Okay, I have to say that it just makes me giggle every single time I am reading about things to do with the Anglican church and see the bishops referred to as “the primates.” Although, maybe the fact that they are primates would explain the events of the last several days. Read the rest of this entry »
Another great quote:
June 20, 2006 at 12:31 pm (Other People's Thought, Uncategorized)
From Peter Marshall, (saw this posted on Boarsheadtavern.com):
Give us more faith. We have so little… we say. Yet we have faith in each other – in checks and banks, in trains and airplanes, in cooks, and in strangers who drive us in cabs. Forgive us for our stupidity, that we have faith in people whom we do not know, and are so reluctant to have faith in Thee who knowest us altogether.
Repentance
June 15, 2006 at 4:26 pm (My Life As I Know It, Snapshots of Grace, Uncategorized)
A friend walked in today just as I was hanging up from an intense phone call regarding an earlier, MUCH MORE INTENSE phone call. The earlier call had been hanging over my head for 3 weeks–I needed to call and speak plainly to someone about issues that I cannot put into a public blog. I’ve been a craven coward in making this phone call. I mean seriously, terror-stricken beyond all rational thought.
My husband left for the morning, taking children with him, so that I would have the space and the quiet to make this call. I spent a lot of time on my face, begging God to give me the courage I did not have to say hard and unwelcome things. And as I prayed, I realized that part of my difficulty lay in the fact that I believed that I could and should exit this conversation having made everything all better. That by the time I finished the call, my friend would have realized the truth of what I was saying and committed to taking the action I recommended, and would be headed to the health toward which I am trying to point her.
And I realized that that is basically a belief that I am God. That I can fix things for people and they are fixed. That I have a responsibility to make them understand and obey the truth. That I know the truth.
And so I confessed that sin. And I made the call. It went okay–there wasn’t a whole-hearted reception of the things I said, but also not rejection. I didn’t throw up or die. The phone call ended with a mutual expression of affection and good-will. I hope and pray that my exhortation will have some effect, but know that I have said what I needed to.
And as I was reporting all this in the second phone call, my friend walked in. I finished my call, and turned to greet her. Her first words were, “Trying to save the world?”
“No,” I answered. “I had to repent of the idea that I COULD.”
A breathtaking quote:
June 14, 2006 at 11:32 am (Other People's Thought, Uncategorized)
Here’s a corker, which I swiped from the banner at Michael Spencer’s BoarsheadTavern blog: (boarsheadtavern.com)
It is possible — and laymen have a very exact perception in regard to this — that theology makes the young theologian vain and so kindles in him something like gnostic pride. The chief reason for this is that in us men truth and love are seldom combined. It is also possible to say precisely why. Truth seduces us very easily into a kind of joy of possession: I have comprehended this and that, learned, understood it. Knowledge is power. I am therefore more than the other man who does not know this and that. I have greater possibilities and also greater temptations. Anyone who deals with truth — as we theologians certainly do — succumbs all too easily to the psychology of the possessor. But love is the opposite of the will to possess. It is self-giving. It boasteth not itself, but humbleth itself. -Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians
Role model
June 13, 2006 at 3:52 pm (Snapshots of Grace, Uncategorized)
Entry for June 13, 2006
“I want to be George W—- when I grow up,” my husband says to me. Read the rest of this entry »
Woman Seen from the Window of My Husband’s School
June 13, 2006 at 3:51 pm (Snapshots of Grace, Theolomusings, Uncategorized)
She stood out in the parking lot of the school, arms thrown wide to the sun, waving willow switches, and talking continuously with someone I could not see. It was clearly a conversation–she pointed and gestured toward the dumpster, looked back to see if she was comprehended, and waved her willows again. Read the rest of this entry »
Kids!
June 13, 2006 at 3:50 pm (My Life As I Know It, Snapshots of Grace, Uncategorized)
Tobin-ism:
T had a hurt foot, and we’d discussed soaking it in a bath using that mysterious box in the medicine cabinet.
“Mom,” he said, “maybe we should soak it in E-possum salts.” Read the rest of this entry »
Ianisms
June 13, 2006 at 3:49 pm (My Life As I Know It, Snapshots of Grace, Uncategorized)
Ian, putting on his brother’s clip-on tie: “Mom, Tobin must be a pastor, because he has a TIE.” Read the rest of this entry »
“I’ll pray for you.”
June 13, 2006 at 3:38 pm (Theolomusings, Uncategorized)
I have come to appreciate the significance and ministry available in the words, “Let’s pray NOW.” We say “I’ll be praying for you,” and then we MAYBE do pray at some point, and that’s a good thing. But when someone has shared a soul-need with me, and I respond by saying, “Let’s pray now,” I am doing the best, most-needed, most-effective ministry I can do. Read the rest of this entry »
Good Friday
June 13, 2006 at 3:37 pm (My Life As I Know It, Theolomusings, Uncategorized)
Last night at the Good Friday service at our church, there was a moment–when Jim, about to give the benediction, urged people to leave silently and to consider the solemnity of Jesus’ death–when I realized that I have never celebrated Good Friday seriously. Read the rest of this entry »
Thumbprints: Signatures of Grace 