Kecks in Paradise

Kecks in Paradise

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Day 6: Broken Things to Mend

One of my favorite lessons of my college years came from my medieval literature teacher, Zina "Warrior Princess" Petersen. And it is about Satan. Yipes. But it was really helpful, life changing knowledge for me.

She said that the name "Lucifer" comes from the root words "lux" which means light and "ferous" which means to bear or carry. So Satan is the "light bearer," which seems almost like a nice title. But then he goes and tries to shine light on and expose the worst parts of ourselves:

"I did something terrible."

"I am not good enough."

"Life is too hard for me."

This is all in an effort to make us fall into despair. "This is the way you are," that old serpent whispers. And then because he is the father of lies he adds, "And there is nothing you can do about it." 

But we know that is not true! Christ gives us the answer, "Come unto me," he says, "all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give ye rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."

Zina said something like this:

"It is too easy to tear things down. You spend all this time and effort building things, which is hard work, and then all of the sudden it is knocked down. Now rebuilding something that's already been broken--that's Jesus."



I wish you could have seen how she said it, too. She was looking upward like she was thinking and then kind of shouted it out like the idea had just flipped on in her head. 

Druids and Boadicea and medieval soaps are all really interesting, but this was the best thing I learned in that class.  

2 comments:

jean said...

Druids & Boadicea.. I know nothing about. However,Kimberly, I do know that I can feel my saviors love through you. With your ability to help, uplift, and edify.

Kimberly said...

Thanks, Grandma Goo. And Druids and Boadicea are so great! You should Wikipedia them when you are bored.