amateur

Struck again

2009-09-25T15:07:00.001-04:00

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and higher life.

A.W. Tozer (no surprise)

An Old Toss-Up

2009-09-03T08:56:00.000-04:00

I’m much better at reading than writing. I absorb things deeply, and when it comes time to putting those thoughts forth to others, I stumble and babble. My realizations come in one-sentence impacts; how does one tie:

The other day I was listening to a song I’d heard dozens of times before, one that contained the lyrics, “We’ve broken the law........but He paid our debts.” A trite-looking phrase when seen baldly slapped down on a page without context, but suddenly and forcibly the words struck me, “We’ve broken the law.” I, Miss Always-Go-The-Speed-Limit, one who has never even been tempted to steal anything (and have been given ample opportunities to do so), has broken the law. I’m a lawbreaker. Me, broken the law.

to:

A stuffed blue bear named Mark, a testimony of encouragement we’ve not been the recipients of in our past.

One doesn’t have to tie things together, of course, but neither does one want to exclusively churn out one-liners. Fortunately, on a blog, one can toss up short thoughts and have still them part of the whole. I think.

A family effort

2009-08-17T08:48:00.002-04:00

I finally, finally found the right ending to a book I finished about two years ago. I've written at least three different ones, and hadn't liked any. But thanks to a brainstorming session on a drive home, my husband, the brilliant man, came up with the perfect one!

Ahhhhhhh. It's like a birth, really. And it's funny how, when you're writing, you know something works, and when something doesn't.

I entitled it "a family effort" because without the input of each one, I'd have about a one-page short story...

Thirst?

2009-08-03T17:43:00.002-04:00

In his book, "Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes", Kenneth E. Bailey talks about a trek of his in the Sahara during which he (and the others with him) ran out of water:

"As I staggered on, my mind turned to this verse* and I knew that I had never sought righteousness with the same single-minded passion that I now gave to the quest for water.

Wow.

He continues,

"But Jesus does not say, "Blessed are those who live righteously and maintain a righteous lifestyle." Rather He affirms, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness."

Again, wow. I had to stop reading; I'm still taking it in.

______________________________________________________
*Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Strings

2009-07-20T10:50:00.005-04:00

As much as I love reading movie reviews, because they feed me and correct me, they also make me scuttle away backwards like a crab from ever attempting to write anything again, ever. They see so much I never see and make me feel like a complete nitwit when it comes to writing. They're review movies, not writing reviews, true, but it is pretty much the same thing: The content; what is said, and done.
I had to laugh just now, though, at the irony of what I just said, considering what I did was to write about how scared I get of writing.

Not the usual quote source

2009-07-20T09:11:00.002-04:00

The result is an academic life permeated by vanity, wherein truth-seeking is subordinate to the task of drawing attention to oneself, to what...one knows.

Thomas Hibbs wrote that, in the middle of a review. It caught me, and then I had to read it a few more times. Makes one examine oneself.

On Culture

2009-06-25T09:45:00.003-04:00

A trivial subject; a movie, one that I wouldn't normally mention seeing even though it was cute and had quite charming acting and is one I'll watch again. It was "Penelope", and there was a line near the end of it that...how do I put this? This one line was so very telling that it was almost jarring. It should have kicked the whole movie onto a deeper level, but didn't, and was perhaps the more telling because of that. Oh, rubbish. There was just this great line in the movie that really made a point. Not a blog-worthy way to put it, but I can't get it. Yet.

On to another cultural item: Hair trends. There's a hairstyle going around (I never know what these cuts are called; I didn't know a mullet was called a mullet until long, long after it died an exaggerated death) that started out cute, the way most do. (Remember Dorothy Hammill's? She was a doll.) This one is the one that is short at the nape of the neck and is supposed to gracefully graduate to a longer length around the jawline. And it did, for a while.

But it's not enough anymore. No, now if you get this haircut you cannot merely copy, you must surpass. It's at the point now where the back is chopped as close to the scalp as a young boy's and swooped to an almost blunt jawline which leaves the recipient with something very, very akin to doggy ears.

They do; they look like dogs ears to me and they flap as ones when the person walks along. Why do people not see this? Or that they have muffin tops? Or that their delicate nose ring looks like a new zit??

Just call me a sourpuss, I guess.

An Unknown Seed

2009-06-24T17:25:00.003-04:00

My husband said something to me at lunch which went through me like a gust of wind. Once again I shake my head in amazement at how you can hear something a hundred times, and, that's all it is; a phrase, until the Holy Spirit takes it and thrusts it in you and shakes you by the shoulders and it comes alive. The words come alive.

I've said it all wrong, I know. But how does one describe living words as opposed to just words with meaning?

The Usual Sins

2009-06-11T11:14:00.006-04:00

My, my, writing seems to come in bunches, doesn't it? Two posts in one day!

* * *

I was once given advice about writing mysteries: Write them with a repeat character in mind. In other words, your leading man or lady should be created with the idea that they'll be used again and again, in book after book; a serial character (not unlike the serial killers they will be stalking, eh).

Problem is, when I browse for mysteries, I very often put one back if it has the tell-tale "A Famous Character Mystery". (Exceptions would be Agatha Christie; I've read all of hers regardless. She's the one that started me reading mysteries, I think.) I'm not sure why I every so often do this. Sometimes it's the "oh, I'll be at sea because I don't know this person" or that I hate to start in the middle of the series and our small library usually doesn't carry the first or so, or sometimes it's the repetition I know will be involved.

As in this last one. Yesterday I finished Kate Collins' "Mum's the Word", and after the conclusion was an excerpt from the next book in the series. I read that and was quite annoyed that it started off much the same way the first one did, in that it introduced everybody all over again. I'd just read all that and thought, I don't want to read it over and over again! Especially since I thought she introduced everyone a little too thoroughly all at once in the first book.

I realize that it makes for a better stand-alone if you do start in the middle of someone's series, and that since these books are not read in rapid succession as I was doing but are published years apart, it makes a good refresher, but I tend to skip those parts, or as I said before, pass those books up all together.

I have to say, though, that it was so, so refreshing to read a book like this one from Kate Collins, which contained none of the usual sins which appear to be de rigueur these days (other than, obviously, murder. I am working on correcting this as well--writing a Mysteries-Without-Murder series. MWOMs. Hmm...need a better acronym). I would continue to read her for that reason alone--almost--but fortunately she is for the most part an able writer as well. I only hope that the vein continues.

Falling on Deaf Spirits

2009-06-11T09:04:00.003-04:00

"...for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them; and they received them..."

How many times have you tried to tell someone something only to have them dismiss it without further ado? I often keep my mouth shut these days for that reason; I see that the person is not ready to chew on or even listen to whatever it is, whether it be an alternate opinion or something more vital. They won't even consider the words, let alone receive them (e.g. change their mind).

Not that my words are necessary to anyone (hence my holding of my tongue). I give a mild example, one of which I don't doubt everyone has experienced, and I merely use it to point out that listening is not just waiting for the other to stop talking. You hear the words, turn them over, and then decide or perhaps shelve them until understanding may come.

But what a difference that little phrase makes, "and they received them". The words didn't just tumble off the disciples and onto the ground. They received them. It took more than listening.

Note I didn't say "'just' listening".

And it makes me wonder...

2009-06-03T08:30:00.001-04:00

Jesus sure cast out a lot of demons during His time on earth. Really makes me wonder: was there a lot more possession going on back then, or is there as much now and just not recognized as such?

again, quote

2009-06-01T10:07:00.001-04:00

He did not come to tell us to be holy, but to make us holy...

--Oswald Chambers

Civil Wars

2009-04-16T08:45:00.002-04:00

"When Christians on either end of the political spectrum redefine the church as a voting bloc instead of Christ's very body, then we have succumbed to a false wind of doctrine. ...

"The church's mission is not to transform a changing culture but to bear witness to the unchanging truth of God. The church's mission is not to change the world (or our country--addition mine) by using the world's tools. We have been given spiritual tools..."

--Michael Babcock

On a Quest

2009-04-07T15:52:00.000-04:00

I think I'm gonna create a food blog.

Words and then Words

2009-03-30T09:44:00.004-04:00

It's funny how you can read words, a phrase, a number of times and then once it will suddenly strike you. Sometimes they just seem that they are words that are true, then suddenly they become true in you.

I know why this is, naturally; it's the Holy Spirit talking; that's not the aspect I'm reflecting on this morning, really. What I wonder at is how one phrase will strike differently in the hands of one rather than another. Take Keith Green. His lyrics aren't necessarily new and groundbreaking, or even always profound, but they almost always have a profound effect on me. He's not here living a holy example any longer, yet after all this time his work is still used.

That goes for any old work; Oswald Chambers, Tozer, Athanasius; they're all dead but their words still speak. Maybe these things a little refined gold left here on earth for us.

Weaknesses and All

2009-03-24T11:11:00.005-04:00

I wrote in an earlier post that I seemed to stop writing on this blog when I started drifting away from God. I found in recent weeks quite the opposite. I simply haven't been interested in writing because I've been so concentrated on God Himself.

That's good, the "not interested in writing" part (that the other part is goes without saying), because that means I'm willing to count it as rubbish, to give it up in a heartbeat. I learned when we were preparing to board the Doulos that if I'm not willing to give up my dearest dream--at that time it was writing songs--then I'm not following Jesus. The step I took then wasn't even the giving up of the songwriting; that came after and was so much a joy rather than a giving up. The actual step was a small one which He honored with such a filling that nothing, nothing else mattered.

So I've known since then that I could do it again. This new form of writing had become dear to me, but hey, I shrug now, it's incidental. It doesn't even matter to me that I may not be able to come up with things anymore (writer's block or worse, in other words). I had, actually, been systematically drafting and then deleting all the old posts on here (sorry, I inadvertently lost some old comments that way) for various reasons: I was afraid that Blogger would pull a Facebook and declare that all content belonged to them forever regardless of deletions or even a deleted account; I intended to stop writing on here completely and close down my account; I simply had nothing to say; and so on.

However, readings and encounters of late have been given me pause. I may yet write more (this doesn't count ;)), if only to use this as my place to vent something which has no place else to go, such as in a book. Who knows--maybe something will even be of use somewhere, someday.

Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Sworn in as PM!

2009-02-12T08:46:00.003-05:00

Wow! Well, it'd be better if Mugabe stepped down completely, but what a great first step!

Read the news here

His inaugural speech

None, really

2009-01-20T18:59:00.003-05:00

Philip Yancey adapted E.B. White's quote on humor to fit with his book on grace: "[Grace] can be dissected, as a frog, but the thing dies in the process, and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." Yancey goes on to say, "I would far rather convey grace than explain it." My thoughts exactly about being a Christian. I would far rather live it than dissect it.

Old-age Weaknesses

2009-01-16T17:36:00.003-05:00

Whew, I've been Simming so much I don't visit any website except Facebook these days. I neglected to put on my New Year's Resolution list: Don't be weak enough to enjoy playing a game so much you don't do anything else.

On the drive home from the forced trip to the grocery store, though, a post just popped into my head for some reason, and it's not even about the game. It's about movies (another weakness of mine), and how I know I must be getting old because I'm starting to like chick flicks.

I know, of course, that logically this doesn't stand up. It's the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" fallacy (after this, therefore, because of this); I'm getting older, I'm starting to like chick flicks, therefore it must be the aging that's doing it. So instead I'll have to say that I'm getting senile because of what's happening to my likes.

It has to be, because I can remember the day--the movie, actually--that I stopped watching said flicks, the same way I can remember the day and movie that stopped my watching ones that scared me. I used to watch those in my teen years because those movies were the ones that one's peers loved and touted, and who knew to think any differently? I was only granted the ability, I have to conclude now that I look back, to start thinking for myself when I became a Christian at age 20 (along with, I swear, gaining IQ points!). But until that point I watched "Jaws" and "Aliens" along with everybody else.

I reached the turning point when I decided to watch "Halloween" with my then-boyfriend-now-husband because of its classic status (even back then). We walked out after 15 minutes when I realized I was not enjoying myself, not in the least. My future husband wasn't much either, and I swore from then on I would never watch another horror or scary thing, which I haven't (except for one inadvertent moment during "I Am Legend" which I didn't know would be scary and probably wouldn't be to most people).

The chick flick last straw came with "Steel Magnolias", though not through as conclusive a moment. I just thought it was pretty darn weak, and found myself going instead for Indiana Jones-type of movies, graduating to the point where my idea of a great movie was just about action, and only action.

But I think I still have a thread of sanity to hang onto here: I wouldn't enjoy "Magnolias" any more today than I did whatever years ago. Of course some girl movies are better than others, and I never avoided them all the way I did the scary genre. I also think that a bit o' snobbery had worked its way into it, the same type of thing as "artists" looking down on crafts and real rockers looking down on the Beatles or Barry Manilow or something. So maybe it's not senility after all, but a maturing into genuineness, allowing myself to like some embarrassing things that I really do like, thus proving myself logically wrong and maybe not-quite-old-enough at the same time.

On Eros and Silliness

2008-12-21T22:08:00.002-05:00

In an earlier post I wondered why I cherished silliness. I didn't really expect an answer, either from the pondering or from possible responses, but on a long drive home the other day (yesterday? Yeah, it was only yesterday...whoa) C.S. Lewis actually did answer it. I was listening to him (not reading and driving!) read the gist of "Four Loves"; he was exploring storge, philia (I learned it as phileo), eros and agape. And he said that "sensible lovers laugh." They know that eros is not to be taken altogether seriously but is also a romp and levity. That...well, I suggest you read the book or listen to the CD since I can only provide an inferior paraphrase.

I'll Do It When It's Convenient

2008-12-08T12:40:00.004-05:00

A long time ago, at a women's Bible study I was in at the time, we were discussing video stores which rented "adult" movies. I mentioned there was a movie place that didn't rent any of those, but it was "too far out of the way" for them to patronize. In other words, their principles took a back seat to their convenience.

This may seem like a dismissible thing--after all, it's not like you're renting those movies--but it's not, because our big decisions are based on those little decisions. These little decisions train you for the big ones, and whatever you've been deciding by is what you will be deciding by in later moves. Jesus showed us in Matthew 25 that he who proved faithful in little things were the ones entrusted with more.

Another proof of this progressiveness might be the story of the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled. This probably seems to have no connection, but it does in principle, as Ken Connor points out:

This tragedy points to the selfishness of the human heart and demonstrates that greed is not confined to the scions of Wall Street. Quite the contrary, these Main Street shoppers pursued their own materialistic impulses at the expense of the needs of those around them. They were focused on themselves, intent on getting to the deals first. Their trampling of Mr. Damour, each other, and the employees who were trying to help him, exhibits hearts that care more about saving $50 on an HDTV than about the health and safety of their fellow man.

...Doubtless, there are many causes, but prominent among them is our willingness to sacrifice core principles of human dignity on the altar of convenience (emphasis mine). We live in a culture that is so self-centered that we are no longer expected to deal with the "inconvenience" of an unwanted baby. Nor can we be bothered to care for our aging parents...Our convenience, our comfort, our self-centeredness trumps the value of someone else's life...

And farther on down that road:

Mother Teresa well understood the destructive impact of radical selfishness. Regarding abortion she declared, "[I]f we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? ... Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of peace and love is abortion." Mother Teresa rightly understood that when one form of killing is accepted on the basis of personal convenience, other forms of violence will inevitably follow.

How many times are "little" things mentioned in the Bible? Being faithful in them, the hairs on our head, a mustard seed. Maybe I should be glad that around here, we can only rent movies from Red Box and the library.

Definitely Deafening

2008-11-24T09:28:00.005-05:00

There are better ways of making a satire.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I saw "Tropic Thunder" last night. Not my kind of movie, but I wanted to see it because Robert Downey, Jr., whom we've recently noticed is quite a good actor, was in it. Plus my husband thought it sounded funny, so hey, I can watch a strictly guy flick for him. (I often watch action movies, but I like those.)

Very much a guy flick. So why announce it in a post if I'm hanging my head over it? Because there are things worth commenting on (besides, who reads this stuff? Any that might are free to now feel morally superior to me), the first one being Downey's part. He amazed us with his performance. This morning I'm wondering, though, if that makes it a lesser one; I pondered on that in an earlier post, brooding that if you're aware of how good a work is, then maybe it's not good enough. Regardless, his performance was worth watching, as was someone else's whom I simply could not believe was playing the role until a few minutes after my husband figured it out and even then didn't believe it for a few.

I wouldn't say those two renderings were worth the non-stop, ever-present swearing (yes, that's redundant but so was the language) or the juvenile gross-out "humor", but I did take pleasure in the abilities of the two performers. As a satire, though, "For Your Consideration" was a much abler, wittier, wryer and gentler treatment of the same subject.

this post has no title

2008-11-20T11:18:00.003-05:00

There's this missions magazine which still manages to find us despite our many address changes which we forget to update them about. Yesterday's had some "Biblical Headlines" which I simply had to share:

If Biblical headlines were written today:

On Elijah on Mr. Carmel:
FIRE SENDS RELIGIOUS RIGHT EXTREMIST INTO FRENZY
400 Killed

On the Red Sea crossing:
WETLANDS TRAMPLED IN LABOUR STRIKE
Pursuing Environmentalists Killed

On David vs. Goliath:
HATE CRIME KILLS BELOVED CHAMPION

On healing of the Gadarene demoniac:
MADMAN'S FRIEND CAUSES STAMPEDE
Local Farmer's Investment Lost

Still quoting after all these years

2008-11-20T08:04:00.002-05:00

The coming of the Spirit brought to the Book of Acts this very quality of supramundaneness, this mysterious elevation of tone not found in as high intensity even in the Gospels...The joy of the first Christians was not the joy of logic working on facts. They did not reason, "Christ is risen from the dead, therefor we ought to be glad." Their gladness was as great a miracle as the resurrection itself; indeed these were and are organically related. The moral happiness of the Creator had taken residence in the breasts of redeemed creatures and they couldn't not but be glad.

A.W. Tozer

A Quantum of Sense, please

2008-11-15T20:14:00.006-05:00

We just got back from seeing the newest Bond offering, "Quantum of Solace", and this time, the critics were way off. Ebert liked the old Bond for all the reasons we cringed at* and are so glad are gone now, another one said it was "emotionless", whereas the poignant moments almost brought tears to my eyes--unusual for a Bond movie--what movie did they see? Nothing disappointed (except perhaps the opening song, which was ok, but forgettable). Rather, in the words of that kid in The Incredibles, "That was TOTALLY WICKED!!!"

__________

Ebert and at least one other critic lamented the loss of the euphemistic names of women characters in Bond movies. I can only say that they must be misogynists if they liked those names.

Some said too much action was put in--how different than "Casino Royale" (where they complained the action screeched to a halt during the card game. (It didn't. It was merely a different kind)). If they had made it like "Casino", it would have fallen far short. Been a mere copy and an undoubtedly far inferior one. Too bad all you critics who are loving "Casino" now didn't love it nearly as much when it first came out.