Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. – Philippians 2:3 I was, as Barbara Pym says, composing myself for sleep last night–scrolling through various websites and looking for a book in the chaos of my bedside table, both at the same time–when Matt, as he so often does, showed me something ghastly on the Internet. It was a hit job by one Christian against another Christian. The title was pure click... Read more
This is the first week since I succumbed to this ghastly thyroid problem six weeks ago that I’ve managed to do everyone’s school with them and tick off all the boxes without extreme pain and suffering. Not only so but we also managed to finally “move in” to our own bedroom since we first came to live here. Places like one’s own bedroom get shoved to the bottom of the list in a move like this one. The living room... Read more
One Over the years I’ve come to grab onto 7 Quick Takes like the drowning person I felt myself to be on a particular day 18 years ago. By the end of the week it often feels like the vivid and alarming dream I had the morning that my grandmother died. I was driving a red sports car too fast around a mountain bend and so of course I lost traction and skidded and the car flew up in the... Read more
Last night I was interviewed by a columnist for our local news paper. I’m not doing a very good job of carrying out the very simple tasks of book promotion that I promised both myself and others I would do. Fortunately, a couple of other people have been doing some of them for me. In this case, calling the paper and telling them they had a hot hot story on their hands, cough. I sat in the garish light of... Read more
The Internet outdid itself yesterday in the matter of Valentine’s memes. Each year brings more and better memes–more sophistication, faster production, punchier and funnier jokes (especially that one where batman or someone is actually punching someone or other, that’s always funny). If Self Care is the modern word I most loath, I think I’d have to say that Meme is word I most adore, with a very close second place for blogsplain. Memes, more than any other visual form in... Read more
This morning I’m over at Christianity Today complaining not complaining about my favorite day of the year… Last year, Forbes projected that Americans would spend 19.7 billion dollars on their valentines, with the average man spending “$133.61 on gifts … compared to $62.14 for women.” Cards, candy, and an evening out were the biggest items, of course. That’s an incredible amount of money. Is the day really worth that kind of investment? According to TIME, a survey from Discover found... Read more
Good Moaning. It’s cold and windy outside and I’m trying to figure out how to get through the day without having to go shopping for food. Brrrr. While I’m doing that you can listen to us pontificate about science and the Bible. How old is the earth? I have no idea. And also, why millennials are having trouble with the idea of human relationships. Enjoy! First up, here is the article by Hans Fien. I thought this was thoughtful and... Read more
Am limping through my briskly paced read-the-bible-in-a-year-and-the-Psalms-twice plan. Have nearly made it out of January and into February, which means I’m finally getting out of Genesis and into Exodus. There are a lot of reasons to go through the Bible over and over. Human beings are forgetful, for instance, and can’t remember why they came into the room and have to turn around and go back out again. Moreover, God’s Word is fathoms deep. You can go again and again... Read more
I’ve written before, extensively, that the last thing you ever want to do is have a baby in February. It’s a short sucker punch of a month, guaranteed to destroy your will to live. Adding a birthday in makes it like wandering through a malaria swamp teaming with alligators when you’re not Stephen Fry doing a documentary–namely #theworstthingever. Perhaps I jest, a little. Still. Don’t have a baby in February. Just don’t. Is there any suffering like my suffering? I... Read more
And now on to Katie Couric. I expect everyone has already seen this little clip. You really should watch it for the breathy cheerfulness. But if you have bad internet (like I do) here is a snip of what she said, “In the later stages of development, it’s when your brain is wired, and sometimes a surge of testosterone can make… a female fetus feel as if that baby is male or that person is male,” she said. “And the opposite, if there’s not enough... Read more
Preventing Grace
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