for your winning entry RealityHis power rumbled forth, and all it took
To break reality so that it shook
Just like the earth, just like a final breath,
Was life triumphant, rising over death,
Rising like a sun of fervent light
In daybreak never to be touched by night.
And so He rose from grave to galaxies
And then beyond, to all the heavenlies
Which now were His dominion, great and vast.
Without His word an atom would not last;
A soul could never in His presence stand
But for the goodness in His nail-pierced hand
That beckons us, the broken and the lost,
To live the life He gave up on the cross.
So in this shadowed week, be not enticed,
Reality is only found in Christ.
Please share a little bit about your inspiration for your winning entry and your creative process
As with a lot of my poems, my winning piece "Reality" started off as a scribble in church. Some people draw in their journals during the sermon and call it a doodle; I call my sermon writings a scribble. As it turns out, the message happened to refer to the theme verse, Philippians 3:10-11.
In the midst of the sermon, my pastor made reference to one of the most intriguing verse in the Bible, Col. 2:17, which in NIV reads that "the reality is in Christ." I love that phrasing, and I came to see resurrection power as a force so powerful that it could change reality. After all, dead people don't come back to life. Being a biologist, I've often wondered at all the biochemical pathways that had to restart and decay that had to be reversed in order for resurrection to physically work. To use a term, it's simply unreal. The resurrection breaks all we know about physics and chemistry and biology. But that's what makes God so glorious, that he can do the impossible: defeat death.
And not only that, but the reality that we were supposed to be separated from God in hell was totally changed, so that those who believe and belong to him would be his children. In that one moment God proved that reality was never again the same.
Please tell us how long you have been an artist and how you got started with your skill.
Reading has been my biggest pastime ever since I learned watching Sesame Street at the age of 2. So it's not surprising then that writing is my main form of artistic expression. Poetry was something that had always appealed to me—it was always verse that spoke volumes to me, from the ancient Chinese poetry that my parents taught me to Shel Silverstein to Shakespeare to rap music. I started writing poetry in earnest in my senior year of high school using the style I liked best, rhyme and meter. Falling in love (with a girl and with Jesus) for the first time also helped. I suppose those three things—meter, rhyme, and love—have been the tools of my trade ever since.
What is your favorite Bible verse? Please explain why it is so meaningful to you.
I feel like the answer to this question changes each stage of life I'm in, but I think the verse that has consistently moved me the most is Philippians 1:6: "Being confident in this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." This was a promise verse that I claimed with my classmates in my freshman year of college, in the hope that God would continue to grow us and use us and let us see Him do amazing things. Even now as I'm continuing to serve in college ministry, I pray this verse often over those in my care.
If you could personally meet one character from the Bible, who would it be? Why?
King David, without a doubt. I'd like to have a jam session with him and hear about how he kept faith in God despite his flaws.
Please show us 4 deviations from your gallery that you feel best represent you.
15th Day, 8th Month, Year GuijiTonight the moon is bright and very full,
And in its beams a luminescent pull
Is tugging at my heartstrings, shedding light
At love and longing hidden in my heart.
Both time and space have kept us far apart,
As far as earth is to the starry host,
Where waves of light break on the cosmic coast
And no distinction marks the day or night.
Celestial sights as these unseen in skies,
I swear I saw their gleam within your eyes.
ManifestoWhen Jesus overwhelmed my heart with grace
And broke the tendencies that had me chained,
The life objectives that I sought to chase
Were knocked askew and utterly bloodstained.
His faith moved paradigms that stood like peaks
And righted roads that ran in lazy windings.
Now all the living word my saved soul seeks
With all its precious promises and findings.
The only mark of worth I want to hold
Is found not in possessions or in ranks,
But in the souls I'm sold out to make bold
For Christ's sake, that they'd give Him all their thanks
And live lives given fully to Christ's aims,
To show His love, and teach others the same.
Sonnet XXIIOp. 21, no. 4
Love Language
Is but the seemly raiment of my heart
The jealous love that I, a brother, give?
Or is this covering but just a part
Of passion God has willed in me to live?
O, search my heart and know my deepest thoughts--
Nay, search your own and mine will be revealed--
I covet not, I bear no secret plots
To take and open what the Lord has sealed.
But surely you will not begrudge me when
I long that we may one day love through touch.
This language that transcends both tongue and pen
Is dialogue that speaks and listens much.
My sister, I make no impure demands;
I simply long to hold your praying hands.
The Ballad of MulanThe sound of weaving, woman's chore--
Mulan weaves on before the door.
But now the shuttle's noise is drowned
By Daughter Mulan's sighing sound.
"Who, my girl, is in your thought?
What memory has your mind caught?"
"No one is in Mulan's thought,
No memory has Mulan caught.
The night before, I saw the post
The Khan sent out to build his host.
In scrolls of twelve did they proclaim
The characters of Father's name.
But Father has no eldest son,
And Brother's not the eldest one.
So I shall buy a saddled horse
To take his place among the force."
Now to the East for valiant steed!
Now to the West for saddle's need!
Now to the South to take the reins!
Now to the North, the whip remains!
At dawn she bids her kin farewell,
At night she camps by Yellow swells.
No cries from family find her ears,
The Yellow River's flow is all she hears.
At dawn she leaves the Yellow waves,
At night those mounts of black she braves.
No cries from family find her ears,
The neigh of foreign horse is all she hears.
How do you personally use your writing skill for the glory of God?
I write as a form of meditating on God and who He is and what He's done. In the Bible this is an imperative that gives Him glory: "On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate" (Ps. 145:5) Simply put, I want to transfer the emotions and the awe and the pain and the spiritual mind that I experience in knowing God and living for God onto the page. That's the power I experience when I read the Psalms and the work of my fellow Christian poets, and it opens me to new dimensions of the Christian walk. This, I believe, is the chief blessing of my work.
What is your favorite comfort food?
Soup noodles, since I come from a northern Chinese background. It could be ramen, udon, pho, beef noodle...I love them all!
Can you give us 1 or 2 points of advice for aspiring Christian artists?
Love God. Really, we write what we love. The Scripture attests that our words come from the overflow of our hearts (Lk. 6:45). If we love darkness, we will write darkness. If we love the world, we will write worldly things. If you love a person, you will write many, many things about them. But if you love God, He becomes your inspiration and your writing. I notice this all the more because I find that my ability to write correlates with my spiritual purity and wellbeing: In times I am proud and forgetful of God, I cannot write. I'm uninspired. But the times where I write the best is when I am close to God in times of struggle.
Skin by SimplySilent
