Hospitality and Floods

 

This is another place marker post. 

I've been taking a class at the Davenant Institute studying The Chronicles of Narnia. I took it in part to push me along with the Hospitality and Lament project, but also because the professor, Dr. Jason Leporjavi, used Narnia Code by Michael Ward. Narnia Code is the popular version of Planet Narnia, and I have long wanted to discuss it with others. I'm writing this post as a marker for ideas that solidified or arose from the class that I will explore further in later posts.

1) While reading Ward's Planet Narnia around 2010, I expected to see a connection between Jupiter and his role as defender of the practice of hospitality. In Ward's work, I did not find a reference to Jupiter and hospitality. You see a similar role in Ancient Greek society based on Zeus as a defender/punisher/rewarder of hospitality or xenia. This was the cause of the whole Trojan War. Xenia was the practice of hospitality that includes responsibilities of both host and guest in the practice. More on that later. 

2) Sometime in the past, I made a connection between Ovid's poem Baucis and Philemon and the Dimbles in That Hideous Strength. Common to both was an older childless couple who practiced hospitality in its most life-giving form. Offering food, shelter, and fellowship in their poverty and childlessness. I had not connected until I recently re-read both was the common destruction by flood of those the leaders and their town for the leaders' corruption of, dismissal of, and lack of hospitality. Flood is an archetype of the destruction of wantonly corrupt societies going back to the oldest stories in antiquity, including the Jewish/Christian story. I also connected during my re-reading between the couple becoming oak trees at their death and Hermes, who, along with Jupiter, visited Baucis and Philemon. My other connection was to see that the Beavers in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe could be based on Baucis and Philemon. Both are childless, poor, and gracious in hospitality. I see here three couples who, in their poverty and childlessness, did not become bitter for childlessness and poverty are real sorrows. Instead, their woes became the ground where humility and hospitality flourished.  

3)When writing a paper for the Narnia class on the role of myth in Lewis's writing and thought, I began to see that Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader became a different boy because myth worked in him; not because as his mother thought from the influence of the Pevensie children. By participatory knowledge, he learned to look along the sunbeam when he traveled on the Dawn Treader instead of looking at the world. This will all make sense when I edit the paper for posting here.

The next post will be on the foundation of hospitality and lament, God as Good. 

Space and Abundance

 “Small events, observed with generous curiosity, yield epiphanies.” *

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

I am a summer gal. I love everything about it, including the heat and humidity. Not the hot 95 degrees hell heat. Just the normal hammock-napping, fresh tomato sandwich, cicada night-sounds summer heat. Late summer, there is peace unlike any other time of year sitting in the evenings at the pasture's edge, watching the slanted light of sunset gild dragonfly wings. September brought cool fall nights and warm summer days, turning the pasture golden where the early morning dew bends the grasses, dragonflies sit atop tall seed heads, and silver spider webs sway in the cool morning air. My husband had always mowed the acre and a half pasture every few weeks. In his absence, caring for his dad during Covidtide, the grasses grew tall, and we let it go. It gave him less to do when he would return home for short stays, and I had always wondered if birds and other animals would make good use of it if left fallow. In short, they did. 

The deer had plenty to graze and, for the most part, stayed away from my yard. The fawns and does lay near the edges of the pasture, napping during a steady misty rain without fear from coyotes or my curious presence. Flocks of goldfinches, during their spring and fall migrations, made quick work of dried seed heads and were drawn to my feeders. This year, two wild turkey hens set up residence with their eleven chicks. Their numbers are fewer now, probably due to raptors, Cooper’s Hawk, Mississippi Kite, and Red-Shouldered Hawk, who recognized the pasture's abundance as well. Watching all of this, I rarely felt alone or deprived during those solitary months.

When winter came, the pasture provided in a way I could not imagine. Winter’s cold added to the rest of the overwintering birds dark-eyed juncos, a species that only visits during that season. It’s a small sparrow-sized bird, with dark-slate uppers and a gray-white chest preferring to eat seed that falls on the ground below bird feeders. They are often harbingers of imminent snowfall that provides a backdrop that highlights their delicate beauty.

One particularly bitterly cold morning in February, when temperatures were below zero and snow covered everything, I bundled up to walk the puppy down the long gravel drive that borders the pasture. The prolonged bitter temperatures only added to the isolation I felt on this silent, gray morning. Birds, my faithful visitors, had disappeared from their feeders. As we quietly walked, I heard faint rustlings and saw the grasses stir and then watched as flocks of sparrows and dark-eyed juncos rose quickly above the pasture where they had gathered underneath in caves of snow-laden grasses. So, that’s where they were. Our "neglect" of the pasture gave shelter to them and granted me an unexpected and welcome sight. 

I planned none of it. How could I? I didn’t know then birds could burrow and shelter in grasses. Even if I had known, I’m far from being able to predict during the summer, when we let the pasture grow, birds and others would need it in a mid-winter polar vortex, much less herd the birds to safety. It happened on its own, due to a little intentional neglect and plenty of curiosity on my part. I only gave space.

Working Together

When I began making the connection between the practices of hospitality and lament and discussing it with others, I quickly realized that I needed to explain those words. Often the word “hospitality” conjured images of a table set with pristine linens, fine china, silver, and candles. Beautiful as that can be, it was a limited image and far from the images I hoped to encourage. Similarly, "lament" recalled images of an unbridled display of grief. I didn’t want either set of images to hinder others who wished to learn more about these practices. I found that some definitions and illustrations were either too terse, lengthy, or vague to be helpful. As providence would have it, Alan Jacobs came to my aid.  Some of his most recent blog posts were extremely helpful not only in providing apt descriptions for these practices but in spurring a meaningful connection between hospitality and lament. 

Jacobs is working on a series titled Invitation and Repair. In one of his recent posts in this series he discusses the use of similes saying, "Maybe that’s what humanistic thought is essentially: a search for new similes, new ways of perceiving the familiar — better to appreciate it when it deserves appreciation and better to change it when it requires changing.“ This was what I was looking for, similes for hospitality and lament. Words flexible enough to give me new ways to explain the practices and allow others new ways to envision and embody those practices. In his next post, I found those similes and meaningful connections between hospitality and lament. 

In his post titled, not giving up, Jacobs explained, "One way to describe the Invitation and Repair project is to say that it’s for people who haven’t given up." He goes on to give examples of various institutions and how they have given up their good purpose. Those good purposes, he says, require the hard, patient work of those who do not give up. This idea is easily connected to both hospitality and lament. Those who practice hospitality and lament commit to hard, patient work, knowing there will be temptations to give up.  Both practices require physical, emotional, and spiritual stamina which are often tested due to the frequency and intensity of the work. 

Jacobs goes on to say in doing the work of inviting and repairing, "we manifest hope: we look towards a future of cooperative endeavor — cooperative discovery, cooperative healing."* There was the connection I had been looking for between hospitality and lament, hope. The two practices work in a cooperative endeavor to manifest hope. When hope is initiated and supported within hospitality, then the practice of lament can work within and toward hope and healing. If the hard, patient works of lament and hospitality don’t collaborate, and if hospitality and lament surrender to the temptation to give up, hope and healing are forfeited. Hospitality and lament must work in collaboration for the discovery of hope and healing.

And what of those similes?  Well, I saw that hospitality offers an invitation of hope to those who seek, in their lament, to repair hope grown tired or lost along the way. So, invitation and repair seem at this point to be apt similes for hospitality and lament. 

*This echoes Andy Crouch's suggestion that lament is the seedbed of creativity, but that is an upcoming post. 

A Path

This is a tentative outline of upcoming posts laying out my discussion of hospitality as the soil for lament. You can read the impetus here. 

The first set of posts will give background information on hospitality from ancient, medieval, and biblical perspectives. If time permits, I plan to take the time to examine how the meaning of the term "hospitality" has changed to our present understanding. For certain I will show the connection between hospitality and lament from the Latin root word "hospitalis". 

The second series of posts gives a broad overview of suffering historically and biblically. I'm indebted to Tim Keller and his thorough coverage in Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.

The next series will cover the practice of lament from ancient through present times. 

A fourth series explores the practices of lament as seen in the record of protestant Bibles. I hope at some time in the future to look at other traditions as well. 

A smaller series will look at how, and if, various protestant traditions, have included lament within their times of corporate and private worship.

A post or two will feature Andy Crouch's suggestion that lament is the seedbed of creativity. 

The last of the posts will examine how each of the Narnia books show us lament practiced within hospitality. 

Why the Chronicles of Narnia?  Reading, and re-reading, the Narnian tales as an adult can be a vastly different experience than reading as a child.   As C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnian tales, these stories allow us to

 "steal past a certain inhibition which had paralysed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. And reverence itself did harm. The whole subject was associated with lowered voices; almost as if it were something medical. But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.” ¹ 

When someone is paralyzed, it is difficult to grow physically, emotionally or spiritually. These stories can show us our paralysis. On a personal note, when reading The Horse and His Boy, particularly the chapter, "The Unwelcome Fellow Traveler", I finally saw God's sovereignty of goodness and generosity in my own life, not the begrudging god I had created and which had paralyzed me, when Aslan invites Shasta to "Tell me your sorrows."   As we see a little further in the story, Aslan full well knew Shasta's sorrows and his questions, but Shasta's re-telling was necessary for Shasta to acknowledge his hurt and paralysis and Aslan to give comfort and freedom. 

Some have noted the overuse of and overreliance on Lewis's works, and some even go as far as to dismiss him, his works, and those within the Inklings universe due to that overuse and overreliance. To those, I say, abusus non tollit usum.² It seems from the quote above my use would be in line with his purposes. 

1. C. S Lewis, "Sometimes Fairy Stories May Say Best What’s to be Said" in On Words and other Essays on Literature, ed. Walter Hooper (Harvest, 1982) pg. 47

2. Misuse of something is no argument against its proper use

Resources

There really aren't any new ideas (but always new connections) so a bibliography of sorts is needed and hopefully this will list most of the materials I will reference in blog posts. I'm not including links, but I will include ISBN numbers where appropriate. If any of these materials interest you, please consider purchasing them from Byron Borger at Hearts and Minds Bookstore or other independent booksellers. If it is not listed on Bryon's site, email him and he can probably get it. This list will be updated.

Hospitality:

• Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine Pohl 0802844316
• Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring by Andi Ashworth 0877880484
• Illiad Elizabeth Vandiver Great Courses Lecture

Suffering and Grief:

• Walking with God in Pain and Suffering Tim Keller
• Embodied Hope by Kelly Kapic
• Companions in Suffering by Wendy Alsup
• Grace Disguised by Gerry Sittser
• Affliction by Edith Schaeffer
• How Long O Lord by D. A Carson
• Making Sense of Suffering by Peter Kreeft
• This Too Shall Last by K. J. Ramsey
• Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep

Lament:

• Praise and Lament in the Psalms by Claus Westermann
• The Psalms as Christian Lament
• Hurting with God: Learning to Lament with the Psalms by Greg Pemberton  0891124004
• Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament By: Mark Vroegop 1433561484
• A Heart Set Free: A Journey to hope through the Psalms of Lament By: Christina Fox 1781917280
• A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament By: Michael Card 1576836673
• Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times By: Soong-Chan Rah 0830836942
• The Psalms of Lament in Mark's Passion: Jesus' Davidic Suffering by Stephen Ahearne-Kroll 0521130409
• The Uncertainty of a Hearing: A Study of the Sudden Change of Mood in the Psalms of Lament [Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 121] Villanueva, Frederico G.
• After Lament by Glenn Pemberton
• Rejoicing in Lament

Death:

• The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom by Lydia S. Dugdale  0062932632 
• The End of the Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live By: J. Todd Billings 1587434202

Other:

• Inexpressible: Hesed and the Mystery of God's Lovingkindness By: Michael Card 0830845496
• Reflections on the Psalms By: C.S. Lewis 0062565486
• Surprised by Paradox: The Promise of And in an Either-Or World by Jen Pollock Michel
• Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk, and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch
• Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Tim Keller
• The Chronicles of Narnia print and audio

Why?

Why? Why put these ideas out here? For one it is a way of me thinking through how hospitality, fully practiced, tills the ground to allow the gospel of Christ to be heard and lived in, especially those places of lament.  

A friend of mine and I were texting back and forth a few months ago about an idea I had for post-Covidtide. It involves clearing a path and setting up space beside a stream, a place where small groups or individuals could come for a day to slow down, sit, pray, think, reflect, and lament. Perhaps some of these posts will be provided to use as a guide if needed. While it will be years, if ever, before we understand the impacts this time has had on all of us, the time is ripe for some to walk down that path and sit quietly. Some have lost loved ones, jobs, money, time with family and friends. We have all experienced an overwhelming sense of instability at times. But loss and uncertainty, as with good fortune, is best lived with others. True no one can experience or live loss for you, but we can share it with each other. 

 

Between The Lion's Paws - Laying Down a Marker

PNG Pic Lion

I'm following in the footsteps of Alan Jacob in the way that a child does her father on a sandy beach. She attempts and misses but continues in belief that he knows where he is headed or least, he has an idea. Why I am choosing to share this project on my blog can best be expressed in this post  where Alan explain the difference between the blogosphere and blogging.  Specifically, he contends that blogging can be dialogical:

... I post a thought; later, I return to it with an update; someone responds, and I incorporate their thoughts into a new post that links to them and to the original – basically, what I am doing right now. Note also that blogging, when done in this fashion and in this spirit, is also seriously dialogical, and I think there is a close connection between a dialogue-friendly medium and a forgiving medium. More on that another time, perhaps.

In this blog post he writes of a new project, saying that he is  "Just laying down a marker here, by way of a beginning."

And so, I do the same. Laying down a marker, by beginning. More accurately continuing and combining several themes I've read about, mulled over, and noticed connections between for over ten years now. It's time to put the pieces on the table, see if they fit and if they do how.  If they don't at least I will know.

The themes I've worked with are lament, suffering, hesed, the goodness of the Lord, hospitality, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Subsequent posts will list resources and initial thoughts of these themes and others. While at times lament will take a prominent seat, it is only because we have lost this God-given practice, and I am convinced, as you will see from others as well, one we need to recover quickly.

First, I am indebted to Michael Ward for sparking this line of thinking via passages in his brilliant book Planet Narnia. Ward makes a convincing argument for his theory that each of the Narnia books corresponds with a planetary influence properly understood within medieval cosmology. You can watch here for a summary of that argument. While living through a season where many if not most of my beliefs about grief and suffering, and the goodness of God were challenged and dismantled, this passage from the chapter "Saturn" helped to begin a rebuilding. (Saturn being a vehicle to express the sorrows of this life.)

Despair or outrage at crookedness only makes sense of one has a notion of the straight, and that notions could not have arisen if everything were bent or even if everything were dualistically good and bad, for dualism is a truncated metaphysic which cannot account for the natural human preference for happiness over sorrow. Saturn with his plagues and pestilences therefore cannot be sovereign, Indeed, it is only by virtue of his deferral to Jove that Saturn can exert his true influence, making his patients into contemplatives who see beyond sorrow. 

It was in re-reading the Narnia stories with his theory in mind that I noticed that each book begins with a lamentable state.  A state with hints of Saturnine influence that could and did lead to expressions of lament. But the more surprising element began to appear on subsequent readings. Without the presence of Jovian hospitality (Jupiter being the god who presides over hospitality, read the story here),  true lament could not occur and accomplish the work it is given. 

Said another way, from a  psalm that I came to learn is a psalm of hospitality,

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

    He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

    he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

    for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk

    through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

    for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

    in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

    my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me

    all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord.

Psalms 23 George Herbert

The 23 Psalme.

THe God of love my shepherd is, And he that doth me feed: While he is mine, and I am his, What can I want or need? He leads me to the tender grasse, Where I both feed and rest; Then to the streams that gently passe: In both I have the best. Or if I stray, he doth convert And bring my minde in frame: And all this not for my desert, But for his holy name. Yea, in deaths shadie black abode Well may I walk, not fear: For thou art with me; and thy rod To guide, thy staff to bear. Nay, thou dost make me sit and dine, Ev’n in my enemies sight: My head with oyl, my cup with wine Runnes over day and night. Surely thy sweet and wondrous love Shall measure all my dayes; And as it never shall remove, So neither shall my praise.

Psalm 77

To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph.

I cry aloud to God,
    aloud to God, and he will hear me.
In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord;
    in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying;
    my soul refuses to be comforted.
When I remember God, I moan;
    when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah

You hold my eyelids open;
    I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
I consider the days of old,
    the years long ago.
I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;
    let me meditate in my heart.”
    Then my spirit made a diligent search:
“Will the Lord spurn forever,
    and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
    Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

Then I said, “I will appeal to this,
    to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
    yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
    and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
    What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
    you have made known your might among the peoples.
You with your arm redeemed your people,
    the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

When the waters saw you, O God,
    when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
    indeed, the deep trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
    the skies gave forth thunder;
    your arrows flashed on every side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
    your lightnings lighted up the world;
    the earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea,
    your path through the great waters;
    yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock
    by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Grafted, Gratitude, and Grace

 "...Sam Van Aken has grown a new variety of fruit tree that produces 40 different types of stone fruit each year."

My, oh my, what a beautiful tree, what a beautiful metaphor, what a beautiful reality...

"you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,  do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. "
Romans 11:17B-18 ESV

What a gift we have been given to be grafted in and to be nourished, loved, to live, and to bear fruit. To bear with,  to love one another.

By bearing one another's burdens, by loving we fulfill the law of Christ. and his law, his commandment...to love one another. This is what proves we are his, his disciples, what gives God glory. This bearing one another and this bearing of fruit are the same. Loving as He loved by laying down our lives. Bearing up in order to bear the fruit of love.

Bear One Another's Burdens

6 Brothers,^[a] if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. ² Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³ For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. ⁴ But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. ⁵ For each will have to bear his own load.

Read more at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+6&version=ESV#qrG30jqkPPSZZZuZ.99

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants,^[a] for the servant^[b] does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. ¹⁷ These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Grafting is not without it's pain and neither is growth. Pruning is required

For more, click on the tree of forty fruits to the right to be take to Sam Van Aken's website and enjoy listening to his reason for taking on this project.

Images of winter

We have a snow day here and so I'm taking time to clear my camera's card. I wanted to share a few images of our winter here in the area. Currently we are snowed/iced in and waiting for, hopefully, another snow day. Slowing down and taking in the scenery is a good in and of itself. As always click on the photo for a larger view.

30 Days of Thankfulness

Being home and dinner with the family.

The End of This Story and the Beginning of All the Others

   "'Understand, then, that it would have healed her; but not to your joy or hers. The day would have come when both you and she would have looked back and said it would have been better to die in that illness.'
   And Digory could say nothing, for tears choked him and he gave up all hopes of saving his Mother's life; but at the same time he knew that the Lion knew what would have happened, and that there might be things more terrible even than losing someone you love by death."

The Magician's Nephew

C. S. Lewis

Fall recipes

Recipes from the past week and were included in the previous post's collage included:

Waffles with Pumpkin Butter 

Lasagna Soup

Black Bean Soup with Cider Roasted Vegetables and Foccacia

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies 

I added the toffee! :)

Click on the items to take you to the recipe.

Prepare

Come, ye thankful people, come,

Raise the song of harvest-home:

All is safely gathered in,

Ere the winter storms begin;

God, our Maker, doth provide

For our wants to be supplied:

Come to God's own temple, come,

Raise the song of harvest-home.

Cooler days and nights, day's clear blue noon sky, evening sun with its rays angled, turning all to gold...the coming of  Fall. Not sure why but for some reason it always brings out the homemaker in me. I cook ahead, bring out the old fall decor and attempt a few new to add to the collection, and for some reason in the far corners of my mind,  "all is safely gathered in, 'ere the winter storm begins", plays quietly.The collage shows my attempts over the past few days to do just that... just knowing that a few things are done to bring 'glory and beauty' (thanks for the reminder, Chris) to our home encourages me to be grateful for so much in my life. Being prepared, both actively and passively, seem to foster that gratitude. Sometimes you prepare and know why you are preparing , sometimes you are prepared unknowingly and for a task that hasn't entered your thoughts; God prepares us in ways we don't recognize. And while preparation is important, our women's Bible study reminded me of something far more important. Our study of Joseph serving in Egypt emphasized the point that God was with him, and Joseph, having plenty of time, recognized this. So it is with His people.  The reminder came just in time...a dear friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. Yep, the 'C' word. But, caught early.  She, I, our families and friends are prepared, but more importantly we know God is with us. And in the days to come we hope to attentively recognize how He is with us, as well as, taking the time to remember,  it is not because of ourselves, or what we have or haven't done, but because He say so.   And that in and of itself is our preparation and enables us to sing.

Summer 2010

A very good summer

Slowing down

"The transformation of my soul into Christ-likeness is incredibly snail-paced, and yet there are moments when I sense the heat of the Holy Spirit slowly at work within."~Margie Haack

Margie Haack has an article in Comment that gives insight into the growth we can recognize a little better when we slow down and anticipate instead of hurry from one moment and experience to the next. Her example of slowing down meal preparation, enjoying our work, waiting for the fruit of our labor, and then sharing in the joy eating the meal with another, is one simple but profound way of showing us that what we do, how we live and how we think inform one another and are all part of the Holy Spirit's work to transform us.

Our Humanity

This is a beautiful quote:

Kruger again, speaking of the incarnation of the Son of God as a carpenter in Nazareth: “For at least a moment in history, human laughter, human sharing, human compassion, human love, human fellowship and comaraderie and togetherness were all more than human. For at least one moment in history, carpentry and the delight of making things and helping others, human excellence and the pride and joy and creativity and design and moving from design to completed product, were all more than merely human. They were the living expression of the humanity of God, the living expression of the incarnate Son living out his divine sonship, the living expression of a man utterly baptized in the Holy Spirit.”
And not just for a moment. Jesus hasn’t become a “spectator.” By His Spirit, “He continues to live out his sonship, today and forever, as a human being - he just does not do it alone, but in union with us, in and through our work and play and gardening, in and through our relationships, our friendship, our marriages and romance, in and through our doctoring and teaching and carpentry, in and through our lake designing and dirt moving, in and through our social work and research and study and saving whales.”

http://www.leithart.com/2008/06/06/living-out-sonship/