From Doing to Being

Conflict in MY home??

2011-12-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

What could a workshop entitled "Conflict in the Home" possibly have to offer for me, the perfect mom living in the perfect home with one teen, two tweens, and an adolescent dog?

Conflict? In MY home? No-o-o-o...

Right.

So Rick and I went to this workshop at our church facilitated by Harv Powers (really, if you didn't just click that link, take a second...go meet Harv). Here are some of our takeaways from the night:

We were reminded of what we can teach our children through conflict -- how to give and receive grace. We can see and experience God's love and mercy in each other....(or not). And we're always teaching (Deuteronomy 6:7).

Conflict is normal, not wrong. (That's a relief because we have plenty of it around here!)

Conflict is a process, not an event. I need to pay more attention to the cycle as a whole, thinking of it like a dance where my steps impact the steps my partner takes and vice versa. (I'm not a very good dancer...hopefully the metaphor only goes so far.) Each child (and adult) in our house will approach conflict differently, and we all need to learn to dance with our partners.

When our approach to conflict isn't working, we tend to do more of the same thing (note to self: that is also the definition of insanity). Here's how I do this. When talking about an issue gets me nowhere, I talk more...or louder...but usually both. If threatening consequences doesn't get the reaction I want, I up the ante and threaten bigger consequences. Instead I should be asking myself this, "What about the cycle takes us to the wrong place, and how do I change what I'm doing to change the cycle?" This is my primary area of struggle.

We talk about respect a lot in our house. At least we thought we did. But what Rick and I realized is that we are constantly pointing out what disrespect looks like...without clearly defining for our kids what we mean by respect. Here is a definition Harv gave...everyone has the right: 1) to be listened to 2) to be taken seriously 3) to be spoken to kindly and politely. We want to do a better job of positively reinforcing respect (especially between siblings) when we see it.

We need to shift our approach to conflict to match our kids' developmental needs and abilities. Realistically, with tweens and teens, we need to be less about compliance for its own sake and more willing to engage in discussion and disagreement to help our kids develop the critical thinking skills that will help them grow into successful adults. There will still be some non-negotiables, but we see the value in wrestling with our kids to find middle ground most of the time.

What about you? Any conflict in your home? Where are you struggling? Where are you succeeding? What are you learning? How does grace fit in? Do share!

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Linking up with Anne at the Antbed

So many books...so little time

2011-12-02T08:44:00.001-07:00

I haven't been writing much lately, but I haven't given up on reading. Here are a few I've read recently with super short reviews to whet your appetite if you're looking for something to read by the fire.

The Thirteenth Tale
Think Jane Eyre with less effort. A mystery set in a grand old mansion on the English moors with more than one secret to unravel. Great writing about writing, as the main character is an author, writing the biography of an author. I read this a few years ago, and it was just as good the second time. Definitely one of my top reads for 2011.

Prodigal God
This was a church-wide study at my church, and our small group read and discussed the book together. The book explores the story of the Prodigal Son with a twist, focusing more on the prodigality of God (did you know that prodigal means "spending extravagantly?") and showing how both the younger, rebellious brother and the elder, obedient brother are living far from God. Great concepts about what it really means to be a Christian (turns out it's more about being than about doing).

Those Who Save Us
Trudy was only three when she and her mother, Anna, were liberated from WWII Germany by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Now a university professor researching the roles of ordinary Germans in the Holocaust, she unearths the mystery, despite her mother's persistent stonewalling, behind the only artifact she has from her past, a family photo of her, her mother, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
The title says a lot! Rob Bell has taken some hits from evangelical Christians for this book. Which I think is a great reason alone to give it a read. Bell fleshes out, "God is love," in ways that seriously challenge some of the preconceptions/misconceptions that get in between people and God. In his words, "Often times when I meet atheists and we talk about the god they don't believe in, we quickly discover that I don't believe in that god either."

The 19th Wife
Early Mormonism and its current state -- especially as it pertains to polygamy -- is the subject of this novel. The dual timeline makes reading tedious at times, particularly in long drawn out historical sections. Characterization and the mystery in the current timeline are thin and fairly predictable. The book is though provoking when it comes to examining how a religion begins and evolves. It's important to note that it's FICTION -- even the parts that appear to come from old handbills and Ann Eliza Young's original manuscript. The author is quite clear about this at the end of the book. Didn't love this one.

Faithful Place
I have loved Tana French's other books. She does a great mystery set in Ireland with recurring characters in law enforcement. This one dragged at times, as it described family dysfunction over decades leading up to a just-discovered decades old murder. Love the author; this isn't her best book, though. I would highly recommend her other books, In the Woods and The Likeness.

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These are numbers 34-39 in my quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks. With only 4 weeks left, I don't think I'll make it, but it's been fun trying. Click here to browse all the books I've read this year.

Dinner with Jesus

2011-11-07T22:15:00.001-07:00

Imagine you're sitting at work one day, minding your own business, doing whatever it is you do with your day.

A man walks up. Maybe you've seen him around, heard a few things about him. He stands in front of your desk and says, "Follow me."

What would you do?

Luke 5 tells the story of what Levi the tax collector did in that situation. Jesus stands at the desk of Levi, the tax collector, the lowest of the low, a government sponsored extortionist, and says, "Follow me." Levi gets up, leaves everything behind and follows him.

What does this say about the kinds of people Jesus pursues?

The very next thing Levi does is throw a dinner party for all his friends. Here are some things he didn't do in between following and the party:

join Extortionists Anonymous and try to clean up his life
take the New Members Class and join a Small Group
run out to Family Christian to buy the New Christian packet, complete with bumper sticker, mouse pad, key chain, bible bag and wall hangings for every room in the house
go to a Christian conference
start writing a Christian blog

Those are the kinds of things a girl like me does. Show me the program and give me the t-shirt because I'm a follower, baby! What do I check off my list next?

(ahem...could this be one of those times when life is less about doing and more about being?)

Levi followed simply by opening his doors to everyone he knew and inviting them to dinner, to the banquet of grace he found in Jesus.

The people who came were people like Levi. And Jesus didn't just show up. He was the guest of honor.

What kind of people does Jesus pursue?

Not the healthy (or the people who think they are). The sick ... who KNOW they are. Those are the people Jesus comes after, those are the people he invites to follow, those are the people he sits around a table with, eating and drinking and laughing.

Following Jesus is saying, "Jesus, I am sick! Make me well!" And then, being made well, immediately inviting all my sick friends to the table, not with gospel tracts and bible studies. But with parties, banquets where the food and drink and music and laughter make much of the one who has made me well.

Levi left everything and followed.

Do I know I am sick deeply enough to follow the only one who can make me well?
Do I know it so well that I'll leave everything behind and follow his call?
And in following, will I throw open my doors and invite the kinds of people Jesus loves to pursue to the banquet?
Who can I invite today, tomorrow, next week?

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Based on the latest sermon in the Dinner with Jesus series at my church. Click here for the full sermon.

Linking up with Michelle @ Graceful and Jen @ Finding Heaven

Dear Blogger,

2011-11-06T14:41:00.002-07:00

As much as I like the concept of the new Dynamic Views, I hate how much control I have to give up to get the new look. I try not to be a control freak. But...

I like to see the lovely smiles of the people kind enough to read and follow my blog
I like using Disqus to be able to reply to comments and keep the conversation going
I like being able to list the blogs that inspire me and send others that way

Overall, I like making blogging less about me and my content and more about community and the richness other people have to offer. So...despite the lovely look of Dynamic Views, I'm going back to my old template.

Thanks for everything. I hope you can make Dynamic Views more community oriented sometime in the future.

Kim

P.S. It really stinks that all the great comments people left while I was trying on the new look are lost. I hope those kind souls know that I appreciate every single one of them,

The New Look

2011-11-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've been trying on Blogger's new Dynamic Views for the past few days. I know what I like (it's cleaner, simpler, more engaging) and dislike (NONE of my gadgets work and I've lost all sidebar action -- though that did force me to finally make an About Me page).

But I'm more interested in what YOU think.

What do you LIKE about Dynamic Views? (Did you notice you can change how the blog looks with the dropdown menu at the top left? Which view is your favorite?)
What do you HATE about the new format?

And the biggest question....what should I do? Stay with the new or go back to a more standard template?

I'd love to hear from you!

Walking through the Valley

2011-11-05T22:17:00.000-06:00

Driving toward the Grand Canyon I asked, "So Peyton, how big do you think the Grand Canyon is?"

His reply, "I'm gonna say it's at least 200 feet across."

The "at least" saved him.

But it got me wondering how often I've made the same mistake as I traipse through life. Underestimating the depth and the breadth of the valley, foolishly expecting a little gully when it's canyon-sized.

And as I think that thought, this passage, one of the first I learned as a child, soothingly reminds me that come what may -- gully, valley or Grand Canyon -- I don't have to walk it alone.

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Linking up with Katie for Scripture and a Snapshot and Anne at the Antbed for Pages in Your Heritage of Faith

Overlooked and Ignored

2011-11-04T17:55:00.002-06:00

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In Luke 7, a woman crashes a Pharisee's party.

The Pharisee had invited Jesus to dinner. In that place, at that time, it was customary for the host to offer a bowl of water and a towel to wash his guest's feet, and perhaps some perfumed oil for freshening up.

But the Pharisee offered nothing. Jesus sat at his table, unwelcome and unwashed. Overlooked and ignored.

Except by the party crasher, an "immoral woman" who slipped in and sat at Jesus' feet, unnoticed until, weeping, she washed them with her tears, wiped them dry with her hair, and anointed his feet with costly perfume.

And the Pharisee derided Jesus for allowing such a sinner to touch him, to even come near.

What was Jesus' response? A story of course.

“A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

“I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt," the Pharisee replied.

Which begs the question....

Being a sinner and having had a large debt canceled ... day after day after sinful day ... how does this immoral woman show love like that immoral woman did?

I am not in the presence of Jesus, unwelcome and unwashed, overlooked and ignored, at the Pharisee's table.

Or am I?

The answer is in another story of course.

   I was hungry and you fed me,
   I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
   I was homeless and you gave me a room,
   I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
   I was sick and you stopped to visit,
   I was in prison and you came to me.'

'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?'

'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'

Do I love him that much? Do I have the courage to crash the party? To sit at the feet of the unwelcome and unwashed, the overlooked and ignored? Do you?

______________________

How can you open your eyes to the overlook and ignored? How can you wash their feet?

What the fire leaves behind

2011-09-13T10:16:00.002-06:00

Last week a wildfire, dancing, licking, devoured the dry grass in the open space near my home. After a white hot sprint toward the dirt road, thwarted by the maintenance worker shoveling dirt off the road onto the grass, the fire surrendered to water when firefighters arrived.

Early this morning, I walked that road for the first time since, shocked at the black, charred scar the flames left behind. Blackened earth, surreal, somehow holy, stiff with petrified shadows of grass clumps and wildflowers.

Looking at the ruin, the scar, the somehow holy blackness, I tried to imagine the remains of my home standing in it, blending in. I could not.

What I cannot imagine is reality today for my cousin and thousands of her neighbors. Their homes in Bastrop County, Texas, 1,700 of them, are petrified shadows, succumbing to the sea of black. Gone. And I cannot imagine.

15 minutes. The fire is coming. You have to get out. What do you take?

My cousin and her daughter were trying to come home from the grocery store and couldn't get past the roadblock. Her husband and son were home, making those quick decisions, corraling pets -- dogs and cats -- grabbing a high school diploma and driving their cars away, leaving their home to the possibility of fire.

And the fire came.

It always does.

What do you take with you?

Source

The fire comes, the refining fire, burning away all that is not essential.

And when it is gone, what do you have left?

Perhaps it's easier to account the loss. The great grandmother's locket. The wedding gift platter that's held Thanksgiving turkey all these years. The family photos, the baby footprints and handprints. The quilt your grandmother embroidered. The ring your husband gave you for your tenth anniversary. All the things you'll reach for because they hold treasures of the heart -- but they no longer exist outside your heart. And I do not diminish that loss.

Yet, I affirm and raise up what the fire did not take.

Life.

Relationships.

The people (and, yes, most certainly, the pets) that make life shine.

The families pulling together, the neighbors helping neighbors, the strangers wanting to lend a hand.

The beauty of a community rising up from the ashes, resisting the flames and the soot, refusing to be blackened, shriveled shadows and choosing to love one another in ways they may have been unable to imagine before.

Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19-20)

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Linking up with Shanda today for On Your Heart Tuesday.

Friends Are Good

2011-09-12T22:01:00.000-06:00

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Genesis 1 is a creation story. In it, God made everything. In six days, he made it all, and on every day, he saw that it was good. Except on the sixth day, when he made all the animals and human beings. And on that day, he saw that it was very good.

God made it all. And it was all good. And you and I...we were very good.

Until Genesis 2, when God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone."

God created human beings in his own image. They were good. But it was not good for them to be alone.

This longing we have for other people.... It's not a design flaw. It's how God made us. On purpose. In his image.

He wants us to live our lives with other people.

And that's why the connections we find with other souls created in God's image -- especially the ones we find when all hell breaks loose -- are so precious.

Where has hell broken loose in your life? What precious connections reminded you it was not good to be alone?

This September 12 I'm thankful for so many things ....

Connections like the one ten years and a day ago between Victor Wald and Harry Ramos in the North Tower stairwell, who knew that it was not good to be alone.
Safety and a place to call home (her parents' camper in his parents' yard, humble as it may be) for my cousin Deb and her family, whose house burned down last week in the Bastrop County fires.
The way communities pull together, connecting with one another even in their loss, as Deb and her daughter volunteered at the local high school distributing donated clothing...and as their family added one more child to an already crowded camper to help a single-parent family who also lost their home to the fire, just until the mom could find someplace better than the shelter for her family to be together.
Family far and wide pulling together to support Deb and her family.
Baby Caleb, my cousin Amanda's little one, coming home for the first time after a week in the NICU, bringing that new little family together at last.
Time for our small group to connect and new people joining our group next week.
Connection in this crazy blogosphere that are truly precious to me....you know who you are.
And for 10 September 12ths with my family and friends over the last decade.

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Linking up with Michelle at Graceful. And with Ann at Holy Experience. And with Jen at Finding Heaven.

Book Review: The Hunger Games Trilogy

2011-09-09T05:07:00.003-06:00

Technically, The Hunger Games is youth fiction. But it's quality (quick) adult reading too. And if you have a tween or teen who might be interested in the series, I suggest reading it to help your child navigate some of the larger social and spiritual issues the stories tap.

The trilogy follows main character, Katniss Everdeen, who lives in an outlying district of the country Panem (in the ruins of what was once known as North America). Panem is composed of an affluent Capitol, where people live in luxury lacking nothing, surrounded by 12 districts that provide all the country's resources while the district inhabitants live in poverty, hunger and oppression.

Each year, to remind the districts of the power structure and to entertain the residents of the Capitol, the Hunger Games are held, pitting a male and female tribute from each district in an arena designed to challenge them physically, psychologically and spiritually as they fight to the death to become the last boy or girl standing (tributes are always 12-18 years of age). Sixteen-year-old Katniss becomes the tribute for District 12 when she volunteers to replace her sister, Prim, who is only twelve. Peeta Mellark is her counterpart.

The first book of the trilogy details Katniss's journey to and through the Hunger Games and ends at the conclusion of that year's Hunger Games. The second and third books tell the story of the resistance and revolution that follow. That's all I'll say because details would be spoilers.

The premise of the story is dark, and the darkness deepens as the stories progress. By the end I was yearning for some kind of light and happiness. This is a good reason to read them before or with your kids. I see the books as a great read for tweens and teens, not only because they are suspenseful enough to entertain even reluctant readers but because they provide a vehicle for thought and discussion about power, resistance, human rights, and the importance of being true to oneself.

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Numbers 31-33 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. What are you reading? Link up or share what you're reading in a comment right here.

On Its Face

2011-09-08T08:51:00.002-06:00

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I can say with complete confidence that a Scientific American article has never made me cry. Until today.

On its face, the topic of this article might be a curious piece of trivia but nothing more. Apparently, when you look at the 9/11 Memorial there's no obvious order to the 2,983 names etched in bronze surrounding two pools, one north and one south. They're not alphabetical. So how are they arranged?

This story explains that the names are arranged in a way that represents the relational networks among the people whose deaths are memorialized there. It wasn't easy, as the article explains. But I'm so glad it's true.

To me, there's something hauntingly, inexplicably beautiful about the intentionality in this. And about how the interconnectedness among so many people is captured in time and space on the face of the memorial -- from the Vigiano brothers, John and Joseph, whose names connect fire and police squads responding at the South Tower to Victor Wald and Harry Ramos who met for the first time in the North Tower stairwell where they died together on September 11, 2001.

I don't know when or if I'll get to see the memorial in person. But knowing about this relational network changes the way I think about all those names. What on the face looks random and chaotic has an underlying meaning, defined by the interconnections between people, the way their lives and their souls intertwined. And knowing that could change the way I view a lot of what looks random, on its face, in this world.

Two Books I Loved...And One I Could Have Skipped

2011-08-19T12:40:00.000-06:00

I didn't write much this summer, but I did read. Here are quick reviews for the books I read in July:

The Kitchen House
If you loved The Help, try The Kitchen House, a debut novel by Kathleen Grissom about Lavinia, an Irish orphan who comes to live on a tobacco plantation as an indentured servant. Seven-year-old Lavinia is left in the kitchen house with Belle, who along with other slaves who work in the big house, become Lavinia's adopted family. As Lavinia grows, she straddles two worlds, trying to understand why the color of her skin creates conflict with the bonds of her heart. Grissom deftly juggles a coming of age story with the complexities, cruelties, and unexpected kinships of slavery in 1700's America.

If you're looking for a book club selection, this is a great one. There's an interview with the author and great discussion questions at the back.

Year of Wonders
Every time I have explained this book, I get the same response. "Quite the pick me up feel good story, huh?" Well....no. But I loved it!

Year of Wonders is fiction based on an actual "plague village" in England, a village that, when the black plague broke out, quarantined itself to avoid spreading the disease. As the plague ravages the village, it's sometimes hard to tell who is sicker...the ones who suffer and die or the ones who survive, as the quarantine becomes a crucible, stripping away artifice and finally showing people for what they truly are.

The Birth of Love
Intrigued by another reader's review, I tried this book, an award winner in Canada. And I hated it. It's really three short stories, told in three times with three separate sets of characters tied loosely together by the theme of child birth and how it is managed by the medical profession and society in general. The central question of the story is quite interesting....how do advances in medicine and the declining state of the world impact human reproduction over time, through a few hundred years from now? But as I neared the end of the book, I realized....there's no real story here. There was only a loose connection between the three story lines, and no satisfying conclusion. I didn't even find a connection with the characters, which will sometimes redeem an otherwise lackluster read. This one I could have skipped.

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Numbers 28-30 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Last one was The Sentimentalists.

What are you reading? Link up or share what you're reading in a comment right here.

If you want to walk on water....

2011-08-17T12:32:00.001-06:00

Summer is finally over. The kids went back to school last week, and I feel like I'm recovering some semblance of sanity (as sane as I get anyway).

With some time to reflect, I've realized how many times over the summer I felt like things were out of control and it was my job to save the day.

The kids were squabbling (or coming to blows). Bills need paying. Kids wanted to be run hither and yon, have friends over to play, and generally pulled me in three directions at once like some kind of Elasto-girl.

In the midst of all that need, I felt like it was my job to walk on water.

When I think of walking on water, Peter immediately comes to mind. Peter. On a boat, battered by wind and waves, trembling as he shouts to what might be an apparition walking on the water,

“Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”

I think of the old adage,

"If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat."

Only Peter dared step out of the boat (I love him for that), but in the end his fear was his failure (and I hate it when I am Peter). And I think of Jesus' reprimand as he lifts Peter above the troubled waters,

“You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

Peter wanted to walk on the water. I feel like I have to walk on the water. And neither of us can.

Last time I read that story, though, I was arrested by what comes before it, the story of what Jesus was doing right before he walked on the water.

Do you know it?

It starts right after the story of the loaves and fishes, the feeding of the 5,000. It's just two sentences. I might have missed it.

Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.

He went up into the hills.

By himself.

To pray.

How often do I leave that part out? I see trouble and I go out to save the day.

The wind blows. The waves crash. The children cry out. And I think it's my job to walk on the water.

But I haven't gone into the hills. By myself. To pray.

I haven't given the water over to God. Let him remind me that being in this boat is my job. Walking on that water is his.

I haven't even asked him to call me out. I've just stepped out on my own.

My first step out of the boat should not be onto the water. It should be to the hills, by myself, to pray.

No wonder I spent half the summer feeling like I was sinking.

But now I've sent the people away (for a few hours a day) and I have some time.

Now my eyes look to the hills. (May my feet follow.)
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
(Psalm 121)

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Linking up with Michelle at Graceful for Hear It. Use It. and Jen at Finding Heaven for the Sisterhood
and Anne at the Antbed for Heritage of Faith.

What's your purpose?

2011-07-28T12:13:00.000-06:00

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Amy shared this tip recently (along with several other good tips) for those of us who have trouble putting a finger on our purpose, place and passion. She relates it to writing, specifically to blogging, but I can see its practicality for all of life.

-List your top three movies.
-What common thread do the movies have?
-Any chance that common theme is something you are passionate about?

My top three movies are Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful and What Dreams May Come. I suggested to Amy that the common thread is overcoming death. She suggested back that perhaps it's just overcoming. And that's given me food for thought.

What about you?

What are your top three movies? Do they have a common thread that illuminates your purpose, passion, and place in the world?

Do share!

If you're a blogger (or thinking about becoming one) you might also want to check out this post about blogging with purpose.

Book Review: The Sentimentalists

2011-07-26T22:35:00.000-06:00

I love reading a poet's first novel. That's what The Sentimentalists is for Canadian author Johanna Skibsrud. Her prose is poetic, simultaneously sparse and deep.

She tells the story of Napoleon Haskell's daughter (we never learn her name) and her efforts to piece together an understanding of her father and what look like his failures from her own childhood memories, her experience with him in her own adulthood, and his memories of the past, foggy and fading as he succumbs to a cancer and alcohol induced dementia.

Much of the story takes place around the home of a family friend, Henry, father of one of Napoleon's Vietnam buddies who was killed in the war. Henry lives in a town on the shores of a man-made lake that has made a watery grave of his childhood hometown and family home. That lake and what's been lost beneath it is a metaphor for all that's buried in the lives of the main characters as they try to understand one another.

Little about the story is happy. Mostly, it's riddled with angst. But the writing is starkly beautiful. And the moral is that sometimes the truth is simply unknowable.

I can't give it an unqualified recommendation. It's not an easy, quick or particularly entertaining read. But if you have a literary bent and if, like me, you love a poet's first novel (Fugitive Pieces is my favorite), you might want to give The Sentimentalists a try.

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Number 27 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Last one was Left Neglected.

Read anything good lately? Link up. You don't have to have a blog to join the fun. Share what you're reading in a comment right here.

in a cleft in the rock

2011-07-24T21:29:00.004-06:00

This is a photo I took a few summers ago at Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. I do feel near to God in places like that. And I love the thought of him putting me in a cleft in the rock and covering me with his hand. The rock is not too hard for him. He will find the place where I can be sheltered, and he will provide the shelter himself, with his own hand. And when he does that, his glory passes by. I can't see his face. But I can feel his hand, and I can see his back once he has passed.

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Linking up with Katie @ Scripture & A Snapshot, Michelle @ Graceful and Jen @ Finding Heaven

Our Daily Bread

2011-07-17T20:27:00.001-06:00

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I've prayed this prayer by rote for as long as I can remember:

{Give us this day our daily bread.}

The simplicity of it reminds me that all the things I think I need aren't my deepest, most basic need.

I don't need the cart full of industrial size packages from Costco or the two cars in the garage, or even the garage and all its mowers and trimmers and toys and Christmas lights.

I don't need the money in the bank or the 401K or the medical flexible spending account (despite the fact that I've been in a doctor's office with one of my kids no less than 10 times since July 4).

Daily bread. Bread for today. That's what I need.

That's what God wants me to rely on him for.

Today.

Right now.

And I can trust God to take care of tomorrow...tomorrow.

{Give us this day our daily bread.}

John 6 begins with Jesus feeding the 5,000. And, later in that chapter, he goes on to say,

“I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

{Give us this day our daily bread.}

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:32-35)

{Give us this day our daily bread.}

When I pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," I ask God for what I need today. The only thing I need today.

The bread of life.

I ask for Jesus.

And when I abide in him and he abides in me, I will never be hungry again.

It's about so much more than bread.

It's about Jesus.

(Taking a break for the rest of this week to visit with old friends -- see you all soon)

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Book Review: Left Neglected

2011-07-14T21:15:00.003-06:00

Left Neglected is the newest novel by neuroscientist turned novelist Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice. It’s the story of Sarah Nickerson, Harvard MBA, mother of 3, higher income earner alongside her MBA husband and, like him, working 80 hour weeks to afford their home in an exclusive suburb, a nanny, and all the requisite activities for the kids. Multitasking is her life, and things never seem to slow down.
Until a car accident (guess what she was doing at the time?) brings it all to a screeching halt, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury that results in left neglect, a condition which makes her unaware of anything, including body parts and objects in her environment, on her left side.

As she did in Still Alice, Genova takes an unflinching but compassionate look at what happens to a life when its brain begins to fail it. Left Neglected communicates the pain and frustration of left neglect, an uncommon and poorly understood consequence of traumatic brain injury with an abiding hopefulness and sense of humor that, in the best of circumstances, help people cope and learn to compensate. The book’s characters are realistic and likable, though Sarah’s husband’s character could have been written with more depth. The symptoms and accommodations related to left neglect are fascinating. Like Still Alice, the book is a page turner and an easy read … and I always love a happy (but not sappy) ending.

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Number 26 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Last one was Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths.

Read anything good lately? Link up. You don't have to have a blog to join the fun. Share what you're reading in a comment right here.

Outside My Window

2011-07-14T16:21:00.000-06:00

The white stuff outside my window isn't snow.

It's hail.

LOTS of hail.

Pretty unusual for summertime in Denver, I'm told.

And all that green stuff you see? Those are leaves from the trees and plants, knocked off by all those fast-falling chunks of ice.

How's the weather outside your window today?

Seeing Progress

2011-07-11T21:30:00.004-06:00

Sometimes it's hard to see progress when you look at something every day. But if you look at it over time, you can see how incremental growth and change adds up. Today I'm thinking about the strip behind my house. The way it's changed over time helps me think about my spiritual life.

It started out looking like this.

Actually, this is a nice version, where the weeds were mowed and it looked somewhat under control. I didn't take any pictures of the full extent of mess this area was in its original state. (Most of us try to clean things up a little before we start letting anyone take a peek, right?)

And here's how it looked this Fall, after our first season of seeding. (Life, like a garden, has seasons. The dry season for the garden just happened to coincide with a dry spiritual season for me). You can see where we had some flowers and lots of cleared patches we prepared for more wildflower seeds.

The dry, cold season eventually ended. The Spring rains came. And here's how it looks today.

Photography helps me see the progress of our little flower meadow. And blogging has been a way for me to see some progress in the garden of my spiritual life. The last year has been mighty slow going on both counts. Better Homes and Gardens won't be calling to schedule a photo shoot any time soon, in either case.

But I remind myself that I'm growing a perennial garden here, not an annual one. Perennials usually don't bloom the first year, but that doesn't mean nothing's happening. This garden is starting from seed. And it's BIG so even a beautiful blossom can get lost if I don't slow down, walk around, and look a little harder. Here are some of the things blooming, even though in the big picture things don't look too flowery.

I love plants and flowers, and I find gardening to be a helpful metaphor for my spiritual life. What metaphors work for you, helping you find words and images so that you can see the progress of God's work in your life?

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Book Review: Abraham - A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths

2011-07-10T10:58:00.001-06:00

Written in 2002, in the wake of 9-11, Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths (Brice Feiler) is an examination of Abraham’s role as forefather of the world’s three major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Feiler brings the reader along on a interpretive tour of the Holy Land, meeting with rabbis, imams, priests, pastors, theologians and worshippers as he uncovers the sibling rivalry inherent in how each of the religious traditions lays claim to Abraham, each declaring itself the favored son. And Feiler proposes that perhaps Abraham is the key to creating unity among the three.

The writing is excellent, lyrical at times. Here are some of my favorite passages. (Sorry this will get long.)

In God’s beckoning, the sacrifice is known, even the reward is known, but the route, the location, even the deliverer of the message are unknown. To be a descendant of Abraham is to live in that gap – to glance back at your native land, to peer ahead to your nameless destination, and to wonder, Do I have the courage to make the leap?

“The lesson of Abraham,” Father John explained… “is you have to be willing to risk it all. You have to give up everything for God … The bottom line is if you’re too comfortable or too secure, or too into having control, then you won’t be willing to trust God.”

The message of Abraham is to be alone, to be quiet, and to listen. If you never hear the Call in the first place, you’ll never know which way to go.

The Call is saying that the relationship with God is not a relationship of belonging, it’s a relationship of strangeness. We’re all aliens. Abraham is blessed – the nations of the world are blessed – because he had the courage to go to another place and make himself a stranger. Because, believe me, at some time in our lives, all of us have to go to another place, too, and make ourselves strangers.

The Bible is sending a subtle message (in the story of Hagar and Ishmael). All God’s children are afflicted in some way. And when they are, God looks after them.

For all its interest in rivers and the empires that emerge from them, the Bible distrusts such settled places … By contrast, the Bible is constantly sending people into the desert for redemption, because it’s there, away from the ease of settled life, far removed from ready water, that they turn to God for sustenance.

We can, like Abraham, leave behind our native places – our comfortable, even doctrinaire traditions – and set out for an unknown location, whose dimensions may be known only to God but whose mandate is to be a place where God’s blessing is promised to all.

As hard as it might be, we have to get over our mothers’ advice that we should not discuss politics and religion in public. The extremists talk about religion in public – and spew messages of hate. Those of us who believe in mutual respect and coexistence must join this conversation as well. In these days of mass destruction and weapons of terror, silence, sadly, equals violence.

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Number 25 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Last one was The Last Jihad.

Read anything good lately? Link up. You don't have to have a blog to join the fun. Share what you're reading in a comment right here.

Standing Tall

2011-07-09T18:18:00.000-06:00

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Book Review: The Last Jihad

2011-07-02T07:28:00.004-06:00

The President's motorcade is attacked near Denver by a plane firing missiles, followed within less than 24 hours by attacks on leaders of U.S. allies in several countries, all part of a larger Iraqui plan to take out Israel and the United States with nuclear warheads. Unless the President and his friend and mentee, Jon Bennett, a shrewd young Wall Street star ready to close a deal that could make him a billionaire, can stop them.

That's all I'm telling.

The Last Jihad (Joel C. Rosenberg) is a great summer read. It's a fast-paced page turner with a fictional plot that sometimes seems a little too real. Not a lot of literary value here. This is pure entertainment, written more like a screenplay in some spots with sharp (and poorly marked) shifts in time and place and so many characters introduced in the first couple of chapters that you almost need to take notes. But if you can power through those annoyances, it's a quick-reading Clancy-esque thriller perfect for a beach, plane or poolside read.

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Number 24 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Last one was A Reliable Wife.

Read anything good lately? Link up. You don't have to have a blog to join the fun. Share what you're reading in a comment right here.

Book Review: A Reliable Wife

2011-06-29T06:48:00.000-06:00

Country businessman seeks

reliable wife.

Compelled by practical,

not romantic reasons.

Reply by letter.

Ralph Truitt. Truitt, Wisconsin.

Discreet.

In 1907, six months after seeing this advertisement a a Chicago newspaper, Catherine Land rides the rails in a luxurious private car to meet Ralph Truitt in the town he owns. Is she the reliable wife he seeks?

From the beginning of A Reliable Wife, the reader knows Catherine is not the woman she would like Ralph Truitt to believe she is. But the story twists more than once as the reader ... and Ralph ... and Catherine herself discover who she really is.

I won't give away the plot twists. I will say I found plenty of surprises in A Reliable Wife. In an interview, the author, Robert Goolrick, says he wanted the story to be as sensual as it was cerebral, and this story delivers on that aim. I love the role a garden plays in Catherine's self-discovery. Redemption is a theme, though it is not available to everyone, and so is madness of a kind, which seems to be available to everyone in varied abundance.

As the story often repeats, "These things happen," and I love the way Robert Goolrick weaves them together -- madness and redemption -- in A Reliable Wife.

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This is number 23 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. My last review included two holocaust stories -- The Nazi Officer's Wife and Sarah's Key.

Read anything good lately? Link up. You don't have to have a blog to join the fun. Share what you're reading in a comment right here.

Answered Prayers

2011-06-28T15:13:00.000-06:00

Connor is doing fine after his surgery today (details on what's going on here). Two tendons were severed, but our surgeon, Dr. Britton, was able to repair both and found no nerve damage. Connor did well with the anesthesia and is hanging out, with his arm up on pillows and a good excuse to watch TV for several hours straight.

So many people were praying for us. And I want you all to know that we felt it. Connor was relaxed and upbeat, even joking with his nurses before surgery. And as I sat in the waiting room after he went into surgery, I experienced an inexplicable sense of peace that I can only attribute to your prayers answered.

Thank you.