"We walk the plank with our eyes wide open."
At first I was delighted at any lyric that inspired pirate imagery, but when I let the words sink (ha!) in further, I realized why they struck me so deeply. I feel that "we walk the plank with our eyes wide open" when we embrace God's truth and true love. We know that defending the truth is a dangerous task, one that may lead to scorn, ridicule or hate. And with true love, we go after it, knowing that within its beauty, there is still plenty of pain, confusion and loss to be found.
But in life we are all called to pursue these things - truth and love - even though they may not be popular or easy. If we are brave enough, or as scripture mentioned yesterday, weak enough (since through our weakness Christ's strength is shown), we will work towards holiness by aligning our lives with Christ's mission to spread His truth, and to love each other completely, "without complexities or pride" (Pablo Neruda's words here).
We were made to walk the plank for Truth, for Love, for God, fully aware that had we hidden from our true calling to be radical in this life, we would not have to suffer the pain of free falling into a vast ocean of unknown. Because we could stay on the boat, laughing and carrying on with all the other scurvy pirates, living a life that is easy and uncomplicated. But it would be a life that is empty. Pointless. How boring is that?
So while pirates are awesome in theory, I think I'd much rather take the radical step off the plank and plunge in the icy water, knowing that I can only fall as far as the cross.
"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." - William Shedd
3 comments:
New season of blogging; new layout. :)
I understand you completely. The nature of my work necessarily means that I have to understand and defend a lot of things that are very unpopular. Sometimes I have to explain and defend them to people I would have thought already knew. But I would be a lousy Catholic if I didn't stand up for Catholicism and voluntarily walk that plank.
I just think it's awesome that we're using a pirate analogy for martyrdom. I'm too tired to think of a witty comment about it.
Lindsay, I love that you're willing to walk the plank. That is why you are all things awesome.
Pomeranian, I like all things pirate, myself.
Post a Comment