I’m studiously avoiding writing here because I’m supposed to be speaking at InterVarsity this Friday evening and all my mental space is taken up trying to put all those words together. I’m not clever enough to write in two kinds of ways at the same time. But I would love it if you’d pray for me–that I could say something interesting and sensible. And even more, go pray for Jen at Conversion Diary. She must be so exhausted and now... Read more
It is April, as some of you might have noticed, and I am sitting in my bed covered by two large quilts and holding a warm mug against my mouth waiting for it, my mouth, to slowly thaw, or whatever the word is. There are stupid ugly snow flakes dithering their way down out of the ugly gray sky. (I like to keep track of the weather, for future reference, so when my children look back at this moment they... Read more
If you’d like to follow along in the bible we’ll mainly be in John 18 and 19 but I’m going to quickly walk us through the events of Jesus’ trial and execution using all four accounts. So Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph on Sunday and went straight to the Tempe to scope it out for the next day. On Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday he entered into serious conflict with the authorities and basically stirred the pot of conflict and... Read more
Holy Week is upon us! Yesterday we celebrated the Last Supper together in Sunday School. It means everyone taking the name of a disciple or hanger on (because we have more than exactly thirteen people in Sunday School–isn’t that great! This year I passed out names like Zaccheus and Nichodemus and, I won’t lie, a couple of women, like Mary and Salome. But I made my usual big speech about there not being any women there except maybe to serve... Read more
As I was lying face down on the couch yesterday listening to one child read Dinosaurs Before Dawn, giving a spelling test and checking over some math, I also watched a tiny bit of the new ABC Enthronment. I came in on it as the last lesson before the gospel was read and figured I’d had enough as the gifts from around the world were being laid on the altar– so essentially, I heard some hymns, saw the African dancing,... Read more
I happened to be back at the dentist yesterday and the poor state of my poor mouth is rather taking up all the emotional space in my life. I am now on an antibiotic with all kinds of warning labels all over it and I have a tiny special paper explaining where and at what time I am expected to present myself to the Very Special Person who does Root Canals.‘There is life after a root canal,’ said my dentist... Read more
The dog is asleep on his back with his feet in the air and his teeth all out there. Also, he is on my lap. There is one baby upstairs asleep but the other one is jammed up against me snoring. Alouicious and Elphine are ‘trying to earn back their allowance’ by cleaning the kitchen, but really they are goofing off and talking. Romulus and Gladys are ‘cleaning the sunroom’. All around me are piles of laundry I imagined I... Read more
oneI happen to be reading Exodus and Romans at the same time–not a bad combination. Boy I really do feel for Moses. His whole life sounds like one endless dinner hour with cranky kids. Yesterday my kids decided not to really eat their lunch and so by dinner the cry was, ‘I’m dying!’ Except that then when the dinner was served (my week at Shepherd’s Bowl so lentil curry a la kennedy) they found they were really only hungry for... Read more
Slowly.Slowly emerging.We had some lovely visitors. Stand Firm Family, as it were. All the lovely pictures are on Matt’s computer. And you know how it is. You have to go to that computer and sit down and turn it on and go to the Internet and laboriously send the pictures on email and then open them and so on and so forth…so I don’t have pictures, yet…And then we were all sick. Horribly and wretchedly sick. The tummy thing. The... Read more
Preventing Grace
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