a king against God's better judgement, eventually, and here's the part that I realised today. 

I often have a bit of trouble meshing the old testament and the new testament together. I kinda forget sometimes that the pharasees and jews that jesus spoke to were the same Israelites that the nation of Israel was in the old testament. So, God sends his son to earth, to show us the way, and we killed him. It'd be like someone calling you up, telling you they need someone to talk to, and then beating the crap out of you when you showed up, yelling  "Burglar! Burglar!" I don't know, it just kinda hit me that we turned away from God, killed his creations, lived for ourselves, grumbled against him after all he had done for us, set up our own king, and then what's the topper? We actually took his son and nailed him to a piece of wood in one of the most gruesome and excruciating deaths imaginable. And he still loves us. Sometimes I find it easy to believe God is Love, because he actually acts like Love. All the time. We turn against him and spit in his eye and do all sorts of awful things to him and each other, but he still wants us to be with him and likes us. There's no way for him to act outside of Love. Sometimes that Love might manifest itself in ways we might not understand, like a flood, or 3 days without water, but he is Love, and Loves us completely. It's absolutely crazy how awesome that is.

Cool Day!

So! Today was the last day of exams for me. 87% In applied Maths, 66% in Physics, and 89% in Maths. That's like, the highest mark I've ever gotten in a maths exam! Verily, I curb-stomped the diffo, I got 100% in every diffo question, so that was FREAKING AWESOME. I could have done better in physics, but ah well, c'est la vie. I studied too much of the definitions because I usually do badly in them, and unfortunatley over-compensated, and so I did kinda crap at the actual meaty physics work. Live and learn! And study. 

But what made today especially awesome was what happened after school. Everyone went their seperate ways, ie: home, or doing social things. I was headed home. And there's something a little saddening about heading home to be by yourself for 6 hours when other people are out having fun. I have been struggling with this a little lately. I always thought that if you had God strongly enough in your life, you wouldn't really need other people. Sure, it'd be nice or whatever, but it wouldn't really be a neccessity. However, there's a good bit of scripture that contradicts that idea, I think. I think, anyway. Could be wrong. 
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Now, if this was in the garden of eden, which is effectively with everything being totally, completely perfect and God being, like, Right there, and man still having a wanting for another, I think this shows that we need other people. And yes, I mean need instead of want. I suppose it depends on how far you take the word "need". We don't wither and die, but people do have a tendency to go a bit bonkers without other people to talk to, so I think it's a needed thing, to some extent. That sounds a little stupid, and definately cliched, but I feel like I need some grizzled war veteran or protaganisty hero guy to tell me "Needing others isn't a weakness" or something like that. Oh well, lesson learned, hopefully! Aaaaaaaanyway! Back to the story.

So, I'd been feeling somewhat lonesome as of late, I suppose a big chunk of it is the "Holiday spirit", where by certified law everyone must be dating, in love, and smiling constantly among friends, or so TV seems to think, anyway. So I need to head to Dundrum to pick up a presesnt for Nicoleymoley, as she gave me one and my plan to get her one on iTunes exploded, but that'll only take so long, like, maybe 40 minutes, and then it's back to home to play videogames alone until my brother comes home from town 5 hours later. And lonliness and Lorcan do not mix well.

So I'm heading to Dundrum, and I'm just praying "God, I feel really lonely. Can you... do something about that? please, help me out here." And I wind up in said shop searching for the backup present I had in mind, when I hear over my shoulder "Hey, is that Lorcan?" Bingo! I turn around, and there is Damien, one of my favorite people to hang with. Best of all, he was in Dundrum for similar reasons, because he didn't want to go home and play videogames all by himself for several hours. Now there's nothing more wonderful than finding someone with the exact some problem as you.   He is easy to talk to, makes me laugh, laughs at my jokes, and is just generally freakin' sweet to the max. And also, he is christian. Now, this is kinda important. It's just nice to be able to relax with someone who holds similar values and beliefs as you, and you don't need to feel uncomfortable around. He's not gonna start making vulgar sex jokes or start talking about people behind their backs. Well, as imperfect humans, we all probably do this at one point or another. But the point is we're both headed in the same direction, Jesus. So that was really nice. Also, it means I can talk about my faith without people rolling their eyes. Someone to relate to, y'know? At any rate, me, him, and Michael all spent the day hanging out in the mall (or shopping centre, depending on your persuasion), and then later went over to his house to watch Iron Man and have delicious chipper food. It was a really good time. I say this because it's one of those really obvious answers to prayer, I think. I say "Help me out, please!" and God lends a hand. I say this because I think these sorts of things are cool to hear from other people. Like a continuing testimony, as my friend/mentor Eric would say. Walking home, part of me thought "Bah, just co-incidence" And though I do believe in coincidences, I also believe this was God answering my prayers. Which was really cool to have happen really obviously and noticably. Our Father is pretty great, don't you think?

Oh! Also, on a totally unrelated note, as today was the last day of school before holidays, we had a free period in Applied Maths. So, me and my friend brian started gambling by cutting the deck (highest card wins), and as we weren't going to actually gamble, the stakes got pretty interesting. And luck was on my side. In short, I have won: Brian's lamp, Brian's Bedroom door, Brian's school tie, Brian's TV, Brian's Childhood from 1-8 ("Aw man, remember that time you were 7 and learned to ride your bike? Not anymore you don't, SUCKA!") Brian's laptop, Brian's health, Brian's future wife (now let's be specific, I don't marry her, I just own her.), Brian's Christmas presents, Brian's Trampoline, Brian's left leg, brian's first car, Brian's couch, and brian pays my first year's worth of auto insurance. (This means if he gets a car, I get that car, then he pays for it's auto insurance. :D ). I also won his dog, but he won it back. Darn.

Brian Won: 3 pairs of Lorcan's underwear, Every shoelace Lorcan owns, Lorcan's Finest chinese Silk robe, Lorcan's Ikea furniture, And Lorcan's bike.

Like I said, today was good.

"Lost the game"-Me! :D

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

The Punch line!

The thrilling conclusion to last week's post!

So, tonight in youth club we had wonderful guest speakers (I still can't remember their names. Was one of them Arthur?) and 'Arthur' was a doctor who had worked in a hospital in Africa and was talking to us about that, and how after his first 3 months he said to God 'I love being a doctor to these people, but please don't send me back to this hospital in particular!' And he said 'Well, God has a sense of humour, so I naturally ended up working at that hospital again!'
I was afraid my reaction would be "Gasp! God forced him back to a place he didn't want to go?!?" But my actual natural reaction was "Oh, cool, clearly that turned out well for him and his patients in the end!"

So, after a rousing conversation about the Rwandan Genocide with Nicoleymoley for completely unrelated reasons, I noticed it was winding down to time to get to my appointment with the brown-haired, white jumpered daughter! So I got into my bike gear (I look like an Inuit, I kid you not.) and headed off. I was kinda blazze about the thing at first, but I prayed as I biked, as I sometimes do, hopefully I don't get run over some day! And as I neared the stop I accepted that I'd just do my best to do whatever God wanted me to do, whatever it might be. I kinda felt like the girl wouldn't be there, though what you think is going to happen is never an indicator of what will happen!

However, in this case, I was pretty much bang on, the young lass was not there. But, arriving 'round 10:55, I thought I'd wait. I originally thought 11:10, but then I thought I'd wait 'till 11:11, seemed like a more fun time for something crazy to happen, what with the line of 1's and all, I guess! I prayed as I waited, hoping for guidance or whatever God wanted to happen to happen. Just waited around in my inuit gear at a bus stop, musta looked a bit weird to passers by, waiting for a bus next to another obvious mode of transport! So I waited and waited, and felt like I should be heading home a little early, but decided not to, this seemed like something I should wait the whole way through for. So I waited some more! Time was passing pretty quickly, I sent a text to Nicoleymoley telling her to thank her dad for reminding me to turn my lights on, waited a little more. It was around 11:08 when I started to notice the cars going by, and one of them slowly ground to a halt next to the bus stop. The window rolled down to reveal a dark-skinned young man, I thought it might have been one of the youth leaders at my church wondering why I was waiting around, but it wasn't! The following conversation isn't perfect, I don't remember it exactly, but this is the general gist of it! In a deep, heavy accent he inquired

The dude said "Hey, could you tell me how to get to the city street"
L:"Erm, where in it?"
Dude: "O'Connel street"
This was a little dodgy for me, as This was rathgar, and rathgar is pretty far away from O'connel street
L:"Ooooh, jeez, I dunno, erm, that's pretty far off, that's a really long road, I'm not sure if I can give you great directions, erm,"
I started looking around a little like a map'd magically fall out of the sky or someone would walk by that could just get in the car and take him there
L:"Ok, uh, why do you need to get there?"
Dude: "O'connel street" (I didn't hear him)
L:"Sorry, why do you need to get there?
Dude: "O'connel street, I'm not from around here."
L:"Ok, well, you take a left here, and there's this crossroads, and you should take the one on the left, and just follow down that road, and it's a really long road, until you hit a town called 'Rathmines', and, ok, hmmm, ok, after that you'll need to take a left and just head down the road a little ways and there'll be this little shopping centre thing, and it'll have a big swan on it, ok, so take a right from there, and just follow that road straight for a good while, and, ok, then you'll hit a town called 'Ranelagh', and from there you take a left, and you just keep going down that road, and it'll curve a little to the right, but keep going until you hit a bridge, it'll lead over a river, it's uh, like, like, a 'canal bank' (Patrick Kavanagh, don't fail me now! XD) and after that, uh, you'll be near the city centre, just take a right after you've crossed the bridge and gone on for a little bit, uh, I'm not too sure how to get there by car once you hit the city centre, so.."
Dude: "I can get there once I cross the bridge, don't worry."
L: Ok! uh, hope you get there safe and sound! Just ask for directions if you get lost, don't worry about it! God bless"

And with that, he pulled out, turned, and I just started praying once the conversation stopped, because I am pretty crap at directions, so I was certain he needed God's help on this one! "Lord, please keep him safe, uh, just direct him in where he should go, because I'm sure he'll need your guidance, man, that's such a hard road. Just help him to get there, and if he gets lost, help him to find someone to give him directions, eh, hehe,"
This started to sound a little familliar!
"Haha, thanks for that. Erm, just really make sure he gets there on time I guess, if he needs to get there on time, just really guide him as he's going down this really tricky road, I'm sure he'll need more than my words to get him there!"

And then I just started laughing, the whole thing was so... Analogical? I remember Gina was interpreting what happened last week, trying to get understanding and message from it, and I just thought this was rife with stuff like this, I mean, this prayer almost sounded like a prayer for a budding christian to me! And I just laughed and laughed, There was stuff to be learned from last week of course, but I think that this was just a punchline for the whole thing! It was pretty funny to me! I just laughed and laughed, I checked my watch, it was 11:10, I laughed some more, checked it again, it was 11:11, it was time for me to head home! Gina's words of "He thinks you're funny" and "He likes your sense of humour" were really hitting home for me, I really think God was really trying to give me a good laugh on this one! I was just laughing even as I was biking home, it wasn't a belly-laugh that's over quickly, but one of those sorts of jokes that lasts the day, that you just quietly titter at for the rest of the day! I said a quick prayer: "Seriously though, that was great! Erm, do guide that guy where you want him to go, I guess you might want to send him someplace else, and it'll be hilarious, and he'll love it, or maybe he won't, but it'll be your idea, so it'll be good! Or just guide him to O'connel street, sometimes what we have planned for us and what you have lined up for us line up!" Then I got home, a big ol' smile on my face, and my mom was watching dogma! It was that scene in particular where Bethany has a big breakdown and has to be comforted by the Metatron (Incorrectly spelled, I'd bet), and whether or not Dogma is an appropriate movie, I think God was really trying to communicate something to me, I was mid-blog when I heard Allen Rickman say "See? Didn't I tell you she (God) had a sense of humour?" It was a good night, allright! Hope that guy got to O'Connel street allright!