Elizabeth’s

A Few of My Favorite Things {July 2016}

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by Elizabeth

If June was the month of Beauty, then July was the month of Light. June ended with a Cave Quest VBS focused on Jesus as Light of the World. That light theme continued in July as I co-hosted and attended a women’s conference whose keynote speaker spoke of pushing back darkness and remembering our true identity (this encounter happened there, as did this one), as I heard refrains from songs like Casting Crowns’ “Thrive” (“Shine like the sun, make darkness run and hide”), David Crowder’s “Here’s My Heart” (“You are light breaking through”), and as I read through a new series of novels by Helena Sorensen (more on that in the books section). It was a good month filled with homeschool Sabbath, spiritual restoration, and holy moments.

At the beginning of the month, we also took a few days’ holiday at a local hotel that boasts a large (and clear!) swimming pool with lots of flowers, green grass, and trees. I slept a lot (I didn’t realize how tired I was until I stopped going!) and thoroughly enjoyed the green (we don’t see a lot of that in our part of town).

In the middle of the month Jonathan and I celebrated 16 years of wedded bliss and were blessed to attend a wedding the very next day. It was the most worship-filled, God-honoring, uplifting wedding I’ve ever been to, and it was a privilege to share in their joy.

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BOOKS

Shiloh by Helena Sorensen. I don’t know why this is, but the thing that consistently brings me up out of the mire is children’s literature. Earlier this spring it was Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia, and this month it was Helena’s book Shiloh. It’s got themes of light and dark, and of some people pressing against the darkness and some giving in. I read it and thought to myself, I’m not going to let some kid in a children’s book press against the darkness, and me not do it!! This series shook me awake and served as a “holy reading” for the month.

(As a side note, I read it out loud in an Irish accent, because that’s what seemed to fit.) (Yes, I am one of those weird people who likes to read out loud even by myself.)

And you all know I love a good backstory. Well, here’s an interview with Helena and some backstory to her Shiloh world (and as another aside, don’t you just love the names she chose for her characters??). Helena blogs on her own site and also at Story Warren.

Now, a bit more reflection from me, because I just cannot stop talking about this book: One of the biggest weapons of the enemy in the land of Shiloh is forgetfulness – forgetting your name, your gifts, your creator. As Christians we too easily forget our name, our creator, our identity. Remembering is one of our greatest responsibilities, and one of our greatest privileges. It’s what Jonathan teaches his clients all week long, and what Helena’s books taught me in a visceral way. Maybe you need the reminder to Remember as well, for as I said on Facebook earlier this month:

If there’s one thing God’s been teaching me lately, it’s to REMEMBER.

Remember who I am, and Whose I am.

Remember God’s great story in Scripture, and in my life.

Remember the truth, and what really matters at the end of all things.

Remember, and do not forget.

Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakeable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie. Thanks to a friend who loaned it to me, I finally got to read this book! Not all the ideas were new to me, as I’ve been reading her blog and listening to her podcast for awhile, in addition to reading or listening to as many of her recommended resources that I can get my hands on. There were, however, some new ideas, along with this (very apropos) quote from Stratford Caldecott in his book Beauty in the Word: “The fundamental skills of humanity itself are remembering, thinking, and speaking.” We can evaluate activities and curricula based on the question of whether it will help our children think, speak, and remember what is “good, beautiful, and true” (a huge emphasis over at Read Aloud Revival). She even encourages moms to nourish their own souls through the idea of Schole (a whole ‘nother topic we don’t have time for here). As I head into another school year, I paid particular attention to her recommendation to keep things simple. And lastly, one of my favorite parts was her list of “Aspirations,” or breath prayers (as opposed to Affirmations, or phrases that promote positive thinking). I liked the dependence on God rather than self — not that Affirmations are wrong, just that to me, these Aspirations were (ahem) a breath of fresh air.

The 50 Most Extreme Places in the Solar System by David Baker and Todd Ratcliff. I finally finished working through this book! I’ll keep returning to it, though, because it increases my capacity for worship. I can’t help but wonder at the God who made the moon, when scientists can’t even figure out exactly how it was formed. Yet our moon not only lights up our night; its comparatively large mass keeps earth from wobbling too much on its tilt, thus stabilizing our climate. May we never stop wondering at our God’s creative power and might.

 

LIFE-CHANGING SCRIPTURES

Proverbs 30:1-3. When I read this Proverb of the Day at the very end of June, I knew that although Agur thought he was writing it for himself and his contemporaries thousands of years ago, he was really writing it just for me in the summer of 2016. (Don’t you love how Scripture works like that??) It expresses exactly how I’ve felt the last few months:

I am weary, O God;
    I am weary and worn out, O God.
I am too stupid to be human,
    and I lack common sense.
I have not mastered human wisdom,
    nor do I know the Holy One.

Luke 21:34. These words of Jesus shocked me. I read them in one Bible last month and underlined them. Then l went to another Bible to copy the verse in my journal and found that I had already underlined it once before. But this month I read it as though I’d never read it:

“Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life.”

Now, I may not be prone to carousing or drunkenness, but I am most certainly prone to be taken down by the worries of life, and to numb out on things like movies or computer solitaire games, which, though not exactly like drunkenness, have similar results. Jesus shook me awake in this verse. What am I doing, I thought? Sitting here letting myself be overcome by darkness?? Just giving in? Meg’s father in A Wrinkle in Time was imprisoned by the darkness for years, fighting it, before he even considered giving in. And here I was, giving in at the first sign of resistance?? I was fed up with myself. I had to stop giving in. This scripture was a turning point (one of many) for me this month.

 

GLOBAL NOMAD STUFF

Upstairs and Downstairs at Jodie’s Journal. Beautiful meditations on a children’s book (did I mention that children’s books are the best??).

Grounded by CF Dunn at Amy Boucher Pye’s website. Basically, this article is my military childhood story, nearly word for word, all the way to the end of my grandparents’ lives.

As a way of explanation here, Amy is an American who married an Anglican vicar and has been living with him in Britain for nearly two decades. She’s the author of Finding Myself in Britain, which I read earlier this spring. I read it as an Anglophile but found myself especially drawn to her reflections on home, longing, and belonging, which are sprinkled throughout each section — good words for the global nomad. Those feelings and that book are why she hosts the “There’s No Place Like Home” guest series on her blog.

The Changing Face of Home by Fiona Lloyd, also on Amy Boucher Pye’s site. This was an entirely new take on home and belonging: home is the place (any place) where she can be authentic and affirmed.

My kids are growing up global. Here’s why that’s a good thing. By Merete Kropp. Best line ever: “Globally mobile children are not without roots.”

And finally, G.K. Chesterton on home and wonder in his book Orthodoxy:

“How can we contrive at once to be astonished at the world and yet at home in it?”

“I wish to set forth my faith as particularly answering this double spiritual need, the need for that mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar.”

 

IF YOU NEED SOME HOPE

Eyes to See by Marilyn Gardner.

The Sun Always Rises by Kathy Escobar.

The Sky is Not Falling by Michelle T. Johnson and Anarchy is Loosed Upon the World by Amy Medina both offer some needed perspective.

The Resistance by Sarah Bessey. This reminded me of The Stubborn Gladness of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Favorite Poet. Elizabeth Gilbert can be a little “out there,” but I’m drawn to the words of this poem and experience them as true: “We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.” Amen. We must fight for joy in a world of violence and heartache.

Recovering From Legalism by Addie Zierman. How much do I love this post? So much. It’s long, but worth it. Thoughts stirred in me as I read this article: I read the Bible so differently now than I used to. I don’t even know how or when it changed. I see myself more in the characters now. I see the impact of the characters’ culture on them. I read Paul differently. I went through an “I hate Paul” stage, but now I love him again, can see the love and grace in his letters. I read John differently. I used to hate the letters of John and how in his gospel telling, he called himself the “disciple Jesus loved.” How arrogant he was to call himself that, and how he burdened me with the responsibility to love others when I felt so unloving (and thus, unworthy). Now I see the love he was talking about, both from Jesus to him, and from Jesus to everyone else. But I don’t read in the versions of my youth (King James, New King James, New American Standard, which were all “approved,” plus the NIV we read on the sly, which was NOT approved) anymore, either. I read the New Living Translation. I think it does for my generation what NIV did for my parents’ generation, and what The Message seems to be doing for this newest generation. I love Addie’s idea that you just need a new “cover.” Same words, same message, different voice, different tone: new understanding. Because sometimes God’s followers get it wrong, but God is always always always good.

 

OTHER GREAT BLOG POSTS

God’s Sandpaper by Amy Boucher Pye on Our Daily Bread. I’ve felt these things before, and maybe you have too. I’ve only ever been able to praise God for His sandpaper after the fact, but maybe someday I’ll be able to thank Him for it in the midst. . .

Why Broken Stories Matter by Dane Bundy. Because I always want to wait for redemption before I tell a story, but not all stories seem redeemed on this earth and in this life, and maybe they still need to be told. (For Sarah Bessey’s rather longer take on this topic, read The Sanitized Stories We Tell.)

10 Ways to Live Well in this Season by Amy Young. I know Amy through Velvet Ashes and usually find her there or at her own site. It was fun to find her at She Loves Magazine, and I greatly appreciated her words there.

[Love Looks Like] Choices by Sarah Bessey.  Important, and reminiscent of what I’ve told trailing spouses and the people they’re married to.

Guard Your Gates by the ever-calm and always-wise (whom else?) Sarah Bessey. Really important.

 

FUNNY STUFF, BECAUSE I FORGET TO LAUGH

Matt Damon Pranks People with Surprise Bourne Spy Mission. (FYI there’s a bad word or two.)

Ryan Beard: Homeschooled Singer Charms the Ladies with Humorous Tune.

The Day I was Banned from Chick-Fil-A by Jordan Baker Watts.

****I laughed so hard at all of these.****

 

WORSHIP

I’m Going Free (Jailbreak) by Vertical Church Band. Grab onto these lyrics:

Go on and speak against my borrowed innocence
The judge is my defense, I’m going free
Right when the gavel fell, I heard the freedom bell
Ring through the heart of hell, I’m going free
I’m going free

Glory, glory, hallelujah
You threw my shackles in the sea
Glory, glory, hallelujah
Jesus is my liberty
I’m going free

I won’t go back again, that’s just not who I am
Lord, I’m a brand new man, I’m going free
I’m on a narrow road, it’s paved with grace and hope
It’s gonna lead me home, I’m going free
I’m going free

I am free, I am free indeed
I am free, I am free indeed
We are free, free indeed
We are free, free indeed

Someday I’ll fly away on Your amazing grace
Your love is my jailbreak, I’m going free

Here’s My Heart Lord by David Crowder. This is actually a prayer-song.

Here’s a new (old) way to sing the Psalms that’s especially delightful for hymn lovers: The Psalms have been translated into metrical form in books like The Psalms of David in Metre or The Scottish Psalter (these are cheap on Kindle). What that means is that they have a predictable number of syllables and can be sung to any tune that has the same number of beats. You can print out lists of common, long, and short meter hymns from this link. You just mix and match the hymn tunes to the words of the Psalter, and you’re all set for private (or corporate) worship through song and Psalm. Isn’t that the coolest??

 

PODCASTS AND VIDEOS

A mom recently asked me when I find time to listen to podcasts. If you, too, have been wondering how I manage to fit in all these podcasts, here’s my answer: We have a special “quiet time” on Saturday and Sunday afternoons wherein the children aren’t allowed to talk to Mommy and Papa. They have to play quietly on their own for a couple hours, and that’s when I listen to podcasts. We usually do a fun family activity on Saturday mornings, and we go to church on Sunday mornings, so we take those afternoons to rest.

I am Second by Shawn Johnson. This 8-minute video brought tears to my eyes. I think we can all identify with her story in some way.

Restore by Erin Duplechin. I first connected with Erin through A Life Overseas (see here and here), and last month I linked to one of her personal posts. This 5-minute video brings me to tears every time.

That’s me. . . a pastor’s wife, an interview with Kathy Ferguson Litton on the God Centered Mom podcast. I’ve read Kathy’s work at Flourish, and in this podcast she simply drips with hard-won yet gracious wisdom. Good for anyone involved in church or mission work, whether part-time, full-time, or volunteer.

Is Truth Necessary in Literature? on Bibliophiles. I found this podcast through (whom else?) Sarah Mackenzie. Distinguishes between Big T Truth and little t truth and discusses what kind of truth makes a story appealing.

Grace and Literature on Bibliophiles. Grace never gets old, so I loved this conversation, which also dipped into ideas of human connection and authenticity.

Nurturing Competent Communicators by Andrew Pudewa. Really important, big-picture information on teaching writing and other forms of communicating. I started instituting a new habit based on this lecture — listen and figure out what it is! Bonus: Pudewa is funny.

 

OTHER QUOTES

Renay West (the speaker at that women’s conference) with words that closely mirrored a key plot element in Helena Sorensen’s Shiloh series (so go and read that too!):

“Vision is seeing abundance when you’re surrounded by drought.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett on light and dark at the end of The Secret Garden:

“While the secret garden was coming alive and two children were coming alive with it, there was a man wandering about certain far-away beautiful places in the Norwegian fiords and the valleys and mountains of Switzerland and he was a man who for ten years had kept his mind filled with dark and heart-broken thinking. He had not been courageous; he had never tried to put any other thoughts in the place of the dark ones. He had wandered by blue lakes and thought them; he had lain on mountain-sides with sheets of deep blue gentians blooming all about him and flower breaths filling all the air and he had thought them. A terrible sorrow had fallen upon him when he had been happy and he had let his soul fill itself with blackness and had refused obstinately to allow any rift of light to pierce through. He had forgotten and deserted his home and his duties. When he traveled about, darkness so brooded over him that the sight of him was a wrong done to other people because it was as if he poisoned the air about him with gloom. . . He had traveled far and wide . . . .  He had been in the most beautiful places in Europe, though he had remained nowhere more than a few days. He had chosen the quietest and remotest spots. He had been on the tops of mountains whose heads were in the clouds and had looked down on other mountains when the sun rose and touched them with such light as made it seem as if the world were just being born. But the light had never seemed to touch himself . . .”

Alanna Boudreau, found through Audrey Assad:

“To reiterate that point on gifts and charisms: a priest once explained to me the difference between a gift and a charism. ‘A gift,’ he said, ‘Is something you enjoy doing, something you’re good at: it comes naturally to you. It’s fun for you. A charism, however, is something that heals other people – something that reverberates out beyond you and your own experience of it, and effects change. It’s a responsibility.'”

“It is always his initiative, and it is always his grace. He is the water, and we are the water pitchers, broken but patched back together by adoption and grace. Our job is not to stop and focus on the chinks and fissures we see all over ourselves: our mission is simply to be filled, so as to be poured out. Those who are thirsty for water will not discriminate against the vessel by which they receive it. It’s the water they’re after, after all. It’s the water that replenishes them and cleanses them, not the clay.”

When your husband calls you “a shell of a woman” {A Life Overseas}

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Elizabeth is over at A Life Overseas today.

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For months this spring I felt like a shell of a woman. I was empty and didn’t have anything to give. Oh, I was still doing all the “right” things. I was still getting up most mornings attempting to connect with God, and I was still relatively consistent with my commitment to exercise.  But I felt dead inside and couldn’t figure out why.

My husband noticed. Where before him once stood life and life abundant, he now saw a shell of a woman. He even suggested another round of counseling. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know what to do about it or even what it was. I was unhappy in life and unmotivated in work. Was it depression? Burnout? What???

I felt especially dead at church. That was a strange feeling, because corporate worship has always quenched my thirst and nourished my soul and made my spirit come alive. But I just buried that newly incongruous feeling and ignored it. I tuned it out and refused to listen to it. I ran to the nearest screen and numbed out on TV and Facebook and solitaire games instead.

Finish reading here.

Dear Homeschool Mother of Littles: Don’t Give Up

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by Elizabeth

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Dear Homeschool Mother in the Little Years: please don’t give up. Don’t quit, not yet. Just keep going.

One of these days you’re going to look around and find that everything you’ve been working towards, everything you’ve been yearning for, it’s happening. Right here, right now. Today.

One of these days you’re going to turn around and find your children reading on their own. For fun. And yes — even the kid who struggled to learn how to read.

One of these days you’re going to turn around and find your children teaching themselves things for the pure joy and curiosity of it all. And then they’re going to turn around and tell you about all the things they’ve been learning and reading.

One of these days you’re going to turn around and hear the sound of those instruments you’ve been making them practice. And one of these days, you’re going to turn around and find that the excitement and wonder you carry for the natural and supernatural worlds, your children carry it, too.

One of these days you’re going to turn around and find your children able to play board games and card games that you actually find interesting. {Yes, even your favorite word games.} And then you’re going to turn around again and watch them invent new games to play with each other.

One of these days you’re going to turn around and find your children making up imaginary worlds that have imaginary languages and imaginary cultures. And then, when they invite you to visit, you’ll go to those places, too.

One of these days you’re going to turn around and find that your children are actually helpful in cleaning up after dinner and taking out the trash and cleaning their rooms. And you’re going to depend on them to help run your household.

One of these days you’re going to turn around and hear them cracking jokes. Like, actual funny jokes. And you’re going to hear new one-liners dropped at the dinner table nearly every day. {And then you’re going to thank God for giving your children the sense of humor that may or may not have skipped over you.}

One of these days you’re going to turn around and find yourself having deep theological discussions with your children, discussions that hold their interest. And you’re going to be able to talk about the Sunday sermons, because they were actually listening.

I tell you these things because this past month as we closed out the school year and started our summer vacation, I’ve been reflecting on the state of my home school. Sometimes reflection can be a dangerous pursuit: it can lead to despair over an apparent lack of progress.

But this month something very different materialized for me: satisfaction and delight. Because all those things I mentioned? They’re happening for us. All of a sudden. Even after I’d given up on some of them EVER happening.

So dear Homeschool Mother in the Little Years, don’t give up. Don’t quit. Not yet. Nurture your little family. Plant those seeds and water them, then place them in the sun to warm. One of these days you’re going to look around and find that those seeds have sprouted and are bearing fruit — maybe even all at once.

Experienced home school mothers used to tell me this too, and I didn’t believe them. I didn’t think that promise was for me. And you might not think it’s for you, either. But take it from someone who can despair with the best of them: this promise IS for you, and your efforts are NOT in vain. So don’t give up.

One of these days it’s going to be worth it. You’re going to turn around and find that everything you’ve been working towards and everything you’ve been longing for is finally coming to fruition. It’ll all be right here, right now, today.

Just keep going.

The Screeching Voice of Lack and the Bounty of Jesus

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by Elizabeth

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I’ve been stumbling around for weeks now, gathering my identity from the things other people might say about me. I’ve been scooping it up from my deepest fears of failure, harvesting it from my ripening field of inadequacies. But you know the thing is, I know better than this. I know better than to do this; yet I did it anyway. I listened to the voice of darkness, that screeching voice of lack inside my own head, and I flagrantly disregarded the bounty of Jesus and the abundance of His love.

I didn’t know where to begin again. I knew I’d misplaced my identity, but I was scared to approach God with my missteps of belief and doubt. How could I lose that precious gift of identity in Christ, after searching so long and so hard to find it before?? But one day last week I finally worked up the courage to ask God what He thinks of me. Sincerely expecting a reply, I ventured a quiet and tentative, “God, who do you say I am?” And Jesus, mysterious Son of Man that He is, simply and immediately asked back, “Who do you say I AM?”

“Who do YOU say I AM???”

Not an answer did the Promised One provide; merely, like so many instances in the Gospels, another question. Who do I say Jesus is?? Because maybe that’s where I went wrong, forgetting who Jesus is. Because maybe I don’t have to ask so many questions about myself, if I know the answer to the question about Jesus. And maybe I don’t have to get lost in my own dark, dangerous head, if I can get lost in the majesty and glory of the Creator, of the Redeemer, of the Comforter, of the Trinity.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s a legitimate question to ask “Who does God say I am?” But now I know it’s just as legitimate to be asked by Him — as Jesus asked Peter and the other disciples — “Who do you say I AM?” Because maybe, just maybe, that’s the question that can transfer my focus from Self onto Savior. And maybe, just maybe, the moment I answer that question is the moment the clouds will start to lift.

Turns out, the way up out of the pit isn’t to believe in myself better, it’s to believe in Someone Better. For as Peter answered, I believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and HIS identity alone is what holds sway over the clinging darkness.

Linking up with Velvet Ashes

A Few of My Favorite Things {June 2016}

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Well, another month has come and gone. Here are the very best things from this month, both online and in real life. ~Elizabeth

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Stretching. I know this sounds kind of dumb, but I finally figured out some ways to stretch that actually help my perpetually tight back, neck, and shoulder muscles. And since looser muscles mean less pain, this is a big win.

Sky-watching. This might sound kind of dumb too, but I started sky watching again this month. Since beauty can be scarce on the streets of Phnom Penh, I have to purposefully look up to find it. But once I started looking for it, I saw peace and beauty everywhere. I even shared my renewed sense of wonder with my kids as we watched sunsets and studied space together. Encouragement for this kind of attentiveness came from the chapter on “Ordinary Time” in Kimberlee Conway Ireton’s book The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year. (But more on that in another blog post.)

Skyping another home school mom. I had reached out to this mom, a home school graduate herself, for, not exactly coaching, but yeah, kind of coaching. I had already spent a lot of time thinking, praying, and journaling about my approach to homeschooling, but I still wanted to process out loud with someone. The conversation felt just like talking to Sarah Mackenzie of the Read Aloud Revival Podcast, complete with jovial tone of voice. My friend knew exactly where we were going, and away we went!

A new recipe for enjoying chick peas. As I’ve previously noted, my (4th!) blender doesn’t do a good job of blending hummus, and sometimes the large amount of olive oil in hummus bothers my stomach anyway. This new recipe, however, has much less oil, is nice and salty and crunchy, and satisfies my desire for chick peas. I even (successfully!) modified it for the crock pot, as I don’t have a working oven. (A word to the wise: if you want crispy chick peas, you really do need to dry them off with paper towels, as Ashley instructs.)

Two packages from America in the same day! From my parents and from our forwarding agent (who’s basically an extra set of grandparents to our children). Most of the time packages are filled with gifts for the kids (which I LOVE), but these packages had books and magazines for me too, which was super exciting.

 

BOOKS

Luke: The Gospel of Amazement by Michael Card. Yes, still working through this one, and nearly finished with it. It’s been a great Bible study option for me. The entire Biblical text is reprinted in sections, with Card then offering his observations. Last year I worked through the four gospels chronologically (with a Bible study at my mom’s church). I really enjoyed that, but honestly sometimes I had more questions than answers in my journal, so it’s been nice to work through the stories of Jesus with someone else as a guide. I plan to continue his entire series when I finish the Luke installment. Next up is Mark: The Gospel of Passion.

The Contemplative Writer: Loving God through Christian Spirituality, Meditation, Daily Prayer, and Writing by Ed Cyzewski. I’ve read other books by Ed, and they were all helpful (especially Pray, Write, Grow: Cultivating Prayer and Writing Together and Creating Space: The Case for Everyday Creativity, which are both very practical), but this one is probably my favorite so far. It was peaceful and full of breath and life, and I probably need to re-read it already!

Two-Part Invention by Madeleine L’Engle. Confession: I finally picked up this book and finished it. I had really been enjoying the book earlier this spring, but I stopped reading it as soon as I sensed a sad ending descending. But then I cried a therapeutic little cry and felt much better.

I also started Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels by Kenneth E. Bailey and The Story of Western Science: From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory by Susan Wise Bauer, both of which I received in those blessed packages and both of which I’ve been looking forward to reading for a long time. They’re both thought-provoking, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed their beginnings. I’ll let you know how they progress. . .

 

BLOG POSTS

Grounded in Transit by Esther Harder on A Life Overseas. Esther sent me this essay as a guest submission, and I was immediately captivated. Cannot tell you just how much I love this article.

False Homecomings by Angelina Stanford at CiRCE Institute. On the longing for home. WOW.

Fire and Planting by Erin Duplechin on her own site. (Erin has also guest posted for A Life Overseas before.) Hope for anyone in the midst of a refining fire: “Tomorrow we will plant seeds.”

What Fruitfulness Feels Like by Lindsey Brigham at CiRCE Institute. Comfort for the soul stretched to snapping.

Marginal Faith: You Probably Should be Doing Less by S.D. Smith at Story Warren. Discussions on margin can be a dime a dozen or seem stale and old, but Smith offers a fresh “Trojan Horse” twist on it.

Fight for the Beautiful by Glenn McCarty on Story Warren. Apparently beauty was a theme for me this month.

10 things you’re going to get right this year by Jamie C. Martin, whose blog Steady Mom even includes my word for the year. Now here’s where I get all honest and ugly: we are half-way done with 2016, and my word for the year (“Steady”) has been a complete fail so far. I have been even less emotionally steady than last year, when my intention was to be more so. I’ve definitely experienced and been committed to the activities on this list, but my emotions have been more up and down than ever (and more frequently on the down), and that’s been discouraging.

How to be a Real Missionary by Anisha Hopkinson at A Life Overseas. This one’s for all people, not just the missionary types. There are wise words here — though I have to say that every month, Anisha wows me with her wise words. I’m so thankful she joined the writing team at A Life Overseas.

10 Reasons a Missionary Needs an Identity Rooted in Christ by Amy Young, also at A Life Overseas. Amy’s post isn’t just for missionaries either; it‘s for all people. And a side note here — last month I had the immense privilege of watching our various writers share critically important, yet related, ideas in Christian spirituality and missions. As editor of the site, I do not determine any particular themes people should write on, yet multiple people were writing on similar themes. For me as an editor, that was evidence of God at work, weaving our writing together into something beautiful — and useful.

 

MUSIC

Out of Hiding by Steffany Gretzinger and Amanda Cook. A girl sang this at church one Sunday, and it gripped me for days. Days.

Be Thou My Vision, as performed by Audrey Assad. A beloved hymn, yes, but that voice. THAT VOICE.

More hymns from Audrey Assad, if you like that kind of thing, or her kind of voice:

Abide with Me
Holy Holy Holy
It is Well

Even Unto Death, Audrey Assad’s response to the beheading of Christians by ISIS. For a bit of background, Audrey’s father was a Syrian refugee, and here is the back story to this song, which I first heard at the onething 2015 conference, along with I Shall Not Want.

New chorus to Just as I Am from Travis Cottrell:

I come broken to be mended
I come wounded to be healed
I come desperate to be rescued
I come empty to be filled
I come guilty to be pardoned
By the blood of Christ the Lamb
And I’m welcomed with open arms
Praise God, just as I am

Arise My Soul Arise, a Charles Wesley hymn rewritten and performed by Twila Paris. Can anyone improve on Charles Wesley? I say yes, yes Twila can. This is an old song I’ve loved since adolescence that just happened to play on my iPod shuffle this month. This particular video is dated (I couldn’t find a better one); even Twila’s instrumentation is a little dated. But it’s a walk down memory lane for me and a definite improvement upon Wesley’s melody (it’s also better than all the more modern renditions of the hymns — believe me, I searched, and Twila’s is best). But if nothing else, read Wesley’s lyrics; they can’t be beat.

Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Don’t let that ransomed sinner die!”

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

 

PODCASTS AND VIDEOS

Finding Dory. We took our kids to the theater to watch this in 3D (my first 3D movie by the way). And what can I say? Disney/Pixar delivers again; I was crying in the first five minutes, and laughing throughout (several lines are especially funny for international travelers with children). This movie has all the home and belonging feels and even has a Prodigal Mother and Father — all we have to do is “follow the shells.”

Magic and Fear in Children’s Books, a conversation with N.D. Wilson at Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival. An in-depth theological and philosophical discussion about good and evil in imaginary worlds. For those in the home school conversation, I’m aware that Wilson’s father is rather controversial; but wherever you land on him (and I’m not commenting on my position!), Sarah’s conversation with his son is excellent.

Finding God in the Ruins: How God Redeems Pain, a conversation with Matt Bays at Jacque Watkins’s Mud Stories podcast. Just a note, this particular podcast is for a mature audience and discusses childhood sexual abuse; I wouldn’t listen to this one with children around.

CiRCE Institute‘s Free Audio Library. I loved these two lectures from the first page: “A Contemplation of Creation” by Andrew Kern and “Imago Dei and Redemptive Power of Fantasy” by Angelina Stanford.

Girl in the World: Pragmatism, Utility, and Beauty from Sara Groves. Can’t remember how I found this video, but it touches on all the themes I’ve been reading lately, so I wanted to share. I love the way Sara describes the spiritual landscapes of our lives, and have shared some of her songs and reflections before.

 

QUOTES

From Big Daddy Weave’s song “I Belong to God,” which I heard at a graduation service:

“I’ll say to the darkness ‘You don’t own me anymore.’”

Frederick Buechner:

“There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him.”

Wendell Berry:

There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.

This isn’t a direct quote, but this is from Leroy Cloud’s discussion of the resurrection of Lazarus. Leroy mentioned Jesus’ instructions to the disciples to “Roll the stone away” and later, to “Take off the grave clothes.” In other words, Jesus performs the miracle of restoring life where it has been taken or lost or stolen. We are never the ones to make the miracle happen; we merely roll the stone away and remove the grave clothes in order to show what Jesus has already done.  What a beautiful word picture.

Another indirect quote, this one from Sue Hanna. In Matthew 17, Jesus called the people “unbelieving and perverse.” Sue broke those concepts down: “unbelieving” means disconnected from God, and “perverse” means too connected to the world. Sue proposed that the solution to this problem lies in Mark’s chapter 9 recounting of the same story, in which the disciples ask Jesus why they couldn’t cast out a particular demon from a particular boy. Jesus answers with, “This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting. Prayer reconnects us to God, and fasting (from all types of things, not just food) disconnects us from the world. So profound.

Now back to direct quotes. This one’s from Martin Cothran in “G.K. Chesterton and the Metaphysics of Amazement,” an article in the 2016 edition of CiRCE magazine (which yes, arrived in those packages):

“The modernists among us have tried to escape from this nihilism through the invocation of a new religion: that of scientism. Here, as in any other religion, they can find a creed (materialism, the belief that only the physical is real), a code or methodology (the scientific method), and a cultic motivation (a scientific utopia in which all questions about the world have been answered). One day, we are told, if we continue on the road of scientific progress, even life itself will give up its secrets and we will conquer death.

But modern scientism is just a way station on the road to nihilism, as Nietzche and the existentialists who followed him pointed out, since even an eternal life, lived with no transcendent purpose, can be a sort of damnation – a hell on earth. This is perhaps why Albert Camus, at the beginning of his Myth of Sisyphus, said that the chief philosophical question of our time was why should not commit suicide.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if one day people discovered a way to allow people to live forever, but, faced with the prospect of living a life of perpetual purposelessness, they all committed suicide?”

A personal note – This section of the article reminded me of several things. The first was the movie In Time, which describes a world in which wealthy people truly could live forever, but for one man life became so purposeless (and consequently so burdensome) that he did commit suicide. The second was Jen Fulwiler, author of Something Other Than God, who talks about how her materialist atheist beliefs eventually became so hopeless that she contemplated suicide, not because she was unhappy, but because if all our thoughts and emotions are simply electrical signals in the brain, she wanted to hurry up and get the inevitable (death) over with. Interestingly enough, the June 2016 edition of Astronomy magazine contained a column which explained how light and color really only exist as perceptions inside our brains, sadly lending support to the materialist beliefs that beauty doesn’t actually exist except inside our heads. (I disagree; see the next quote.) Also, interestingly enough, the March/April 2016 edition of Popular Science had an extensive section on longevity and defeating death through things like gene therapy and drugs, indicating that these queries and contemplations about meaninglessness and the fountain of youth are not so very far off.

Sarah Mackenzie in “The Flower We Have Not Found: Beauty as a Gateway to God,” another 2016 CiRCE Magazine article:

“Of the three transcendentals, truth, goodness, and beauty, only one requires that we use our senses to apprehend it. Truth is perceived and goodness is known, but beauty? We see it. We smell it. We hear it, taste it, and touch it. It invades our physical being and transforms us in an immediate and tangible way.

Beauty is how we physical beings in the real world rise to the ideal. It is how we are lifted from our dailiness and brought into the presence of God. It jars us. It requires us to contend with the magnificence of God when we just want to go through the motions of our lives.

If we are attempting to cultivate wisdom and virtues in our students, and if beauty is a gateway to God, then we can’t afford to shuttle it off our radar. Our students live their days through their senses, and we can either draw them closer to, or further from, Chris, depending on the sensory input we provide.”

Another personal note – I had already begun my exploration of Ordinary Time when I read Sarah’s words, so naturally they caught my attention, as I had been experiencing them myself. Additionally, these thoughts remind me of Misty Edwards’s thoughts on how corporate worship is a physical experience, not merely a spiritual one (scroll to the end of that link to read her quotes).

That brings me to one last quote, one I also intend to flesh out more fully in a future blog post, but whose quote is just too applicable to Sarah’s discussion of beauty in the physical world not to share here. It’s from Heidi Whitaker, a friend of mine here in Cambodia and the wife of an Anglican priest. I asked her about the word “sacramental,” and this is how she answered:

“The Anglican Book of Common Prayer uses this definition of sacrament: a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us. There’s also the pithy phrase ‘Matter matters.’ It relates to the way God comes to us through matter (water, the bread and wine, etc) and to His value of matter (our physical bodies themselves and all of creation are precious to him – not evil or something to be escaped as in Gnosticism).”