Weekly Links!

~ LINKS TO SOME INTERESTING READING and WATCHING, FOR WHAT'S LEFT OF YOUR WEEKEND ~

FAITH

-"The Story of Those Little Communion Cups, Whatever Those Are Technically Called"


-"10 Reasons to Love Lent"


-"If Literature's Biggest Romantics Could Text" - the Odysseus one!


-"God's Omniscience as Law and Gospel": worth listening to:

FAmily

-"Solving the Autism Puzzle": This article from MIT Technology Review has research I haven't read elsewhere. You might be interested.

Fiction

-"Think Like a Pirate" - a very useful podcast episode, for you authors out there.


-"The Mad Truth of 'La-La Land'": I haven't seen this yet, but this review makes me want to see it more than ever.


-"How 'Weird Al' Eclipsed Almost Every Star He Ever Parodied": Not fiction, but art, so I'm putting it here.




I hope you have a lovely Sunday, full of worship and rest!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

More on God's Judgment

I've been thinking more about God’s judgment. I’ve been noticing a lot in my Bible readings lately, that the evil “withhold judgment” (esp. from the poor, the widow, the orphaned), and the righteous “judge justly”, and that the epitome of the “righteous judge” is the Lord Himself.  Judgment is not a bad thing in the Bible, it's a good thing. It's what the people of God long for. It's what the psalmists beg for over and over.

And yet “I am afraid of your judgments”. Because it’s wise to be so.

The righteous long for the just judgment of God, but that just judgment is also the reason that they greatly fear Him.

As they should.

And this is all good. This is all so good. Amen, come soon, Lord Jesus.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekend Links: Getting things done, being blesed, and more!

Some good reading from around the Web for your weekend:

"Face It: Your Decks Will Never Be Cleared":

The reality is: Things never clear up. They don’t even reliably settle down. Your in box is always full. The decks are always crowded. There is always more going on than you want or expect. Nonetheless, you can find ways to put your writing first, and make sure that it gets done. Otherwise, everything but your writing will get done.

"Why I don’t say 'I’m so blessed.'":

. . . God loves you. But I don’t know how, just like I don’t know how or why or how much He loves me. He makes rain fall on the wicked and the just, and woe to the just who think that they deserve the rain.

"Episode 9: Slay Your Dragons Before Breakfast So They Don’t Eat Your Lunch [Podcast]":  I really enjoyed this particular episode of "This is Your Life", on productivity.

"Jennifer Orkin Lewis": I loved this interview with an artist on her habit of sketching with paints for 30 minutes every day. (Hat tip to Melissa Wiley.)

"5 Easy Indoor DIY Succulent Ideas": Maybe it's just because I live in a hot place where succulents grow REALLY well, but I loved this post.

"Four Unexpected Benefits of a Small Church":

When I was in college and attended the big college-town churches, it was very easy to take in a sermon, get the free college kid care package, and book it back to the dorm with no strings attached. This is much harder to do in a small environment. When Isaiah has his vision of the Lord, there are lots of angels around, but Isaiah is the only human witness. When the Lord says, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" there aren't really any other options. I suppose Isaiah could have refused, but doing so would have highlighted his own unwillingness as the excuse—there was no one else to hide behind. Similarly, in a small-church environment, when something needs to be done, it's much harder to trust that someone else must be taking care of it. Often my response to a need must be, "Here I am. Send me." This isn't always my preference, but it is almost always for my good.

St. Francis de Sales, on loss

photo credit: Betsy Barber

This is a hard one, but I think he's right:

Well then, my child, if God takes everything from us, He will never take Himself from us, so long as we do not will it.

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World

Because, in the end, having the Lord? That is what matters.

Or, rather, belonging to the Lord. That might be putting it better, I think. Would I have an good thing, if I had to have it without him? No. (God helping me. Because I would need his help, oh yes, I would.)

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell




This post contains Amazon affiliate links. (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

New Year's Resolution #1: Love God

My first resolution is the same one as last year and the year before: Love God.

It’s okay to make the same resolution every year, I think. It’s even good. The new year is a time to take stock, to remember where we are and where we’re going, and if you find every year that your first thing is still your first thing . . . well, that’s good. It means you were probably right about your priorities. It means you just might be fitting into that wonderful description of the Christian life: “A long obedience in the same direction.”

Anyway, where it gets fun and very New-Year’s-y is in the details. What are you going to try to do, specifically, that will help you (specifically!) to love God better? What are your disciplines, your practices?

Specific Goals

Here are mine, for this year:

1) Keep using the St. James devotional to read (listen) through the Bible. Currently I’m listening through the assigned passages 3-4 times a week.

2) Keep listening through Proverbs every month. Ideally, this is one chapter a day, but often I listen to them about 4 or 5 at a time, to catch up.

3) Scripture memorization. I have no good plan for this. I need to think about this. (Revisit in Feb? Tie it to fast times in the church calendar?) (ETA: my husband is interested in working on this together. Yay!)

4) Observe the traditional Christian fasts. Not in a heroic way, but just in a basic eat-less-eat-boring way (sort of like the Orthodox do). This would be Wednesdays, Fridays, Lent, and Advent, basically (I think). I don’t want to do this, but I feel like I should. Just because, well, it’s what Christians have always done, and all the saints say it’s helpful in killing the passions, and it’s conducive to prayer.

5) Pray regularly. I want to be more deliberate about this this year. Unless and until I come up with a better plan, I’m just going to plan on saying an (Anglican) rosary morning and evening.

6) Pray for others. I also want to get better at praying for others, especially those in my family and church. Not sure how to do this either, but maybe I can (ha!) pray about it during January, and revisit it in February. (Update: my husband is interested in doing this with me, using the BCP’s Prayers of the People.)

What about you?

Talk about your devotional goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

a Celtic Collect for Lent

This has been the collect all week assigned in the St. James Devotional, and I'm finding that now, halfway through Lent, I am almost able to pray it and mean it:

Grant, we beseech Thee, loving Father, that we who are disciplined by the Lenten fast may find our worldly desires weakened, and our desire for heaven rendered more fervent. This we seek of Thy mercy in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who with Thee and Thy Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Very grateful for a devotional like this, that constantly prods my reluctant self into saying good words to God, and asking for the things my sinful self wishes I wouldn't, and being encouraged in ways my doubting self would never manage on her own. Collects like this redirect me. I think they're proof - a small bit of proof out of a great, great body of proof - of the truth that the church really is Christ's body. The saints write prayers like this down so that other Christians can be taught and encouraged and it works.

We aren't left alone. Even though we are to love God with every single piece of our selves, he doesn't leave us to love alone - we're never alone. And his great generosity shows in the fact that not only are we never alone because he is with us, we're also never alone because he's also given us this great communion of saints - this huge, geography-and-time-spanning family - who show us by word and example how to love him. And remind us that he really does love us.

So grateful. I'm so tired today, and so tempted to be discouraged, but then I read a collect like this, and pray it, and think about the unknown saint who wrote it, and the fact that God knew that I would read it however many years later - that he planned that, and who knows how many other not-coincidences! how many other people have been heartened by this! and this is just one short, lonely paragraph out of millions and millions and millions of words penned by the saints! - and I'm filled with hope, and I'm reassured, and I'm grateful.

So, Amen. Amen: may our desire for heaven be rendered even more fervent. Amen, and amen.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links: Domestic Monasteries, Dark Personalities, and More!

"The Secret of a Domestic Monastery":

It doesn’t have to do with getting the kids to walk around in silence (though, boy, that’d be nice if I could pull it off), nor is it about observing the exact same prayer times as consecrated religious. Boiled down to its core, the hallmark of the monastic schedule is that the way you use your time reflects your true priorities. Your daily life is one of constantly pushing back against the world’s expectations, making real, sometimes difficult sacrifices so that your time is not swept away by the current of the world’s priorities.

"Psychology Uncovers Sex Appeal of Dark Personalities": this is a fascinating study (hat tip to my friend, Roland, for the link!):

 . . . In other words, people with dark personality traits are not seen as more physically attractive than others when you take away their freedom to wear their own clothes and makeup. People with dark personalities seem to be better at making themselves physically appealing.

"Saying Stuff (about the Lord's Supper)":

And the stuff God says is totally different from the stuff we say. He says LITERAL STUFF. He speaks, and worlds come into being. He says, “let there be,” and it is. Stuff is, because God says for it to be. Of course I’m referring to Genesis 1, but it’s all through the Bible. For instance, look at Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” He says “let there be stars,” and all the stars come out. They obey before they exist. They exist by obeying the word of the Lord.

"Learning to Trust the Instruments":

In the aftermath, investigators found that almost everything that had gone wrong had been the fault of the pilots. When the plane encountered significant turbulence the pilots should have responded according to their flight training and according to the plane’s manual. Instead, they relied on instinct. And then, when the plane began to experience further complications, the pilots ignored the instruments that should have directed them to the source of the problem and the straightforward solution. They swung the plane violently from side to side attempting to right it because they ignored the aircraft’s instrument that told them where the horizon was and how to keep the plane level. They ignored the instruments that told them that their engine problem was not as serious as they thought. Blinded by the stress of the situation, they ignored the manual and did things their own way. It very nearly cost them their lives and the lives of hundreds of passengers.

And, finally, an advertisement that absolutely succeeded in making me want to give my money to the people who are asking for it - but they're not gonna take my money till . . . May? C'mon!! Why isn't this a Christmas release? Boo.
But, without further ado, Kirk, Cumberbatch, and . . . Khan?  Sorry, I mean: Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

Book Notes: "The Exact Place" by Margie L. Haack

If you've ever heard the late Rich Mullins' excellent song "First Family", you'll have an idea of the tone of Margie' Haack's memoir, "The Exact Place". Her clear-eyed prose is kin to Mullins' simple and profound lyricism.

Haack grew up on the swampy, lakeside land just on the American side of Minnesota's northern border, oldest in a large farming family.

To be honest, I usually avoid books about country life, because I find they tend to be either much too depressing or, the exact opposite, much too sickly-sweet.

But to my delight, Haack's book falls into neither trap. Walking with a firm step that tilts neither towards despair nor nostalgia, Haack's book tells the story of her childhood in one of the most fully-realized settings I've ever read.

I loved the descriptive botanical details of the unique environment around her home, and the funny stories about her escapades with her siblings, and the touching stories of her summers on the lake with her grandfather. All of these fascinating components buoyed me effortlessly along in my reading.

But the theme that Haack circles around to again and again is the feeling that dogged her throughout her childhood: the feeling that she had to work to earn both God's love, and the love of her stepfather.

She circles around to it over and over - she never stays on it very long, but every time she touches on the theme, she goes a bit deeper. It's like hearing a musical phrase repeated and elaborated on here and there in a fugue, until you realize that every single note - no matter how seemingly unrelated - is there to support this one statement.

And then, in the penultimate chapter, the phrase is answered and resolved. I've rarely read anything more satisfying, or anything that rang truer.

You know how we Christians love to tell stories about answered prayers and the extraordinary moments when we're absolutely sure God acted or spoke? And the stories are wonderful, but out of context they seem odd or unlikely or just . . . just like something other than the wonders that they are? I think what I loved best about this book is that Haack gave the context to God's answer of her one, most personal, most compelling question. If she'd told less of her story, I wouldn't have fully understood the wonder of the moment when God finally met her. But by the end of the book, I was so immersed in the world of her childhood, that when God finally met her and assured her of his love, I understood why what he said to her meant so much.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

(Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this book for free from the publisher, Kalos Press, which is an imprint of Doulos Resources, to whom I am under contract. I was not paid for my review, and all opinions expressed here are my own.)

Using the Prayers of the People for intercessory prayer

My two oldest kids go to school every weekday now and recently I've been feeling more called to intercessory prayer.

Could there be a connection there? ;)

All kidding aside, I really have been feeling called to intercede more than I have in the past - or perhaps, a better way to put that would be that the Lord has been reminding me that this is something He has asked me to do and He still wants me to be doing it. (I first got the impression that I was really supposed to be doing this on my honeymoon, actually. I remember journaling then that I thought a big part of my job as a wife and a mother was going to be praying for my family.)

One of the things I did in response to this most recent reminder was to email my grandma and ask her about her prayer life. It only made sense, because she's one of the people I always ask to pray for me when I'm in need of prayer.

Her response was both generous and helpful. And as I read her list of the different people and groups of people that she prays for, I thought, Huh, that sounds a lot like the Prayers of the People.

So I've started using the Prayers of the People in my own prayer life. I'm using the version that's in the back of my St. James devotional, as I already have that with me during my Bible-reading time.

And that's it. That's all I've got for this blog. No great spiritual insight, just a passing-on of something I've found useful. If you're having trouble structuring your intercessory prayer life, try the Prayers of the People. Pray them and let them remind you of all the people you were planning to pray for anyway. I'm finding them immensely helpful, both in reminding me of people I meant to pray for and of reminding me of how I ought to be praying for them.

Praise God for his servant Thomas Cramner.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Why we must learn to say, "God's will be done."

I read a story recently where one of the characters pointed out that we always do what we want to do - that sometimes we call what we want to do "right" to make ourselves feel better, but, basically, we do what we want.

I think the character's implication was that nothing actually is "right" or wrong, and I disagree with that conclusion, but the observation that the only thing we can possibly act on is our own desires is correct: we always do what we really want to do - you can tell what we want by what we do. Or at least, you can if you have all the information (which you don't). Anyway.

But here's the cool realization I had when I read that: this is why we must learn to say (and mean) "God's will be done." Or, in other words, why we must make God's desires our desires. Our real desires. The reason we must learn to desire what God desires is that only God desires correctly.

Our desires are corrupted by sin and selfishness and - I don't think we think about this enough - a really pathetic lack of sufficient information. We can't see into the next minute, let alone back to creation and forward to the End, taking into account the good of all creatures and the honor of their Creator. But God knows all and loves fully. So may His will be done.

Almighty God, to whom our needs are known before we ask, help us ask only what accords with your will; and those good things which we dare not, or in our blindness cannot ask, grant us for the sake of your son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Log Cabin Scrapghan

I know I'm posting lots of blogs about crafts and links and not much else, but that's because it's the end of the school year, and I'm giving myself a bit of a break from all things writing-related, so that I can concentrate on finishing the year well.

Of course, I'm still jotting down lots of blogging ideas, so I have a dozen or so half-started blogs in process. At some point those will become full-fledged posts, and this blog will expand again to include more than just, "ooh, interesting!" and "ooh, pretty!" :D

In the meantime, I think crocheting is keeping me sane. It's so rhythmic and soothing. And the results are so satisfying:

I wasn't sure who this blanket was meant for when I started it. It was just an effort to use up odd bits and bobs of leftover yarn.

But as I finished it up this past week, my little Anna kept coming over and petting it, and talking about how pretty the colors were. So I think it's found its owner.

Working on this scrapghan has been very satisfying. You know how nice it is to use up the last can of something you bought ages ago that's sat in your pantry for forever? Or to finally drag out and plant the seeds that have been sitting in the cupboard since last fall? It's that kind of feeling. "Look! I took something that could have been tossed and instead found a use for it! I imposed order! I made room for beauty!" Honestly there's something right and proper about that. Something satisfying. It's not the same as internal order, and not as good, but I think sometimes that imposing external order - ordering the tangible - gives us the picture we need - the necessary example - for imposing order on our hearts. It's like this, whisper our crafts. What God wants to do in your heart is something like this. Let Him be to you as you are to this craft. Let Him have free reign to make the beautiful thing He can already see in the raw materials. Give over and watch. Give over and be made new.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

links! - trusting God, playing the violin, and much, much more

These Little Pieces is posting regularly to her blog again, and she's started with a bang. Check out this post on how to celebrate the Annunciation with your children (I love the idea of supporting a crisis pregnancy center in honor of the occasion) and also check out her giveaway from her Etsy shop!

Conversion Diary's post Trust School is excellent, and, for me at least, came right when I needed to hear the message it offers.

And on the funny/awesome side, I love, love, love my friend Katie's post about her New Trick. :D

Bethany writes about what keeps us from being happy, and about her need (and many of ours, I think) for time alone. This line especially makes me think: "Just because we need something doesn't mean that we demand it from others." Go read the whole thing here.

Jen left me a comment today on my post about how hard it is to find sympathy cards that are neither sticky-sweet nor theologically bad, pointing me towards these beautiful, serene, appropriate cards from Conciliar Press. I don't think I've ever seen anything better.

I always have trouble summarizing Anne Kennedy's posts, but read this one and you'll understand why I read her blog. Let's just say that she has read, marked, and inwardly digested everything that P. G. Wodehouse had to teach her.

I have not read much of this blog yet. I just found it. But it's called "Shrinking Violets: Marketing Promotions for Introverts". That's enough for me to keep the tab open for quite awhile.

Rachelle Gardner has a thorough, helpful post on what fiction editors are looking for when it comes to a novel's characters.

Smithical does a great job of collecting quotations pertinent to the big creation/evolution/homeschool conference kerfluffle.

"A Neutral Education?" by Susan Wise Bauer helped me find a missing piece in my continual ponderings about homeschooling and the nature of education. She writes:

The church of Christ, not textbook writers, should be responsible for providing the central Christian story that must inform all true education. When I wrote in Chapter Twenty of The Well-Trained Mind, “When you’re instructing your own child, you have two tasks with regard to religion: to teach your own convictions with honesty and diligence, and to study the ways in which other faiths have changed the human landscape. Only you and your religious community can do the first,” I was not attempting to maintain neutrality. Rather, I was asserting that a Christian education can only be provided by a Christian community — parents, in obedience to and in faithful relationship with their local church.

Now I am trying to figure out how that fits in with what has bothered me so frequently about Christian homeschooling organizations, i.e. that they frequently put character above academics when they are ostensibly academic organizations. I thought it bothered me because they were trying to make ordinary Christian parenting the end-all and be-all of education. But maybe part of it is that they are trying to take the place of the church? (Still just thinking out loud here, folks - not coming to any conclusions yet. Feel free to join in conversation in the comment section!)

Finally, what's a link post without some music? Probably most of you have heard this, but whether you have or not, it's still a nice evening treat. Enjoy!

The Iliad

My husband and I (having finished That Hideous Strength) are now listening through The Iliad during our evening chores. I thought I'd write up my impressions on it since it's been (wow) over ten years since I last read it. Note: some of these impressions are of the story, some strictly of this particular audio version. Also, this is just of the first section of the story (we're not that far along yet).

-When I heard Zeus called "the almighty" by the narrator, I thought, "well, sort of." Seriously, it comes across kind of unbelievable after all these years of studying the Bible and following Jesus. Calling Zeus "almighty" in the context of, well, reality, is laughable. Somehow, this hadn't really struck me before.

Which got me thinking: I see now, with this contrast between Zeus and God, why it's a necessity that the Almighty is also the All-Good. Looking at Zeus, you see that his weaknesses are all moral weaknesses . . . it's his pettiness, his lust, his changeableness that lead to his lack of real power. If he did not have these vices, he might be able to really have a will that is, as the poet says, "never thwarted". As it is . . . nah.

But I'm grateful for the insight that contrast gives me into the real God: I see now that you could not have someone who was all-powerful without him also being all-good. The very, very comforting off-shoot of this realization? Given the actual existence of the All-Good, you're never going have a final triumph of evil. Because an evil power would never be able to be have or maintain absolute power . . . its vices would eventually be its downfall. Moral weakness is real weakness.

-For a very long time, I wondered why the narrator was calling Apollo "Shutefar". I finally figured out that it's "Apollo Shoot-Afar". Ah.

-I hadn't actually forgotten this but . . . The Iliad is very gory. Wow. If the violence in the Bible ever surprised you when you finally got around to reading all the Old Testament, be assured that it's actually very restrained compared to other ancient texts.

-Actually, to me, as a Christian who's been reading the Bible for a couple of decades, one of the most interesting things about reading The Iliad is that it gives me a contemporary text to compare the Bible to. (Well, contemporary to some parts.) It's interesting to see what's similar because of culture and time, and what's very different because of theology or philosophy or culture (yes, culture falls on both sides).

-I also am immature enough that the poet's constant use of "the nipple" as a geographic landmark (as a sort of reference so you know exactly where the spear went in before "the darkness closed over his eyes") makes me giggle.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Book 14 of 15: Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

I'd forgotten that this was just an introduction to the Politics.

Okay, I take back the "just". :) I was really glad to read this again. I think this should probably be an every-ten-years book for me. I read it in my late teens, and now I've read it in my late twenties. Hopefully I'll be up for it again before I turn forty.

Aristotle's question in the Ethics is "what is the blessedly happy man like?" He asks what happiness is and what virtue is, and follows every objection and question with line after line of distinctions and qualifications and definitions.

I'll admit to much of this being over my head; I'm no scholar of Greek nor a philosopher proper. But I do think that a reading of the Ethics will reward anyone who attempts it just because the questions Aristotle asks are worth asking.

I was once again struck by the similarities between the Ethics and the Biblical book of Proverbs; both are concerned with virtue and wisdom and the good life. I appreciated again Aristotle's careful explanation that the happy man is the virtuous man, that it is our habits that form us into the people we are, that give us the capacity to appreciate beauty or to contemplate truth.

I could see this time why St. Thomas Aquinas was so tempted to apply Aristotle to Christian theology. Aristotle goes absolutely as far as you can in discerning the purpose of man - as far as you can go without divine revelation (and I think you could agree to that statement whether or not you think divine revelation was eventually given). His thought is a tempting foundation that just begs to be built on. His thought is so clear and so far-reaching in its scope.

When I got, towards the end, to his discussion of friendship, I couldn't help but think of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity - that God exists eternally in three Persons, in a unity of being. Because Aristotle addresses the argument that the truly blessed man would not need friends (being self-sufficient due to his complete virtue) and disagrees. He says that since true friendship is based on similarity (similar levels of goodness) and also since true pleasure comes out of action (knowledge must be not just understood, but embodied), the blessed man wants friends because then he can see virtue like his own in action. And I thought, huh, I wonder if that's what being a part of the Trinity is like? Is that part of the glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their eternal communion? That they - God in Himself - can see His own goodness in action?

Hopefully that's not a heretical thought. But it made sense to me while I was reading that part of Aristotle.

There's a lot more I wish I could write about this - I was underlining and starring and making notes in the margins all over the place!

There was stuff that applied to my personal life - like Aristotle's observation that we only try to do two things at once when they're two things that aren't much worth doing - like eating nuts at the theatre only when the actors are bad. :) It reminded me of the times when I watch a mediocre TV show while browsing on the Internet. Some parts of human nature don't change.

There was also stuff that I thought applied to our culture. I thought this paragraph might explain some of the ways that evangelical Christian culture has gone wrong in the past:

Now presumably some who say [pleasure] is base say so because they are persuaded it is so. Others, however, say it because they think it is better for the conduct of our lives to present pleasure as base even if it is not. For, they say, since the many lean towards pleasure and are slaves to pleasures, we must lead them in the contrary direction, because that is the way to reach the intermediate condition.*

But, of course, the Ethics is not about my personal life or my culture, and I don't want to make it less than it is by limiting it to specific applications. It can be used that way, and I think anyone reading it is going to have similar insights - moments when you say, "of course! that's just what life is like!" - because no one ever stated the obvious as clearly - or as early - as Aristotle. But it is a great work, and I almost wish I had the ability to appreciate it for all it is worth.

But not quite. In the end, I'm not sure that Aristotle is right about the chief happiness of human life being study. I am going to say, rather, that it is love, in the form of worshiping the One who is love. (Though I think you can get there through study. But, alas, I am not convinced enough that I am going to teach myself ancient Greek.)

However, that gets back to the problem of specific divine revelation, and I am now out of my text (to quote another great author).

Anyway . . . Aristotle. Worth reading, even hundreds of years later (yes, I know, I'm sure he's so relieved to hear me say so). I know I didn't get everything I could out of this, but I'm grateful for what I did get. I feel like Aristotle loaned me his clear thinking for the couple of days I was reading him, and my mind feels like it had a spring cleaning. There are worse ways to spend a day than thinking in the steps of "the master of those who know".

More on the 15/15 project here.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

*For Aristotle, the intermediate condition is always going to be the correct one, virtue being found between opposite errors.

and we, we should have lost it

Tonight,  in the midst of grieving some losses, and realizing that there are more to come, I remembered vaguely that there was a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins that talked about loss. And I went and reread it, and was so glad I did. It's ostensibly about the loss of physical beauty, but "age's evil", really, is death, and that's the deeper meaning, I think.  The poem, "The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo" starts with the question:
HOW to kéep—is there ány any, is there none such, nowhere known some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, láce, latch or catch or key to keep
Back beauty, keep it, beauty, beauty, beauty, … from vanishing away?
And the answer soon comes:

No there ’s none, there ’s none, O no there ’s none,
Nor can you long be, what you now are, called fair,
Do what you may do, what, do what you may, And wisdom is early to despair:
Be beginning; since, no, nothing can be done
To keep at bay
Age and age’s evils . . .
 (Emphasis mine, here and throughout.)
It's hard for me to excerpt this poem, to skip over any of it, but soon comes the even further answer:
  Spare!
There ís one, yes I have one (Hush there!);
Only not within seeing of the sun . . .
Somewhere elsewhere there is ah well where! one,
Oné. Yes I can tell such a key, I do know such a place,
Where whatever’s prized and passes of us . . .
Never fleets móre . . .
And later yet:
. . . beauty-in-the-ghost, deliver it, early now, long before death
 Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty’s self and beauty’s giver
See; not a hair is, not an eyelash, not the least lash lost . . .
O then, weary then why
When the thing we freely fórfeit is kept with fonder a care,
Fonder a care kept than we could have kept it, kept
Far with fonder a care (and we, we should have lost it) finer, fonder
A care kept . . . 
That is it: "and we, we should have lost it."
Thank you, Lord, for your servant Gerard Manley Hopkins.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you

I'm working on memorizing this passage in Deuteronomy, and thinking a lot about it as a description of normal Christian spiritual growth. (I am becoming very convicted about the end - the part about not bringing abominations into your house. What media am I allowing to have hold over my imagination? TV? books? internet? Hmm.)
The part that's really sticking out to me right now though is verse 22:
And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
It reminds me so much of that scary story Jesus tells in Matthew 12, about the demon who returns to the man he came out of, and finding his home unoccupied, reoccupies it, along with seven more spirits more wicked than itself.

The idea being - and I could be getting this wrong, I haven't studied this, and these are just my beginning thoughts on these verses - that as the Holy Spirit helps you clear out sinful habits in your life, He does it slowly, so that you have time to fill the space left by those sinful habits with virtuous habits.  If He just made you instantly sinless, if He - in the words of Deuteronomy - destroyed all the nations at once - you would be overwhelmed by the emptiness. The beasts of the field would be too numerous for you. Your house would be unoccupied, and who knows what would come to fill it?
Instead, He drives them out little by little, so you have time to grow into the empty space that is left.
BUT.
But don't forget the end of that passage:
But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed.
And I like it even better in the King James, where it says he will destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of "I will do this slowly, so you are not overwhelmed" and "I will do this absolutely, because My holiness demands it." All at once He is aware of our limitations while being uncompromising about His nature. 

It gives me hope, as I look at my habitual sins, and even more, at my persistent immaturity (which is persistent because of my habitual sins), and am discouraged about how long it takes to get better at this, and dear Lord, will I ever get it right, ever be fit to see your face? to know that on the one hand, He is not unaware of my weakness and on the other, He will settle for nothing less than the absolute removal of all wicked ways from me.
When I am afraid my slow progress means I'm not making any progress, I'm encouraged to think that this is actually the way He wants it to be, because He knows that more would overwhelm me.
When I'm tempted to stop trying, because surely where I am is good enough, I am reminded that He is holy, and that I am not to allow any evil to have any hold over me.
I hope you're encouraged too, as you start another week, to turn your eyes upon Jesus, and to keep following. He won't let you fall, nor will He let you fall behind. Keep going.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell
p.s. Read Jeanne's post from last year on this passage here. She's the one who first got me thinking about this wonderful bit of scripture.

on speaking of God

I've wondered, for a long time, how I should witness, how I should share the gospel. My sister said something yesterday about always being sure that the people around you know that you know and love Jesus. Then you can always tell them the gospel and they will always know they can ask.

Then, this morning, I read this in St. Francis de Sales' "Introduction to the Devout Life"

If you love God heartily, my child, you will often speak of Him among your relations, household, and familiar friends . . . Even as the bee touches naught save honey with his tongue, so should your lips be ever sweetened with your God, knowing nothing more pleasant than to praise and bless His Holy Name . . . But always remember, when you speak of God, that He is God; and speak reverently and with devotion, not affectedly or as if you were preaching, but with a spirit of meekness, love and humility; dropping honey from your lips (like the Bride in the Canticles) in devout and pious words, as you speak to one or another around, in your secret heart the while asking God to let this soft heavenly dew sink into their minds as they hearken. And remember very specially always to fulfill this angelic task meekly and lovingly, not as though you were reproving others, but rather winning them. It is wonderful how attractive a gentle, pleasant manner is, and how much it wins hearts.

This answers a lot of my questions. I have been slowly trying to mention God more and more to people I know or happen to meet, and it is getting easier, because the longer I live, the more of my life and heart I open up to Him. And the more I submit my life to His will, the more all my activities revolve around Him. So that, eventually, I can't talk about anything I'm doing - parenting, writing, even housekeeping - without making mention of my Lord. So witnessing becomes natural.

I think. It still scares me - I'm so scared of doing it wrongly that I don't do it at all. Often and often, that is the sad truth. But this passage from St. Francis encourages me, makes me think that I'm on the right track, and gives me hope that God will overcome both my fear and my puzzlement, and that someday, everyone I meet will meet Him too.

I'm so not good at this. But He is. And I have to trust that He'll help me.

And I really like St. Francis' instruction here to pray for others while we are speaking to them. The seems very, very right.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

the point of Exodus

I've kept up, so far, with my resolution to read through the Bible again this year. And I've just finished Exodus.

I know I usually think of Exodus as the story of the children of Israel leaving Egypt. And it is.

But you know what the bulk of it is? The story of God telling them how to build the tabernacle. And then the story of them building the tabernacle.

It's very repetative. "Make it like this. With this many curtains. Made of this stuff. And this many sockets. Made of this stuff. And . . ." Then, after you get through chapters and chapters like that, you read almost the exact same things over again, except that's now it's: "And they made it like that. With that many curtains. Made of that stuff. And that many sockets. Made of that stuff. And . . ."

But I know that all scripture is God-breathed, and useful. So I was praying that the Lord would help me see the point of the repetition. And I think I found it, here in Exodus 40:42-43:
"According to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work. Then Moses looked over all the work, and indeed they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, just so they had done it. And Moses blessed them."

Israel obeyed. They did it just as the Lord had commanded. And that exacting obedience was so precious, so good, that it was worth telling it all over again, just to show how precisely they had obeyed his word. "He said to do it this way. And we did it that way."

And then, following that glorious declaration of obedience is this, in Exodus 40:
Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

God was with them. He told them how he was to be worshipped, how to make themselves fit for his presence, and they obeyed, and then he was present with them.

The truth is, that the repetition is highlights the beauty of the call and response of God and his people. It is beautiful. I'm glad he helped me see it.

And it has me thinking a lot about where, in my own life, there ought to be the same repetion. The same, "Do it this way" met with an echoing, "see, I did it this way, just as you said."

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

the domestic monastery

I am so very grateful to Jen for posting the link to http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/ron/ron_14domesticmonastery.htmltoday.

The reason I have not been blogging recently are just as this author states,

For example, the mother who stays home with small children experiences a very real withdrawal from the world. Her existence is definitely monastic. Her tasks and preoccupations remove her from the centres of power and social importance.

Sometimes it even removes you from the edges of power and social importance - sometimes it even removes you from so small a social connection as the blogging world. I have missed blogging. But the (eight!) small hands tugging at my sleeves have been insistant during the past two weeks, moreso even than usual. I have wondered and wondered what it is the Lord was doing with me. I knew he was doing something, because he always is working for our good, and I trust him.

This article explains what it is. I am very grateful to have the words now to describe my daily experience: he is teaching me that my time is his time. I am glad to know - not just in my head, but in my hands - that that is so.

Again, Jen, much thanks.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

a quad stroller and God's good gifts

I was recently granted the chance to purchase a secondhand quad stroller, and immediately called the woman listing it on Craiglist and said, "Yes, please, pick me, and I'll come today with cash?" Now the kids and I can take walks again (thank you, Lord, for your blessings) in an amazingly cool vehicle that I call "the Rickshaw" and my husband calls "the Hummer" and my eldest simply calls "the monster stroller".

(I wish I could put in a link, but Blogger is not being kind to me at the moment and my tech guy - that is, Adam - is not quite home yet to help me out. But Google "Foundations quad stroller", and you can see a picture of the blue beast which we did not - I hasten to add - pay as much for as the price next to whatever picture you're going to find is going to suggest.)

There are a couple of things about this stroller, and I have to go back a bit to explain one of them.

You see, our twins were premature, and so are pretty vulnerable to illness this winter, particularly a nasty bug called RSV. It's a virus most people get by the time they're two, and most people just experience it as a nasty cold. But our girls didn't have the last seven weeks in utero that most kids get in which to develop their lungs, so they're still internally playing cattch-up, and, with airways much smaller than most babies their age, have a much greater chance of getting very, very sick with RSV. It can even kill, God forbid.

So, we had the fun of trying to decide how careful we were going to be this winter about exposing them to other children, taking them out in public and all of that.

It's so strange, because with my older two, I was the sort of mother who was back in church the Sunday after I gave birth, and who didn't worry about a snotty nose. But with the twins, a snotty nose could easily turn into something much worse. Still, it was weird to have to make a decision that boiled down not to, "what's the absolute right answer?" but to "we're going to have some risk; how much do we want?"

We didn't want to be paranoid, but as we prayed about it, I began to have these pictures going through my head. The idea of staying cooped up all winter sounded nightmarish, but as I asked the Lord for wisdom in this situation, the pictures in my head were all of green pastures and peace. I felt like He was reminding me of the Jubilee year, when the pastures are allowed to lie fallow, and the ground that has been worked over too long is allowed its rest. This was what this winter of staying in could be to us.

It seemed He was saying that we ought to take this winter quarantine as a gift from His hand, that it was meant to our family as a blessing and not a curse, that it was to be a chance to be what we literally were not last year this time: to be together. (And, weirdly, the quarantine time will last from Nov. 1 to the end of March. Which is exactly the time last year from when we found out we were having twins and that something was wrong to when they came home from the NICU.)

Last year, for over two months, I was away from either my older two or my younger two children. And for half of that, also away from my husband. We were not all together.

This winter, we will be very, very together. And though it seemed like overkill to me, I heard our Father telling me to be at peace about it. So I said, okay.

And the very next morning, I got this quad stroller. That I'd been looking for for months. It was as if He said, "see? I'll take care of you."

This stroller means that this winter will be easier. I can get out with all four kids, without exposing them to germs. It means we can take long walks and avoid cabin fever. Walk to the park, and let the older ones run around the duck pond and get their wiggles out. It means that when I need to, I can run to the store, and by dint of keeping them all in the stroller and Purelling my hands afterward, make that a not-too-risky venture (no germy shopping carts). It makes it much less bleak.


So, there are many thoughts in my head about this quad stroller. I'm walking again, and that means I'm well on the way to getting rid of that last five pounds from the girls' pregnancy, that was hanging on without my regular exercise (I've always lost weight from pregnancy by walking with the kids). It means that I got to take the kids to a park where they could see herons and kingfishers, along with the more normal ducks and geese. It means that I was able to pick flowers from the roadside to fill the vases in my house (yes, even in the suburbs, pretty things peek over the walls into public space - I love it!). It means that the babies get to get out in a winter when they would otherwise have only seen the inside of our house.

But, foremost, it is a reminder to me to be grateful to the God who calls me to obey Him for His glory. And not just for His glory, but, as the prayer book says, for His glory and for our good. Praise Him!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s. I don't know where in the prayer book it says that. I'm just pretty sure that's where it landed in my head from!