This Oath I Now Swear...

To the Trust I have been Given,

To all Things, Grim or Fair,

To all Time Past and Future,

To the Oath I will Swear.

To the Sun, Sky, Moon and Stars,

To all Things Hidden there,

To Battles Fought and Won,

To the Oath I will Swear.

To those Come Before,

To those Who come After

To all of History come and gone,

To the Oath I will Swear!

To all Creatures under the Sun,

To that of Which you must Beware,

To the Maker of them All,

This Oath I Now Swear!

Scribbling

This past week I started work on a story I first thought of several years ago. I meshed several other smaller ideas into one timeline, and set the story in one of my already created worlds. The result will hopefully be an exciting fantasy story with a good deal of twists.


Fletcher Sunder flipped his foil to the right a second too late as his opponent jabbed and the rubber-tipped point made solid contact with his padded jacket.
“Point!” called out his fencing instructor. “That’s the bout!”
Fletcher nodded, breathing heavily inside his wire-faced helmet. He saluted the other fencer with his foil and stepped off the strip. He sat heavily on the bench at the side of room, thankful for the end of the day. It had been a tiring one, and he hadn’t won a single bout. He sighed and rose to go.
“Fletcher!” his instructor called after him. Fletcher turned to face the elderly man. “Yes Mr. Sanderbini?”
“You fought well today. You want to know why you kept losing?”
Fletcher nodded. “Yes sir.”
“You were too impetuous. Your attacks are nearly perfect, but a good defensive player will parry until you overreach and then thrust in for the point. Are you understanding me?”
Fletcher nodded, a bit shamefacedly. “I get too caught up in the moment, sir.”
His instructor nodded. “Yes, try a little less aggressiveness in your next match. See what happens. Have a good evening, Fletcher!”
“You too, Mr. Sanderbini!”
Fletcher left his jacket and helmet in his locker, but kept his foil. He preferred to keep it at home, though there was room in his locker. It had been the first piece of equipment he had bought soon after he started fencing, and he had had it custom balanced for his style. He walked out tinted glass door, taking a deep breath of the night air, muggy as it was.
He shook himself and bent down to unlock his bike from the stand. A few minutes later he was pedaling down the street, glancing up at the sinking sun. The glowing orb was half hidden behind the thick line of trees at the end of the road, but the entire sky was lit up in crimson shreds. The wispy yet thick clouds diffused the light until it seemed as if the very air was tinted red.
The growing dark alarmed him, and he decided to take the shortcut through the woods to get home. It would be difficult to see in the thick brush, but he would get home nearly half a hour sooner. He bounced along the sandy path crisscrossed with roots, keeping his eyes peeled for low-lying branches or divots in the path.
A quick movement in the woods to his right caught Fletcher’s eye, a tawny shape flitting through the underbrush, but when he turned to look it had disappeared. “A deer perhaps?” he thought to himself. It would be about the right size for a small deer. It was far too big for any rodent or fox, that was for sure. He turned back to look at the path and instantly realized he had made a mistake. A large root lay across the path, and he hit it a second later. His bike’s back tire flipped up and he flew over the handlebars. Time seemed to go into slow motion as he hurtled through the air. He braced himself, throwing out his hands and closing his eyes, waiting for the crash.
But it never came. He felt the ground rushing up at him, and then a sudden forceful resistance that disappeared as quickly, spreading away from him with a feeling like a ripple. Indeed, the entire affair felt nothing so much like a dive into a lake, but a lake of air.
His eyes popped open to see a ripple of red light growing larger around him. The leaves directly below him had disappeared, giving place to a bright green sward still twenty feet off. He suddenly realized he had slowed considerably, gliding to the earth instead of hurtling.
He brought his legs under him as he slowly descended, his eyes darting around in complete puzzlement. The ground beneath was undulating slowly, a field of long grass in which was punctuated splashes of red, patches of some flower. His feet came to rest on a large boulder that sat atop a low rise. Red moss coated it in places, and here and there grew a small thistle-like plant. He jumped down off of it, noticing the grass directly around the stone was clipped short, as if mown.
A burning sensation shot through his right hand and he suddenly realized that a flicker of red light was traveling up the length of his foil like a flame. The blade was writhing; flattening and smoothing, and the grip and bellguard were also moving, flowing into a straight hilt and crossgaurd. When the flicker had faded, Fletcher stood with a perfectly-sized broadsword in his hand. The blade was red, and runes glowed fire-like in the fuller. The tips of the crossguard and the pommel were fashioned into flames surrounding what Fletcher guessed to be rubies.
He held it up to the sinking sun, watching as a flicker of light ran up the blade again. He spun it around experimentally, and was pleased to find it handled just as well as his foil. He held it in front of him for a moment, then dove into a series of attacks. The sword was slightly heavier than his foil, and favored a more cutting style than a stabbing one, but he quickly found the balance.
A swift movement to his left caught the corner of his eye and he spun towards it, his sword held out in front. The long grass was being moved by something a few yards away, something large. Fletcher glimpsed a tawny shape for an instant, and then whatever it was leaped up, bursting through the cover of grass and landing just inside the circle of cut grass.
“Hail, and well met, Fletcher Dragon-son!”
Fletcher stumbled back in shock. A large red wolf stood there, looking up at him, and Fletcher was sure it was he who had spoken. From behind he heard the flutter of wings. A quick glance back revealed a hawk just folding its wings. “Welcome to Flamehope, we have long been expecting you,” it spoke.
And then Fletcher grasped at the full enormity of the situation.

More on Work

Is it possible to like work? And if so, why?
Well, this past Monday I started work with a entrepreneur from our church who specializes in palm tree trimming. By itself. Actually, that's not strictly true. He also makes stained glass and coffins and runs a plant nursery and a farm. But his main job consists principally of trimming the several different types of palm trees. So, my job consists of gathering and stacking the cut palm fronds and toting them to the chipper, chipping them, gathering up the small bits of debris, "boots and bones," and blowing off afterward. Quite strenuous, and definitely a 'blue collar' type of job. But its fun, let's me start putting some money in the bank, and keeps me in shape. What has made the past week different from the last summer in which I worked at the same job, is all the rain! It has rained every day since Monday, and heavily too. I work in jeans and leather gloves, so I come home sopping wet each day. So why do I call it fun? Not sure, really, I just know I enjoy it throughly. I get to reach out to unsaved fellow workers, get filthy, get inside the gates of the most expensive condominiums on the Gulf Coast, and generally work hard.
Which brings me to the original question, is it possible to like working? In my previous post I mentioned the origination of work in scripture, Genesis 2:15. God designed us to work to bring him glory. Now, I have no intention of trimming palm trees as a career. I believe God has called me to be an architect, and build buildings that bring him glory. But trimming palm trees has taught me to work with customers, the dynamics and interactions between employer and employees, how to work with an income and, most of all, how to be a light in a dark world. Something I have only recently realized is the fact that I have seen amazing pieces of architecture I could never have gotten that close too in another job. God is using this small summer job as a stepping stone to other things. While it may not be what I want to do for the rest of my life, I hope when I am finished God will say to me ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ (Matt. 25:21)
Soli Deo Gloria

Hard Work

Ah, work, that glorious, mind and muscle strengthening, fun... ok, maybe not. Work is not always what most people would call fun, but it has amazing benefits in the end. I am currently reading a book called Created for Work, by Bob Schultz. With crystal clarity and a style of writing accessible to the youngest boy yet deep enough for a grown man, Mr. Schultz attacks the idea that work is something that should be avoided and delves deeply into the benefits of it. In Genesis 2:15, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it." God calls us to work in the beginning of his Word. And what was Jesus' occupation? A carpenter, a worker of wood. Not exactly sitting on a couch playing a video game. Now I am as guilty as any other young man of my time in the amount of time I spend in front of a computer doing nothing, or something that has no eternal significance. So don't get me wrong. I'm not saying get rid of that stuff completely, I'm just saying let's not underestimate the power and joy of work instead of something like that. Haven't you ever got that wonderful feeling of a job well done? That's because we were made to work! Just think of how many retired men you know who have a hobby or love serving others with the skills they posses! We are called to work; let us fulfill that calling.

P.S. I will post soon on another amazing book I have read on this same subject, Do Hard Things, by Alex and Brett Harris

A Poem

Our country lies in dark,
But we wait for light,
Holding steadfast,
To the hope, born tonight.


Yet on and on the years roll by,
And the glimmer fades,
We are waiting for our King,
Who will return one day.


We are fighting for our land,
But we hope to come again,
To our homes, far away,
And leave behind the fen


I wrote this poem for a movie/story I was working on at the time (still plugging away at both!), and only later realized the parallels it has to the gospel story. I am so blessed to have a God who truly cares about me, and is always beside me. Soli Deo Gloria!

One Nation Under God

At present the only books I am reading are for school, particularly Passages of American History. But, history has always been something I love to read, so I'm not complaining. But at present we are going over the Declaration of Independence, something every citizen of American should do quite often. Every time I dig deeper into it, I find more and more evidence that our nation was built on the God we Christians believe in. Some would say that all the Founding Fathers were Deists; believers in a God who created the universe, then left it alone to run itself. Some were, particularly Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, but many of the others were devout, strong Christians, who firmly believed in a God who controlled their destines, and who heard them when they prayed. Men like George Washington, John Adams, Patrick Henry and James Madison. So, if these men believed in an impersonal, distant, uncaring God, how could they have said with such conviction, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our scared Honor"?
And as one travels further forward in time, "In God We Trust" is printed on our coins, and the Pledge of Allegiance is written stating "One Nation, Under God, Indivisible."
Our country was founded on principles laid down in the Bible, and it is a sad thing to see our nation turning away from these principles. Suggestions have been made to change both the statements on our coins and in the Pledge of Allegiance. Where is our country headed?