Dogs: Man's (and Woman's) Best Friends

We have been dog owners for all the thirty-six years of our marriage. During all that time, whenever we became dog-less through doggie-death, another stray would show up soon and take up residence with us; these have all been big dogs, usually two at a time. We have actually sought out, on purpose, only three dogs—Flash, Alex, and Taz. During those years, we have always had at least one cat, once as many as nine, including kittens.

Flash was an adorable Bassett hound mama dog who had just given birth to six puppies. Our children were begging for a Bassett hound for Christmas. The owners of Flash and her puppies offered us a puppy, but when I went to get one, I could see that they were not going to look like Bassett hounds; their daddy was somebody else. So, I offered to take the mama. The owners were delighted at this unexpected turn of events. I took a picture of her and put it in a Christmas card with the assurance that this doggie would be ours as soon as she finished her motherly duties. She was a wonderful, loving pet. We had her spayed, and she lived with us for about two years before getting run over by a car while wandering with our current stray. (We live in the country where dogs run loose.)

Several strays later, our daughter wanted a black lab puppy for her high school graduation gift. We found the perfect one and had her registered: Alexandria (Something) Callarman, who became known as Alex. We had her spayed, and she lived with and loved us for thirteen years. (You’re right: our daughter went off to college when she finished the local junior college and left Alex right here with us.) Even though Alex weighed about seventy pounds, she had to sit in our laps sometimes. She went wandering often with the strays and was eventually killed on the highway.

After Alex, we had two strays, Bubba and Jack; actually, they overlapped with her. They lived with and loved us for about twelve years altogether. After they died, both of old age, we decided it was time to become dog-less for a while. That lasted for about six months.

During the time that our yard and garage were unguarded, we realized that possums and raccoons were coming often to eat the cat food. One night, hearing noise, I looked out and saw a skunk and a raccoon having a shoving match over the cat food. They tried to shoulder each other out of the way politely for a while. Then the battle escalated. They were rear to rear, pushing each other as hard as they could. We decided it was time to get a big dog or two.

Since no stray had appeared, we looked on the Internet and found Taz, a big neutered male black-lab mixture, at Rescue the Animals. From the moment we got him, he became our best dog yet, although he has a close rival in Spot, a big stray who came along to join Taz. That was almost three years ago.

Taz was owned by someone who kept the gigantic dog indoors and fed him nothing but dry dog food. He had (and still has) impeccable manners—has never once jumped on or slobbered on anybody. The first night, we had to keep the garage light on all night because he was afraid of the dark outdoors. He would rather be petted than eat; he seems to live to be near us. When we come out, he dashes over as fast as he can and sits politely as close as he can, hoping we will talk to him and pet him; he will sit as long as we will keep petting him. I rub his silky ears and neck and call him my “sweet baby.” He loves that.

Soon after we got him, we discovered that he is obsessed with chasing a tennis ball. We keep a supply for him, since they often get lost. He has all the neighbors, the grandchildren, the meter readers, the plumber, the electrician, and the air conditioner man trained to throw the ball for him. When we come home from somewhere, he grabs the ball, brings it to the car, and deposits it in the floor of the car in hopes of some good throwing.

Like Flash, Alex, and all those strays, Taz loves us with no strings attached. If we hide his ball so that we can get some outside chore done, or because we get tired of throwing it, he never holds a grudge. He understands and accepts the fact that we won’t let him in the house, and he adores us anyway. I believe God created dogs with this ability to love without conditions, without manipulation, without inhibitions, so that we can see a picture of his kind of pure love. We should love God and each other in the same open, clear-eyed, unconditional way that our dogs love us. That’s how love is supposed to be.

Dogs: Man's (and Woman's) Best Friends

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/dogs-mans-and-womans-best-friends.html

Thursday Thirteen: "American Idol"

I’m not a big watcher of “American Idol,” but I have some observations of it based on three or four viewings and what I’ve seen in the news lately.

Apparently, the panel of “judges” screen thousands of idol hopefuls.

They are charged with choosing the final thirty or so contestants, who will be picked off one at a time during the season.

Many of the people auditioning have little to no talent.

The judges roll their eyes and make rude remarks to the ones they don’t like.

In fact, some of the things they say are downright cruel and hurtful.

For example, on the news I saw What’s-His-Name (meanest judge) say to one young man that he had weird eyes and did not either sound or look human. He said, "You look like one of those creatures that live in the woods with those massive eyes."

I was horrified that anybody would be that mean and personal. Why couldn’t he just say thanks, but no thanks?

I think the whole thing is somewhat rigged from the very beginning.

A couple of years ago, I asked my students to write a little piece about the appeal of “reality” shows. My example was “Survivor.”

One student said he thought viewers identify with real people more than actors. Maybe this season’s opening “American Idol” segment had more viewers than ever for that reason.

One student used “American Idol” as a reference. She said, “We have a responsibility to choose our music.”

Oh, good grief!

Thursday Thirteen: "American Idol"

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/thursday-thirteen-american-idol.html

Mark Twain and the "N-Word"

A common criticism of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer is that they are full of anti-African-American sentiment because of the use of the “n-word” and the degrading position of slaves.

On the contrary, I would argue that Mark Twain's works are great masterpieces in the emerging American literature of the westward movement of the 1800s. He portrayed human nature with an ironic view, in many of its quirks and foibles. His works reflect the way Southern people were at that time, including the way they talked--and that included the common use of the "n-word."

At that time, the "n-word" did not hold as much insult, hurt, and humiliation as it came to hold later, it seems to me. Mark Twain was very much against treating black people as less than human. We see in Huckleberry Finn that Huck saw the slave Jim as a father figure whom he loved dearly. He was very conflicted over whether he ought to break the law and help Jim escape or obey the law and turn him in. His final decision was the just one, as he realized that the law was wrong. Twain demonstrated through this situation that often the “social right” is, in humane terms, wrong.

When I was a child (lo, these many years ago in the fifties), people said the "n-word" freely, although it was falling out of favor. I was forbidden to say it, even though my grandmother did, and I was not allowed to criticize her for it--conflict!

There was a very old black man who went through our town every day driving his horse-drawn wagon of tools; his name was "N-word" Dink. Everybody thought highly of him, and nobody meant to be disrespectful in calling him that, as far as I in my childish mind knew, although there probably were plenty who did. My mother said I was not to call him "N-word" Dink, but MR. Dink. I thought that was weird, but in my heart, I knew she was right.

Mark Twain and the "N-Word"

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/mark-twain-and-n-word.html

Thursday Thirteen: Subway Hero

Last week, a man named Wesley Autrey became a hero in New York City when he saved the life of a young man who had a seizure and fell onto the subway tracks before an oncoming train. Here are some thoughts about that:

• He acted instantly. He turned his two little girls over to a woman standing nearby and leaped onto the tracks to help Cameron Hollopeter, an 18-year-old film student.

• He had little time to think about it, but obviously, he thought this boy was worth saving at the risk of his own life.

• It must have been a split-second reaction. He said he tried to help Hollopeter up out of the tracks.

• When Hollopeter couldn’t get up, Autrey made another split-second decision. The train was getting very close.

• Autrey smashed himself down on top of Hollopeter and held him down with his head, arms, and legs. The train roared over them, smudging Autrey’s toboggan.

• Not only could the train have killed them both, but the track was charged with thousands of volts of electricity. Autrey kept the young man from touching the tracks on either side of them.

• What would I have done in that situation?

• I think I would have smacked my hand over my mouth and uttered a cry of some sort. Then I probably would have just stood there with my mouth hanging open, watching the train run over Hollopeter. I might have said, “No, no, no!”

• I’d rather think I would have helped him as Autrey did, but I don’t believe the thought of jumping onto the tracks would have ever entered my mind.

• What he did shows amazing courage and deep, sincere care and concern for other people. People are always touched by stories of such things.
  

• We’re told in the Bible that we should love God with our whole heart, mind, body, and strength and love other people as much as we love ourselves.

• If we have that kind of love, given by the Holy Spirit, then we would feel great concern for other people. We would be willing to help people—most helping ways don’t (thank God) involve leaping onto train tracks.

• Somebody asked Autrey if he had any words for other people. He said something like “New Yorkers! If somebody needs help, help ‘em!”
  

Thursday Thirteen: Subway Hero

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/thursday-thirteen-subway-hero.html

A Study of Violence

It is time for another word study. Today we shall examine the word violence. This is appropriate, because Monday, January 15, is Martin Luther King Day. If he were still alive, I think he would be unhappy about what goes on now.

Violence seems to be more and more a part of our culture, and I, for one, find that fact to be regrettable. Our entertainment is thoroughly laced with it; large numbers of people are interested in a movie, for example, only if it is full of blood, explosions, high-speed chases, and daring escapes. Why is this true? What does it say about us?

According to Merriam-Webster, violence is, basically, outrage:

• exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse as in warfare or effecting illegal entry into a house—(Instantly, we see in our minds films of a bad guy kicking open a door or news clips of the war in Iraq . . . .)

• an instance of violent treatment or procedure—(. . . police beating a druggie with a nightstick . . . )
  

• injury by or as if by distortion, infringement, or profanation : OUTRAGE—(. . . a newborn thrown into a trash bin . . .)
  

• intense, turbulent, or furious and often destructive action or force, as the violence of a storm—(. . . scenes from the tsunami of two years ago and Hurricane Katrina last year . . .)
  

• vehement feeling or expression : FERVOR—(. . . people yelling at each other.)

Violence occurs in much literature, as well as in popular media-type entertainment. That is because literature does not just appear, all by itself, out there on the edges somewhere; it reflects life. Therefore, it must be true that the reason we see violence in literature and entertainment is that it happens in life. It is universal.

We are both shocked by it and drawn to it; we study it and obsess over it sometimes. We both fear it and want to avoid it, but we somehow enjoy reading about it and/or seeing it in games and movies. (That in itself is a little shocking, isn’t it?)

In both film and literature, as in life, people usually commit violent acts for reasons, whether understandable or twisted and perverse. When people commit violence, we discuss their motives; if it appears to be without reason, we say it is gratuitous or senseless.

Read this little story by Rudyard Kipling:

"There is an ancient legend which tells us that when a man first achieved a most notable deed he wished to explain to his tribe what he had done. As soon as he began to speak, however, he was smitten with dumbness, he lacked words, and sat down. Then there arose -- according to the story -- a masterless man, one who had taken no part in the action of his fellow, who had no special virtue, but afflicted -- that is the phrase -- with the magic of the necessary words. He saw, he told, he described the merits of the notable deed in such a fashion, we are assured, that the words `became alive and walked up and down in the hearts of his hearers.' Thereupon, the tribe seeing that the words were certainly alive, and fearing lest the man with the words would hand down untrue tales about them to their children, they took and killed him. But later they saw that the magic was in the words, not in the man."

(This story is part of a talk Kipling made; read the whole thing, if you want to, at this link: Literature—A Book of Words.)

Consider the power of words—of the written word—of pictures.

Why did the tribe kill the man? Did they have understandable motives? After they killed him, how and why do you think they changed their minds about him?

Do you think humans are basically like the people in this story?

A Study of Violence

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/study-of-violence.html

Worrying about Our Children

I haven’t done this before, and I do not hold with doing it! But … this is one of those stories that floated into my e-mail from my cousin; it is such a good and true (well, true in theme) story that I feel compelled to share it here.

Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions? Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, "It's their life," and feel nothing?

When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son's head. I asked, "When do you stop worrying?" The nurse said, "When they get out of the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry, they all go through this stage and then you can sit back, relax and enjoy them." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They're trying to find themselves. Don't worry, in a few years, you can stop worrying. They'll be adults." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

By the time I was 50, I was sick & tired of being vulnerable. I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle. There was nothing I could do about it. My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing. I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments.

My friends said that when my kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother's warm smile and her occasional, "You look pale. Are you all right? Call me the minute you get home. Are you depressed about something?"

Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've been calling for 3 days, and no one answered I was worried." I smiled a warm smile.

The torch has been passed.

(Comment by Judy: It is true we never stop worrying about them. It’s just a good thing we can hold them up to God in prayer and trust him to guide and care for them! That is the only way to stay sane while they are growing up.)

Worrying about Our Children

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/worrying-about-our-children.html

Thursday Thirteen: Jonathan Edwards Resolves...

Since we are at the beginning of a new year, I am in a resolution mood. I found the 70 resolutions written by Jonathan Edwards in 1722-23. They are so good and noble-spirited that I have decided to adopt some of them for my own. I want to share these with you; I have translated them freely into modern language (with apologies to Jonathan Edwards) so that they will be more understandable to the 2007 soul.

Edwards wrote (in Judy’s modern interpretation):

I know that I can’t do anything without God’s help. So, with humility, I ask him to help me, by his grace, to keep these resolutions, as long as they are in line with his will for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Edwards wrote himself this note: “Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.”

1. I resolve that I will do whatever I think will be most likely to glorify God and be for my own good, benefit, and pleasure for the rest of my life, without considering the times, now or in the distant future. I resolve to do whatever I think is my duty and most for the good and benefit of all people. I resolve to do this, no matter what difficulties I encounter—no matter how many or how great.

2. I resolve to continually try to find new ways to accomplish these things.

3. I resolve, if I ever fail or fall short or forget and neglect any of these resolutions, that I will be sincerely sorry for all that I can remember that I did wrong and put things right again, when I come back to my senses.

4. I resolve never to do any kind of thing, either spiritually or physically, other than what contributes to the glory of God; I will neither be nor allow anything that does not glorify him, if I can possibly avoid it.

5. I resolve never to waste one minute of time, but to improve my time the best way I possibly can.

6. I resolve to live my life to the fullest, as long as I live.

7. I resolve never to do anything that I would be afraid to do if I knew I were about to die. (In other words, I would live as if I were in the last few hours of my life, doing only that which is right, good, and loving.)

8. I resolve to act and speak with the understanding that I am just as bad and mean-spirited as the worst person. When I become aware of wrongdoings or mistakes of others, I will take that opportunity to confess my own wrongdoings to God, rather than criticizing others.

9. I resolve to be aware that I will die eventually and to think about the circumstances surrounding death. I will be prepared for death.

10. I resolve that when I feel pain, I will think of the greater pain of people who have willingly suffered and died for their Christian beliefs, and the eternal pain of people in hell, suffering because of their lack of belief.

11. I resolve, when I think of any puzzling religious question, to do what I can immediately towards solving it, if circumstances do not prevent me from it.

12. I resolve to immediately give up anything that I find I delight in because of pride or vanity.

13. I resolve to always be trying to find people who need charity and generosity.

The 70 resolutions can be found, complete and original, at the site of the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics, linked here.

Thursday Thirteen: Jonathan Edwards Resolves...

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/thursday-thirteen-jonathan-edwards.html

Books about the English Language

My friend TS asked for suggestions. He is looking for a good book to buy with his Christmas money, about roots of the English language. I told him I would be back with some suggestions.

After some research and study, I have decided that I will recommend that TS buy the hardback version of the Oxford Companion to the English Language. It was edited by Tom McArthur, who is one of the world’s foremost experts on the English language(s).

He could buy it in a paperback concise edition beginning at about 64 cents from Amazon. Or he could buy a brand new one from Amazon in the hardback edition for about $70 or so. If I had some Christmas money earmarked for books, I would buy a shiny new hardback one and be very excited about it! Here is a link to information about the book on Amazon.

Three other books that I am sure would be excellent choices are The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by David Crystal; A History of the English Language by Albert C. Baugh; and The Origins and Development of the English Language by John Algeo and Thomas Pyles. Too, if TS doesn’t have one, I’d suggest he buy a good unabridged dictionary--a big fat one.

These books are all published by the most highly respected publishers in this field, especially Oxford and Cambridge University Presses.

If somebody gave me enough money, I’d buy all four of them and consider them to be great treasures!

Books about the English Language

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/books-about-english-language.html

Happy New Year: Passion

Today, we’re going to have a little vocabulary study. We’re going to take a look at the word passion. (I’m an English teacher, remember.)

Merriam-Webster says passion is an emotion that is deeply stirring—an emotion that compels action. Without it, life is meaningless and dull.

Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose-Driven Life, says, “The driving force behind all great art, music, literature, drama, and architecture is passion.” As we go through our lives, he says, “passion is what sustains [us] in reaching our goals. It turns the impossible into the possible.”

People are passionate about any number of things: history, ships, writing, swimming, photography. Some people are passionate about orchids. Orchidelirium is the name the Victorians gave to the action-driving “flower madness” that seems to be almost like gold fever for botanical collectors. Books have been written about it. Wealthy orchid devotees of the Victorian era sent explorers out to find rare flowers--heavily armed, to protect themselves against other zealous seekers. You can find a number of web sites about orchids; the one linked here is a good example of this kind of passion.

Many people wander around aimlessly, passionate about nothing, their lives characterized by dispirited emptiness. Those who have found a passion are fortunate; it gives life meaning. God pre-programmed us to be capable of passionate devotion, so that we would seek him and fall in love with him. God-passion gives life the ultimate in meaning. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Passion, as Warren says, is a matter of the spirit. He says the reason “many of us have trouble infusing our daily lives with passion” is that “we don’t know our purpose.” And he said, “At its root passion is a spiritual issue, not a matter of financial greed or romantic pleasure.” Warren’s web site has help for those who want to go deeper with God.

I spent many years of my life trying to avoid passionate devotion to anything other than my family. For some reason, I couldn’t allow within myself a force that is greater than I am, something that might cause me to fall headlong into it. As a result, I diddled along through life, trying not to see its emptiness. I think I was afraid. My faith story tells how I came to know and love him.

Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost for His Highest, “No one on earth has this passionate love for the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Spirit has given it to him. We may admire, respect, and revere Him, but we cannot love Him on our own. The only One who truly loves the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit, and it is He who has ‘poured out in our hearts’ the very ‘love of God’ (Romans 5:5 ). Whenever the Holy Spirit sees an opportunity to glorify Jesus through you, He will take your entire being and set you ablaze with glowing devotion to Jesus Christ.”

And…to conclude our word study, Paul says in Hebrews 12:29, “our God is a consuming fire.” God is the ultimate passion—love. The more I throw myself into that consuming fire, the more free, rich, and full my life is.

Picture: http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books/62/082126205X/index.html

Happy New Year: Passion

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/happy-new-year-passion.html

Saddam Hussein--Executed

I just learned that Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging, just before ten p.m., Eastern time. I have mixed feelings about that.

While I realize that he was a murderous fellow and deserves punishment, I have a hard time believing that we are right in ratcheting up the violence constantly. It seems to me that more violence on our part just stirs up the Muslims to a higher level of violence. If we could somehow demonstrate Christian love to them, it seems their violence might dissipate. Jesus preached nonviolence. "Love your enemies," he said. "Pray for those who persecute you."

I tend to agree with Shane Claiborne, who said in The Irresistible Revolution, "Our arms are just not big enough to carry both the cross and the sword" (249).

Look at the results of the medieval Crusades. Claiborne says, " We can learn from the bloody pages of history. The more vigorously we try to root out evil by force, the more evil will escalate. For every Muslim extremist killed, another is created. Likewise, the more passionately we love our enemies, the more evil will diminish" (249).

He points out, "It is no surprise that statistics show Muslim people are less open to Christianity now than they were a year ago. Pharisaic extremists are alive today in every religion--in Islam, in Christianity, in Judaism" (250).

Saddam Hussein--Executed

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/saddam-hussein-executed.html

World Trade Center: The Movie

The second night after Christmas, my daughter and I put the children to bed early and watched a movie--World Trade Center. We cried, and we talked about it a lot the next day.

The tag line for the movie says it is “A true story of courage and survival.” Directed by Oliver Stone, it is the very moving and intense story of two of only twenty survivors rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center buildings.

Will Jimeno, played by Michael Peña, was a rookie in a select group of New York City Port Authority policemen supervised by John McLoughlin (Nicholas Cage). Clad in fire gear, they were headed into the first-hit building in a brave effort to save as many as they could. They did not know the second building had also been hit. When the first building began to collapse, they were in the concourse between buildings. They ran for the elevator shafts and were buried there for about 22 hours before being rescued. The other members of the group were killed in the collapse.

The movie shows the courage of the two men and their families in the face of this terrifying experience. McLoughlin’s and Jimeno’s thoughts were of their families, each other, and their partners who had been killed. The CBS News site at this link tells the true story and features a video of a “Sixty Minutes” interview on November 24, 2004, with McLoughlin, Jimeno, and several of the men who rescued them.

An important part of the film is the heroic story of then-former-Marine Staff Sergeant David Karnes who was largely responsible for their rescue, along with another Marine known only as “Sgt. Thomas.” A senior accountant in Wilton, Connecticut, Karnes felt called by God to don his Marine uniform, gather up his military rescue equipment, and go to New York City to help. His fascinating story is told in this linked article in the Wilton, Connecticut, newspaper, the Wilton Bulletin of August 10, 2006.

His part in the 9-11 rescues was clearly a “God thing,” and Stone portrayed it that way. Too often, Hollywood tries to gloss over “God things” or downplay them, but in this movie, we see it the way it probably was, not embellished in any way, no implied excuses or criticism for his following this heart-felt urge.

Stone’s film does not try to tell the whole story of September 11, 2001. But through the story of these two men, their families, and their rescuers, what comes clear is the universal feelings of fear and shock, as well as the uncommon courage and human love on that terrible day.

The picture of the Port Authority policemen in the movie comes from this web site: http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0469641/Ss/0469641/03070.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0469641

World Trade Center: The Movie

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/world-trade-center-movie.html

“The Hand Warmer: A Christmas Story”

“The Hand Warmer: A Christmas Story” by my 6-year-old grandson, with a little typing help from his mother, my daughter-in-love…er…law. The story is based on a western painting by Tom Lovell—The Hand Warmer*.

Once upon a time I was with two people who were traveling. The second night a big snow storm came through, and in the morning there was snow all over the place. It was freezing cold.

- It may have been 30 degrees like when it was snowing at our house.-

But we saw that the snow was so high that it went onto the top of the roof! There was a smoking chimney at the top. We went up to it and put our hands over it to warm up. Then we heard a strange noise below the roof. We looked down and saw a person. When he saw that we were on his roof, he said, “Why are you on the roof and putting your hands over the chimney?”

We said, “Because it is so cold out here and we are warming our hands at the chimney.”

He said, “Come into my house. I have the heater on in there.”

We said, “Maybe for a little while.”

So we went into his house and warmed up by the fire place. Then we ate some dinner. We went back outside to keep on our journey.

We said thank you and good bye to the man who let us in his home. We lived happily ever after.

The End.

*On this web site, the artist profile says, "The quality of (Tom Lovell’s) contribution to contemporary western art, prints and posters is remarkable. In 1974, he won the National Academy of Western Art’s Prix de West, was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, and won the Franklin Mint gold medal for prints. Lovell has also been featured in Artists of the Rockies and Persimmon Hill."

“The Hand Warmer: A Christmas Story”

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/hand-warmer-christmas-story.html

Thursday Thirteen: Anne Rice--Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt

I just finished reading Anne Rice’s latest book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. Here are thirteen things I’d like to say now.

1. Anne Rice used to write exclusively about vampires and such things as demons and devils.

2. I can’t write with knowledge about those earlier books because I’ve never read any of them. I have been aware of her reputation as a “vampire” writer, and I have avoided those books on purpose. But I have plenty to say about Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

3. It was a little ironic to read the list of books written “also by Anne Rice”—things like Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Mummy . . . –and then to consider this title, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt . I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about it.

4. This is an amazing book. It is a first-person narrative about Jesus, as the title says. It covers about a year in his life as a child, when his large family comes back to Nazareth to live after being in Egypt for the first seven years of his life.

5. In the “Introduction to the Paperback Edition,” Rice says, in part, that her story assumes that God “became human in the person of Jesus Christ and ‘dwelt among us.’ The magnificent mystery of the Incarnation is accepted and affirmed as fact.”

6. She says in the introduction that she used scripture to re-create the “emotions and powers of the Child Jesus.” In the author’s notes at the end of the book, she says that for a number of the incidents in the book, she used legends as set forth in the Apocrypha, stories and visions familiar to people for centuries.

7. The story seems very realistic as it presents the mind of the young Jesus. In the story, he is puzzled because he has miraculous powers—for example, the power to make living birds from clay, to heal sick people, to stop rain. He tries not to do these things, in obedience to Joseph and Mary, who discourage such acts. They don’t want to explain any of his beginnings to him until he is old enough to understand

8. We really have no early record in the Gospels of what Jesus was like as a child. I have wondered if he knew all along who he was or if he became aware of it gradually, and how that might have happened. To me, Rice’s interpretation makes sense; I believe that Jesus’ childhood could have been the way she portrays it. Some people would worry that her presentation of Jesus might be blasphemous, but she does it in a humble, loving, spiritual way.

9. The book won Beliefnet’s award for Best Spiritual Book of the Year—2005.

10. Just as amazing as the story itself is Rice’s story in the author’s notes of how she came back to faith. She grew up in the Catholic Church but she fell away from belief at the age of eighteen. She and her husband Stan Rice were avowed atheists for about thirty years.

11. She wrote that her first novel was a reflection of her misery and guilt “in being cut off from God and from salvation; . . . being lost in a world without light” (323). She said, “After that, I wrote many novels without my being aware that they reflected my quest for meaning in a world without God” (323).

12. She read countless scholarly books in preparation for writing about the life of Jesus, including both skeptical and faith-based approaches to the New Testament, history, and philosophy. She read a number of works by N. T. Wright; she said “. . .his generosity in embracing the skeptics and commenting on their arguments is an inspiration. His faith is immense, and his knowledge vast” (335).

13. She fell in love with Jesus. She said she offers this book to Christians of all persuasions “in the hope that my embrace of more conservative doctrines will have some coherence for them in the here and now of the book” (337). She offers it “to scholars in the hope that they will perhaps enjoy seeing the evidence of the research that’s gone into it . . .” (338). She hopes that people who don’t know Jesus Christ “will see him in some form” in the book. And finally, she offers it to her faithful readers “in the hope that Jesus will be as real to you as any other character I’ve ever launched into the world we share” because in truth, Jesus is “the ultimate supernatural hero” (338).

Rice said in a Christianity Today interview: "This book means more to me than anything I've ever done. I'm not offering agnostic explanations. He is real. He worked miracles. He is the Son of God! And there is so much more to write."

It’s a wonderful story—read it! Here’s a link to her web site.

Thursday Thirteen: Anne Rice--Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/thursday-thirteen-anne-rice-christ-lord.html

Thursday Thirteen: Thoughts after a Suicide

A young man committed suicide last weekend. He was a freshman student at our community college, a football player. I didn’t know him. Two of my good friends taught him in their classes. They say he appeared reasonably happy—maybe a little quiet. He came to class and did his schoolwork.

Other students liked him. One said to me, “He was crazy.”
Another told me, “It was a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

It is too late now to talk to my students about it because the semester is over. But I would like to tell them some things, if I could. Maybe I'll tell the new ones next semester.

No matter what his reasons were, his death is tragic—a tragic waste. His family and all the other people who knew him must feel very upset about his death and guilty about not being able, ultimately, to help him.

No problem is ever worth committing suicide—nothing.

If at any time someone tells you he is thinking about killing himself, believe it. Know that this person is crying out for help, even if he appears to be kidding.

Take it seriously. An actual suicide attempt is a desperate cry for help.

Don’t just try to talk her out of it. She may agree with you and even promise not to hurt herself. But remember that suicidal people are unstable. She may mean to keep the promise—and then fall apart and shoot herself that very night. Therefore, tell somebody who can do something about it; don’t keep it a secret.

If you begin to feel depressed, overwhelmed, and unable to function, talk to someone you trust—a teacher, a parent, a good friend, a pastor. Don’t put it off.

Try to remember that whatever bad situation you are in, it isn’t the end of things. Time brings change. You won’t always feel this way.

God is the great healer of your heart. He wants to hear from you a heartfelt cry for help. The Bible says, “He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). And Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

A good thing from the Bible to memorize is this: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). That means God created everything, including me; the things of the world are chaotic, but “in him,” I can make it through the chaos.

How does that happen? If I know him and go to him often and love him, my heart will know a deep, sweet peace, no matter what terrible problems may come my way. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

Thursday Thirteen: Thoughts after a Suicide

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/thursday-thirteen-thoughts-after.html

Christmas Trees in Seattle

Last year at this time, we had the big debate over words. Was it better to say “Merry Christmas!” and risk appearing religious, or to say “Happy Holidays!” and be generic? People actually became hot under the collar about this non-issue. You no doubt remember that.

People are getting crazy again. This year it is over Christmas trees in an airport in Seattle—SEA-TAC. It seems a Jewish rabbi threatened to sue the airport if they didn’t add an 8-foot menorah in celebration of Hanukkah, near the largest Christmas tree. He thought it would be a nice addition.

The Seattle Times reports that the rabbi was horrified when the airport folks decided to take down their nine Christmas trees, rather than appear to be exclusive. They are too busy for litigation and don’t “have time to play cultural anthropologists.” They feared that putting up a menorah would only be the beginning, and they would eventually be forced to include symbols of all the religious persuasions in America.

Well . . . another non-issue. I’m sure the rabbi didn’t intend to start a blazing fire—and neither did the airport people, who were trying to avoid one.

Why can’t Christmas just be a time of love and peaceful co-existence? Surely we could manage that for a few weeks. Instead of fighting, we could be extra-concerned this season about orphans, widows, the homeless, the hungry.

Christmas Trees in Seattle

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/christmas-trees-in-seattle.html

The Season of Advent

This is the season of Advent—the four Sundays preceding Christmas. “Advent” means “coming” or “coming into being or use.” It refers, in this case, of course, to the advent of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Of course, most people know that Jesus was not really born on Christmas day. The actual date of his birth cannot be established with any certainty. In a Google search, we can find numerous explanations, like the very good one linked here, of why his birth came to be celebrated on December 25.

In the early years of the Christian church, the date of his birth was considered to be insignificant; the important time was his death and resurrection. Now, we celebrate it in December probably because, as the New Life web site tells us, “In Rome December 25 was made popular by Pope Liberius in 354 and became the rule in the West in 435 when the first ‘Christ mass’ was officiated by Pope Sixtus III. This coincided with the date of a celebration by the Romans to their primary god, the Sun, and to Mithras, a popular Persian sun god supposedly born on the same day.”

At any rate, here we are in the sixth year of the 21st century, preparing for Christmas, the season of hope and love. Two things happened this weekend that have touched my heart with Christmas spirit.

Yesterday, I ran into a friend of mine whom I’ll call “Cora”—that’s not really her name. I heard a few weeks ago that she has been diagnosed with bone cancer, and I’ve been in a state of denial about it. She is one of the world’s best people. She was in the grocery store, getting ready to feed 35 family members next weekend. So yesterday, in the canned goods aisle, I asked her if it is true.

Cora said, “Well, yes, and no.” I felt tears welling up in my eyes. She explained that tests show she has the cells in her blood, but it has not caused any symptoms. As she told me about possible treatments and outcomes, I began to cry—I couldn’t help it, right there in the grocery store.

Cora comforted me. She said, “We know that everything is in God’s hands.” I agreed with her, through my tears. She said, “There might be some pain and yucky stuff on the way, but then—just to be with God—that couldn’t be bad!” I agreed, still crying.

Then, this morning in church, my young friend “Crystal” and her four-year-old daughter “Eva” lit the second Advent candle; they were both wearing red sweaters. Crystal helped Eva light it, and then Crystal read a piece about opening our hearts to Christ. As Crystal read, she held Eva’s hand. Eva leaned lightly against Crystal’s arm and gazed up at her the whole time she read, her blonde curls falling back. She smiled while she listened, and her blue eyes told how she adores her mother. Her father died of cancer during this past year. Crystal has been strong and cheerful, as she has been both father and mother for Eva.

It is a time of hope, light, love, giving—because of Jesus, whose date of birth we don’t really know. I feel the glow of Advent.

The Season of Advent

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/season-of-advent.html

Thursday Thirteen Thoughts about the First Snowfall

Snow doesn’t happen very often down here in the Southwest. We see snow two or three times during the winter, and it usually starts right after Christmas. It is early this year; our first snowfall was last night when the huge cold front moved in on us.

I’ve noticed that people speak differently about snow, depending on where they live. When we Southwesterners speak of this event, we say “the first snow was early this year.” We know it won’t stay long, and it may or may not happen again this year. My son who lives in the Frozen North has adopted the habit, like other Frozen-Northerners, of saying he hopes to get something done, like bringing in the firewood to the basement, “before the snow flies.”

Thirteen thoughts about snow, whether it “falls” or “flies”:

1. First, it rained hard yesterday for about an hour and a half—a good ol’-fashioned, all-out thunderstorm. (But, actually, I wrote this last Thursday.)

2. Thank you, Lord! It has been very dry for several months, and our trees and bushes will be more protected against the freezing weather. Also, people here are still nervous about fires, after what happened last year—an unusual number of huge brushfires that destroyed many crops and homes.

3. All day, in anticipation of the cold, I had been trying to water my mother’s yard as much as possible. I couldn’t get back to her house to turn off the water before the rain began, so three sprinklers were going full blast in the rain. I got pretty wet slogging around the house to turn them off. And I feared being struck by lightening, with my metal-handled umbrella in my hand! It was crashing all around.

4. During the night, a couple of inches of snow fell, and it has continued snowing most of the day—big, fluffy flakes. School was called off, so I am staying home. (Yea!)

5. Sometimes I can’t tell if it is still snowing because clouds of snow blow off the roof.

6. The ground is still very warm, so it melts slowly, underneath. The roads are passable. But toward the end of the day, ice will form, making driving dangerous. It is a good thing schools are cancelled, because people here in the Southwest don’t know how to drive on ice and snow—even in rain, in some places.

7. Our 6-year-old grandson, who has gotten very good at reading lately, called last night and read us the weather report for the week, here and in the Frozen North where his uncle and aunt live. He likes to keep an eye on the weather for everybody.

8. Little bits of green grass poke up here and there in the snow; soon they’ll turn brown.

9. Bright red cardinals and their tan ladies show up to eat the cat food and to scratch around in the snow under the trees and bushes. A red cardinal in the snow reminds me of a Christmas card we got last year.

10. Blue birds with orange breasts forage, along with the cardinals. Maybe these are migratory birds; I don’t know what kind they are, although I have seen them before. I have a bird book, but right now, I am too lazy to open it. Next time I go out, I must buy some sunflower seeds and put out the bird feeder.

11. I remember that when I was four years old, my father helped me build a snowman for the first time. We used a wooden Coke box as a base, to make him taller. I chattered away like a happy little bird; he didn’t say much, but he smiled a lot.

12. When my daughter was about three, she and I built a snowman. We put a toboggan and a heavy scarf on him, to keep him warm. She loved it. Her little button nose and chubby cheeks were red with the cold, and her dark eyes sparkled. When her brothers came along, we all built snowmen every year.

13. A few years after my father died, my mother and her next-door neighbor built a huge snow-woman. She had big bosoms, a wide-brimmed hat, an apron, and a shawl.

Thursday Thirteen Thoughts about the First Snowfall

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/thursday-thirteen-thoughts-about-first.html

Predestination? Choice?

I have a question.

Do you believe in predestination?

In places in the Bible, we are told that everything is pretty well wrapped up from the very beginning of time. God has chosen whom he will redeem.

On the other hand, in other places in the Bible, we are told that we should choose life—that we should choose the right way and spurn Satan. We are told to seek God while he may be found. Seek him and he will hear and answer.

Which is it? Is this one of those things we will not know until one day when we are with him in eternal life and can ask him questions? Maybe it’s one of those things we can’t know now.

Predestination? Choice?

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/predestination-choice.html

Education: Laptops for All Children

A laptop computer for every child—when I first heard that, I said, “Oh, good grief! A laptop!? What lots of children need is nutritious food—coats and shoes—a bed.” And I promptly dismissed it as another bad idea.

Eventually, I ran across this web site—Laptop.org. This has been in the news for awhile, but I haven’t paid much attention to it until now. Amazing!! I now realize that laptops could soon be available for children in developing countries. I also see that they could have a tremendous impact in third world countries—and in our country, too.

This small laptop, developed at MIT, will work even in the most primitive areas because it can operate on hand-cranked power. The monitor is designed to work on very low power, with half of its elements (whatever those things are called) made to reflect existing light; it can show up in color or, using reflected light, black and white. This “wiki” tells a great deal about the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project and provides opportunity for discussion and feedback from interested readers.

When the project is ready, if we turned loose of a few billion dollars here and there, we could take a big step toward helping. I believe some of the best assistance for the desperately needy is to enable them to find ways to help themselves. We can see such results in areas where missionary groups and government agencies like the Peace Corps have taught people how to build and operate simple machinery for much benefit—for water purification, farm irrigation, crop management.

We are called to help the needy. In fact, taking care of the poor and seeing that justice is done are ways of worshipping God through obedience. He doesn’t want us just to fast and bow our heads, but to live a “fasting” kind of life. God tells us in Isaiah 58 that the kind of fasting he really wants involves some action on our parts:

Here is the way I want you to fast.

Set free those who are held by chains without any reason.
Untie the ropes that hold people as slaves.
Set free those who are crushed.
Break every evil chain.
Share your food with hungry people.
Provide homeless people with a place to stay.
Give naked people clothes to wear.

When people are oppressed and we see it, we’re supposed to do something about it. We are supposed to feed them and clothe them. I believe the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project should be considered as we look for ways to help. Education is vital in the set of keys to escaping from the “mind-forged manacles”* of poverty.


*These are the words of the British poet William Blake, who wrote in the late 1700s of the dreadful oppression of poverty that he saw in London.

Education: Laptops for All Children

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/education-laptops-for-all-children.html

Bible Translations--What's the Difference?

I work with an interdenominational college students’ Bible study that meets once a week. My job is to arrange the food—we always feed them dinner. That’s very important to a college student who is away from Mama’s cooking! I assure you, they are HUNGRY. Different churches in our community help out by providing food.

They are hungry in other ways, too. They need spiritual food. Four of our leaders take turns teaching from the Bible once a week. They need more help than that, so we decided to send out a mid-week something with devotional thoughts. My friend Janet has the job of group communications; she writes weekly devotionals for them. She takes this job seriously and does it prayerfully. I asked her to let me share last week’s mid-week devotional with you because it talks about some important things:

Janet wrote:

"Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself." Can you guess who said that? Dr. Phil? Oprah? Nice sentiment. But who said it? What? Matthew 16:25? You’re kidding. I don’t remember Jesus saying ANYthing about finding yourself.

These were my thoughts when I first encountered this verse from The Message. No, it is not a bible. It is a paraphrase. But it has been used liberally by writers, most notably Rick Warren, to establish the authority of their viewpoints. Paraphrases should never be used as a substitute for the Bible, but used like a commentary along with it as an aid.

But what aid? Can you trust a paraphrase that turns this: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.—Matt 16:25 NASB--into a self-actualization message? We are talking about eternal life, here, not finding your groove or getting the most out of this life!

The plethora of translations and paraphrases can cause confusion, especially to outsiders who gleefully conclude that the Bible is too “tampered with” to have any relevance to their lives. But what are believers to make of all of it?

I believe that we can say with confidence that the original manuscripts are the inerrant word of God. There have been enough manuscripts found to give us additional confidence that we are dealing with inspired words divinely preserved for us. There is much evidence to confirm the Scriptures as divine. But what of translations? There is no assurance that they are divinely inspired, thus each believer has to exercise some discernment. Each translation (not paraphrase) has a body of scholars who undertake their assignment with a set of underlying assumptions. The NASB, for example, attempts to be faithful on a word by word basis to the original text, while the NIV uses the meaning of the word from the original text to find a common English equivalent in order to make the text more modern and understandable.

Both approaches have merit, and you will benefit from reading both when you study. Just as we are not supposed to form our doctrinal beliefs upon only one verse from the Bible (called proof-texting), we should not ignore the fact that translations include biases from the people who labored over them, and so consult other translations (including also the NKJ and NEV) frequently.

The Scriptures themselves warn us not to take God’s word lightly (Rev 22:18-19). Your faithful attendance to a weekly Bible study shows how much you value God’s word. Pray for continued guidance and discernment as the Word is attacked by those who would deny its power. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.—Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

The worst attacks are the subtle ones from within. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.—2 Timothy 4:3 NIV

The more you know your Bible, the less likely it will be that you will be misled. Difficult verses often have to be interpreted in light of what the rest of the Bible says. Not surprisingly, we recommend the hard work of daily Bible study as a remedy for itching ears!

Bible Translations--What's the Difference?

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/12/bible-translations-whats-difference.html

Thursday Thirteen--Smells

Our ability to smell is amazing, if you think about it. God created us with a complicated system of nerves, including the olfactory nerves, which are “the first pair of cranial nerves that arise in the mucous membranes within the upper part of the nose and transmit impulses concerned with the sense of smell to the forebrain” (Webster)! In a less technical sense, odors and fragrances can bring us many pleasant sensations and even trigger memories.

Here are thirteen of the most delightful smells I can think of:

1. lilacs—When I was a child, I spent a lot of time playing under a huge lilac bush, and I have always loved the fragrance of the blooms.

2. gardenias—My father bought my mother a corsage of gardenias when they got married; my brother and I bought a big bouquet of gardenias for our parents’ fiftieth wedding celebration.

3. honeysuckle—During my growing-up years, there was a big honeysuckle vine outside my bedroom window, and I could smell it at night during the summer; those were pre-air-conditioner days, and the windows were always open.

4. dill pickles—Yum! They are the best on sandwiches.

5. fresh mint—I love fresh mint in iced tea.

6. garlic—I’m trying to learn to cook with fresh garlic; it is so much better than canned garlic.

7. vanilla—We have a twenty-year-old Christmas ornament, a bird made from vanilla beans from South America. During the year, it lives in a can. When we open the can, the whole room smells like vanilla for a little bit. We let our 7-year-old grandson open it this year; his eyes grew big, and he said, “Wow! Smell this bird!”

8. cinnamon—It makes chocolate chip cookies smell and taste even better.

9. the air just before it rains—There’s a dusty-leafy smell in the air. Sometimes the tap water in our small town smells and tastes this way.

10. coffee—Ah, yes! A steaming, hot cup, as I curl up on the couch to read my Bible early in the morning.

11. pine cones and all evergreen trees

12. a fire in a fireplace

13. compost—leaf mould—dirt

Thursday Thirteen--Smells

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/thursday-thirteen-smells.html

Lectio Divina

A few weeks ago, Carolyn, a good friend of mine, went on a Saturday “retreat of silence” with a group of friends from her church. They spent the day apart from each other--alone, in meditation, contemplation, and prayer. There were no organized lessons, lectures, or exercises. They had only their Bibles and pen and paper. It would be important to listen for God’s soft voice, speaking to them.

Carolyn said it was a little daunting at first. People are so used to constant noise—talking, music, television, traffic, cell phones. She wondered how she would get through the time. But it turned out to be a surprising time of closeness to God, of intimacy with his Spirit. The hours passed quickly.

What they were doing sounds loosely like lectio divina, an ancient technique of reading, meditating, and praying scripture; I just stumbled across a web site about it. According to an article by Father Luke Dysinger, lectio divina was “practiced at one time by all Christians.” Father Dysinger explains that this art involves

a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition, and is one of the precious treasures of Benedictine monastics and oblates. Together with the Liturgy and daily manual labor, time set aside in a special way for lectio divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.

I have loosely done this myself, I realize, but I didn’t know to call it lectio divina; I always called it “praying the scriptures.” The Psalms, the book of John, the letters of John, and some of Paul’s letters especially lead me to read slowly, contemplating, praying, listening for God’s voice. Sometimes I use the references in daily devotionals by Oswald Chambers.

As my friend Carolyn said, “We’re always in such a hurry, even with our Bible reading.” Surely we can slow down and allow our hearts and minds to open to our God, who is always there when we seek him.

The Bible tells us that God says to the Israelites, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:12-13). He says the same thing to us, through the scriptures—we can hear his heart speaking to ours if we listen.


This note was attached at the bottom of the web site about lectio divina:

“The author considers this article to be in the Public Domain. This article may therefore be downloaded, reproduced and distributed without special permission from the author. It was first published in the Spring, 1990 (vol.1, no.1) edition of Valyermo Benedictine. It has subsequently been reprinted as (1) “Appendix 2” in The Art and Vocation of Caring for People in Pain by Karl A. Schultz (Paulist Press, 1993), pp. 98-110; and in (2) An Invitation to Centering Prayer with and Introduction to Lectio Divina, by Basil Pennington and Luke Dysinger (Liguori/Triumph, 2001)”

Lectio Divina

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/lectio-divina.html

Poetry

I am in love with words. I am amazed at how the human mind can wrap itself around ideas and express them.

My college English students like to think that nobody writes poetry any more and that nobody can understand it. That’s not true, I always tell them. People everywhere are closet poets; they write down their lives in private ways, telling their emotions. I can see by their eyes that many of the students do it too, but peer-fear keeps them from admitting the truth! Here’s a link to a lot of poetry, if you’d like to sample it.

I can identify with what Tim Challies wrote about poetry, in his blog:

As I've thought about words, I've thought about the power of words used in poetry (and song, for what is song but verse set to music?). While I love prose and spend some time out of every day engaged in creating it, there is something about poetry that grabs my soul. There is quality in poetry that allows so much to be said in so few words. So often I can hold onto a line of a word or a poem in a way that just is not possible with prose. A memorable piece of prose may be several sentences or paragraphs. A memorable piece of poetry may be only a few scant words. And yet often the poetry seems to say so much more. John Wain said "Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking." Something in poetry just stirs the soul in a way prose cannot, just as there is a beauty inherent in dancing that is missing in walking.

I love a poem with ideas clothed in beautiful images. One of my favorites is “The Passing of Arthur” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The best part is near the end of the long poem (469 lines) when Sir Bedivere sees that he will be the only survivor of the “last weird battle in the west”—even King Arthur has been mortally wounded and is being taken away to the Isle of Avilion. The old way of life when people lived by their ideals is passing away. Bedivere is alarmed; he cries out,

“Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?

Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?

For now I see the true old times are dead,

When every morning brought a noble chance,

And every chance brought out a noble knight. . . .”

Arthur struggles to answer him:

“The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfills himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. . . .

Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice

Rise like a fountain for me night and day.

For what are men better than sheep or goats

That nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer

Both for themselves and those who call them friend?

For so the whole round earth is every way

Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. . . .”

I think Tennyson, through King Arthur, was exhorting the people of Victorian England not to fall away from their faith in God. It was a time of great change—not only because of industrialization, but also because of the proclamations of science and the writings of Charles Darwin. I believe these ideas are applicable to our lives today. More things are accomplished by prayer than we can imagine; therefore, we must keep a fountain of prayer rising to God always.

Poetry

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/poetry.html

Thirteen: I Am Thankful . . .

I am thankful . . .

For my family, not in any particular order:
1. My two sons and my daughter, who grew up to be good, kind, loving people, in spite of us.

2. My two daughters-in-law and my son-in-law; they are loving and dedicated in marriage and parenthood. They are sweet and good to us.

3. My eight grandchildren, who are these ages: 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 18 months, 18 months, and three weeks. (No, the “18 months, 18 months” is not a mistake. They were born two days and 200 miles apart. That was a wild time!)

4. My husband, who is loyal, loving, and generous. And as one of my college students (a girl!) once said, “He’s a cute older guy.” He liked that, but didn’t like it at the same time.

5. My mother, who is 90 years old now. She is sweet and precious and needs my help a lot now-- I gladly give it. She took care of me for years while I was growing up and helped me endlessly all the rest of these years. She and my father taught my brother and me about unconditional love by living it.

6. My father, who died 18 years ago. He was quiet and shy, loving and generous beyond imagination. I never stop missing him.

7. My brother and his family. He is a good, sweet man, surrounded by his large family-- my three nieces and my nephew and all their children. He is ahead of us in the Grandchildren Count—he has ten.

8. I’m thankful for good friends. What would I ever do without them?

9. I’m thankful for God’s wonderful creation—

10. and for his gift of his son Jesus to the world

For people like . . .

11. Martin Luther, who was courageous enough to stand up against oppressive religious practices like the sale of indulgences and pardons. He insisted that the church recognize that we are saved by grace through faith and that we can have a direct relationship with God through Christ. We can’t earn or buy forgiveness.

12. Mother Theresa, who lived among and cared for the poor, sick and dying in India. She was a living example of what a Christian should be like.

13. Shane Claiborne, who went and spent the summer with Mother Theresa to find out what real Christianity is.

Thirteen: I Am Thankful . . .

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/thirteen-i-am-thankful.html

Chocolate: No More Guilt

I knew it! God invented chocolate for a good reason!

My favorite food no longer makes me feel guilty. According to a recent study, dark chocolate is full of healthy antioxidants that will help my blood to flow freely. I must eat some every day. I can handle this new assignment; I am sure of it. This BBC article says its flavanols even will help me not have high blood pressure or diabetes.

And...by the way....Ghirardelli makes the world's best chocolate.

Here is part of a Web MD report on the study by a group of European doctors; an article about it appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dark chocolate -- but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk -- is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.

"Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate ... and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate."

Translation: Say "Dark, please," when ordering at the chocolate counter. Don't even think of washing it down with milk. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble.

Hooray!

Chocolate: No More Guilt

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/chocolate-no-more-guilt.html

Anne Rice, Christian

We flew up to the Frozen North yesterday. During a layover in the airport at Salt Lake City, we entertained ourselves by browsing through books. I bought a paperback by Anne Rice--Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt.

I remembered reading a few months ago that Rice had shocked the vampire lovers of the world by becoming a Christian. She spent a couple of years reading and researching, and the Christ the Lord novel is the result. The Christianity Today web site tells a little about this.

The novel is at least partially based on the Gospel of Thomas. I will report on it when I finish reading the book!

(By the way, we came up here to meet my new granddaughter. She is very sweet and precious--mellow and peaceful. I would like to take her home with me, but they decline to let me.)

Anne Rice, Christian

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/anne-rice-christian.html

Thursday Thirteen: Problem Stuff

Thirteen things I have a hard time getting rid of:

1. fire ants

2. gray hair

3. ten pounds

4. impulsiveness

5. a fear of spiders

6. love of chocolate

7. lack of muscle tone

8. the habit of being almost late

9. my habit of letting stacks of paper grow

10. a tendency to wake up just before the alarm does

11. the idea that I always have to be busy doing something

12. the feeling of being overwhelmed by all the papers I need to grade

13. a sneaking suspicion that people don’t care as much about the doings of Britney and “Fed-Ex,” Angie and Brad, and Tom and Katie as the news media seem to think they do

14. my tendency to be intimidated sometimes, rather than speaking up about things, even though I fully believe what Paul wrote: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:6-8).

Well, okay, I see that's fourteen! Oh, well!

Thursday Thirteen: Problem Stuff

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/thursday-thirteen-problem-stuff.html

jesUSAves T-Shirts--Hmmmm.

And in addition to the Bush fish, here’s something else disturbing. These images are on T-shirts you can buy.

“Jesus saves” is there, to be sure. But “USA” is dominant. Are we being a bit self-absorbed here—a little self-glorification going on, perhaps?

jesUSAves T-Shirts--Hmmmm.

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/jesusaves-t-shirts-hmmmm.html

Bush Fish . . .

I believe the focus here might be a bit skewed. Who saves?

In his book Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne points out this car sign. He comments, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”

He says, “It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily than the flag. No wonder it is hard for seekers to find God nowadays. It’s difficult to know where Christianity ends and America begins."

Bush Fish . . .

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/bush-fish.html

Speaking in Tongues

I myself have never spoken in tongues, although I believe that I very often feel intensely the presence of the Holy Spirit.

I believe that speaking in tongues is a valid way of communicating with God on the spirit level. It is certainly Biblical. I know a number of people who do speak in tongues on a regular basis, and I have been in services in evangelical churches when they did, both in the United States and in Mexico.

In the church I belong to (Methodist), we don’t speak in tongues, although officially, the church has nothing against it, as far as I know. Recently, the Southern Baptists have decreed that they will not encourage the speaking of tongues. I feel fairly sure that people in my church would not encourage it. I think many of them might be shocked if somebody began speaking in tongues in a service.

According to the web site “Religious Tolerance,” "’Speaking in tongues’ forms a major part of Charismatic and Pentecostal Christian life. This behavior is linked to an individual's salvation, and subsequent ‘Baptism of the Holy Spirit.’

Although the phenomenon of ‘tongues’ plays a large role in the lives of many tens of millions of conservative Christians, little attention has been paid to it by the scientific community. It is also essentially ignored or looked upon with suspicion by many other Christians.”

My friend TS wrote an interesting entry in his blog, “Wayfaring Stranger,” about this phenomenon. He quotes a New York Times article that describes a scientific study done at the University of Pennsylvania about brain activity during the singing of spiritual songs and speaking in tongues.

The study found that when people are engaged in these activities, the blood flow in the brain measures higher. The frontal lobes of the brain, which control language use and willful thinking, appear to be fairly calm, and this spiritual activity is driven by some other area of the brain that is hard to pinpoint.

Too, the area of the brain that controls motor and emotional activity appears not to be active, the study showed. The author of the study said, “It may be that practitioners, while mindful of their circumstances, nonetheless cede some control over their bodies and emotions.” In other words, deep within their brains, they somehow give over control.

How does that work? The thing is, it seems pretty clear that the Holy Spirit has the controls, doesn’t it? I can understand that, and it happens to me pretty often. But not in tongues. I feel a little bit . . . left out? Incomplete? Am I somehow missing the boat, so to speak?

Speaking in Tongues

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/speaking-in-tongues.html

Thursday Thirteen: What Is Love?

It sounds like kind of a corny question: What is love?

Real love is different from the usual, common ol’ ordinary, everyday love. It is different from “luv” that we see splayed out in movies and on TV. It is not the same thing as desire—or sex. In a time when half of all marriages end in divorce, we could use some real love.

How do I know what real love is? I learned it from First Corinthians 13, which has thirteen verses. The writer is Paul, who understood love because he learned it from God, who is love. Here’s what he says, in the modern-day language of The New International Readers Version:

(1) Suppose I speak in the languages of human beings and of angels. If I don't have love, I am only a loud gong or a noisy cymbal. (2) Suppose I have the gift of prophecy. Suppose I can understand all the secret things of God and know everything about him. And suppose I have enough faith to move mountains. If I don't have love, I am nothing at all. (3) Suppose I give everything I have to poor people. And suppose I give my body to be burned. If I don't have love, I get nothing at all.

(4) Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. (5) It is not rude. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people's wrongs.

(6) Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. (7) It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up.

(8) Love never fails. But prophecy will pass away. Speaking in languages that had not been known before will end. And knowledge will pass away.

(9) What we know now is not complete. What we prophesy now is not perfect. (10) But when what is perfect comes, the things that are not perfect will pass away.

(11) When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I had the understanding of a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

(12) Now we see only a dim likeness of things. It is as if we were seeing them in a mirror. But someday we will see clearly. We will see face to face. What I know now is not complete. But someday I will know completely, just as God knows me completely.

(13) The three most important things to have are faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.

That's what real love is. Is your love like that? Is mine?

Thursday Thirteen: What Is Love?

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/thursday-thirteen-what-is-love.html

Ted Haggard: More Thoughts

While I wrote this entry about Ted Haggard a few days ago, I had a hard time with one part. I said,

I hate when things like this happen. It is a tragedy for all of us. Nobody is perfect, and when one suffers, we all do. When a Christian is shown to have clay feet—especially a prominent one—the whole body of Christ suffers a tarnished reputation.

But at first, I wrote this: Nobody is perfect, and when one suffers, we all do. We all have darkness in our hearts. We all have secrets in our lives that we hope won’t come to the light. That’s because we are humans and therefore fallen creatures. We all would be entirely without hope if it were not for the mercy and gracious forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ.

I took out the last three sentences before I posted the entry—I don’t know why; I shouldn’t have.

When I said “the whole body of Christ suffers a tarnished reputation” when something like this happens, I meant that some people who are nonbelievers like to point out the hypocrisy. They say, see, here’s what you people are really like. And they use that as one more excuse for not believing in God. They form their clouded perceptions of God from their perceptions of his people, and when his people are exposed as sinners, they have what they think is ammunition against God. I know, because I know some people who do this.

The truth is, yes, we are really like that. Everybody is.

A friend sent me a link to this blog article by Tim Challies. In describing his changing emotions in the Ted Haggard situation, Challies says, “I went from wanting to know details, to feeling pity to feeling terror to pleading with God to continue to extend His grace to me that I would not fall.”

He quotes Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” And he applies Edwards’ thoughts to this situation. He says, “What is true of eternity, is equally true of the temporal. Just as nothing but God's hand keeps both Christian and non-Christian from death at any given moment, the same hand is all that restrains any of us from falling into sin as dreadful as Haggard's, or sin that is far worse.”

We should examine our own hearts before we get too tangled up in criticizing Haggard.

Ted Haggard: More Thoughts

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/ted-haggard-more-thoughts.html

New Baby Arrival!

Here’s our precious new grandbaby I wrote about last week! She weighs 6 pounds, 12 ounces, and is 18 ¾ inches long. She was born Friday morning, and she and her mommy are both in great shape, thank God. Her name is Alaina.

Look at that sweet little rosebud mouth!

I get to fly up to the Frozen Wastelands next week to see her—I can’t wait.

New Baby Arrival!

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/new-baby-arrival.html

The Fall of Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard was a well-known evangelist, the pastor of a mega-church, and a politically influential opponent of same-sex marriage—until a few days ago when it was revealed that he had been involved in drugs and homosexual activity. He fell, in disgrace.

I hate when things like this happen. It is a tragedy for all of us. Nobody is perfect, and when one suffers, we all do. When a Christian is shown to have clay feet—especially a prominent one—the whole body of Christ suffers a tarnished reputation. I fear this is one of the consequences of “the Church” becoming so deeply involved in politics and social battling. I hope we (“the Church”) will handle this in a loving way that will glorify God, as that should be the aim of all that we do and say. Forgiveness comes through the grace and mercy of God, through Jesus.

Here is a Yahoo article that comes from Reuters:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - Disgraced U.S. evangelist Ted Haggard, a vocal opponent of gay marriage, said on Sunday that he was guilty of "sexual immorality" and that he had long battled with a "repulsive" side of his life.

"I am guilty of sexual immorality, I am a deceiver and a liar. There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark and I've been warring against it my entire adult life," Haggard said in a letter that was read to his New Life Church in Colorado Springs by a church overseer.

Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals on Thursday after being accused by a male escort of having had a sexual relationship with him. He also agreed to step down as senior pastor of the New Life Church on Saturday."

The Fall of Ted Haggard

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/fall-of-ted-haggard.html

Thursday Thirteen--Classy Insults

Here are thirteen ways to insult somebody in really classy language taken from Shakespeare’s plays. This comes from an article by Jerry Maguire, called “Create Your Own Shakespearean Insults.”

Here’s how to do it: “Combine one word from each of the columns below, preface with ‘Thou . . . ,” and thus shalt thou have the perfect insult. Let thyself go—mix and match to find a barb worthy of the Bard!”

Example: Thou gorbellied fool-born lewdster!


gorbellied~~~~~~~fool-born ~~~~~~~lewdster
Churlish~~~~~~~~boil-brained~~~~~dewberry
Loggerheaded~~~~hedge-born~~~~~~miscreant
Fobbing~~~~~~~~clay-brained~~~~~~harpy
Puking ~~~~~~~~~hell-hated~~~~~~~moldwarp
Quailing~~~~~~~~pox-marked~~~~~clack-dish
Infectious~~~~~~~fen-sucked~~~~~~bum-bailey
Pribbling~~~~~~~~onion-eyed~~~~~~lout
Mewling~~~~~~~~swag-bellied~~~~~nut-hook
Frothy~~~~~~~~~~guts-griping~~~~~maggot-pie
Surly~~~~~~~~~~~crook-pated~~~~~horn-beast
Rank~~~~~~~~~~~idle-headed~~~~~whey-face
Weedy ~~~~~~~~~folly-fallen~~~~~~jolthead

Thursday Thirteen--Classy Insults

https://connectionsgodandtheworld.blogspot.com/2006/11/thursday-thirteen-classy-insults_02.html