I become positively twitchy when I have more than one extraordinary activity in a week. The desperately adhered to order of each day is probably the primary way I manage to keep God in his place–close but not too close. So when anything arises to disrupt my plans, like, say, a child’s birthday, I flail and rage. Not usually externally, well, not too much, but internally there is a veritable storm of unpleasantness. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today is the child’s birthday. She’s... Read more
I’m supposed to be working on my book, and Sunday School stuff, and I have a child turning five tomorrow, and it’s shrove Tuesday, and then Ash Wednesday, and I’m kind of backed up on sleep, so my esteemed husband is coming to my rescue with one of his timeless classics, first published for Stand Firm back in the bad old days when the Arch Bishop was called Rowan and not Justin. The fact that some people are indeed crying... Read more
I’m well into the book of Jeremiah, being constantly shocked awake by the practically rhythmic cadence of, “and God said to Jeremiah” and “the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah”. This morning he got into a dust up in the temple. He was given a word in what seemed like the usual way, and so he goes in and says it, and instead of it falling onto the gathered assembly as an unheard stone, they hear it, for what... Read more
I think there’s been enough seriousness for the week. Therefore, I have curated a tiny collection of fun, uplifting happiness for you this morning. I’m coming to see these Saturdays as my gift to my Online Community. Sure, I blog compulsively six days a week, garbaging up the Internet with an impossible to keep up with flow of words, but on the seventh day, a day of sabbath rest, I provide you with other people’s stuff. It’s got to be... Read more
I have a little mathematical quandrum (you take quandary and you mush it together with conundrum and you end up with The Best Word Ever). What do you do when the number of hours in the day remains constant but the amount of work you think you ought to be doing goes sharply up? This happens to me every so often in life. I’m going along with a reasonable work load and then something happens so that I have more... Read more
Lent, as you may know, is well nigh upon us, practically down our throats if you want to get all panicky about it. We’ve been chatting with the children over Luncheon about what everybody might like to do or give up through the long slog between next Wednesday and Easter. It’s a fun conversation piece. I say fun because an uproariously good time can be had by thinking up not what you yourself should give up or take on, but... Read more
I took the time to watch this whole sticker boy video last night. And then I watched it again because it was so amazing. So, as I have sometimes remarked, I have six children, the oldest 13, the youngest going to be five in less than a week, and I was just in the way of finally getting my 13 year old in for her 11 year booster shots. We toddled over to the pediatrician and had as nice a... Read more
A couple of years ago I heard myself say, in my usual arm waving hyperbolic way, “There I was, leaning over the church kitchen sink, watching the blood pour out of my finger, scrubbing a huge pot, raging bitterly to God, and God literally said, ‘Stop It’.” The person I was talking to laughed, because the moment I was describing was pretty funny, and she understood what I was trying to say. The ordinary out-workings and frustrations of life are... Read more
I was just shocked into awakeness as I was struggling through this article, by Matt announcing that today is the Hawkeye Cauci, the name of which I should probably go read about since why it would be called that seems unfathomable, which is one reason I love American politics So Much. I literaly have no idea why anything is happening the way it is most of the time and am therefore always extremely curious to try to understand. Take this awesome... Read more
Lent will soon be upon us and already I have been quietly fretting over the gentle and practically imperceptible marriage between guilt and idolatry. This is the usual place for me, but in Lent, it often comes more sharply and painfully into view. First, what is idolatry? And who is the idolater? The answer, if you haven’t thought about it before, will depress you. Idolatry is any single moment that you don’t worship God as he is, that you worship... Read more
Preventing Grace
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