Insomnia in the 1st Century BC

"Oh Mary,

Why did you leave to be with Elizabeth? What has happened? Did the Romans take you for their own, and so now you are ashamed? Mary, we are betrothed to be married... In the eyes of God, we are husband and wife... But what am I to do? The child you bear is not mine. I loved you. I built a house for our family while you were away. I have striven to cast myself as an upright man before the Lord and before His people. How am I supposed to believe you?

HOW?!!?!!!

An Angel. you say an angel came and told you of this child... That the Holy Spirit would manifest the messiah... the very son... of God... in your womb. The God who spoke to Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses, and even Adam... The God whose justice and wrath wiped away Sodom and Gomorrah. The God whose love and mercy delivered his chosen people into the promised land even after they fell away. The God whose holy presence inspires fear in the highest and purist of priests. I am a Carpenter! I don't know the Torah, I don't know the books of the prophets.... You are the daughter of a farmer... A farmer who can barely pay his taxes due to Caesar!

At any moment, even tonight as I lay awake... they could stone you and this "messiah" to death in the streets. You would be called a blasphemer and an adulteress.

I asked your father for your hand because I believed in your propriety and virtue. Look where that got me! If I claim the child, everything I've built my life on will be shattered. Our neighbors will hate us. We will be shunned at temple. My eldest son will not be of my flesh and blood... I face an heir worse than Ishmael!!! But Mary... if I divorce you... Your family will be destroyed. You could be killed. The baby who grows inside you may never see the light of day.

If he is the promised Messiah... I would be condemning all of Israel. If he is the Messiah... could I really kill him?

I am not fit to be the father of a King. A conqueror; a savior... God himself...

You say you have broken no vow... You say that no man has touched you... You say......You say......You Sa----....."

And so, Joseph fell asleep. In his dreams, an angel came to him and gave him release from his fears and anxieties. But in reality, Joseph was human. He must have had his doubts, even after the angel visited.

Mary and Joseph did the hardest thing...

-Wes

Veni, Veni Emmanuel.

The State Of Love

(A little back-story: It’s summer… I don’t have to write well for anything. So, this was a little project that I picked up to prove to myself that I could still write the way I learned in AP English. The first section is from June 28th, I picked it up again today and finished it. Let me know if you enjoyed the writing style.)

Every so often, we hear some terribly important address that sums up the state of the free world. Things like gas prices, the exchange rate of the dollar, the looming “recession” manage to make the highlights. On a smaller scale, if you go to church on Sunday morning—Saturday night in my case—or if you listen to Rush, Michael Savage, or some similarly conceited conservative pundit, you have doubtlessly heard about the ‘less significant’ ailments of today’s culture. These bigmouthed, microphone equipped men rave about the evils of political corruption, corruption in the mainstream media, corruption in schools, and if you’re lucky they might even talk about the crabgrass that’s corrupting your backyard.

There’s something similar about all the messages that are being tossed around the nation. There‘s one uniting talking point that the conservative media cannot divorce. This terrible, terrible misconception pervades our headlines and perforates our ears its honey-coated ego-satisfying spin: It is the concept that it that the biggest problems in the world are large scale. Rush Limbaugh can spend a whole hour yelling about abortion, homosexual governors, and liberals, but he—like many other commentators—misses the point. I beg, ardently, to differ.

Let me plead with you. Let me try to convince you that there is something bigger than gas prices, global warming, or illegal immigrants. Let me tell you about the war that’s ravishing every single person all around the world. From the old man in Tibet who will die tomorrow to the unwanted American baby who was conceived yesterday: No one is unaffected. I’m talking about the conflict that has owned mankind since Eve bit the apple. I’m talking about the cause of all problems in the world today. This is my ‘State Of Love Address.’

Today has been filled with examples of what love isn’t:

Love isn’t the worn, teal minivan parked next to the “gentlemen’s club.”
“Love is patient” Love waits on the Lord to blossom, it’s too delicate and wondrous to be found in a brothel.

Love isn’t “making out” in the back of a van in 9th grade.
“Love does not insist on it’s own way” like passion does.

Love isn’t sexual desire for someone of the same gender.
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the Truth.”

“If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. For now we see in a mirror dimly… Now we know in part; in eternity we shall know fully… So now abide in faith, hope and love; but remember that the greatest of these three is love.”

Every day seems to burst with examples of how sin has taken beautiful, pure, almost supernatural human passion and twisted, and contorted, and mutated it into lustful self-destruction.

For the past several weeks, the #1 selling song on iTunes has been “I kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry. Yeah—you read that right—KATY Perry. I was disgusted by the sin that the song implies. This week, I got curious about why the song remained #1 even after a phenomenal album from Coldplay should have eclipsed it. Tonight, I finally sat down and listened to the song via YouTube.

I was stunned.

Musically, I think it’s a pop masterpiece. The beat is addicting, and Perry’s surreptitious voice drives the song very well. It left me stunned to the point of desperation—How could someone with such talent and such an amazing voice devote her abilities to perversion and lies? Here are some samples from the lyric sheet: The tagline is obviously “I kissed a girl, and I liked it.” But other samples include, “It felt so wrong; it felt so right” “…my experimental game, it’s human nature.”

Yeah… Human nature… She got that bit right, but later she says something that typifies the song as just another part of humanity’s struggle to find what we all call ‘love.’ Katy says, “[it’s] Too good to deny it. ‘Ain’t no big deal; it’s innocent.”

I suppose this is the one line that justifies the whole song in Ms. Perry’s eyes. “It’s innocent…”

How can you be more misguided?

Why can’t she see the light of Jesus shining down? Why can’t she turn her voice to give glory to the one who truly loves her?

Love is not kissing a girl and liking it.

Love is not what the hearts of this world are seeking after.

True. Love. Is. Eternal.

Love is from God. No matter how hard this world tries, we will never come close to the true, joyous, inebriating, rapturous, beautiful, illuminating, delivering, bountiful, boundless, elating, constant love that God feels for us. (phew… I think John Piper may be rubbing off on me…)

Now, how can what’s wrong with the world be made right?

Only we Christians can change the State of Love. We hold the key to ultimate joy and satisfaction… Yet all too often we either clutch that key tight to our chest, believing in its power but afraid to share it with anyone else. Sometimes we smoothly tuck it into our back pocket or purse so we can just go about life as if we never had it.

Here comes the part where I plead with you and with my own heart: Share the Gospel. Hold that key out to anyone who would reach out, anyone who would repent, anyone who the Holy Spirit leads to you.

Know that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8 gives some great perspective on all this. :-)


-Wes


“It started out with a feeling, which then grew into a hope, which then turned into a quiet thought, which then turned into a quiet word. And then that word grew louder and louder ‘till it was a battlecry.”-The Call by Regina Spektor

So...

In the past 8 days, I have:

1. Hosted a mother and son from Texas
2. Driven said duo to all of the battlefields and monuments in the tri-county area... literally.
3. Driven 4 hours to Kettanning for an AP Party and 5 hours to the airport and home.
4. Learned to swing dance and had an absolute BLAST.
5. Taken upwards of 330 pictures
6. Worked on a roof for an ungodly amount of time and hence:
7. Darkened my skin tone by about three full shades
8. Made a Facebook page that won't get disabled
9. Prayed with a dear friend who received Christ (so awesome)
10. Biked in Mingo with some other friends and bit the asphalt a little
11. Found out the exact time when I'm going to test for my blackbelt (8:00 AM, June 21)
12. Had some of the best sourdough bread EVAR.

I will gladly elaborate on any of these events for you if you want. :-P

Love,
-Wes

"Let's waste time, chasing cars.
If I lay here... If I just lay here...
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
-Snow Patrol

Prince Caspian Review

A whole movie review in two sentences:

Prince Caspian was The most epicly-spinetingling, engrossing, emotionally-thrilling, ecumenically-strengthening film I think that I have ever seen. I will warn you, there are at least two things that are radically different from the book; but CS Lewis's spirit is still there and you have ABSOLUTELY no good excuse to NOT see this movie.

Conclusion(does not count as part of the review):

Go. See. It...Now. Even today if possible. If you can only see one movie for this whole year, make it Prince Caspian. Forget about Iron Man and The Dark Knight. And I don't want any whiney comments about the differences from the book.

Side note: It has quite a good deal of stuff that I wouldn't recommend for anyone under the age of 8-9. I like scary movies, and even I was scared at one point.

Love, a very thrilled, hopeful, and happy,
Wes

Bare Feet and Sunsets

So, yesterday was a good day. I did a lot of studying for a test I'm going to be taking far too soon.

I was alone for half the day though... Which can be kinda mind-numbing and humbling out on the farm. I sat around, went over flash cards, played videogames, and listened to a bit of music.

Finally, the sunset came. I snapped my picture of the day of the nearby hillside(not the sunset itself, for a change) and decided to go for a short walk.

At the beginning of Spring, I convinced myself that I need to go barefoot more often this year. I've always been one of those kids who would never DARE walk on any surface outside that wasn't as smooth as Sam's Club cement floors. So, by golly, that's going to change. So, I walked about a sixth of a mile or so through knee-high fields and across country road asphalt to get a better view of the setting sun. I think it was definitely worth it.

Walking toward a sunset reminded me so much of how insignificant I am. I know, I know, this is kinda a parroted statement, but hear me out. For thousands of years, that same sun has risen and set, despite who walks under it. Probably for hundreds of years, the grass that was in between my toes has grown, been cut, then grown again. The wind, the air that licks my face at the top of the hill might have been the same wind that blew across Cain's sweaty brow as he tilled the soil for food.

As I stood there, burning my retinas with UV rays, I struggled to come to terms with the fact that each day is such a microcosm of an instant in the timeline of the world. Why should it matter how I feel? Why do we build things like skyscrapers and bridges and cities on hilly peninsulas? I mean, seriously... WHY would you EVER want to build a commercial super-center on a piece of completely un-level land that you can only approach from one direction without using a bridge? It's just stupid... But here's Pittsburgh. Humans do some completely ludicrous things during their tenure here. Even when a day is so short and meaningless in the grand scheme.

But every day means so much to me. Every day. Every day. Every day is a whirlwind of thoughts, feelings, penstrokes, keystrokes, friendships, shutter clicks, pursuit and flight.

I'm getting really stinkin' old! I'm exactly 17 and a half today. Although, it wasn't exactly an amazing half-birthday... Have you ever had the feeling that you KNOW that you've been promised a gift, but you never know when you're going to get it? It's hard. Some days, it feels almost unbearable. Today was one of those days. Ideally, I'd like to my life to all work out: I want my friendships to be in perfect condition; I want my attitude to always be God glorifying; I want to be loving, and giving, and good... But so often I fail.

Uhg... God is driving me crazy! He keeps slapping me upside the depressed head with gratuitous amounts of encouragement when I least expect it. He doesn't leave me to wallow in my misery, like my worldly self would like him to. He keeps reminding me of his son who died for me. He keeps reminding me of how, even though every day is as fragile as an antique Christmas ornament in the hands of a haphazard, hyper 2-year-old, he has a perfect plan for me and all my failings.

My feet are sore. But that's only temporary, just like me. And I think I'm okay with that.

-Wes

"Wholly Yours"--David Crowder

Antiques, College, Forsythia, and Homeschool Magazines

In that order…(Yes, I know this post is a little long… But it’s from my heart and I’ll try to make it interesting.)

Three weeks ago, I went antique shopping for the first time in my life. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a more fun “first.” I’m so glad that I didn’t have any cash on me, or it would have all been gone by the end of the day. Monongahela City doesn’t just have some antique shops—I think it might be the antique center of the mid-Atlantic region. There are no fewer than five FULL houses of antiques and nick-nacks. I saw everything from a sweet compound bow to a camera from 1912.

{Heh, A BarlowGirl song just on the party shuffle on iTunes… Just thought I’d let you know.}

Everywhere we went, my mom and I were offered hot beverages and cookies. Everyone was so happy and carefree. In one of the shops, a turntable was floating Frank Sonatra’s silky, young voice around the antique jewelry. To my complete surprise, the record didn’t pop or skip: It was in perfect condition. Records are a beautiful thing to me… The sound that comes out of them is so warm and mellow. If I’m going to listen to Frank Sonatra, give me a spotless record over a CD any day.

I had a really cool revelation while antique shopping… As I was going along, I found at least one item that I could associate with a friend.

“Hah! Shannon would get a kick out of this coat.” “I bet the Calvettis would like this sweet Cavalry Cutlass” “Wow, this painting (from a local artist) reminds me so much of John!” “Alaina would love this picture.” “I bet Danielle would think that this quilt is awesome.” “Nathaniel would like these books from the 1800s.” “Kevin and Dillon would probably compare this ancient (unused) cologne with Axe or Tag.” “Mitch would probably put on that wig.” “Dave would love that cast-iron firetruck.”

The list goes on.

I love antique shopping, although I wasn’t so sure I would.

Last week, I went to *airquotes* Junior Crimson Day *airquotes* (insert royal fanfare here) at Grove City. If I wasn’t already sold on GCC, that day sealed my inebriation.

Inebriation:
To make drunk; intoxicate
To exhilarate, confuse, or stupefy mentally or emotionally.

So, now comes the “disclaimer referencing the true doctrine of providence.” I, Wesley Sames, do give God the complete right to do his will with my life… But I certainly ho—pray that his will for me involves GCC. I listened to the professors like a kid in a candy store, and I almost actively salivated as they dangled knowledge and faith in front of me like some kind of chocolate-encrusted, caramel-filled, innoxiously-scented carrot.
I don’t care what the odds of acceptance are or what languages they make me take.

I love Grove City, and I can’t wait to send my full application.

The forsythia is blooming. It’s official, Spring is livin’ large. My mom has always loved forsythia and she has always let our forsythia bushes grow naturally. While driving out to route 51 last week, I saw a row of forsythia bushes that were chopped down into perfect 4x4 cubes. If I was any more saddened I would have wept. Call me nostalgic, but I think our forsythia is amazing… It’s natural branches look so awesome in the breeze. I would never dream of forcing them to conform to a symmetrical pattern. Everything is coming to life out here. I praise God with all my heart and soul at the sight of new life in spring. That’s a big deal considering the fact that I don’t do it often enough. Thank you so much Lord for the seasons and their beauty, uniqueness, and glorification of You. The Farm may be a little out of the way, but it has its advantages.

I love forsythia, so much so that I hope we have it in heaven.

I wrote my untitled “Place” essay for AP English Language and Composition a few weeks ago. I liked it, but I didn’t think there was anything exceedingly special about it. Oddly enough, my amazing APLANG teacher, Maya Inspektor(formerly Molly Richman), loved it. Last week, she emailed me and said, “Hey, Wes, my Dad is going to print the next edition of The Excelsior tomorrow and he has an empty page he needs to fill. I would really like to put your ‘Place’ essay in there.” Now, I never was an avid reader of The Excelsior, but I felt like it was an honor to have one of my essays placed in here. Needless to say, my mom was even more ecstatic than I was.
So, the issue came, and I was shocked to find out that I knew most of the names of the authors in the magazine, and I knew two of them very well. Now, here’s a lesson in the loving providence of God: The entries on pages 7 and 9 were—if not comically ironic—so awesomely encouraging to me, in two completely different ways.

"You who are broken-

Come to Him and trust,

He will love you unconditionally...

You who are hopeless-

Draw close to Him,

He will give you reason for Life...

You who feel forgotten-

You who feel alone.

He will be with you

and loves you more than is fathomable."

"An ambition itself is a basic, purposeful idea to do, see, or become in life.

To have ambition is to have dedication, to place importance upon execution,

and to deem a certain amount of sacrifice as worthy that an accomplishment might be fulfilled...

Talking too much about dreams can begin to feel the same as if you've eaten an entire can of marshmallow fluff, or squirted a whole can of whipped cream down your throat--rather empty of anything but sugar and nitrous oxide.

Don't just imagine your dreams, but follow them up with action."

The next month is going to be hard... In so many different ways... I'm so blessed that I not only have a God who cares, but also friends who give encouragement even when they didn't mean to.

I love my friends; I don't deserve them, and I don't want to leave them.

But the most important thing is:

I love God, and I will follow where he takes me... Even if it is into the wilderness.

-Wes

"Runnin' down corridors,

Through automatic doors,

Got to get to you,

Got to see this through."

"Wires" -Athlete

V-Day Comeith

So, I walked into Hallmark 20 minutes ago to get my mom a Valentine's Day present, and audibly laughed as I walked in the door. Now, it wasn't a long laugh... It was maybe a loud chuckle... Enough to make a few people look up from their noise-making and song-singing cards and stare at me instead of the ridiculously red shelves that lined the store. I was laughing because I was confronted with the typical Valentine's Day stereotype: "Men wait until the last second to buy something."

The male:female ratio in the store was easily 10:1

I was also laughing because I was joining their ranks. I was one of those men who was waiting to get their gift at the last second... Life is so fun...

School has been presenting me with constantly renewing dilemmas recently. The SATs are over and done. Thank goodness. My scores are going to be an interesting valentine’s day present.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been up early and up late working on school… Frantically turning in assignments with a hair’s breadth of time before they’re due.

I'm going to be using HippoCampus for my religion studies... Hinduism is this week!

Trig is... going... I'm doing two days worth of it every day.

German is making sense. Although having 12 different ways to write a verb (I'm not even kidding) depending on what tense and person it's in seems a bit eccentric.

Russian lives on. I think I may want to teach my kids Russian. It just sounds so cool... Almost like an encrypted version of English. Of course, If I teach my kids Russian, they won't be able to go to Grove City without learning another language... *cough*

"A Time For Us" by Nino Rota, Composed for 'Romeo and Juliet'

Providentially Romantic,
-Wes

Music from Ages Past

As I mentioned in a previous post, my iPod is dead. This, however, does not mean that I am AT ALL generally lacking in the music department. I got a bunch of new CDs for Christmas, and my mom got an under-the-cabinet CD/Radio. Jeremy Riddle and David Crowder have become my almost constant companions. I’m really enjoying “God of All Glory, Stand in Awe, Sweetly Broken, God Moves (or whatever track 10 is)” and “Oh The Glory of It All, Neverending, and Rain Down” respectively.

As to the title of this post, it refers to the fact that I did something pretty...well...retro a few nights ago. My dad and I were listening to "The Wall" by Pink Floyd on the record player today, and he said "You know, Pink Floyd is really meant to be listened to in a darkened room with headphones on." It was just a passing comment... But it gave me an idea.

So, it was about 11:00. Everyone was asleep. I opened the stereo, plugged in some headphones, and set the record rolling. There I sat for 20 minutes or so, sitting slumpedly by the stereo. [ha... Alliteration.] Somewhere halfway though "comfortably numb" I thought to myself, 'gee... I wonder how many teenagers did this same exact thing when the album came out.' It was a really cool feeling. Somehow, I related with the past in a completely new way.


Today's song: Comfortably Numb.
"Hellohellohello. Is there anybody in here? Just nod if you can hear me."
"And I... Have become... Comfortably Numb."


Not Quite Numb,
-Wes

P.S. I know "Slumpedly" isn't actually a word.

R.I.P. iPod

I think iPods are one of those luxuries that you get used to after a while. My iPod’s main function over the past year was principally to lull me to sleep. Sadly, the death of my iPod’s hard drive has ended this luxury. The ramifications of its failure are still presenting themselves even about two months after the fact. Many nights, I’ve laid sleeplessly in bed, thinking about the thousands—maybe millions—of things that I have going on in my life. I guess I’ve become dependant on music to rock me to sleep. Music, for me, creates a sort of peace; it creates a place that I can fall into and forget the world and all my worries. In a lot of ways, I guess you could say that Music became something of a miracle drug for me.

Well, here’s the truth of it: That peace was extremely artificial. Synthetic. A placebo.
But now, I know the truth in Paul's customary greeting, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

The lack of music in my nightly routine has shown me (yet again) how much I need Christ. I know that I’ve lost hours of sleep to worry, fear and discontent. I know I’ve lost valuable rest to tossing, turning, and waking from shallow sleep. God has given me a new need, and (yet again) he has met my need only because I asked. He has given me peace, rest, and the occasional good dream. That’s definitely something to be thankful for.

“God With Us.” –MercyMe “My heart sings a brand new song. My debt is paid. These chains are gone.”

-Wes

FreeRice

So, I was on the PC World website when I found a link to this website: www.freerice.com

It's 100% real. They really do donate rice depending on audience participation.

Honestly, I can't think of a better way to increase my vocabulary.

SO! Spread the word(s)! Feed some hungry people! Post a link on your blog! do something!