Cross-Cultural Living

Facebook lies and other truths {A Life Overseas}

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Jonathan is over at A Life Overseas today . . .

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Have you ever created a fake boyfriend? Yeah, me neither.

One woman did, though, and while she’s no Chewbacca Lady, I still think she’s pretty awesome. You can read Ms. Smothers’ story here. Apparently, “It only took one week and five easily stageable posts for Smothers to convince her followers that she had found love.”

Facebook, er, Instagram, lies. [And for the purists, Facebook owns Instagram, so the title of this post still fits.]

Ms. Smothers succeeded in convincing her followers that something amazing had happened: she had found love!

But it was all a ruse.

You can finish reading the article here.

7 Tips for Stayers and Goers

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by Elizabeth

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As a military kid I grew up hearing about these things called “Hail and Farewells.” I didn’t really know what they were; I didn’t even know it was two separate words. I thought of it more as “hailenfarewell” and was at a complete loss as to what it was.

But as I began to contemplate this upcoming season of expatriate goodbyes, I couldn’t get the phrase out of my mind. So naturally I went to my mom and asked her to tell me everything she remembered about Hail and Farewells. Her answers blew me away with their spiritual applications.

Let’s have a look, shall we?

1. “Hail and Farewells were an integral part of military life. Whether we were stationed at a military installation or a university in the States, or were stationed abroad, we all took part in these monthly events.” Hellos and goodbyes happen at regular intervals, and they touch the entire community. Nobody gets to skip out on the goodbyes (or hellos), and nobody is immune to the transience – either the Leaver or the Stayer.

2. “It always involved food, whether it was at someone’s home and everyone brought food, or at a restaurant and we purchased our meal.” Ok, so we need food. It’s perhaps kind of obvious, but this answer stood out to me. As humans we celebrate—and mourn—with food.

3. “They were usually more dressy events, except those that were barbeques, etc. There was always a gift, usually a memento that represented your unit and also some kind of plaque that commemorated your time there.  Oftentimes others would gift you with items that spoke personally to the officer leaving.” Whether we’re leaving or whether we’re staying, we honor our friends with something special. Whether it’s a physical gift representing our relationship or our country of service (for the gift-givers among us), a special event (for the quality-timers among us), or something else, we don’t let them fade away without that special honor.

4. “The commanding officer would do the introductions of new people, and we would find out where they came from and a little about them and their family. Then the farewells were saved for last with the usual good things said about people. Those that worked closest with the departing officer would also have an opportunity to share about them.” We honor the newcomers by trying to find out a little about them. And we honor the Leavers by sharing our cherished memories about them.

5. “Something I always saw in the groups we were in was the total willingness to accept and ‘get behind’ a new commanding officer. Oftentimes the departing commander was beloved and the idea of someone else coming in and taking over could be hard in a way, but your dad and I and others were intentional about welcoming and following new commanders just as we followed the departing one.” This gets to the heart of welcoming new people, whether they’re in leadership over us or not. Being new is hard, and the least we can do is welcome new people even as we say a painful goodbye to beloved friends. Whether we’re the Leaver or the Stayer, no one can replace our friends, but our hearts can expand to love more people.

6. “We were usually notified about 6 months in advance of our new duty station, and something strange and wonderful always happened after we found out where and when. Usually it was met with, ‘Uh, okay,’ but that time in between notification and actually leaving, our minds turned it into something good that we were actually looking forward to, and we were very ready to leave.” If circumstances allow (and I know they don’t always allow), we plan time between the decision to leave and the actual leaving. That time gives us the space to say goodbye well to people and places, to mentally and physically prepare ourselves for the next step, and to physically and mentally prepare our friends and co-workers for our departure. We realize that nothing can completely prepare us for our next stage, but a little time to reflect and say goodbye is helpful.

7. “It was sad to say goodbye, but many times we figured we’d meet up again.” To a certain extent, expatriate life also allows us to meet up again. (And I’m always thankful when that happens!) But even if we never see each other again on earth, as Christians we know we will meet again in Heaven, and (at least for me) that reminder does cheer the aching heart.

 So to recap my mom’s advice:
  1.  We accept that hellos and goodbyes will happen regularly.
  2.  Sharing food is a good way to commemorate these hellos and goodbyes.
  3.  Whether we’re departing or staying, we need to honor our friendships at each goodbye.
  4.  We need to welcome new people into our lives too.
  5.  We accept that goodbyes are hard.
  6.  When possible, we need to make space and time for these goodbyes.
  7.  We remember we will meet again, whether on earth or in heaven.

This time of year is painful. I will not deny that. April and May are months of many tears for me. I’ve written about these heart-rending goodbyes before. Each year I feel the feelings afresh, and sometimes I fear they will break me. But I do want us, as the Body of Christ, to carry on in a way that honors both our earthly fellowship and our faith in a mysterious God. With that in mind I offer you my Expat Manifesto:

We acknowledge that we will always have Hail and Farewells. We will bid farewell to our people. We will honor them with our tears, with our laughter, with our food, with our stories, with our hugs, and with our time. And we will bid farewell to seasons, whether satisfying or sad. We will welcome new people. We will honor them with our open (though sometimes wounded) hearts and remember that they may one day be our old people. We will remember that in Christ goodbye is never forever, but only for a time. And with Christ as our Anchor, we will embrace each new season, whether dreaded or longed for. We will Hail, and we will Farewell: This is how we carry on.

–

What traditions do you have for Hailing and Farewelling?

How do you carry on?

 

(Originally published at Velvet Ashes and reprinted here with permission.)

A Few of My Favorite Things {May 2016}

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Wow, I cannot believe it’s the end of May already! There were so many things to be thankful for in May. Here’s a run-down on the real-life blessings and my favorite books, blog posts, songs, and quotes. ~Elizabeth

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Rain. May showers brought cooler weather to Cambodia. I cannot tell you what a relief it’s been. I’m not gonna lie, it was so hot here I couldn’t bear to leave my air conditioned bedroom in the morning to go to my bright, sunny, steaming living room to talk to God. Instead I stayed in bed where it was cool. So the cooler weather meant it was cool enough (just barely) to leave my dark, depressing cave of a bedroom to go to the living room to read in the morning. The cooler weather also meant we could reclaim the living room for family dance parties and devotionals at night.

The power of prayer. Sometimes I’m too self-reliant, and I neglect to ask people to pray for me. This month my spirits dipped so low that I actually asked for prayer, and God delivered in a big way.

The power of confiding in true friends. Sometimes I’m so independent that I think no one else shares my same struggles, and I forget to talk to my friends. Again, this month I had the chance to talk to other moms and remembered all over again why confessing our faults to one another is so important.

An afternoon by myself to go swimming. Jonathan gave me the afternoon off when he returned from Europe. I went to a local hotel swimming pool to read and swim. I cannot tell you how peaceful it is for me to float on my back in the water. I don’t know why it’s so soothing for me, but I could float there all day.

A working piano. I’ve been longing for a working piano for several months now, as I need time to sit by myself and sing and play the piano. Someone conveniently delivered  the needed piano part to Jonathan when he was in Europe.

 

BOOKS

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis. This installment of Narnia has always been my favorite, and I relished sharing it with my children and even watching them fall as much in love with Puddleglum as I always was. And as indicated by the quotes in the section below, The Silver Chair provided some greatly needed (though not greatly desired) spiritual conviction.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. A story of transformation — and I do love me a good transformation story. A Little Princess (which we read last month) is fun, albeit with a slow plot, and the main character is static, making the story more providential than transformative. But in The Secret Garden, the sour characters pull you in right away, and they actually change in meaningful ways.

Dear Mr. Knightly by Katherine Reay. This one’s a beach read for sure, but you know what? I needed a beach read this month. Plus it’s got all the universal themes of love & belonging, plus a healthy dose of literary allusions, so what’s not to love? The story follows a former foster kid as a young adult, and though I don’t relate to that part of her story, I definitely relate to her lack of belonging and her propensity to get lost in her head and in her books and to forget to connect with humans in real life. It has a Cinderella ending that becomes fairly predictable about halfway through, but as I’ve said before, I do love me a Cinderella story.

 

BLOG POSTS

How do we recognize and cope with trauma? from Kay Bruner’s Ask a Counselor series. I especially appreciated the part about how the body remembers trauma and the designation of “little t” trauma. This piece reminded me of this next piece from Marilyn Gardner:

The Frozen Sadness of Ambiguous Loss. Marilyn privately sent me some of the quotes in this post when I was having a hard time processing through TCK loss issues, but these concepts apply all across the board, not just to TCKs.

“How is your walk with God? (and other questions Jesus never asked) by Addie Zierman. Marvelous. Addie points out the types of questions Jesus actually asked, questions like

“Who are you looking for?” (John 20:15)
“Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15)
“Why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26)
“What do you want me to do for you?” (Matthew 20:32-22)
“Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6)

10 Questions to Ask Instead of “How’s your walk with God?” also by Addie Zierman. I’ve heard that the classic spiritual direction question is “Where is God meeting you?” I love that question, and the other questions Addie offers here.

Helping Bono Find What He’s Looking For by Andrew Peterson. Such a great perspective by someone whose music and lyrics are really refreshing. (I say that as someone who also appreciated the Bono/Eugene Peterson video.)

 

MUSIC

God is Able by Hillsong. We sang this song at church at the beginning of this month, and even with my sorry attitude, it was in my head for weeks during those blasted power outages: when I slept and when I woke and everything in between.

How Can I Keep From Singing by Chris Tomlin. This is the song that came to mind when my husband was out of town and the power went off, yet I didn’t freak out. It’s old and came out of nowhere; I figured it had to be God.

Here’s My Heart by David Crowder. Especially the phrase “You are light breaking through.”

Hosanna (Praise is Rising) by Brenton Brown and Paul Baloche.

Stronger by Hillsong.

 

PODCASTS AND MOVIES

Hope*Writers podcast. I feel like Emily is me right down to the last detail. This podcast talks about lots of things I’ve been processing through with Jonathan. You can find them on the link in soundcloud, or you can search Hope*Writers on iTunes. The episodes “When it doesn’t look like plenty,” “Myquillin’s system for taking a break,” and “The day I realized I had a job” are especially powerful. I am very picky about what I consider an encouraging, uplifting podcast, and I am happy to say Hope*Writers is one of those, along with Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival.

McFarland, USA. This movie’s got it all: home and belonging, fear and safety, crossing cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers, father-son issues, father-daughter issues, poverty, systemic injustice, you name it, this movie’s got it all. We watched it as a family; I often find secular movies “get” and present universal themes so much better than Christian movies — but that’s a topic for another day!

 

QUOTES

Marilyn Gardner’s comment on Jonathan’s The Gaping Hole in the Modern Missions Movement:

“The homily was on suffering and he referred a lot to the Psalms. One of the things he said, I will never forget because I’ve never heard this said before but he said that when it comes to suffering, we are always between My God, My God – why have you forsaken me?’ and ‘Into your hands I commit my spirit.’ And is that not so true with the Psalms? Are we not between: Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?’ and ‘Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.'”

C.S. Lewis in The Silver Chair:

After adventuring a long time and being cold, tired, dirty, and lost, and being promised physical comforts from an (unbeknownst to them) evil witch. This was a little too convicting.

“They could think of nothing but beds and baths and hot meals and how lovely it would be to get indoors. They never talked about Aslan, or even the lost prince, now. And Jill gave up her habit of repeating the signs over to herself every night and morning. She said to herself, at first, that she was too tired, but she soon forgot all about it. And though you might have expected that the idea of having a good time at Harfang would have made them more cheerful, it really made them more sorry for themselves and more grumpy and more snappy with each other and with Puddleglum.”

About the forever-seeming-ness of waiting and the wondering if it will ever stop (answer: it will):

“Presently they were given food – flat, flabby cakes of some sort which had hardly any taste. And after that, they gradually fell asleep. But when they woke, everything was just the same; the gnomes still rowing, the ship still gliding on, still dead blackness ahead. How often they woke and slept and ate and slept again, none of them could ever remember. And the worst thing about it was that you began to feel as if you had always lived on that ship, in that darkness, and to wonder whether sun and blue skies and wind and birds had not been only a dream.”

Elizabeth Esther on forgiveness, grace, and boundaries in Spiritual Sobriety:

“If our mistakes are strong enough to compromise God’s acceptance of us, isn’t that the same as saying our mistakes are stronger than God?”

“When someone shows you his character, believe him.” (SO profound)

“We may really want someone to stay in our lives, but if that person regularly makes us feel bad, we’ve got be honest about it. Pretending others can’t hurt us is like pretending we don’t feel pain when someone steps on our toes.”

“No matter when or with whom we set boundaries, we often need to grieve the relationship that never was and never will be.”

“I don’t forgive someone because he or she deserves it. I forgive my abuser because I deserve it. I deserve to unload the backbreaking burden of unforgiveness. I deserve to release my heart and mind and soul from the distress, obsessive thoughts, and fears that unforgiveness inflicts upon me. I deserve to have my soul space back to myself. Unforgiveness just takes up too much room!”

“True forgiveness means releasing the person from his debt to us and doing so with an open heart, bearing no ill will or resentment.”

“This is how we forgive our abusers: we allow ourselves to see their humanity. I forgave my abusers because I realized that they weren’t evil; they were simply terribly sick people.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett in A Little Princess:

“When the square suddenly seemed to begin to glow in an enchanted way and look wonderful in spite of its sooty trees and railings, Sara knew something was going on in the sky; and when it was at all possible to leave the kitchen without being missed or called back, she invariably stole away and crept up the flights of stairs, and, climbing on the old table, got her head and body as far out of the window as possible. When she had accomplished this, she always drew a long breath and looked all round her. It used to seem as if she had all the sky and the world to herself.” 

(That quote was part of a longer 3-page section that’s a perfect description of the soul’s need for sunset and solitude, something which — due to the high heat — I haven’t fulfilled of late, but which I know I’m craving because the other day I saw part of a sunset and felt so homesick I almost couldn’t bear it.)

And lastly, Kimberlee Conway Ireton on Pentecost in The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year. I knew some of this but not all of it, and I just love the meaning of Passover. For me it is the central story of the Old Testament just as the resurrection is the central story of the New. I loved adding more depth to my appreciation for the Biblical stories.

“Pentecost is the Greek name for a Jewish holy day. According to Leviticus 23, on the Sunday after Passover (the day of Christ’s resurrection), the grain harvest was to begin and a sheaf of barley, the first grain to be harvested, was to be taken to the temple as the firstfruits offering to the Lord. Seven Sabbaths (or fifty days) later, at the commencement of the wheat harvest, a second grain offerin was to be brought to the temple. This feast of the harvest was called Shavuoth, that is, “weeks,” in Hebrew. The Greek word Pentecost means “fiftieth.” On this day, Jews celebrate not just the harvest but also the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. . . . Just as the giving of the Torah to Moses constituted the birth of Israel as a nation and inaugurated their identity as Yahweh’s covenant people, so the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples constituted the birth of the church and inaugurated their identity as the Body of Christ.”

“Too often we forget that we are God-bearers and live and speak in ways that misrepresent God to the world. Thanks be to God, none of us is an exclusive bearer of God. In fact, we bear God better together; as the church, the people of God, we bear God more completely (though always incompletely, never fully), because God, too, is community.”

When the lights go out {A Life Overseas}

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Elizabeth is over at A Life Overseas today . . .

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I want to do all the things. All the very good things there are to do in this world. So I overcommit myself. I don’t say “no.” I say “yes” instead, and spread myself too thin. Then my soul suffers. My work suffers. My sanity suffers. My family life suffers. My spiritual life suffers.

I suffer in silence, thinking I’m all alone. I’m the only one failing at everything. I’m the only one who can’t pull it together. I’m the only one who can’t catch my breath, who can’t catch up on work, who can’t catch up on school, who can’t catch up with friends, who can’t catch up with the God I say I love so very much.

And I, insecure missionary blogger that I am, am afraid to tell people.

To top all that off, the heat in Southeast Asia has been crushing me. The past two months have held record highs here, and we get a lot of power cuts. I echo Ramona Quimby in Ramona the Brave who shouted out “Guts! Guts guts guts!” when she wanted to say bad words. Instead, I yell “Cuts! Cuts cuts cuts!” and very nearly lose my mind.

After one particularly grueling 12-hour all-night power outage, something inside me broke — flat out broke. I lost my hope. I began to question everything. Why are we here? Why can’t we live in America? Why exactly do I serve this God of mine? And where the heck is He when I can barely sleep or even breathe in this heat?

I was struggling under the weight of all the expectations I had for myself: be a good mom, be a good wife, be a good home educator, be a good missionary, be a good team leader’s wife, be a good friend, be a good writer, be a good editor, be a good Christ-follower. And I couldn’t do any of it.

Finish reading this post here.

A Few of My Favorite Things {April 2016}

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Here are some highlights from the hottest month of the year. To be honest, it’s been kind of a rough one, what with the heat, the power outages, the broken things, the loud funeral chanting, the karaoke music in the morning, the metal shop next door, and even the middle-of-the-night cat fights outside our bedroom windows, but here are some honest-to-goodness bright spots. (And in answer to your unspoken question, yes I’m still writing in my gratitude journal! I’m just being honest about the hard things too.) ~Elizabeth

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Watching some dear friends and teammates in the local homeschool coop’s play. I wrote about what I learned from that refreshing evening here.

Heading to Mondulkiri province with our teammates for Khmer New Year. It’s unbearably hot in Phnom Penh, but it’s at least 10ºF cooler in Mondulkiri during the day – and so cool at night I need a blanket, even without any fans. We met up with some other missionary friends in the area and had a lot of fun fellowship. I completely “unplugged” during this time and didn’t even use my husband’s phone to check Facebook or email. And the kids were again able to traipse all over the campground with their friends (there were 21 children in total), really getting that “camp experience” that Jonathan and I cherish so much from our childhoods. Here’s what I wrote about Mondulkiri on Facebook last year, what I wrote about it this year, and what I blogged about it last year.

Participating in the Velvet Ashes online retreat. The theme was “Commune: Closer to Christ, Farther from Fear.” Karolyn’s testimony really resonated with me, as she talked a lot about the Shepherd. She taught us that we are supposed to find our identity in the Shepherd alone – not even in being sheep, but really, truly in belonging to the Shepherd. She talked about how our Shepherd leads us to different pastures, but that’s all they are: different pastures. The pastures are His, and He is with us the entire time. Sometimes I can get hung up on “place” and Home being a place, but I loved the beauty of what Karolyn said about the Shepherd leading us to different pastures and being with Him the whole time. Beautiful, true, comforting imagery.

Also in the retreat time Kimberly read aloud Psalm 23 in The Message, because we tend to gloss over familiar passages of scripture without really thinking about them. She wanted us to listen to the psalm and pick out which phrases really caught our attention. The phrase that immediately caught me was “You let me catch my breath.” It stood out to me because I’ve been really breathless lately. I feel I can’t catch my breath, there’s so much to do, and the idea of catching my breath with God sounds really, really inviting.

Co-leading a workshop on relationships for international teens. We focused on both friendships and dating/romantic relationships, and I really enjoyed our interactive sessions. Confession: I really miss youth ministry! It was a thrill to get just a little taste of it again. I led a session about female friendships and also participated in a panel discussion on guy-girl relationships with the other leaders.

 

BOOKS

A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle. I broke through the “wall” I was hitting in this book, and it started flowing much more quickly and easily. L’Engle is completely out of time. She’s in my grandmother’s generation, but I keep reading her words thinking they are directed at today’s society, when in reality she was a 1940’s bride and has been dead nearly a decade. So she’s a good example of the fact that human nature and human needs don’t really change. There’s so much in this book that I underline and find profound – too much to quote. You should just read the whole thing!

Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage, also by Madeleine L’Engle. Marvelous. Absolutely marvelous.  Her husband had one kind of upbringing: stable. And she had another: mobile. I found myself in her story, and I found her musings on home, belonging, and marriage to be deeply moving. Be forewarned — it’s a tear-jerker. A beautiful tear-jerker, but a tear-jerker nonetheless.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. We finally finished reading this one! Goodness it takes longer to get through than any of the other Chronicles. I have so much less motivation to read it, although there really are some very good metaphors for the Christian life in it, including the baptism/transformation of Eustace and the appearance of Aslan in the form of a bird in one of their darkest, most fearful hours.

 

BLOG POSTS

What If? by Michele Womble. Poetry by Michele is something you should never skip!

Commune: In the Breaking by Patty Stallings. In preparation for the Velvet Ashes retreat. Beautiful.

Sometimes We Can’t Feed Ourselves by Amy Young. Also in preparation for the Velvet Ashes retreat.

Breath of Life by Amy Young. Because I forget that I need to b-r-e-a-t-h-e. So thankful for the reminder.

Resurrection by Sarah Bessey. Because there’s no way I can pass up Sarah Bessey on resurrection — and you shouldn’t either.

The Cult of Calling by Leslie Verner. Such great truth that really touched a nerve over at A Life Overseas.

Sisterhood: We Sharpen Iron Here by Idelette McVicker. I’ve talked about this before, but I’ll say it again: Christian female friendships have been some of my most life-giving relationships. I treasure them.

A Fit Bit (on belonging; not on electronic step tracking!) by Robynn Bliss. Not belonging or fitting in: this is the TCK condition. It is also the human condition. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. (And as an aside, when I met with Robynn in person, I felt like I belonged. I hope she felt the same.)

The Desert Shall Bloom by Emily Hamilton. Because “flourishing in the desert” imagery speaks my language.

On Freedom and Forgiveness by Jen Hatmaker. Such important truth, and so clearly and convincingly laid out here.

 

SONGS

Let It Be Jesus by Christy Nockels. Especially the phrase:

God I breathe Your name above everything.

Beneath the Waters by Hillsong. Especially the bridge:

Your word it stands eternal
Your Kingdom knows no end
Your praise goes on forever
And on and on again

No power can stand against You
No curse assault Your throne
No one can steal Your glory
For it is Yours alone

 

VIDEOS AND PODCASTS

If:Equip is going through the Nicene Creed. Here are my favorite discussions so far (they are each 2 minutes):

Day 7 on God being good

Day 10 on God as creator

Day 18 on the resurrection

Day 21 On the Holy Spirit

Day 24 on listening to the Holy Spirit

What Room Does Fear Have? video and backstory. This one’s 20 minutes, but worth the time.

Finding Allies in Imagination: Sarah MacKenzie of the Read Aloud Revival Podcast interviews S.D. Smith, author of The Green Ember (which I recently bought but haven’t read to the kids yet). Encouraging.

Navigating Fantasy: Sarah MacKenzie interviews Carolyn Leiloglou. Another WONDERFUL Read Aloud Revival podcast.

What does it mean to be emotionally healthy? by Kay Bruner. A short but comprehensive description of emotional health, including recommendations for some of our favorite books, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero and the classic Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.

Head, body, heart: three ways to work a problem by Kay Bruner. How much do I love this (also short) animation? So much. We are whole beings and have to treat ourselves as such.

And finally, this trigonometry animation, because I’m still more than a little obsessed with sine, cosine, and the unit circle.

 

FUNNY STUFF (because too often I forget to laugh)

27 Ridiculously Funny Things Sleep Deprived Moms Have Done. I laughed so hard at these! (Once I walked into a wall while on my way to fetch my little nursling.)

This Video Slays Every Video About Working Women Ever. Found this through a FB friend. Kind of like Igniter Media’s Nobody has it all together, minus the Christianity.

Jim Gaffigan on bowling. Because it’s Jim Gaffigan, and that means funny. (I actually do love bowling though.)

Jim Gaffigan on Disney World. As someone who doesn’t like amusement parks, I couldn’t stop laughing at this. (Beware one bad word.)

 

QUOTES (but only a few this month)

For the liturgical among us, Easter is a season, not a day. So even though it’s way past Easter, I’m going to share an Easter memory from Kimberlee Conway Ireton’s book The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year.  This particular story took place on Easter morning several years ago. The author’s son had been given a balloon in Bible class. He walked into the sanctuary where his mom was chatting with one of their pastors. He accidentally let go of the balloon, causing it to float upwards. The pastor immediately started walking for a ladder to retrieve the balloon for this heartbroken young lad. Kimberlee tried to stop him: “Please don’t. We believe in letting him experience the consequences of his actions.” But the minister turned around and said,

“It’s Easter, Kimberlee. There are no consequences.”

Aslan and Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

“Do not look so sad. We shall meet soon again.”
“Please, Aslan,” said Lucy, “what do you call soon?”
“I call all times soon.”

Stephen Hawking, in The Illustrated A Brief History of Time, explaining straight lines and the curvature of space in a way in which I finally “got it.” I must admit that my study of spherical (or globe) geometry from several years ago greatly aided my understanding of this section. Even so, this is the best explanation I’ve ever read:

Einstein made the revolutionary suggestion that gravity is not a force like other forces, but is a consequence of the fact that space-time is not flat, as had been previously assumed: it is curved, or ‘warped,’ by distribution of mass and energy in it.

Bodies like the earth are not made to move on curved orbits by a force called gravity; instead, they follow the nearest thing to a straight path in a curved space, which is called a geodesic. A geodesic is the shortest (or longest) path between two nearby points. For example, the surface of the earth is a two-dimensional curved space. A geodesic on the earth is called a great circle, and is the shortest route between two points. As the geodesic is the shortest path between any two airports, this is the route an airline navigator will tell the pilot to fly along.

In general relativity, bodies always follow straight lines in four-dimensional space-time, but they nevertheless appear to us to move along curved paths in our three-dimensional space. (This is rather like watching an airplane flying over hilly ground. Although it follows a straight line in three-dimensional space, its shadow follows a curved path on the two-dimensional ground.)

How can I not love this chemistry analogy from Mike Bickle in his book Growing in the Prophetic? Though it’s not a perfect description of the science (but really, what metaphor is perfect?), over and over this has been my spiritual experience: I sit and I sit and I sit before God, and nothing happens. Then all of a sudden one day, something BIG happens:

There is a chemistry experiment called a titration. In this experiment, there are two clear solutions in separate test tubes. Drop by drop, one solution is mingled with the other. There is no chemical reaction until the one solution becomes supersaturated with the other. The final drop that accomplishes this causes a dramatic chemical reaction that is strikingly visible.

Some sit before God in prayer rooms and renewal meetings for hours with no apparent spiritual reaction taking place. Then, suddenly, they have a power encounter with the Spirit that radically impacts them. In retrospect, they come to believe that a spiritual “titration” was going on through the many hours of waiting on God and through soaking in the invisible and hidden ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Corduroy by Don Freeman. I got back into reading shorter books with my younger kids this month and was particularly drawn to the end of Corduroy, where the little girl Lisa brings Corduroy home from the department store.

Corduroy blinked. There was a chair and a chest of drawers, and alongside a girl-size bed stood a little bed just the right size for him. The room was small, nothing like that enormous palace in the department store.

“This must be home,” he said. “I know I’ve always wanted a home.”

Lisa sat down with Corduroy on her hap and began to sew a button on his overalls. “I like you the way you are,” she said, “but you’ll be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened.”

“You must be a friend,” said Corduroy. “I’ve always wanted a friend.”

“Me too!” said Lisa, and gave him a big hug.

Isn’t that just the heart cry of all of us? We want home and a friend and unconditional acceptance.

Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss. No matter how many times I read this book, little Jo-Jo’s YOPP at the end still gives me goose bumps. No matter what it is or how small it seems, the kingdom work you and I do matters.

And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower.
“This,” cried the Mayor, “is your town’s darkest hour!
The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
To come to the air of their country!” he said.
“We’ve GOT to make noises in greater amounts.
So open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!”

Thus he spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top,
The lad cleared his throat and he shouted out, “YOPP!”

And that Yopp . . .
That one small, extra Yopp put it over!
Finally at last! From that speck on that clover
Their voices were heart! They rang out clear and clean.
And the elephant smiled. “Do you see what I mean? . . .
They’ve proved they ARE persons, no matter how small.
And their whole world was saved by the Smallest of All!”