Weekly Links

From a lunchtime walk last week.

A quick note before I get to the links: if you're a regular here, you've probably noticed that my blogging has decreased sharply. That's because, as I wrote here, I've changed my habits significantly in this new year, most especially by taking off my editor hat for awhile in order to concentrate on my writing.

And I have been writing, mostly on a novel, although I have a few non-fiction assignments I've been working on too.

The result of all this non-blog writing is that, when I turn to my poor, neglected blog at the end of the day, I find that I don't have many words left. 

I think this will change soon--I'm taking lots of notes for posts I want to write!--but for now I'm just going to keep putting up these Sunday links posts. I love sharing good writing and interesting stories. I hope you'll stick around for the links and, eventually, for some more original work from yours truly.

Okay, now onto the good stuff!


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

-"Are You Fighting the New Greed?" - on technology addiction

-"The Distinct God of the Book of Job"

-"The Benedict Option: What It Is and Isn't": the always-helpful Karen Swallow Prior, on the book of the moment.

-"What Will You Do? You Must Read to Lead"

-"Professing to be Wise, They Became LeFous": Linking to this especially for this good point that I've not seen anyone making elsewhere:

Disney...had to go and act like this story only exists to preach a bad sermon. This is worse than the most moralistic Christian films.

-"Family Christian Stores Close, But What Happens to Authors?"

-"Simple Rules for Healthy Eating"

-"Resist the Internet"

-"'London Bridge is Down': the Secret Plan for the Days After the Queen's Death"

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

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

"Whatever is under the whole heavens is mine"

a small human next to one of the many, many things that are bigger than he is

In Job 41, the Lord spends a long time describing “Leviathan” - some great creature that sounds (let’s be honest) rather like a dragon.

Whatever leviathan was, it was mighty and fearsome and scary. Think of any encounters you might have had with wildlife that scared you, or left you in awe. Think of the first time you saw a polar bear up close, and of how glad you were that there was thick, unbreakable glass between you and it.

Think of that time you stood at the edge of a canyon, and pondered the long, long fall to the bottom, and the great, ancient wings of granite that rose up above the drop: impervious, invulnerable, utterly beyond your ability to climb, to destroy, to conquer.

Think of that time the ground shook under your feet as the local fault slipped just a little further under the continental plate, as the walls of your home cracked and you threw yourself on top of you children, desperate that they would make it through the cataclysm unhurt.

Think of that time you cowered in the basement as the eerie noises of the strong winds rattled the house above you. Tornadoes might be fascinating to watch from a distance, but do you dare even stand above ground when one is actually roaring through your neighborhood?

Think even of the creeping horror you feel crawling across your skin when you recognize, too late, the shape of the leaves you have been brushing past on the hiking trail. Of the silly shriek you give even at an arachnid one one-thousandth of your size—less than that, even.

Of how you will not approach a strange dog that growls at you, let alone seek out the bears or the mountain lions in the hills behind your house.

For all our skill and technology and invention, we are still dumbstruck before the power of nature. We are crushed when gravity throws us down, we are dismembered when we are foolish in front of God’s fiercer creatures, we are small before the glory of the mountains and oceans and deserts.

And these, God reminds Job, all of these, are but God’s works. 

They are His works. They are not even yet God Himself.

Look at these wonders. Imagine the mind that could conceive them. Imagine the hand that could bring them into being. Bring them into being out of nothing.

Think on these things.

And then put your own hand over your own mouth, and be silent. Be in awe. Be in worship.

Be astonished.



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Weekend Links - Memorial Day Edition

SOME GOOD READING FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, AND FAMILY, AND FICTION) ...

But first, on this Memorial Day, here is a prayer from the BCP, in remembrance of those who have given their lives for our country:

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence; and give us such a lively sense of thy righteous will, that the work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

 

Faith 

-"Gandalf, Job, and the Indignant Love of God":

So what of God’s opening lines? Is he not dealing forcefully with Job? Is he not angry? Even indignant and sarcastic? Yes, but none of this means he’s acting with anything less than merciful lovingkindness.

-"How to Glorify God By Being a Generalist" 

-"A (Very) Brief, Gospel-Centered Defense Against the Problem of Evil"

-"The Phil Vischer Podcast: Religious Liberty with Russell Moore"

-"A Call for Plodding Bloggers"

-"Is Your Pastor Happy to See You?":

To be a Christian is to be a churchman or churchwoman. The New Testament knows of no vibrant discipleship apart from life in the local church, no authentic Christianity divorced from the covenant of life together according to the biblical structure of the local church. And if this is true, it behooves us to be the best churchmen and churchwomen we can be. And good churchfolk love, respect, and submit to their pastors.

Family

-"Keeping the Calendar to One Day" - an inspirational idea from Ann.

-"Don't Dismiss Housework":

This is where, I would argue, the moral imagination comes in. The task of cleaning itself may not require a lot of intellectual prowess—but it does require a great deal of imaginative skill and understanding. The work of maintaining a home is tied up inexplicably in the question of what it means to be human, and the person who cares for the home must adhere to a set of underlying ideas and mores that make his or her work meaningful. After all, why is it that we do not wish to live in squalor? Why do we see cleanliness and order as essential tenets for human flourishing? It must be because these constitute basic understandings of what human life should constitute—ideas that have a moral and spiritual tradition.

-"What I've Learned in Twenty Years of Marriage": I love the difference he articulates between a "merger marriage" and a "start-up marriage".

-"Blue-Collar Contentment"

-"Talking to My Boys After the Transgender Talk at Their Public School" - a helpful article.

Now, onto the links...

Fiction

- "Save the Allegory!"  - allegories: both different and cooler than you might have thought they were.

-"'Gossamer', by Stephen Baxter" - this beautiful short story pictures life (a very different sort of life) way out on the cold plains of Pluto.

-"A Letter to Friends Looking to Break into a Part-Time Writing Career" - not strictly regarding fiction, but good writing advice all the same.

Finally, if you haven't yet, please come and enter the giveaway for a copy of "Not Alone"!  The stories in it of faith during suffering are truly inspiring.

Have a good and meaningful Memorial Day, folks!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Book Notes: In Defense of Sanity: The Best Essays of G.K. Chesterton

"In Defense of Sanity: the Best Essays of G. K. Chesterton" is by - who else? - the immortal Gilbert Keith Chesterton.

I read this slowly, but not because I didn't like it. Rather the reverse.

And, much like my book notes on Boethius, I have trouble knowing how to review this other than to just quote from it. As Boethius' words are better than mine, so are Chesterton's.

So, here are a few (a very few) quotations from this almost 400-page long tome. May it do nothing more than convince you to read the great man's work for yourself:


On believing your beliefs:

“Don’t say, ‘There is no true creed; for each creed believes itself right and the others wrong.’ Probably one of the creeds is right and the others wrong. Diversity does show that most of the views must be wrong. It does not by the faintest logic show that they all must be wrong . . .”

On belief and the book of Job:

“The modern habit of saying, ‘This is my opinion, but I may be wrong,’ is entirely irrational. If I say that it may be wrong I say that it is not my opinion . . . A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.

“The first of the intellectual beauties of the book of Job is that it is all concerned with this desire to know the actuality, the desire to know what is, and not merely what seems . . . If wishing to be happy and being quite ready to be happy constitute an optimist, Job is an optimist; he is an outraged and insulted optimist. He wishes the universe to justify itself, not because he wishes it to be caught out, but because he really wishes it to be justified . . . He remonstrates with his Maker because he is proud of his Maker. He even speaks of the Almighty as his enemy, but he never doubts, at the back of his mind, that his enemy has some kind of case which he does not understand. In a fine and famous blasphemy he says, ‘Oh, that my adversary had written a book!’ It never really occurs to him that it could possibly be a bad book. He is anxious to be convinced, that is, he thinks that God could convince him. In short, we may say again that if the world optimist means anything (which I doubt) Job is an optimist. He shakes the pillars of the world and strikes insanely at the heavens; he lashes at the stars, but it is not to silence them, it is to make them speak.”

On the bravery of aiming true:

“But the splendor of the furrowed fields is this: that like all brave things they are made straight, and therefore they bend. In everything that bows gracefully there must be an effort of stiffness. Bows are beautiful when they bend only because they try to remain rigid; and sword-blades can curl like silver ribbons only because they are certain to spring straight again. But the same is true of every tough curve of the tree-trunk, of every strong-backed bend of the bough; there is hardly any such thing in Nature as a mere droop of weakness. Rigidity yielding a little, like justice swayed with mercy, is the whole beauty of the earth. The cosmos is a diagram just bent beautifully out of shape. Everything tries to be straight; and everything just fortunately fails.

“The foil may curve in the lunge; but there is nothing beautiful about beginning the battle with a crooked foil. So the strict aim, the strong doctrine, may give a little in the actual fight with facts; but that is no reason for beginning with a  weak doctrine or a twisted aim. Do not be an opportunist; try to be theoretic at all the opportunities; fate can be trusted to do the opportunistic part of it. Do not try to bend, any more than the trees try to bend. Try to grow straight, and life will bend you.”

On great minds taking on a project not their own:

“The book originated in the suggestion of a publisher; as many more good books have done than the arrogance of the man of letters is commonly included to admit. Very much is said in our time about Apollo adn Admetus, and the impossibility of asking genius to work within prescribed limits or assist and alien design. But after all, as a matter of fact, some of the greatest geniuses have done it, from Shakespeare botching up bad comedies and dramatizing bad novels down to Dickens writing a masterpiece as the mere framework for a Mr. Seymour’s sketches. Nor is the true explanation irrelevant to the spirit and power of Dickens. Very delicate, slender, and bizarre talents indeed incapable of being used for an outside purpose, whether of public good or of private gain. But about very great and rich talent there goes a certain disdainful generosity which can turn its hand to anything. Minor poets cannot write to order; but very great poets can write to order. The larger the man’s mind, the wider his scope of vision, the more likely it will be that anything suggested to him will seem very significant and promising.”

On modern fantasy:

“There is no reason within reason, why literature should not describe the demonic as well as the divine aspect of mystery or myth. What is really remarkable is that in modern fiction, in an age accused of frivolity, in an age perhaps only too headlong in its pursuit of happiness, or at least of hedonism, the only popular sort of fantasy is the unhappy fantasy. There is a certain amount of fantasy that is avowedly fantastic, in the sense of unreal; mostly in the form of fairy-tales ostensibly written for children. But, on the whole, when the serious modern novel has dealt with preternatural agency, it has not only been serious but sad . . .”

On magical tales:

“But in any case I am convinced that every deep and delicate treatment of the magical theme . . . will always be found to imply an indirect relation to the ancient blessing and cursing; and it is almost as vital that it should be moral as that it should not be moralizing. Magic for magic’s sake, like art for art’s sake, is found in fact to be too shallow, and to be unable to live without drawing upon things deeper than itself. To say that all real art is in black and white is but another way of saying that it is in light and darkness; and there is no fantasy so irresponsible as really to escape from the alternative.”

On the unity of the sexes in marriage:

“To put the matter in one metaphor, the sexes are two stubborn pieces of iron; if they are to be welded together, it must be while they are red-hot. Every woman has to find out her husband is a selfish beast, because every man is a selfish beast by the standard of a woman. But let her find out the beast while they are both still in the story of ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ Every man has to find out that his wife is cross—that is to say, sensitive to the point of madness: for every woman is mad by the masculine standard. But let him find out that she is mad while her madness is more worth considering than anyone else’s sanity.” 

On true sportsmanship:

“…healthy people will agree that you never enjoy a game till you enjoy being beaten at a game.” 

Yes, there are parts of this book that show their age (not in a good way), but most parts of this book that feel aged give that impression just because they hit on eternal truth. Occasionally I felt, "Hmm, he's trying to hit his word count here."  Or page count, or however daily allotment of effort from a journalist was calculated in those days. 

But those slow bits are a definite minority. On the whole, this collection is a delight. I can't imagine you'd regret diving into it.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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

from the earliest days

One of the things I've committed to doing this year is reading through the Bible. It's been awhile since I've done it. Last year I spent a lot of time reading the Psalms, which was perfect for the tumultuous year it was, but I've missed the rest of it.

I found a plan for reading through the Bible chronologically, that is, as the event occurred in real time. I've never read through it this way before, and it's very interesting. There you are, reading about Abraham being born, and all of the sudden, you're being told the story of Job. The Psalms are interspersed with the tales of the kings of Israel, and even a few of the prophets and a bit of the story of Moses.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of Job now, the oldest book of the Bible, and what's striking is how, even there, in the earliest of times, those following God longed for the resurrection of the dead. Longed for it, and connected that longing with God's love of His people. How can you read these lines and not feel heartstruck?

But man dies and is laid away;
Indeed he breathes his last
And where is he?
As water disappears from the sea,
And a river becomes parched and dries up,
So man lies down and does not rise.
Till the heavens are no more,
They will not awake
Nor be roused from their sleep.
Oh, that You would hide me in the grave,
That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past,
That You would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my hard service I will wait,
Till my change comes.
You shall call, and I will answer You;
You shall desire the work of Your hands.

Job was, among other things, a prophet. Because isn't this exactly what happened? God did set a time, and then remember him. And the security of Job, to be able to tell God, "You shall desire the work of your hands."

I often think of the ancient days a some entirely foreign time. Something unrelated to me, thinking that of course people were different then. But then I read the words of Job, the oldest of Biblical writers (or dictators, I suppose), and find that he expresses my heart's longing more eloquently than anyone alive today.

There is something in that continuity that expresses, not the universality of human hope, but the constancy of God's love. Because neither Job nor I would have known that we wanted life after death unless God had put it in our hearts to want it, and then answered that desire in a way that no one but Himself could have. In order to share that life after death, He became a man. A man who could die, but who also could, like no other man, rise from that death back into life, because He was also God. Because He became like us, He was able to die. And because we are like Him in sharing death (because He was willing to become like us), we're able to follow Him through that death into His own Life. He made a way, a road, where there was no way, and no road. He made Himself the road.

And to think that Job saw this, or some shadow of this, so long ago. And then saw the thing itself happen, centuries after he had died. Can you imagine? I don't understand everything about the harrowing of hell, or where the righteous dead were before Christ came to earth, but don't you think Job recognized it when it happened? Can you imagine being him, and seeing Christ rise triumphant?

"You shall desire the work of your hands."

He did. Praise Him!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell