Seven on Saturday

It's been a good week:

1. A friend made Black Bean Soup for us Tuesday. Here's the recipe. It was super-yum! I'm thinking I'll make a pot this afternoon to munch on the rest of the week.

Saute:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions
6 cloves garlic

Add:
1/2 tsp cumin
3 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can tomatoes with onion, celery and green pepper
1 tbsp fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp oregano
3 cups chicken broth

Simmer.

2. Ash Wednesday service was wonderful. I think the thing that touched me the most was reading the Litany of Penitence together at the end. You can read it here.

3. It rained allllll day yesterday and it was wonderful! Two things I miss about Louisiana: rainy days and the food. I left the back door open so I could hear the rain as I worked around the house and then took a nap with E with the window open upstairs. Lovely day! And it's supposed to SNOW tomorrow!

4. Went to Goodwill this week and got a stash of books for $4.50: Omnivore's Dilemma (for a friend), Thirteen Moons, Almost Vegetarian Cookbook, The Geographer's Library, In a Sunburned Country, Neither Here Nor There, and Living Monet.

5. Every month I get a free desktop download from the Shabby Princess. I love changing these out and adding a favorite picture or two.

6. Found these lectures via dreams of genevieve:

Cardus presents the think audio journal: considered, public voices of the Christian mind. This popular bi-monthly CD is aimed at Christian professionals and business people, tackling issues of work and economic life, the "state of the culture," and strategic priorities for Christian, cultural engagement.

7. Some words for fathers from Philip Graham Ryken in My Father's World: Meditations on Christianity and Culture:

What can dads do about this? To put the question another way, What can a father do to promote the spiritual welfare of his home?

The first thing a father can do is improve his own spiritual welfare. Generally speaking, the best way to strengthen a family's faith is to strengthen the faith of its father. Whatever spiritual changes need to take place in a household must begin in a father's heart. Christian fathers constantly need to rededicate themselves and their families to the glory of God.

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Book Review: The Hiding Place

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Church book club pick for February (Christian Biography)

I read this some years ago and it's on my list of all time favorites. (Granted, I have a big list, but this one would probably make my top ten, too.) I love Corrie. I love her realness, her earthiness, her honesty. I love the way she served the Lord, the way she struggled with her own sinfulness in the midst of unimaginable suffering. She's definitely on my top-10-people-to-have-dinner-with-when-I-get-to-Heaven list!

Most people know the story of this book: two spinster sisters (Corrie and Betsie) in Holland hide Jews in their home during World War II, begin a huge underground resistance operation, are arrested, and spend a period of time in two German concentration camps. It's the story of courage, faith, and forgiveness.

There are so many passages I marked this time reading it and we had a wonderful discussion last night at our book club meeting. If you've never read it, please do...it will be good for your soul. If you read it a long time ago, think about doing it again. It's a book I think I'll want to read over and over again.

There is one thing that I wanted to discuss about this book that didn't get brought up last night. Of all the possible discussion points, this one is a little obscure, but it's been on my mind, none-the-less. Corrie is in a concentration camp, in a small cell with other women, and notices that one woman has made herself a make-shift deck of cards with tissue to pass the time. Corrie had no experience with card-playing as her father never allowed them in their home. She asks the woman to show her how to play the solitaire game:

I was a slow learner, since no cards of any kind had been played at the Beje. Now as I began to grasp the solitaire game I wondered what Father's resistance to them had been - surely nothing could be more innocent than this succession of shapes called clubs, spades, diamonds...But as the days passed I began to discover a subtle danger. When the cards went well my spirits rose. It was an omen: someone from Haarlem had been released! But if I lost...maybe someone was ill. The people in the secret room had been found out...At last I had to stop playing.

I found that passage interesting and it got me to thinking about what do I look to as 'omens?' What makes my spirit rise and fall instead of the Word and promises of God? Is it the playing out of world news? How each of my children happen to be doing at the moment? How we are doing financially? If things are going well at work? Just something to chew on for the day. Peace.

PS. A good follow up to The Hiding Place is Corrie's Tramp for the Lord. It tells of what happened once she was released and her work.

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Book Review: The Senator's Wife (Audio)

The Senator's Wife by Sue Miller, Audio, Read by Blair Brown, Random House Audio, Unabridged edition (January 8, 2008), ISBN-10: 0739358510

Rating: 3 of 5 STARS
Source: Random pick at the public library

This is the story of two marriages, one old, one just starting out. It's about an older woman, accepting the unfaithfulness of her husband and even loving him in his weakness, yet setting some boundaries to protect her heart. It's about a younger woman, struggling with being a new wife and then a new mother, looking to the older woman for help and guidance.

Blair Brown's reading, as always, is absolutely wonderful. If you find an audio book she reads, you should probably give it a try based on that alone. Very talented lady. I was very captivated with the reading of this story and found myself several times sitting in parking lots waiting for the chapter to end before getting out. I've listened to one other book by Sue Miller and really liked it also. She's a talented writer with a great ability to tell a tale.

So - why the low rating? I took a star away for sexual content and language. Very unappealing in some sections...more information than I wanted to know. Then I took a star away because I just didn't like any of the characters. Not one. The older woman, Delia, I just wanted to shake. The younger woman, Meri, had zero moral character throughout the whole book but all of the sudden at the end we're led to believe she became this great mother and wife. But Meri was still excusing her reprehensible behavior at the end of the book by saying it was done in 'love.' Sigh. The two husbands weren't any better.

Would I recommend it? Probably not. There's a lot better to choose from, but I'd definitely give Sue Miller as an author another try.

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When Dense Clouds Darken the Sky

Somewhere between putting up the groceries and cooking dinner, John Calvin made an appearance in our home yesterday.

As I sauteed mushrooms, my beautiful middle child (who was born a middle child, if you know what I mean) and I were discussing the fact that there are things that happen in our lives, sometimes things totally out of our control, sometimes things that are really bad and painful, that end up limiting our future choices, that close doors to possibilities we would still like to consider. As she railed against the unfairness of it (rightly so) I tried to help her see that really, even in these things, God is in control, He has a plan and in these bad things...terrible things... even in these will He be glorified. Our job is to be faithful and obedient to what He has given us today. He will work tomorrow out for us...in fact, He already has.

So, tears were wiped, a chin was pulled up, the casserole was put in the oven, and that left me thinking about what I had just said. Do I believe these things for myself? Or are they only words I use to try to comfort my hurting child? When I suffer, do I trust in God's plan...or do I question His goodness? Or more to the point, do I question His goodness toward me?

And here's where John Calvin showed up. All this reminded me of a blog post I read about the movie Cool Hand Luke on Somber and Dull (a new "Honey Pot" addition) yesterday. You can read the whole post here. Included was this quote from Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion:

"...When dense clouds darken the sky, and a violent tempest arises, because a gloomy mist is cast over our eyes, thunder strikes our ears and all our senses are benumbed with fright, everything seems to us to be confused and mixed up; but all the while a constant quiet and serenity ever remain in heaven. So must we infer that, while the disturbances in the world deprive us of judgment, God out of the pure light of his justice and wisdom tempers and directs these very movements in the best-conceived order to a right end. And surely on this point it is sheer folly that many dare with greater license to call God's works to account, and to examine his secret plans, and to pass as rash a sentence on matters unknown as they would on the deeds of mortal men. For what is more absurd than to use this moderation toward our equals, that we prefer to suspend judgment rather than be charged with rashness; yet haughtily revile the hidden judgments of God, which we ought to hold in reverence?" (I.17.1)

Ah. "...God out of the pure light of his justice and wisdom tempers and directs these very movements in the best-conceived order to a right end."

Oh, Lord, may I not haughtily revile Your hidden judgments, but may I hold them instead in reverence.

And my beautiful girl, may you learn to trust the One Who loves you vastly more than I do.

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Vain Things That Charm Me Most

Last night at the Ash Wednesday service, we sang When I survey the Wondrous Cross. I think these lyrics are absolutely beautiful and I am always deeply moved when I sing them:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

I grew up going to a Southern Baptist church in Louisiana with my grandmother and there are particular hymns that, when I'm in church and sing them now, I can still hear her strong (off-key) voice. She was there last night and I miss her.

I suppose since it is Lent, it's a good time to ponder the sentence: "All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood." What are the vain things that charm me most? Hmm...I'm not too attached to the typical girly things: clothes, shoes, jewelry, furniture, and other bobbles for the home. I mean I have good clothes (good enough for me, anyway), comfy shoes, enough jewelry, and I love my house, orange Formica and all. Please don't think I do without :0) but it's just that I'm not 'captivated' by these particular material things. (OK - You could put books in there, I suppose. But is good literature ever vain? ....I think I'm feeling convicted. Let's move on.)

My captivations are probably a little worse than those material things listed above. It would be easier to lay those at the foot of the cross, easier to pluck from my white-knuckled fists. Instead, I think my "charming ones" are more deeply planted in my heart - desire for human approval and recognition of professional accomplishments, certain friendships, in some ways my marriage and children...Oh, but it can get even worse. There are also those hurts, those pains given to me by others, that I have coddled and held close to my heart, massaging until they grow ever larger, somehow enjoying being wronged, being the martyr. Ugh. What an ugly mess I am sometimes. And then there are those things I turn to when I am sad, anxious, afraid or even just bored...things like food, TV, the Internet (gasp!) Oh, my.

There is another stanza that Isaac Watts wrote to his hymn, but he put it in brackets indicating that it should be the one left out if need be:

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o'er His body on the tree:
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

May it be so for me. Amen.

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Can Lent Be Evangelical?

Today is Ash Wednesday. Some friends and I plan to attend the Ash Wednesday service at a local Episcopal church this evening. We did this last year and it was a wonderful way to start the Lenten season. I've been praying and pondering what, if anything, I'll do for Lent this year. In the past few seasons, I've given up desserts, candy, sweets, etc. Those who know me know this was a tough thing to do! It was definitely a healthy thing to do...I felt better coming out of Lent and was a few pounds lighter. And I do remember it being a reminder to turn to prayer or to the Bible instead of a big bowl of ice cream after a stressful day. But this year....? As I've been praying, God has been showing me the immensity of the selfishness of my heart, how most everything I do is, at it's most basic motive, really all about ME. I have many 'maladies of the soul that need grace and healing.'

I found this article at The Grow Center. It says what I'm thinking about Lent so much better than I could...

The season of Lent, a period of forty days starting with Ash Wednesday, is often easily misunderstood by evangelicals. Lent is not a way of earning grace or performing works that earn you God’s favor. Instead, Lent is like the “cry in the wilderness” to prepare for the way of the Lord.

The season of Lent serves a two-fold purpose. First, it allows you to meet the Lord in solitary actions and devotions. In Lent you join the Church in a time of self-examination with the goal of bringing before the Lord those maladies of the soul that need grace and healing.

Second, Lent unites you with that great host of all believers that prepare for Holy Week. Participation in Lent is like “setting your face toward Jerusalem”. You are moving with the Church to once again witness the suffering of Christ and celebrate the triumphant of his resurrection.

As the Book of Common Prayer states, “it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them [the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection] by a season of penitence and fasting.” Engaging the various Christian disciplines in Lent not only nourishes your soul but lets you participate with the whole community of faith in a movement toward Holy Week. These practices are not burdensome or harsh--instead they act as a “school” for Christ. This school for Christ teaches us that we can be transformed by grace through the disciplines of fasting, penitence and prayer.

There are two elements to any successful spiritual endeavor: consistency and intention. The Church provides the structure for consistency- the forty days of Lent. The intention of your heart and soul comes from your own desire to enter into a deeper relationship with the Lord.

From the ancient Church to today, fasting was always part of Lenten devotion. By fasting from a particular food(s) or a meal, you are creating a break or space in your regular routine. Lent can also be a time when you add something to your life, such as expanding the time you dedicate to Scripture and prayer. Also, you can expand upon one of the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love. In the contours of our lives, Lent allows a place for us to step back slow down and hear from the Lord. This space is a time for preparation, movement, resolve, growth, self-examination and reflection.

The Prodigal Son amongst the pigs is a profound image for Lent. It is a time to “come to our senses”, leave the distant countries we have journeyed in and return to our Father’s house.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1-2

Taken from The Grow Center.

I loved what this article said about the Prodigal Son being an image for Lent. May we 'come to our senses' and be in our Father's house...

Blessings -

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Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday & Lent

OK - one more post and then I am seriously going to get moving for the day. A lot of you know I'm interested in following the Christian calendar even though I've never been part of a church that has formally done so. I love the idea of traveling through the rhythm's of the year in Jesus's footsteps. I think I first got interested in this when I started reading Madeleine L'Engle and Laura Winner, both Anglicans I believe and two of my most favorite authors. I've since read Webber's Ancient Future Time which I highly recommend if you're at all interested in things such as this.

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or if you're from Louisiana, Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday! I posted last year on the meaning of Shrove Tuesday. Here's an excerpt:

Shrove Tuesday is a time for Christians to make a special point of self-examination, to seriously ponder the things of which they need to repent, and seek changes that need to be made in their lives in order to grow closer to God in their daily walk.

And of course, that means tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Last year I went to my first Ash Wednesday service and I hope to go again tomorrow. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and over the past few years I've given up various things for the 40 day period. I've been praying about this year's Lent and haven't really decided what, if anything, I'm going to give up this year. Here's a great post by another Florida pastor on Lent and fasting.

Happy Shrove-Tuesday-Mardi-Gras-Fat-Tuesday! Go eat some King Cake (see Sondie's post on the background of King Cakes)....or pancakes will do!

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The Bible & Literature

Here's a fun little quiz for you to take to see how well you know your literary references from the Bible. Dare you post your score in the comments? I made a barely passing 7 out of 10. Ugh!

I found this at a Florida pastor's blog this morning. (Can't sleep...a lot on my mind....lots to do at work before a meeting at 7:30am...the dog woke me up again...so I'M BLOGGING instead of going on in to work! Grin.) I think I'll add his blog to my "Honey Pots." Lots of good stuff.

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Praying with Art: Zendala

A couple of weeks ago I posted about zendalas and my prayer doodles. Here's my first prayer-zendala I completed yesterday...a good way to spend a Sabbath evening. Lots of people on my heart.

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Book Review: A Cup of Tea

A Cup of Tea: A Novel of 1917 by Amy Ephron, Harper Perennial (June 28, 2005), ISBN-10: 0060786205

Rating: 2 of 5 STARS
Source: Randomly picked up at Goodwill

From Amazon: New York City, in the uncertain days of World War I, is home to Rosemary Fells, who is the sort of woman with the time to strike stunning poses and rearrange her curls; Eleanor Smith, whom Rosemary finds under a street lamp, miserable and shivering, is certainly not. Miss Fells indulges a whim of beneficence, whisking "the creature" home to share warmth, tea, and a change of clothing. Once clean and dry--fortified with sandwiches and brandy--young Eleanor and Rosemary's fiancé meet in the hallway and exchange a look, the kind of look that will forever change the course of their lives.

This was basically a long short-story. Very short chapters, super easy prose, fast-paced plot. It was also not very good literature. I kind of felt like I was reading a Harlequin romance or something, although there wasn't any titillating sex scenes. I suppose my biggest problem with the story was that it seemed to excuse adultery if you're "in love" or "thrown together by destiny." Ugh.

The best thing I have to say is that it was a fast read. And, I did actually finish it, so I suppose that says something. I wouldn't recommend it and am glad I only paid 50 cents for it. The cover said "National Bestseller." I don't get it.

The cover says the story was inspired by a short story by Katherine Mansfield, who I've never heard of, but here's her A Cup of Tea online. Much better than this book. I think I might give one of her collections a try.

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Book Review: What the Dead Know (Audio)

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman (Audio), read by Linda Edmond, HarperAudio, unabridged edition, March 2007, ISBN-10: 0061256552

Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Random pick at public library

I listened to this going back and forth from work over the last week or so. It was very engaging. I found myself sitting in the parking lot or driveway wanting to hear more before going in. The story moves back and forth between the present, where an unnamed woman is involved in a hit-and-run accident, and the past where two girls are kidnapped from a mall and never seen again. It's the story of a young girl making a terrible, terrible mistake and how it tears apart not only her and her sister's lives, but also that of her parents. But at the end, it's the story of redemption and hope.

The reading was very well done. Edmond has a lovely voice and her portrayal of the different characters was wholly convincing. There is a bit of language, especially from the New York-born Detective Infante.

Engaging story, well-developed characters, and fluid writing. Highly recommend!

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Seven on Saturday

1. Boy! This year feels like it's going at a quick pace. It's almost March - wowzers! Things have been moving fast at work and at home. Not in a bad way, though. It's just a season, I suppose. I was delighted that my boss decided that a conference in Atlanta that we had been planning to attend in March just wasn't worth the time and money. Yeah! No travel in March!

2. I've started a book discussion with Megan at Half-Pint House on Through His Eyes by Jerram Barrs. It looks like a great study on women in the Bible. It's not too late for any of my bloggy friends to join in...I ordered my copy from Covenant Seminary Bookstore and got it in just two days. On another book discussion note, Challies Dot Com has also announced his next Reading Through the Classics selection and another book to read in preparation for Easter. I'm definitely going to join in for the classic.

3. Speaking of Easter, I just got another devotion book edited by Nancy Guthrie (Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter.) This one is 25 meditations on the Cross. I loved her book on Christmas. I got so much out of it as we moved toward Christmas last year. I'm really looking forward to using this as my quiet-time devotional.

4. Last night was the charity auction for Mary's school. I helped put together the auction booklet earlier this month and then ran the sales data entries last night. Matt worked pretty steady the last two days getting all of the laptops needed for the night networked together and the databases synced. He amazes me in how he can just figure stuff out. He's NOT an IT guy...just a very determined guy. :o) I think the school raised somewhere around $50K so it was definitely a success. I didn't win any of my bids as I couldn't stay out by the silent auction tables to keep bidding BUT I did get this really, really cool mirror that was left at the end of the night for just $20!! Both of my girls are fighting over it, but I think it's going to go in my room. ;-p

5. Sean seems to finally have gotten over his nasty cold he brought back from New York. Still coughing a bit though. Ellen and I have seemed to have gotten it also as we started running fevers on Thursday and Friday and now we're both pretty stuffy and miserable. UGH!!!

6. Next week is Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday for you non-Louisianians) and Ash Wednesday. Last year I went to the local Episcopal Church's Ash Wednesday service and hope to do it again this year. I was planning to use my Aunt Yan's recipe to make a King Cake to bring to work on Tuesday, but someone told me today that Fresh Market has shipped some in from a bakery in Louisiana complete with the little baby! That sounds like a much, much easier route but here's a recipe I found online that you might want to try. Be brave....you can do it!

7. Matt, Sean, and I went to a seminar this morning at church called "Exploring the CCC Family." It was basically what we used to call the "Pastor's Class" at our old church. Even with my sneezing and coughing, I was greatly encouraged. It was a 3-hour class with Pastor Dean covering personal salvation, CC's specific mission, values, and discipleship philosophy, the Evangelical Free denominational history and statements of faith, and finally what membership at CC means. While I'm not quite ready to join, this was another step in feeling more at peace with making this our family's church home. It's been a year almost since events were put into motion that caused us to lose our pastor of 12+ years and eventually for our family to begin looking for a new church home. I look back and am amazed at how God has worked in our little family's lives during this period. It has been tremendously painful, but the real truth of the matter is that it has also been a period of tremendous growth for so many people. God's plans will not be thwarted by the sin of man or the designs of Satan! I was reading a blog this week and a lady said this of a church they were beginning to attend: "It's not home yet, but it's full of love and kindness. That's enough for now." That's how I feel about Christ Community. The people have embraced our family with grace and kindness and love. They have given us much needed salve for our wounds.

Well...peace to you all tonight. Be well.

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Gospel Irrationality

Celebrate the fact that God's pure justice is tempered by his mercy. Celebrate the reality that even though not one of us is perfect, because of Christ he has accepted us without any compromise of his righteousness. In light of this it is an act of gospel irrationality to hide from him in any way. Is there any evidence of hiding from God in your life? (from this morning's devotion in Whiter Than Snow by Paul David Tripp)

"Gospel irrationality." Liked that phrase.

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Through His Eyes: Chapter 1

I've started a new book discussion of Through His Eyes: God's Perspective on Women in the Bible by Jerram Barrs at Half-Pint House. I enjoy fresh perspectives on women in the Bible and Barrs has included chapters on some of my favorites: Tamar (Genesis 38), Deborah, and the woman at the well. The first three chapters are dedicated to our first mother, Eve and chapter one focuses on her condition at Creation (Genesis 1:27-28, 2:15-25.)

While I found a lot packed into this chapter, one thing in particular jumped out at me:

"Eve and Adam were created to be significant. We are designed to willingly and gladly choose to be what God has made us to be and to live in love and in moral beauty as he designed us to live, delightedly reflecting his nature in all we do. We have a kind of limited sovereignty over our own lives, mirroring in a little way the infinite sovereignty of God's divine majesty. We are finite history-makers, under God, the Lord of history."

I liked that: "finite history-makers." I believe God has a sovereign plan specifically for my life. But I also believe He has left me plenty of space in which to freely move around - space big enough to create, to love, and to live in ways that are unique to me and glorifying to Him.

Sharing that history is important to me, too, especially with my own girls. I look back at the women in my family and wish I knew more about their lives, their relationships with God, with their husbands, and with their children. I feel a hole because there were so many I didn't know, and if I did know them, often it was in a superficial way. I yearn for the wisdom of my mothers. And, the older I get, the more I wish I had it.

So, that's the main reason why I write...why I write on this blog, write in journals, write essays, poems, stories...I'm writing for my girls, my granddaughters, even my great-granddaughters. I don't have a great burning desire to be published, other than in the hearts of my children. I want them to know what God has done in my life, how He has been faithful over and over again. Ultimately, I want them to know He will be faithful to them, too. My prayer is that maybe my stories, my history-making, will point my girls to God, the Lord of all history.

May we all see our significance and may we be little 'history-makers', living and loving creatively. Blessings.

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Going Green...

I love playing around with graphics and I can't wait for the calendar to flip over to March to 'go green', so here goes. Good-bye Valentines!

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Wisdom - Two Analogies

I went to our church's women's Bible study last night. We're going through Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Great book, by the way. I had gotten behind so I read both chapters yesterday just before we met. Guess what they were about? WISDOM! :-> (Chapter 9: God Only Wise & Chapter 10: God's Wisdom and Ours)

Packer uses two great analogies to describe what wisdom is and is not. Let's start with what wisdom is not:

"If you stand at the end of a platform at York Station, you can watch a constant succession of engine and train movements which, if you are a railway enthusiast, will greatly fascinate you. But you will only be able to form a very rough and general idea of the overall plan in terms of which all these movements are being determined.

If, however, you are privileged enough to be taken by one of the higher-ups into the magnificent electrical signal-box that lies athwart platforms 7 and 8, you will see on the longest wall a diagram of the entire track layout for five miles on either side of the station, with little glow-worm lights moving or stationary on the different tracks to show the signalmen at a glance exactly where every engine and train is. At once you will be able to look at the whole situation through the eyes of those who control it: you will see from the diagram why it was that this train had to be signalled to a halt, and that one diverted from its normal running line, and that one parked temporarily in a siding. The why and the wherefore of all these movements becomes plain once you can see the overall position.

Now, the mistake that is commonly made is to suppose that this is an illustration of what God does when he bestows wisdom: to suppose, in other words, that the gift of wisdom consists in a deepened insight into the providential meaning and purpose of events going on around us, an ability to see why God has done what he has done in a particular case, and what he is going to do next. People feel that if they were really walking close to God, so that he could import wisdom to them freely, then they would, so to speak, find themselves in the signal-box."

Packer goes on to say the gift of wisdom is more like:

"...being taught to drive. What matters in driving is the speed and appropriateness of your reactions to things and the soundness of your judgment as to what scope a situation gives you. You do not ask yourself why the road should narrow or screw itself into a dogleg wiggle just where it does, nor why that van should be parked where it is, nor why the driver in front should hug the crown of the road so lovingly; you simply try to see and do the right thing in the actual situation that presents itself. The effect of divine wisdom is to enable you and me to do just that in the actual situations of everyday life."

May we all drive well today! Blessings.

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What We Do for Fun...

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Wisdom is a Person

From my journal yesterday morning: "How do we know....? We need so much wisdom. We need God...can't do this without Him."

From my devotional reading this morning, in a book I've put down and just decided to pick back up again from where I left off a month or so ago:

"Wisdom, in its purest form, is not an outline; it's not a theology; it's not a book; it's not a system of logic. Wisdom is a Person. You don't get wisdom by experience, research, or logical deduction. You don't get wisdom by education and experimentation. You get wisdom by means of a relationship to the One who is the source of everything that's wise, good, and true." (Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin & Mercy by Paul David Tripp)

I love it when God does that.

My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-3

May we all know Wisdom.

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What Do You Think?

I found this clip through a Florida pastor's blog. Watch it. It's worth the seven minutes or so. I find this guy really interesting. I love his description of Jesus and whole-heartedly agree with how he says the mainstream churches usually portray Him. Sometimes I wonder what would Jesus think if he walked into some of our rather stuffy churches full of dress codes, rules, and somber faces. Or rather, more importantly, would we even recognize Him and accept Him into our churches?

Some of you may be familiar with Mars Hill churches through Rob Bell and his Nooma videos. (Which I just saw displayed prominently at a Barnes & Noble in Durham!)

Watch the video here at ABC News.

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Seven on Saturday

Seven Things I Learned This Week:

1. I am fully capable of staying within the walls of one hotel for four days without venturing into an unknown city. That's probably extreme introversion.

2. I really, really need to start getting outside and walking again. I miss the sky and the sun, the wind and the birds. It's good for me physically, but I think it's even better for my soul.

3. It's a lot of fun to catalog my books on Library Thing...over 500 books scanned in now! :o)

4. I am way too old to get up at 3am in the morning and stumble off to work to prepare for a morning training session. Although my mind works great under pressure, my body doesn't!

5. It takes Matt at least 24 hours of being sick before he admits he's sick. (He and Sean...and possibly Ellen...are in different stages of a really nasty cold. Hopefully not the flu.)

6. I don't own enough clothes hangers or have enough drawer space to put up all our clothes if I actually happen to get them all clean at the same time. :0)

7. I can easily eat an entire bag of Hershey's Cherry Cordial Kisses over three days.

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Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day, my bloggy friends!

I hope to stay in my pj's for most of the day. For some reason, it's seemed like a hard week.

Matt is going to cook a yummy steak dinner for his three Valentine girls tonight! Can't wait...pictures to come! ;o>

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Book Review: Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson, ISBN-10: 0312139284, 1995, Picador USA. (1995 Whitbread Book of the Year)

Rating: 5 0f 5
Source: TBR Fiction Prize Winners List for 2009

This is a great-grandmother/grandmother/mother/daughter story. Behind the Scenes is really all about the relationships between these women and how their decisions (in many instances extremely selfish ones) ripple down through the generations. It's narrated by the last woman in the line, Ruby Lennox. Here's the description from Publisher's Weekly:

"Ruby Lennox is a quirky, complex character who relates the events of her life and those of her dysfunctional family with equal parts humor, fervor and candor-starting with her moment of conception in York, England, in 1959: "I exist!" Ruby then describes the family she is to join. Her parents own a pet shop; her mother, Bunty, bitterly rues having married her philandering husband, George, and daydreams about what her life might have been. Ruby has two older sisters, willful Gillian and melancholy Patricia. Through its ambitious structure, the novel also charts five generations and more than a century of Ruby's family history, as reported in "footnotes" that follow relevant chapters. (For example, a passage about a pink glass button reveals the story of its original owner, Ruby's great-grandmother Alice, who will abandon her young family and run off with a French magician.) Ruby's richly imagined account includes both the details of daily life and the several tragic events that punctuate the family's mundane existence."

This was simply an amazing book. I read Case Histories by Kate Atkinson a couple of years ago and I remember enjoying it, but it was not nearly as spectacular as Behind the Scenes at the Museum. This was her first book...what talent! (See my "Good Words" entry on this book here.) Sometimes I read award winners or short-listers (See Remembering Babylon) and come away disappointed. But I completely understand why this book would have won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award in 1995. (BTW - Whitbread is now called the Costa Award.)

An interesting thing for me was that the story is based mostly in York, England. Matt and I surely aren't world travelers, and the only place out of the country that we've visited is....York! We went there for a friend's wedding almost five years ago. It was fun reading about places we saw on our short trip there: York Minster, Betty's, the tiny streets with leaning shops.

This book made me think about my own mother and grandmothers and great-grandmothers... and it helps me to look back at some of them with a little more grace. It also made me think really hard about my own mothering and what my girls are going to remember about our relationships. That's not always an easy thing to ponder...I'm such a mother-failure sometimes...
but thank the Lord for His mercy and grace! I need it everyday.

One caution and one negative:

Caution: there's some raunchy stuff that may be offensive to some, but I saw it as totally necessary to the story to paint the true situation Ruby was in and to understand how her ancestors sinful decisions had so impacted her life right from the beginning. Some authors seem to throw in a few smutty scenes for no apparent reason. This wasn't the case with Behind the Scenes, but still....reader beware.

Negative (and this is a really small one...not worth even taking off half a star): It's a British story through and through. British authors are not my favorite because I don't always understand their references and their writing tends to be too flowery for me. The latter was not the case in Behind the Scenes - Atkinson's prose was beautiful. The former was very true, though. I had to look a few references up because I didn't always get her British vernacular.

Spiritual content? There's references to ghosts, a visit to a church where diviners speak with the dead, one sister turns out to be Buddhist, and the narrator clearly doubts anyone "lies in the arms of Jesus" after death. Even so, I think this would be a great book for Christians to read and discuss. We need to understand the different worldviews out there so we can better engage others with the Gospel truth and prepare our children.

I highly recommend this book! Oh - I didn't own this one....but I came across it at Goodwill for fifty cents last month! Love that! :o)

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Up to 356 Books!

Got a touch of a stomach bug today, I think. Feeling better this afternoon...

I'm up to 356 books in my library on Library Thing. I ordered this handy-dandy :CueCat and it takes sooooooo much less time to get books entered. Only $15...well worth it! I spent a little time last night taking a better look around on Library Thing and am very impressed. Mary really likes scanning in the books for me. She thinks I should open an official library. :o)

And I'm feeling a little better about my book fetish. There are people with waaaayyyyy more books that I have on LT....

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Good Words: Falling on the Hard Rock of Truth

I started and finished Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson while I was in Cincinnati. Review forthcoming. Here's some "Good Words" first:

Nell is small and sort of two-dimensional.

...and the willow tree in full, silvery-green leaf that trailed in the water like a girl's hair.

Jack realized that Albert collected good days the way other people collected coins, or sets of postcards.

It's amazing how often, in the daily round, they collide with each other, fingers brushing as they reach for cups, bodies bumping as they try to pass through doors together as if Mr Roper is a magnet and Bunty a heap of iron filings.

Every so often the discomfort forces her to untwine and stretch them and when she recrosses them, twisting them round each other like two-ply wool...

They make funny noises like a cornfield in a high wind, tsk-tsk, shu-shu, foo-foo...

...her lips as bloodless as a hungry vampire's.

Until this moment of his life lies have fallen from his lips like rain, but on this occasion, this very public, important occasion, we watch in horror as he drops, like a parachutist without a parachute, onto the hard rock of truth.

In the summer she had freckles all over as if she'd been splattered with gold paint but in winter her skin went as white as milk...

Marjorie Morrison is as thin and as straight as a pencil.

"I saw her," he said later to Ada (white faced, with blue cups of grief under her eyes from sobbing her heart out).

...she has developed the hearing of a bat as if to compensate for the percolation of cells from her brain.

The slight hum of a motor vibrates softly in the air as if the hospital was a huge ship ploughing confidently through the darkness.

...the air seems to lighten and the sky begins to dry a little and, like a watermark, the pale sheen of a rainbow welcomes our train over the border.

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To Blow or Not to Blow?

Yesterday I picked up a New York Times newspaper for my last leg home. There’s a 'Science' section on Tuesdays that I like to read when I get the chance. I have a friend who has a friend that gives her his used copy. Sometimes they eventually get passed down to me, too.

I was disappointed that yesterday's Science section was mostly articles about Darwin since tomorrow (Thursday) is the 200th anniversary of his birth. I was hoping for more articles that were...hmmm...a little less 'overdone.'

Even so, the NYT did not disappoint. There were a few small articles that were Darwin-free, one being a great snippet about why you shouldn't blow your nose. Yes - that's right - shouldn't.

I hate blowing my nose, have always hated it, and will always hate it. I only do it when I feel it is absolutely necessary and always as a last resort. I've never made my children blow their noses except in the most dire of circumstances. (Now, before you say, "YUCK!" wait just a minute....I’ve never let them drip around with green goop running down their faces. Generally, I say something along the lines of, "You need to go to the bathroom and do something with your nose." I give them the freedom to decide just what that "something" should be. I think Nose Blowing should be one's personal preference and so have I raised my three Furbys.)

From the article:

“…nose blowing generated enormous pressure — “equivalent to a person’s diastolic blood pressure reading,” Dr. Hendley said — and propelled mucus into the sinuses every time. Dr. Hendley said it was unclear whether this was harmful, but added that during sickness it could shoot viruses or bacteria into the sinuses, and possibly cause further infection.”

Ugh. You can read the whole article here. I'm glad to have my personal Nose Blowing Philosophy affirmed.

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Funny

I caught a taxi today from the hotel to the airport in Cincinnati. My driver, from Senegal, was quite friendly and in the course of our conversation told me they speak French in his home country. He's only been in the United States four years and I complimented him on his English. He said he learned by watching a lot of cartoons and news.

"Hmm…that's interesting. I wonder why those in particular helped you learn English?" I asked.

"Because they both repeat the same things over and over again," he answered, in all seriousness.

Does anyone else find that funny?

After sitting in the Cincinnati and Atlanta airports today for a few hours listening to CNN play Obama's sound bites on the stimulus package non-stop, I can see his point.

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