The Inauguration through Isaiah

I love this series of photographs


Random convos bits with my mom:

While watching inauguration stuff on tv
Mom: Have you heard of Usher?
Sam: Yeah... he was in back when we were in gr 10.
Mom: Yeah I didn't know.. they kept talking about interviewing Usher and I was like "why would they interview an usher who works there???"

While watching the Obamas dance at the Neighbourgood Ball
Sam: I wonder if they had to take a few dance classes before they went to the balls
Mom: What the.. they just 'yuk lei yuk heui'. And besides, most black people can dance.

Sunday evening I learned how to play mahjong with family
Sam: Ah I don't know what to do! I don't want the gie (chicken in chinese as in bad mahjong combos)
Cousin: You won't get the gie if you put the same suit down
Sam: I'm a gie, I'm a gie, I'm a gieeeeee
Mom: Don't say that, because in Chinese 'gie' is 'prostitute' so you are calling yourself one.
(everyone laughs at poor sam)





So I guess we now have a new president.
To be honest, the only reason why I watched the inauguration was because I wanted to listen to Itzhak Perlman and Yoyo Ma play as well as see what Michelle Obama was wearing. I don't keep up with politics- I have a number of reasons. So yes I am very ignorant of what is happening in America.
But I know that by wearing Jason Wu, a recent Parsons graduate, to the ten balls the Obamas had to attend last evening, that it will be interesting to see how these non traditionalists break the rules and lead this country beyond snubbing the usual Oscar de la Renta. Jason Wu= a rising small name designer that only insider fashion people know. Oscar de la Renta= traditional, Hamptons, established designer. I'll let you figure how this all connects to the new president's viewpoint.
Fashion is frivolous but it is also a powerful tool for communication. And if you are fluent in this constantly evolving form of language, you can understand how dress speaks volumes of our current social structure and beliefs.
Anyway I was listening to his inaugural speech expecting a tear jerker that would excite me, as an American citizen, to have hope for our nation. Personally I thought it was a pretty general speech- I found Samwise Gamgee's speech at the end of 'The Two Towers' to be more powerful than the president's. I have nothing against him, but I guess I was just expecting more.



I love her hair (on her- the sheer weight of that would really annoy me)

I've realized that our walk with God is like writing a thesis. You have to constantly go back to the 'main idea' of the paper. At times we get so carried away with our arguments, that we totally forget what the point was in the first place. The best theses, essays, articles etc always stuck with the main point- never allowing the reader to forget what the author was trying to prove.

Likewise, there are so many times I forget that all we do is for God. I constantly have to remind myself that we live for God.

That night, after watching the inauguration (and Larry King Live talking to Tim Gunn about the presidential fashion of course) I was reading the book of Isaiah.

If you want to read a good inauguration speech that is guarantee to 100% deliver, read Isaiah and what God promises His people. Because throughout Isaiah, God calls to a people who have placed their hope on the Egyptians and the surrounding nations, to go back to Him for He ensures their well being. In Isaiah, God shows:

That He is God: I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols (42:8)

That He will be the Known in our uncertainty:I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the tinhs I will do; I will not forsake them. But those who trust in idols, who say to images, 'You are our gods,' will be turned back in utter shame (42:16-17)

Do not be afraid, for I am with you (43:5)

We are His: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine (43:1)

That He is our Protector: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will nto set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour... (43:2-3)

Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and fortell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one. (44:8)

That He loves us: Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you...(43:4)

That there is no one like Him: Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no saviour. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed- I, and not some foreign god among you. (43:10-12)

I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let them proclaim it. Let them declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come- yes, let them fortell what will come. (44:6-7)

Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may conside them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so that we may know that yo uare gods... but you are less than nothing and you can do nothing; those who choose you are detestable (41:22-24)

That He is Eternal: All people are like grass, and all humans faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever (40:8)

He is All Powerful: Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it? (43:13)

That while we may be hung up on the past, He is working in the present and future: Forget the former things do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and strams in the wasteland (43:18-19)

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (43:25)

I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you (44:22)


THE BOOK OF ISAIAH IS SO GOOD. I LOVE THAT LAST VERSE. "Swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist." Oh you are so poetic even in your prophesy.
Isaiah really moves me- God just displays His magnificence in the book of Isaiah. Just read chapter 40.

I'm glad CBC based their theme of 2009 on Chapter 40 because it strongly resonates within me. However the sentence structure was plain weak sauce "Renewing strengthen & soaring on wings..."

Honestly.

If I was a non christian, I'd be like "what the heck!?!?"
What is that statement supposed to mean?! It really bugs the heck out of me- it sounds somewhat mystifying to the point it just confounds you. They watered down one of the most comforting, beautiful, refreshing verses in Isaiah:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (28-31)

How can you just boil it down to finding strength and flying?
Everyone knows humans are forgetful creatures. Which is why, though painfully obvious, God reminds us so many times of the things I just listed above. I choose verses from three chapters but He continuously says them over and over again. It's like a thesis, He always goes back to the main idea that He is God, to turn away from Man-made idols and to trust in Him.

Isn't Isaiah so much better than the presidential inauguration speech? The assurance we can have, to trust a leader who is eternal and who guides us with the very same hands that created the heavens. God promises to heal the land, to relieve those in poverty and in need in ways far more powerful than any president can ever try to do.



I think one thing God is trying to teach me, and something I want to learn, is how to just praise God for who He is. Not to praise Him for what He has done or for the things I want fulfilled, but just to honor Him as being the God of our lives. The sheer magnificence and the magnitude of His love where no force is strong enough to separate. This doesn't resonate any greater than in the following verses:

20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the desert
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,

21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.

22 "Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob,
you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel.

23 You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings,
nor honored me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with grain offerings
nor wearied you with demands for incense.

24 You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me,
or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins
and wearied me with your offenses.


We basically ask and take, while the rest of creation lives to glorify God. What the heck are we doing? God has not asked for anything, yet the only things we are willing to lay at His feet are our own problems, needs, wants, lusts, issues while steadfastly keeping back all the good things in our lives.

If God is indeed a God of our darkest fears, the God of our silent tears, He is also the God of our laughter, the God of our joy.



Wow, initially I was scared that I wouldn't get anything out of Isaiah, but I love it. So good. God is good.