Image from weheartit
Also, sorry. "That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel."
We're all doomed.
"Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. They're fast - faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away and don't blink. Good luck."
"Blink" is one of the seminal, timeless episodes of New Who that has the ability to turn ordinary geeks into Whovians. "Don't blink" is possibly the most famous catchphrase of any episode, and rightly so. The nefarious Steven Moffat did what he does best: took something we take for granted and turned it into a nightmare. (See "Mummy," shadows, cracks...) The reason the Weeping Angels are so frightening (other than being STATUES that MOVE and KILL YOU nicely) is that only those with incredible self-restraint and forewarning can avoid their deadly touch.
According to the most credible source of information online, Wikipedia, the average human blinks ten times a minute in laboratory settings, and the rate varies depending upon conditions of the eye. Blinking is involuntary and something we don't often notice, especially since it happens so quickly. So the notion that a psychopath can zap you into the past and let you live to death in the span of the time it takes you to blink...it explains why the Weeping Angels are one of the most beloved and feared monsters of the rebooted show. They're uniquely dangerous because they can ruin your life in one instant of seemingly innocuous, natural inattention.
If you think about it, this is a great picture of what can happen when we take our eyes off God:
"Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us set aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross and despised the shame and sat down at the right hand of God's throne. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won't grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3 (HCSB).
"The eyes are not the windows of the soul. They are the doors."
The above quote is one of my favorites spoken by the Eleventh Doctor in "Time of Angels" because it's essentially a cooler, more ominous version of "be careful little eyes what you see." What your eyes soak in often manifests in your behavior, and if you aren't careful, it can change you for the worse. For example, if all a child knows is violence and anger in the home, his pattern of behavior toward others will probably follow the template with which he's familiar. That's why the Bible tells us over and over to keep our eyes on God and his commandments so that what we focus on will translate to our character and behavior.
And it's funny, because there really isn't anything else of even remotely similar value to set our sights on, anyway. The Bible says that God is more beautiful, wonderful, delightful and awe-inspiring than we can comprehend, yet we are content to turn our gazes to the ugly, vile, deformed and malicious. It's sad, truly sad, that we allow putrescence to step through the doors of our eyes, hearts and minds - willingly and unwillingly - in light of what we're giving up. Deuteronomy 4:24 says "the LORD your God is a jealous God," and can you blame him? What heartbreak he must experience every time we shove him out of the doorframe. "You're turning me away...for this? And you think it'll satisfy you more than the me? I know you perfectly and completely, and I love you perfectly and completely. Will he? Will that?"
The old hymn says "turn your eyes upon Jesus/look full in his wonderful face/and the things of earth will grow strangely dim/in the light of his glory and grace." Now, while the song's context is trusting Christ in times of trouble, I think the quoted refrain is true all the time. If you focus on the mud and muck of life, you will find yourself stuck there and miss life's beauty. If your ultimate perspective and gaze is on God and eternal truth, you will find yourself behaving in a way consistent with getting there.
Realtalk
I'm going to level with you: I've been doing a very bad job of this, lately. It's ironic, since I'm both a full-time seminary student and an employee at a church whose leaders are genuine and passionate followers of Christ. You would think that, being surrounded by the message of the gospel and the picture of Christianity practically 24/7, I would be enjoying the deepest and most fulfilling relationship with the Creator God I've ever had. My situation is evidence that being around truth doesn't mean you live it.
My problem? I have dry eyes. I blink a lot.
Have you ever tried to stare at something without blinking? (Like the angel at the top of this post? Don't worry, someone in cyberspace has to be watching it...) Your eyes require refreshment, and if you don't blink, they start to feel uncomfortable. If they don't get the nourishment they need, they will eventually be damaged.
In a way, I feel that I've been staring at something (theological stimulus in the form of schoolwork and church responsibilities) for so long that my eyes are dry. The answer, however, is not to blink. Blinking (shutting out, even briefly, the truths I'm learning and the relationships I'm building) is dangerous. Blinking can send me back in time and prevent the days I would have had. Or, to use a less nerdy and esoteric phrasing, set my walk with Christ back in its development, stunting it in a way - making me start over.
Blinking can take many forms. It can mean I ignore my daily prayer and devotional time (which I have). Or it can mean I devote an unhealthy amount of time and energy in other things like interests and relationships, making them more important to me than God is. (Done that, too.) Like physical blinking, my spiritual blinks result from my depriving myself of nourishment and are brief but repeated. The problem is that my eyes, like yours, get dry and I need to refresh them. Closing my eyes, looking away, is a natural reflex that I don't even notice I engage in. In a spiritual sense, it's the work of the flesh - something involuntary and essential to my being. It's natural for me to want to look away for a bit, to blink when I look at God. And that's the problem.
The solution
I wear contacts, and the one thing that never leaves my side is my contact solution. It's saline drops that refreshes my eyes when they're starved of natural airflow and nourishment due to the lens covering my pupil. Without my precious solution, I deal with irritable, dry eyes and my vision gets cloudy because my contacts aren't being washed properly by my natural tears. Blinking a lot never helps this situation, because I can't produce enough liquid in my tear ducts to do the job right. I need to infuse my eyes with external nourishment to see clearly, again.
Similarly, staring at Christ without doing anything gives me dry spiritual eyes. Blinking doesn't help. Taking action and actually walking with him provides the nourishment I need and is my spiritual contact solution. What does that look like, practically? For me, it means reading my Bible, spending time praying, journaling, singing/writing praise songs, participating in a community of believers, having quiet times of reflection and listening, and getting involved in the "work of the kingdom" as some like to put it (e.g. demonstrating Christian love via service, missions and encouragement of believers). Without this, I dry up. I blink. I stop progressing in my relationship with God and in fact set my relationship back, or at least let it stagnate.
According to the most credible source of information online, Wikipedia, the average human blinks ten times a minute in laboratory settings, and the rate varies depending upon conditions of the eye. Blinking is involuntary and something we don't often notice, especially since it happens so quickly. So the notion that a psychopath can zap you into the past and let you live to death in the span of the time it takes you to blink...it explains why the Weeping Angels are one of the most beloved and feared monsters of the rebooted show. They're uniquely dangerous because they can ruin your life in one instant of seemingly innocuous, natural inattention.
If you think about it, this is a great picture of what can happen when we take our eyes off God:
"Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us set aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before him endured a cross and despised the shame and sat down at the right hand of God's throne. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won't grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3 (HCSB).
"The eyes are not the windows of the soul. They are the doors."
The above quote is one of my favorites spoken by the Eleventh Doctor in "Time of Angels" because it's essentially a cooler, more ominous version of "be careful little eyes what you see." What your eyes soak in often manifests in your behavior, and if you aren't careful, it can change you for the worse. For example, if all a child knows is violence and anger in the home, his pattern of behavior toward others will probably follow the template with which he's familiar. That's why the Bible tells us over and over to keep our eyes on God and his commandments so that what we focus on will translate to our character and behavior.
And it's funny, because there really isn't anything else of even remotely similar value to set our sights on, anyway. The Bible says that God is more beautiful, wonderful, delightful and awe-inspiring than we can comprehend, yet we are content to turn our gazes to the ugly, vile, deformed and malicious. It's sad, truly sad, that we allow putrescence to step through the doors of our eyes, hearts and minds - willingly and unwillingly - in light of what we're giving up. Deuteronomy 4:24 says "the LORD your God is a jealous God," and can you blame him? What heartbreak he must experience every time we shove him out of the doorframe. "You're turning me away...for this? And you think it'll satisfy you more than the me? I know you perfectly and completely, and I love you perfectly and completely. Will he? Will that?"
The old hymn says "turn your eyes upon Jesus/look full in his wonderful face/and the things of earth will grow strangely dim/in the light of his glory and grace." Now, while the song's context is trusting Christ in times of trouble, I think the quoted refrain is true all the time. If you focus on the mud and muck of life, you will find yourself stuck there and miss life's beauty. If your ultimate perspective and gaze is on God and eternal truth, you will find yourself behaving in a way consistent with getting there.
Realtalk
I'm going to level with you: I've been doing a very bad job of this, lately. It's ironic, since I'm both a full-time seminary student and an employee at a church whose leaders are genuine and passionate followers of Christ. You would think that, being surrounded by the message of the gospel and the picture of Christianity practically 24/7, I would be enjoying the deepest and most fulfilling relationship with the Creator God I've ever had. My situation is evidence that being around truth doesn't mean you live it.
My problem? I have dry eyes. I blink a lot.
Have you ever tried to stare at something without blinking? (Like the angel at the top of this post? Don't worry, someone in cyberspace has to be watching it...) Your eyes require refreshment, and if you don't blink, they start to feel uncomfortable. If they don't get the nourishment they need, they will eventually be damaged.
In a way, I feel that I've been staring at something (theological stimulus in the form of schoolwork and church responsibilities) for so long that my eyes are dry. The answer, however, is not to blink. Blinking (shutting out, even briefly, the truths I'm learning and the relationships I'm building) is dangerous. Blinking can send me back in time and prevent the days I would have had. Or, to use a less nerdy and esoteric phrasing, set my walk with Christ back in its development, stunting it in a way - making me start over.
Blinking can take many forms. It can mean I ignore my daily prayer and devotional time (which I have). Or it can mean I devote an unhealthy amount of time and energy in other things like interests and relationships, making them more important to me than God is. (Done that, too.) Like physical blinking, my spiritual blinks result from my depriving myself of nourishment and are brief but repeated. The problem is that my eyes, like yours, get dry and I need to refresh them. Closing my eyes, looking away, is a natural reflex that I don't even notice I engage in. In a spiritual sense, it's the work of the flesh - something involuntary and essential to my being. It's natural for me to want to look away for a bit, to blink when I look at God. And that's the problem.
The solution
I wear contacts, and the one thing that never leaves my side is my contact solution. It's saline drops that refreshes my eyes when they're starved of natural airflow and nourishment due to the lens covering my pupil. Without my precious solution, I deal with irritable, dry eyes and my vision gets cloudy because my contacts aren't being washed properly by my natural tears. Blinking a lot never helps this situation, because I can't produce enough liquid in my tear ducts to do the job right. I need to infuse my eyes with external nourishment to see clearly, again.
Similarly, staring at Christ without doing anything gives me dry spiritual eyes. Blinking doesn't help. Taking action and actually walking with him provides the nourishment I need and is my spiritual contact solution. What does that look like, practically? For me, it means reading my Bible, spending time praying, journaling, singing/writing praise songs, participating in a community of believers, having quiet times of reflection and listening, and getting involved in the "work of the kingdom" as some like to put it (e.g. demonstrating Christian love via service, missions and encouragement of believers). Without this, I dry up. I blink. I stop progressing in my relationship with God and in fact set my relationship back, or at least let it stagnate.
Is spiritual nourishment easy? Of course not. We're fighting the powerful and natural tendency to blink. But it's worth it, especially when the alternative is so dangerous. Paul talks about this in Romans:
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, the became fools, and exchanged the glory of immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over to in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen." (Romans 1:21-25, NIV)
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the power of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2, NIV)
Conforming to the world is blinking, and finally looking away from God. But looking away means we can only look to ourselves, and we are deeply depraved. Looking away means we accept the Weeping Angel's touch, and all we could have been in Christ goes away in an instant. So don't blink. Nourish yourself and stay brave.
Caveat
My analogy is not watertight or perfectly consistent, namely because the person from whom we shouldn't look away isn't a psychopathic killer, but rather the holy and loving Creator God. (Although, there is an element of healthy fear I think is appropriate and makes the correlation stronger. The fear of God is another blog post topic, however.) In addition, the wonderful thing about our spiritual blinks is that we can get back to where we belong, by God's incredible mercy and grace. While this is true, we don't know where we could have been had we not looked away, which is where the emphasis of my point lies.
We don't deserve second and third and umpteenth chances when we do stray, but God gives them anyway. My point with the blinking analogy is to say that even little lapses in keeping our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith is more dangerous and damaging than we think. They are also hard for us to notice, since it's a reflex of being human to strive for independence and self-sufficiency. Fighting those impulses is the struggle we have every second of every day, and something only the Holy Spirit can help us overcome.
Until next time! May your statues remain stone.
Katya
"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, the became fools, and exchanged the glory of immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over to in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen." (Romans 1:21-25, NIV)
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice - this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the power of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:1-2, NIV)
Conforming to the world is blinking, and finally looking away from God. But looking away means we can only look to ourselves, and we are deeply depraved. Looking away means we accept the Weeping Angel's touch, and all we could have been in Christ goes away in an instant. So don't blink. Nourish yourself and stay brave.
Caveat
My analogy is not watertight or perfectly consistent, namely because the person from whom we shouldn't look away isn't a psychopathic killer, but rather the holy and loving Creator God. (Although, there is an element of healthy fear I think is appropriate and makes the correlation stronger. The fear of God is another blog post topic, however.) In addition, the wonderful thing about our spiritual blinks is that we can get back to where we belong, by God's incredible mercy and grace. While this is true, we don't know where we could have been had we not looked away, which is where the emphasis of my point lies.
We don't deserve second and third and umpteenth chances when we do stray, but God gives them anyway. My point with the blinking analogy is to say that even little lapses in keeping our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith is more dangerous and damaging than we think. They are also hard for us to notice, since it's a reflex of being human to strive for independence and self-sufficiency. Fighting those impulses is the struggle we have every second of every day, and something only the Holy Spirit can help us overcome.
Until next time! May your statues remain stone.
Katya
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