Late Winter, 2024

Daffodils are now unfurled
Peas are in the ground
Buds about to burst
On trees all around

In a sunless sky
Rain and snow still storm
And I sit in the sauna,
Trying to get warm.

Tolkien, The Writer

As a writer, I often ponder what makes favorite authors’ writing so good. Sometimes I hand-copy passages to let their style seep into me, but more often, I analyze them. What kinds of words does the author use and when? How often do they employ to-be verbs? Adjectives? Adverbs? Most recently, I’ve done this with J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing. In my last few reads of The Lord of the Rings, I realized that not only is Tolkien’s writing quality because of the depth and the world-building, but his writing style itself also exemplary.

The depth of Tolkien’s work due to his faith and the applicability of his content, as well as the consistency of his world-building are givens. (The former provides depth and breadth; the latter allows readers to immerse themselves in another world without being jarred by inconsistencies.) Below are my observations about Tolkien’s writing on a more technical level: what makes his style good? I’m categorizing my comments under headings reflecting different aspects of Tolkien’s career: Tolkien the Professor of English Language and Literature, Tolkien the Philologist, and Tolkien the Poet.

Tolkien the Professor of English Language and Literature

Although I don’t think he did much “grammar” as part of his professorship, I’m using this heading to consider the grammatical aspects of his writing.

For the most part, Tolkien writes with clear, un-flowery prose. It isn’t flashy, and nothing in particular stands out, which is why it has taken me a while to figure out what about his writing is so beautiful. He doesn’t use adverbs often, and so his descriptions are rich. But he uses numerous “to be” verbs, something usually frowned upon. Most words are “normal”—except when they’re not, and that’s what makes it so striking, because those words really “pop.” They’re still not florid, but unique—and also perfect when you stop and think about it, like the “thicket of spears” the Riders of Rohan surround the Three Hunters with. We don’t usually associate “spears” with “thickets” and yet the image such a description conjures up is vivid.

Here are a few other similar phrases from The Two Towers:

• “…brooded on the pale margins of the Anduin.”
• “The night was barred with long clouds.”
• “The grasslands rolled against the hills that clustered at their feet.”
• “The slow moon mounted.”

Tolkien the Philologist

Tolkien loved language and the sounds of words delighted him. He didn’t just have beautiful ideas; he wanted to put them into beautiful words. He was also a perfectionist, always revising. In his letters and biography, the emphasis of his perfectionism is on a broader scale (such as world-building). But as a writer, I also fuss over individual words or sentences, both to communicate more clearly and to write more beautifully or strikingly.

Examples of this are all over, but Treebeard expresses Tolkien’s desire for words to have a special depth to them:

• “[Hill] is a hasty word for a thing that has stood here ever since this part of the world was shaped.”
• “Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to.”

And a few notable phrases or sentences that I jotted down from The Two Towers this time:

• “A strange cold thrill; and yet it was not fear or terror that he felt; rather it was like the sudden bite of a keen air, or the slap of a cold rain that wakes an uneasy sleeper.”
• “Shining now as if with some light kindled within, bent, laden with years, but holding a power beyond the strength of kings.”
• “As it seemed to them, upon a great field of dark corn, tossed by a tempest of war, and every ear glinted with barbed light.”

Tolkien the Poet.

While The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit include many poems, in his career Tolkien worked with Old English poems such as Beowulf, translating and teaching them. He also penned lengthier poems himself, including some in alliterative verse and other styles copying the ancient works he loved.[1] The years of writing, translating, enjoying, and studying poetry seem to have seeped into his prose, affecting its rhythm and assonance.

Much of this isn’t apparent unless you’re reading aloud, but as one more obvious example:

• “Down through the breach of the Dike charged the king’s company. Down from the hills leaped Erkenbrand, lord of Westfold. Down leaped Shadowfax…”

Application

Are there more characteristics that make Tolkien’s writing so great on a technical level? I’m sure there are! These are just what I noticed in my latest re-read of The Lord of the Rings. Here’s what I’m applying in my own writing from those observations:

• The advice to eschew adverbs is true and one of the greatest pieces of writing advice.
• The maxim about avoiding to-be verbs, however, seems to be overrated.
• Don’t worry if your writing seems plain when you’re striving for beauty. Write clearly. But—
• Enjoy word play. Think about word choice and how to communicate images and ideas with words.Read your writing aloud to find places you may be able to employ meter or assonance for greater emphasis. Experiment to see what does and doesn’t work in all of these areas!

What do you notice and love about Tolkien’s writing? How about other favorite authors?

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[1] A list of his alliterative verse writings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tolkien%27s_alliterative_verse, and one example: https://allpoetry.com/Winter-Comes-To-Nargothrond I don’t enjoy a lot of poetry and confess I’ve even often skipped much of the poetry in LotR. But I really like alliterative verse, especially to read aloud.

Behold: V. The Bridegroom

“Your greatest lover, that you can rely on.
Your Father, that will care for you.
He loves you more than a fish needs the water
And more than birds crave the berries.
His love is enough.”
– C. H.

The won’dring Psalmist wrote
Considering the heavens –
“What is man that You are mindful of Him?”
For compared to the skies,
Men are small and ugly.

And yet this God
Who marked off the boundless heavens
With only His hand
Came down
He took brokenness
And made it whole.
Brought meaning.
Gave life.

The world not left to herself
He married Himself to her
In His covenant faithfulness
She became His
Though she looked elsewhere
He never has.

He was here
And we esteemed Him not
Too busy with the gifts He gave
To see Him
Even though it is He
Who holds the world together,
It is He
We ignore.

He pursues
In her unfaithfulness
He desires
To know this sinner
To eat with her
To overflow her cup
To suffer for her
To die for
To love
To marry
To bring her to His Father.

The path she takes
The path I take
Though beyond today is unknown
Though beset with falling short
Though full of question and fear
Is never hidden from His sight
The future is marked out like a path
A path from which none shall ever stray.

This God who made the clouds
Who calls out the stars –
Somehow
He is fairer than even they –
Who is gentle and intimate
with His lambs –
it cannot be understood,
why such a Great One would do so
for such a wretch as I –
Has set out this path
He will clear the rubble
And guide the way
And bring to rejoicing
When the path is hard
The way unfathomable
The future uncertain –
It is well
With my soul.

In the darkness
Of the soul
How big is your God?
He is greater
Than the night.

Even when
The sky is bare
And lonely –
He is there,
And here.
He hems me in
His presence, all around
His power
His might
His love
His tenderness
Ever Near
To behold
Our God
Even if we
Are broken.

And then –
He calls
The Bridegroom
For the Bride
She comes
Then face-to-face
Beholds.

(to read the whole poem in one place, with footnotes for Scripture references, click here)

Behold: IV. The Lion and the Lamb

“The God who comforts and makes Himself known
to His children. He knows exactly how to take care of each need
of His children, no matter how great…”
– M. L.

“Who is the everlasting friend, who always listens
and never forgets? Who is the one who keeps His
promises – who never changes? He is the one to
stand by and guard you – the one who sees your
sadness and laughs with your joy.”
– O. M.

Oh, herald of good news –
Get up to a mountain
And declare to the cities
This God.
Let all hear and see –
Behold your God!

This God who is
Both lion and lamb.
The One who is higher than the stars
Lights that pass away
They are so great so
Is not He who remains forever
Even greater?

And forever –
He changes not.
This God to behold
What is seen in Him
Will not change
From here until
Beyond eternity.

The waters would overwhelm
The stars, they would burn
Even the cloud would suffocate us.
And the Almighty God
Would also be our death
If beheld too close.

And yet
It is that nearness
That man longs for –
Eternity
To know God.

The Lamb
He offered Himself
Death in our place
Our sins on His back
A gift of grace
Now we behold
No curtain bars the way
No cloud obscures the sight
iniquity pardoned
Face-to-face at last will be
His children
Forever with Him.

This God of power –
Who commands the clouds
And the waves of the sea,
The Maker of heaven and earth –
Whose name alone is a strong tower
His power in just one word.
He is our help
He knows the griefs
Has born the sorrows
The aching heart
Is comforted
With tenderness.
He understands
The complex inner workings
Of the mind –
He knows His child
Better than she knows herself.
It is this Lord who is my shepherd.

These ones who are but grass
Whose bodies fade away
The Everlasting carries
In His bosom
The Almighty
Increasing strength
When we are faint.
He cares
And loves
Even us.

He cares for the sparrows
Those in His image,
Worth so much more
The Lion strong enough to protect
Gently leads His lambs
Tenderly, for He is Lamb like us
And He was broken, too.

Behold: III. The Voice of Many Waters

“You are the all-knowing God who has had
a plan for my life from before the foundations
of the world.”
– H. P.

Who is like You,
O Lord, among the Gods?
Whose voice is like the thunder
And the sound of many waters?
Roaring, swelling, mounting –
Whose hands are covered
With the lightning
And who commands it to strike?
Its crashes declare His presence.

When He speaks
There is tumult in the heavens
And yet He also whispers
in a still small voice
For Him the mist rises from the earth
And the winds leave their storehouse.
To whom then
will you liken God?
Or to what will you compare Him?

The Nations, the mighty nations
The many peoples
He plants and tears down
They are but a drop in the bucket
Only dust on the scales
They are nothing to Him
Even less than nothing –
How can less than nothing be?
Uncomprehendable,
this One.

And yet
To a God so mighty –
Who stretches out the heavens
And has measured the waters
And weighed the mountains
To whom none have shown counsel
Who moves the hearts of men
And gives them their every breath –
He is everlasting
Creator of the ends of the earth
He does not faint
Or grow weary
He established the world
By His wisdom –
Then perhaps
To Him
There could be
A less than nothing.

Behold: II. The Span of His Hand

Who has measured the stars in the span of His hands
Yet cradled His lamb to His chest?
Who has woven the world in brilliant harmony
Yet quieted my heart in the darkest night?”
– E. P.

The fourth day of the world
He made the lights
To rule the day
To rule the night
Then three small words,
As if
It hardly mattered:
“And the stars.”
He numbered them.
At the Word
They came into being
Flung into their places
Recorded as a small detail
In the colossal hand of God.

And they sang
They praised His name ,
Their Maker.
The morning stars sang together
Declared the glory of God.
The heavens outdo those in His image
Who need prompting
to praise.

In His love
He set them there
For signs
For seasons
For days
And years
Because His steadfast love
Endures forever
He gave these gifts
This cosmic beauty

Orion as He walks the sky
Cygnus as it soars above the dolphin
The dippers as they point the way
Scorpio, beside the moon
Faintly seen, the gleaming way
Milky as it weaves its path.
across the velvety richness
that is the sky
Deep and dark
flecked with silver
domed above
Soul hushed.

In His might
He calls out each one by name
Like sheep
Each night,
Whether the eye beholds
Or whether they are veiled
He brings them out
And they are there,
Because He is strong in power.
He keeps them in their paths
So predictable
Yet without Him
Would be chaos.

The night without stars
Is the dark night of the soul
The questioning paradox
How can the God who brings this
Be good?
And where is the lovingkindness
Of Love?
Asking, it clings to Him
Audacious in its wond’ring
Knowing His unthwarted purpose
His faithfulness
As long as the sun shall rise.
As we see Him
The darkness fades.

So lift up your eyes and see
Who created these?
Seek the One
Let not their beauty
Rob worship from their Maker.
The gods of the Nations –
Worthless, idols.
The LORD –
He made the heavens.

The lights of the night
A comfort to the weary soul
For the ones who know
their Maker carries them
For the ones who know
that this vast expanse
That modern man cannot comprehend
Is but the space between His fingers –
A single span
Of His hand

(you may need to read this in a dark room to see the star pictures properly. Most of them were taken at the Field of Dreams, others are from Dubai)

Behold: I. The Dust of His Feet

(written in 2013, the pictures are also from that year. The italicized sections at the beginning of each canto were written by my Csehy Campers)

“Who delights in the honest cry of my broken heart?
Who smiles as I wonder at the beauty of the earth?
Who understands me to the fullest extent and wants
nothing more than for me to be His bride?”
– S.C.

Stop,
Consider
The wondrous works of God.
Look above –
Billows of white,
Wisps and piles of cotton,
Scattered layers and towers,
Shipless sails in the heavens,
Rolling black thunderheads,
Stretched out across the sky.

They move at His command
Declare His presence
Led Israel in the desert
Herald His coming
Veil His chariot
Brought for good or ill
Whether they come with rain
Or fly away like the birds
They await His call.

Can anyone understand
How He spreads the clouds,
How His pavilion thunders?
They hide His face
From the sinner,
Lest he die
In the day of judgment.

He sends them whither He wills
Makes them rise from the ends of the earth
Glimpses of glory
Thrill the soul because of their Maker
Beauty always different
Changing every moment –
The dust from His feet
Until the trump resounds
And His own rise to meet Him
In cloud.

Advent Round-Up 2021

Advent, a season of remembering the longing for Christ’s first coming, feels especially important this year, as it did last year.

This year I’m excited to join in on the Momma Theologians Advent Study (which you can do even if you’re not a mom!).

I’m once again doing Jesse Tree with the girls (I updated this old post with the Scripture passages we are trying out for the different ornaments this year. The last two years I just used children’s Bibles).

As in previous years, I am doing a social media and sugar fast during Advent as well. We usually see Advent as a time of celebration, but it’s also meant to be a time of longing for Christ – as once His first coming was longed for, now we long for His return. So it seems fitting to fast, and I actually have enjoyed this season more without the distraction of attempted moderation with sweets and social media.

This also means that my blog and social media will be silent in December!

Other Resources

I’m not sure if she’s doing it again this year, but I have enjoyed the Gentle Leading Advent series in the past, hosted by Abbey Wedgeworth.

If you want to focus more on the waiting aspect of Advent, I highly recommend Kidron Tirey’s This is How We Wait.

John Piper has two Advent devotionals available for download at Desiring God – The Dawning of Indestructible Joy and Good News of Great Joy.

I have done Advent writings of my own in the past. You can find them under the Advent tab here, but I have also linked some below.

Advent Art:
Poem: La Corona (John Donne)
Drawing: The Consolation of Eve (cool, but don’t push the theology too hard)
YouTube Playlist
Spoken Word: The Incarnation (and this is the Augustine quote at the end) and Mary’s Song
(And none of it is on YouTube, but the Let it Snow album of the Kings’ Singers and Albrecht Mayer is hands down my favorite Christmas music)

On My Blog:
My poem “God in Flesh”
Fun Advent Ideas for Kids (2017)
Musings on some specific Advent phrases (2016)

On Christmas when you’re sorrowful – my post here and a friend’s here.

2015 Advent Series (current events were different, but easily swapped out as you read). Each post has a song, Scripture passage, and thought.
1. Introduction
2. The Refiner’s Fire
3. God Does Not Sleep
4. Of the Father’s Love Begotten
5. The Dear Christ Enters In
6. Jesus, Our Emmanuel
7. To Bring Us to God
8. My Redeemer Liveth
9. Christ In Us

The Hardest, Most Necessary Place to Be

When I had postpartum depression, I didn’t want to go to church.

But I went, week after week, and something happened.

Read more in my post at Her View From Home.

Delighting in the Spirit

Most discussions about the Holy Spirit quickly turn to debate over whether or not certain spiritual gifts are around today. That is at times a necessary discussion, but the emphasis we put on one particular aspect of one way the Spirit works overshadows the many other grand and glorious things the Spirit does.

According to Jesus, it is to the disciples’ advantage that he leaves, so that he can send the Spirit(John 16:7). It’s better for us to have the Spirit than Jesus’ physical presence. The surprisingness of this statement shows me how much we underestimate and minimize the work of the Spirit!

In the same discourse where Jesus says the above statement, He also teaches that the Spirit is the helper/advocate abiding in a believer, disclosing Christ to him. The Spirit is God abiding with those who love Him and keep his word—which he continues to teach and bring to remembrance in Jesus’ absence, thus bringing peace to us (John 14:15-31). Likewise, the Spirit testifies to us about Christ, disclosing His words to believers in his absence, leading us into truth by this disclosing. And, he convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment when the bodily presence of Christ is no longer present (John 15:26—16:15).
The Spirit is God with us, and the Spirit is our advocate, and the Spirit helps us know the truth.

But before that, because we were dead in our sins (Eph. 2:3-4), the Spirit must make us alive (Rom. 8:9-11), rebirthing us to new, spiritual, eternal life (John 3:3-6, 7:37-39).

This happens as part of union with Christ, which connects to our justification. And as a sign of our justification, our right-standing before God on account of Christ’s work, one of the things the Spirit does is call out “Abba!” in our hearts (Gal.4:4-6, Rom. 8:15). Calling God “Father!” shows that we who were his enemies have been adopted now as his beloved children. The Spirit brings this adoption about and confirms it in guiding our interactions with the Father.

 Likewise, the Spirit acts as a seal and pledge of the promises of God (Eph. 1:13-14, 2 Cor 1:22). The Spirit shows us we belong to God—our “proof of purchase”—and guarantees that God will continue the work he began and faithful to bring us full sanctification in his full presence. This brings us to the Spirit being the “firstfruits” (Rom. 8:23). What we enjoy in the Spirit, wonderful as it is, better than Christ’s presence with the disciples, is only a foretaste, a firstfruits, of what is to come in the New Creation (wow!). And so we wait eagerly for what is to come, but meanwhile we have the Spirit’s help in abundance (in intercession, Rom. 8:26-27; and as we are sanctified, Rom 8:9-13).

But how can we be sure that the Spirit is these things for us? We primarily see his work in a person’s life not in tongues and prophecy but by the fruit of the Spirit growing in their life (Gal. 5:16-25), with deeds of the flesh put to death because the Spirit is leading you and at work in you (Rom. 8:12-14). Because of this, the way we measure whether or not we have the Spirit is not by a feeling of his presence or work, but by evidence that we are growing more and more like Christ and that what we think is his work is building up the church and glorifying Christ.

I hope this has expanded your understanding of what all the Holy Spirit does and how he may be at work in your life. As a summary, and with the goal of sparking wonder and worship at this great gift, I leave you with the words of Herman Bavinck:

“…the Spirit became the giver of boldness in public speech (Acts 4:8, 31), of the power of faith (6:5; 11:24), of consolation and joy (9:31; 13:52). …his presence and working were especially perceived in that he brought people to confess Jesus as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3), assured believers of their status as children of God, guided all believers (rom.8:14-16; Gal 4:6), poured the love of God into their hearts (Rom. 5:5), and renewed and sanctified them (1 Cor. 6:11,; Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:2). He caused them to bear spiritual fruits (gal.5:22-23), faith, hope, and above all love (1 Cor. 13). He sealed them for the day of promise (Rom8:23; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:13; 4:30), indwelled their bodies so that the parts of their bodies became instruments of righteousness (Rom.6:13; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19) and therefore also made their bodies share in the life that was already granted to them by Christ in the present and would one day be fully manifested in the resurrection (Rom. 8:11; Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 15:42ff). (Reformed Dogmatics, Abridged in One Volume, Herman Bavinck, ed. John Bolt, page 520).

(This post doesn’t even touch on the Spirit’s job creation—though I did discuss “re-creation,” and how his primary role as pointing to Christ, and I only briefly mentioned his role in building the church. Here I wanted to focus more on what the Spirit does in our individual lives. Also, while I mentioned tongues and prophecy not being the primary marker of the Spirit’s work, I’m not going to say anything either way as far as whether they’re around or not at all because I don’t want to draw attention away from the other work the Spirit does!)