expensive tedium exposed.

I’ve been reading a little C. S. Lewis lately. Today I read the November 1st and 2nd entries from “A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works.” He’s a tough read. I may have mentioned before that I respond to his writing in a number of different ways.

Sometimes, I think he’s a pompous windbag who delights in using words the common man (that’d be me) has to look up in a very old dictionary because the newer dictionaries have already stopped including said words due to lack of use. (This is why I sometimes refer to him as “Jack,” as his friends called him. It reminds me that he’s just a guy and that I need to take what he says with a grain of salt, as the saying goes.)

Sometimes I have to read a phrase or a sentence or an entire paragraph multiple times before I have half a clue what the man is trying to say.

Sometimes I understand immediately what he’s saying and I adamantly disagree.

So why read him?

Because when the man DOES make a point with me, it often resonates. He sometimes states something so succinctly that it hits the core of my belief in a certain area. Thankfully, those moments occur more often than the windbag, re-read and adamantly disagree moments.

One book that consistently hits home is a small work of fiction entitled “The Screwtape Letters.” It’s a series of letters from an older demon (Uncle Screwtape) to a younger demon (Wormwood), advising him on how to bring about the downfall of the human (the patient) to whom the younger demon has been assigned. It’s a backward concept for the Christian reader, especially when Lewis consistently refers to God as the “Enemy.” His assessment of human nature and temptation makes me think. Case in point:

When the patient repents, Screwtape outlines Wormwood’s blunders:

“…you first of all allowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his new friends. In the second place you allowed him to walk down to the old mill and have tea there – a walk through country he really likes, and taken alone. In other words, you allowed him two real positive Pleasures. Were you so ignorant as not to see the danger in this? …

…you were trying to damn your patient by the World, that is by palming off vanity, bustle, irony and expensive tedium as pleasures. How can you have failed to see that a real pleasure was the last thing you ought to have let him meet? Didn’t you foresee that it would just kill by contrast all the trumpery which you have been so laboriously teaching him to value?

And that sort of pleasure which the book and the walk gave him was the most dangerous of all? That it would peel off from his sensibility the kind of crust you have been forming on it, and make him feel that he was coming home, recovering himself?

As a preliminary to detaching himself from the Enemy, you wanted to detach him from himself, and had made some progress in doing so. Now, all that is undone.

…the man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring two-pence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack. You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favour of the ‘best’ people, the ‘right’ food, the ‘important’ books.”

I get it. Thanks, Jack.

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Have you read something interesting you want to share? I want to read it! If you post about it, link up in comments – or just post your quote in a comment. Check out other book quotes I’ve posted by perusing my “therefore I quote” tag.

I blinked.

And then it was September 22nd.

Holy WHIRLWIND, Batman!

There’s so much going on right now. Here’s one thing:

No one was hurt!!! It could have been so much worse. We’re looking at it as a blessing!

FirstHusband was on the Florida Turnpike in my van, on his way to FavoriteSon’s “away” football game on Friday night. We had decided the two hour drive there, the two hour game and the two hour drive back was too much to ask of PinkGirl considering none of her friends would be going to game either. So PinkGirl and I were home. FirstHusband called about 5:30 p.m. and said:

“No one was hurt, I’m fine, but I just got rear-ended. I’ve gotta go.”

Sometimes, the man KNOWS how to start a sentence. I hung up and thought, rear-ended. No big deal. He’s fine. He drives a Ford F250, so if he’s fine, it’s probably fine. Small aircraft can hit that thing and bounce off.

Then I remembered. He was driving MY van. oh.

Then the texts/phone calls begin.

Text from FirstHusband: “Your registration is expired.”

Me: (to myself) CRUD-OLA! Happy flippin birthday to me, I FORGOT to renew my tag! (text to FirstHusband) “I’M SO SORRY!”

Him: “No worries.”

Me: (to God) “I know we deserve the consequence, Lord, but please don’t let the ticket for an expired tag be too expensive!!!”

Phone Call from FirstHusband: “Where’s your insurance card?”

Me: “In my purse.”

Him: “Not in your van?”

Me: “No, I carry them with me. With my license.”

Him: “I keep mine in my glove compartment.”

Me: “You don’t carry mine in case you drive the van? I carry yours in case I drive the truck.”

So, FirstHusband is on the Florida Turnpike, over an hour away, with a smashed van, waiting on the Florida Highway Patrol to arrive – withOUT proof of insurance and with an expired tag.

And he’s not mad. Gotta love him.

While waiting on the FHP officer, he called and told me what happened. There was a three car accident ahead and traffic on the Turnpike came to a stop. The guy in front of him barely made the stop. HE barely made the stop. Both he and the guy in front of him looked in their rear view mirrors and knew the guy behind FirstHusband was NOT going to make the stop. They both inched forward as far as they could and FirstHusband stood on the brake to (hopefully) keep from hitting the guy in front of him (didn’t work). At the last minute, somehow, the guy ended up on the right side of the van instead of directly behind it, so no full rear impact. AND the guy didn’t hit the traffic in the lane to the right. No one was hurt, everyone was in a pleasant mood and a woman who worked for the Department of Transportation was two cars ahead, so she hung around and told everyone what they needed to do.

Like I said before – it was a BLESSING. I’ve prayed “Thank you, God” more than a few times since Friday night.

And, instead of a citation with a fine, the officer gave FirstHusband a citation and a form to fill out. We had 30 days to mail copies of the proof of insurance and renewed registration to the clerk of the court. It’s in the mailbox right now.

FirstHusband, Later that Night: “In 19 years of marriage, we just learned something new about each other today. You carry both our insurance cards with you and I keep mine in my truck. I thought you kept yours in your van. Neither way is wrong, I just can’t believe after 19 years, we just figured this out about each other.”

Now we figure out what to do about the van, but that’s another story and it’s WHALE of a SALE time! I’ve got to go shop alphabetize books!

a matter of perspective.

At the library yesterday, I happened upon this book just laying flat on one of the shelves:

Extraordinary Women: Fantasies Revealed: 58 Women of Accomplishment Portray Hidden Dreams and Real Hopes

58 prominent, accomplished women were asked what they dreamed about becoming when they were children. Surfers, ballerinas, opera singers, Olympians, doctors . . . Each women was featured in a two page layout. Their answers appeared on the left and a photograph portraying them in that role appeared on the right.

What they dreamed about becoming when they were children.

Some of the answers fit the question. But the two that struck me the most didn’t. Instead, they answered the question:

What is your dream? Subtle difference.

The dream of CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien, photographed snuggled in bed with her four children – including twin boys – all under the age of five?

Eight hours of sleep.

Then, you turn the page and you see . . .

Madeleine Albright.

Her dream? Worldwide democracy.

I busted out laughing. Eight hours of sleep vs. worldwide democracy. Did the editors put those two back to back on purpose?

But really. It IS a matter of perspective. Tell me that Madeleine Albright wouldn’t dream of eight hours sleep if she had four kids under five years of age.

Daybook: Monday, 07.06.09

Peggy at The Simple Woman’s Daybook is taking the summer off, but I decided to go ahead and post a Daybook entry anyway.

Outside my window . . . the mailbox flag is still up. The mail man carrier is two hours late. Probably due to extra deliveries because of the July 4th holiday on Saturday.

I am thinking . . . about all I need to do. And then pushing it all aside for a little prayer and Bible study time in between dropping off and picking up two kids at two day camps in two different locations.

I am thankful for . . . our abundant blessings. Too many to count:

All in my little family have faith in God and strive to live in His will.
Our physical health.
My husband’s job stability and my loyal clients.
Our material blessings – our home and its air conditioning.
Electronic appliances we often take for granted – our cell phones, computers, mp3 players, microwave, dishwasher, washer/dryer, game systems. Ice maker.
Reliable, paid for vehicles.
The comfort, companionship and humor of our cats.

From the learning rooms . . .

My Utmost for His Highest, July 5th entry: “The one thing that keeps us from the possibility of worrying is bringing God in as the greatest factor in all our calculations.“

Psalm 37:5 “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.“

From the kitchen . . .No baking bread. Nothing in the crockpot. Leftovers tonight. Flowers on the table. So far. Soon, I will walk into the kitchen and hear a cat scramble off the table. I will then see half-eaten flowers on the table next to the vase. Later, the cat will puke flowers somewhere.

I am wearing . . . bermuda shorts and a tshirt. Hair up in a knot. Flip flops. It. Is. HOT. The tshirt is too hot. I need to change into something sleeveless.

I am creating . . . a computer macro for one of my clients. Fun. In a geeky sort of way.

I am going . . . to get the mail. I just heard the mail truck.

I am reading . . .

My Utmost For His Highest: Limited PB Edition by Oswald Chambers
Practically Perfect in Every Way: My Misadventures Through the World of Self-Help–and Back
Three to Get Deadly (Stephanie Plum, No. 3) by Janet Evanovich.

I am hoping . . . to find “delight” in something today. Like a rainbow. Or the smell of baking bread. Or . . . whatever. I’m looking for delight, so I know I will find it. That’s why I put flowers on the table.

And it’s why I just took a break from drafting this post and asked FavoriteSon to bake bread. (in the bread maker – it’s his “thing” in the family – He is such a great guy!)

I am hearing . . . my son. The kitchen timer went off and he immediately stopped playing his video game to unload the dishwasher and bring in the recycling bins. I didn’t even have to remind him. I told you I told you he was a great guy!!

Around the house . . .the wall art lettering came in the mail today!

One Two of my favorite things . . .

These Pentel pens. Easy flow, quick drying. My FAVORITE pen.

Cobalt blue glass. This sits next to my reading spot in the living room.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Bible study and prayer time every day.
To NOT SPEND ANY MONEY all week.
Kid chauffeur duties.
Cleaning.
Purging the house of STUFF.
Invoicing.
Finishing up a client project.
Walk every day.

7 Quick Takes: 06/12/09

1. “crud.” That’s what our dishwasher is leaving behind. It is also what I am saying about the fact that our dishwasher is not washing our dishes.

Crud is NOT the word I used when I Googled my Kenmore model and found a forum with over 750 entries by owners who have problems with this dishwasher. Instead, I said, “ARRGG!” What? I love that word. Try it. “ARRGG!”

2. “EWWW!” That’s what I said when I sat down at the piano to help PinkGirl with her scales and smelled cat urine. EWWW is also the word I used when I saw the output tank of my SpotBot after cleaning the source of the stanky smell. I will spare you a photo.

3. “Dang It!” That’s what I said when I saw cat foot prints on the SpotBot track marks the next day. I need to get some Enzyme cleaner. Fast.

4. “Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.” That’s what I said over and over again the day after using my SpotBot on said carpet stain. On my hands and knees for 15 minutes moving my arm back and forth while holding the SpotBot wand and my abs are KILLING me. I thought it would be okay, it’s six weeks post-op for cryin out loud. Ow.

5. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!” That’s what I said to FavoriteSon this week! 14 years old! When did THAT happen?

6. “Bummer.” That’s what I thought when FirstHusband sent me a text message on Wednesday night that read:

“On the ground in Birmingham. Wasn’t planning to be in Birmingham today. Always a risk flying into Atlanta.” and then “Finally . . . 4 hours late.”

He sat ON the plane, ON the runway in Birmingham for THREE HOURS waiting to fly into Atlanta on Wednesday night.

Then I said “Bummer” again on Thursday night, when I got this text:

“Plane late out of Atlanta. Currently scheduled to land in Orlando at midnight. Be home around 1am.”

And no, he wasn’t sitting in the Atlanta airport that entire time. He flew from Atlanta to somewhere else and back between Wednesday and Thursday evening. He got home around 1:45 this morning and was already at work before we got up this morning. BUM. MER.

7. “YES!” That’s what I said when I got rid of graciously mailed out FOUR, count em’ FOUR free books to other paperbackswap.com members. Let the purging continue! Want a free book? Join paperbackswap.com, list some of your unwanted books, PICK ONE from my list and I’ll send it to you FREE!

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Join in with your own 7 Quick Take Friday post at Conversion Diary hosted by Jennifer!

15 Books, 15 Minutes, A Lifetime

Lisa Writes linked up to a book meme that looked very interesting.

List 15 Books in 15 Minutes – Books I’ve read that will always “stick with me.”

1. The Bible (that’s easy)
2. My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
3. Decisionmaking and the Will of God by Garry Friesen
4. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
5. Faith Based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel
6. The Taste of New Wine by Ken Miller
7. What’s Next by Rena Pederson
8. When Work Doesn’t Work Anymore by Elizabeth Perle Mckenna
9. Guilt Free Living by Robert Jeffress
10. Where is God When We Hurt by Philip Yancy
11. Stop Screaming at the Microwave by Mary Lo Verde
12. The Family Manager by Kathy Peel
13. The Aladdin Factor by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
14. You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen
15. Communicating at Work by Ronald B Adler and Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst

This list sends my thoughts all over the place.  Memories, realizations, reminders . . . I don’t know if I’ll post it, but I may come back and expand on these – what main concepts I took away and how I’ve incorporated them into my daily life.  For now, I wanted to get the list done in 15 minutes – without distractions.

Thanks for the link Lisa!

If you want to participate, check out some of the original memes at:

Booking Through Thursday
Shelly’s Bookshelf

huh? what? rewind.

I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis, so that’s what I’ve been saying to myself the last few days. He’s no easy read, at least for me, anyway. I find myself looking around for a nearby dictionary. Sometimes, if a laptop is within reach, I’ll Google a word, sometimes, I’ll decide to look it up later and promptly forget. But I’m doing a lot of “rewinding” as I read C.S. Lewis.

I’m actually understanding quite a bit more than I expected. Admittedly, sometimes Lewis will dissect a premise or an argument to the point of tedium and lose me in the process. Sometimes I find myself thinking, “Okay, I agree with that, I don’t really need you to prove it until I die of boredom . . . ”

Is that wrong?

It’s C.S. Lewis, for crying out loud. I should have more respect.

nah. I’m more comfortable thinking of him as “Jack” as he preferred to be called.

Anyway. Sometimes, I actually get what Jack’s saying immediately and he states it in such a way that I don’t even need a dictionary or a rewind. I got this right away:

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”

I like that one. Does that really drive home the meaning of the phrase, “It’s not about me” or what?

But, I digress.

I got a big honkin book from the library because I wanted to read “The Problem of Pain” and it wasn’t on my bookshelf. This thing contains 6 of his books in one. Not a book you take to the beach or tuck in your purse.

If you’ve been around for the last few weeks, you know I’ve been thinking, studying and working on the paradox of pain and suffering vs. an all-powerful and loving God. I’m looking for a reasonable response for myself, for other Christians and non-Christians who object to the possibility that the two could co-exist. (You can read what I’ve learned so far by checking out the posts under the “suffering” category.)

The thing is, I can’t even begin to approach reasonableness unless I can base it on the premise of the existence of God in the first place, and more importantly, the truth of the salvation of Jesus Christ. See, I want to go to the Bible for the suffering vs. loving God argument, but if the Bible isn’t accepted as a foundational reference to the argument, I got a whole bunch of nothin. I have to begin with proving the Bible. Proving Jesus. Proving Christianity. And this isn’t physical science. My proof isn’t going to come from a Mythbusters experiment. My proof comes from . . . well. Faith.

Jack knew that. And he didn’t pretend to “get it.” Check it out:

“. . . I could write a preface explaining that I did not live up to my own principles! . . . I feel myself so far from true feeling of that I speak, that I can naught else but cry mercy and desire after it as I may . . . If any man is safe from the danger of underestimating this adversary [pain], I am that man. I must add too, that the only purpose of the book is to solve the intellectual problem raised by suffering; for the far higher task of teaching fortitude and patience I was never fool enough to suppose myself qualified, nor have I anything to offer my readers except my conviction that when pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.”

I’m left believing that Jack and I have much in common in this respect. Although I’ve alluded to past struggle in my life, the truth be told is that I’ve not suffered pain in the sense that many, many have. In the sense of what would be described as tragedy. So I start where Jack did – 20 years before he watched, helplessly as his wife suffered and died. 20 years before he wrote of his personal experience with pain in “A Grief Observed” which is also on my reading list. I start intellectually. In a relatively safe place. Knowing that if when I face true personal tragedy, I will have to start over.

But hopefully, as Jack did, I will come full circle. Grounding my personal suffering in my intellectual understanding.

And all this from the preface of the book.

Next? Chapter 1. After I look up the word “tincture.”

7 Quick Takes: 06.01.09

Kristen emailed me to make sure I was okay and I realized I hadn’t blogged in over a week!

Over a week! What have I been doing?

I missed 7 Quick Takes Friday last week, but it just seems like a good way to catch up on a few things . . .

1. Still healing. Feeling pretty good. Still slow, but getting faster. FirstHusband and I went to Sam’s Club and Walmart together on Saturday and he said I wasn’t annoyingly slow, just a little slow. I leaned on pushed the basket a lot. I get really tired by the end of the day if I’m too active during the day. So. I’m still a bit of a wimp. Thankfully, I’m allowed in my dry sauna now, so that is a WONDERFUL THING. I LOVE my dry sauna.

I wish I could stretch. I mean REEAALLY stretch. Like a cat. When our cats stretch I want to throw things at them to make them stop. It’s not nice that they do that in front of me.

I wish I could sleep comfortably. I mean like I did before the surgery. Hunker down and sleep HARD comfortable, you know?

I wish could get a massage, but I’m still too afraid to lay on my stomach or let anyone even come close to touching my new scar. My back hurts all the time from wearing the compression binder all day. Four weeks down, two more weeks to go.

2. I’ve been reading C.S. Lewis. Really for the first time. I’ve read The Screwtape Letters, but that was over a decade ago and that was fiction. I’ve read excerpts and quotes, but this is the first time I’ve read an entire book by C.S. Lewis. My first pick? “The Problem of Pain.” I’m still working out my thoughts on the paradox of evil and suffering vs. a loving, all-powerful God. Learning a LOT. Making many handwritten notes. And a list of words I need to look up in the dictionary. Like “filial.”

3. Spending a lot of time writing in my prayer journal. About everything. Reading my Bible. Spending time sitting still and shutting up after writing/praying. Listening. Learning. Thinking.

4. Still praying and struggling with what to do about the praise team at my church. Thursday night at 7pm, I went to my first rehearsal since my surgery. The interim leader/director who originally asked me to sing with the group was out of town. By 7:25 p.m., the rehearsal still hadn’t begun. Then, the director of the rehearsal that night, a new full-time hire who plays guitar, started noodling and singing on his own. About 7:45 p.m., 45 minutes after the rehearsal was supposed to begin, we started to sing.

The sound was . . . significantly less than optimal. Rather than go over any parts or run through the songs again, the director moved on. In the end, I said I wasn’t ready to sing with the group on Sunday. Everyone assumed that I wasn’t feeling up to singing quite yet. True. In a way. I attended the traditional service on Sunday morning instead of the contemporary service, so people wouldn’t wonder why I was sitting out.

I’ll admit, I’m discouraged and confused about the direction of this service and what role, if any God wants me to take. There’s another new full-time hire scheduled to arrive next month, so the entire thing is still in transition. I’m taking it a week at a time. Today, I prayed that God would make it VERY CLEAR whether I should sing with the group this week.

5. Summer has begun and we are actually on track for the daily summer plan. The kids are reading a minimum of 30 minutes every day and they are both physically active every day (they are in the pool right now). FavoriteSon has been practicing the guitar nearly every day and PinkGirl had her most productive piano practice today. (I can’t play, but I do remember my scales, so that’s what I’m teaching her.) She hasn’t been consistent with her daily math, but I’m working on it. We’ve been pretty consistent with a 20 minute rotation of playing/working during the day. My oven timer is getting a serious work out.

6. The kids and I have all gone to the dentist for cleanings in the last week and (unfortunately) PinkGirl had her first filling today. She did GREAT. We go to a pediatric dentist and LOVE him.

7. We got a Wii! FavoriteSon, the family money hoarder has been saving his money for months and decided that he wanted to have a boy/girl birthday party in a few weeks and he wanted Wii to be one of the main activities. So he bought himself an early birthday present. Our family was ready for a Wii. My dad came over on Sunday afternoon after church and he even played. Just one more way to get the kids to be active during the day.

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Join in with your own 7 Quick Take Friday post at Conversion Diary hosted by Jennifer!

7 Quick Takes: 05.22.09

1. We go from flames to flood here in Central Florida. For weeks, we’ve had brush fires. Now? It’s been raining for DAYS. Thankfully, we aren’t at risk for any flooding, but so many people have been driven from their homes. And in this humidity it is VERY difficult to dry out and prevent mold growth. Here’s the Doppler image from Friday afternoon:

2. I’m feeling a STRONG need to PURGE my house of stuff. Wednesday, I must have lifted more than 50 books – one at a time. I listed most of them on the FREE swap site www.paperbackswap.com and a few on Amazon and half.com! Check them out and see if you want any of my discards! I also filled two boxes to go to charity. One to our church’s annual rummage sale and another to go to a library one of the missionaries from our church is setting up in . . . I don’t remember what country. oops.

3. I’m really liking paperbackswap.com! I’ve been a member for about a year and I requested my first book today. (I’ve been more interested in getting rid of books than receiving them.) A few weeks ago, I registered with its sister websites, cdswap and dvdswap to allow transfer of credits from one to the other. I transferred two book credits to dvdswap and ordered a dvd for FavoriteSon. It arrived within days and it was in great condition.

So, check out my “bookshelf.” If you see a book you want, order it and I’ll send it right out. (more purging!) I pay the media mail postage, so it won’t cost you a thing. Each book I give away earns me 1 credit and I’m saving up credits for Christmas shopping. Now that I’m on all three sites, I can get books, cds and dvds – All FREE! Did I mention it was FREE?

4. We’re trying out another free swap site too – www.swaptree.com. This site allows trades for books, cds and dvds, but it also allows trades for video games. I’m not sure if we like this site yet. There are no credits. Every item must actually be TRADED with another person. The system matches members up when trades are identified. That means trading only happens between people who want what the other person has listed. It supposedly can handle three way trades also. Each item is valued the same – you give one item, you get one item, no matter whether it is a book, cd, dvd or video game. We’ve listed a bunch of video games and we’ve begun to put items on our “wish list” but we haven’t had a transaction yet. We’ll see.

5. I’m reading fiction. FICTION. Those who’ve been around Compendium for a while know this is a big deal. I read a lot and I buy a lot of non-fiction books (used and cheap, of course), but I keep all my fiction books at the library. Mainly because I don’t read that much fiction and also because when I do, I don’t usually re-read the book later. Well, being physically limited while recovering from surgery, I’ve been trying to REST. Since reading non-fiction equals learning and learning – for me – equals research and idea development and . . . well, NOT rest, I decided to read fiction. I had seen some books reviews for Angela Hunt on Mocha with Linda’s blog, so I got a few of her books. My personal trainer also recommended an author to me. Before my surgery, I had asked for fiction referrals, and I got quite a few, but they just didn’t click for me. When I asked my trainer, she used the adjective I was looking for. FUNNY. Although I hadn’t realized it as I was asking for referrals, I really did want something funny. The author? Janet Evanovich. I read the first one before my surgery and FirstHusband read much of the second one to me during my first few days of recovery. I had to ask him to stop a few times because laughing was painful. Why I wanted funny while recovering from abdominal surgery, I do not know.

6. First day of summer for us! We all slept in, except for FirstHusband, who had to get up and go to work as usual. But NOT as usual. He didn’t have any KID DUTY today! He was so excited about the prospect last night that he asked PinkGirl to guess the first thing he was going to do when he went downstairs this morning. She had no idea. So he showed her. It was the iCarly belly rub dance that Spencer does on Nickelodeon. Basically, you pull your shirt up to show your belly and rub it in big circles while saying “Whoo, whoo, whoooooo. It means you are carefree and happy. umm, hmm. that’s what it means.

7. Working on an overhaul for business website. I HATE the one I have up now. It’s dark and gloomy and amateur and the menu is broken and it’s too fragmented and I hate it. I bought a template from allwebco.com and I’m transferring the content from old, ugly, dark and broken to new, classic, light and functional. It will take a while because it’s summer and the kids are home and my windows of time are just that. Windows. Tiny little windows. When I get it finished I’ll be asking for objective, honest feedback.

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Join in with your own 7 Quick Take Friday post at Conversion Diary hosted by Jennifer!

summer already?

Yep.

One more full day of school (Tuesday) and two more half days (Wednesday and Thursday). That’s it. Then “Mayhem” is officially OVER for us!

Early!

So here, at the BEGINNING of summer are the:

GOOD THINGS:
No more crack of dawn alarm clocks!
No more struggle from bed to shower to breakfast to car every morning!
No more car line!
No more packing lunches the night before!
No more laying out clothes the night before!
No more packing backpacks the night before!
No more permission slips!
No more fundraisers!
No more check writing for this and that, and this and that.
(FirstHusband calls it the death of a thousand paper cuts.)
No more multiple trips to school in one day.
No more HOMEWORK!

Every summer, I like the kids to tackle LEARNING something. Because – if left to their own devices – they would completely VEG in front of video games and television while constantly complaining about how BORED they were. So here are:

THE PLANS:
Minimum of 1/2 hour of LEARNING every day
PinkGirl has decided to continue learning computer keyboarding and math everyday. We like online typing games. We also got our own copy of her 2nd Grade math book last summer and we are ordering our own copy of her 3rd Grade math book this summer.
FavoriteSon has decided to continue learning to play the guitar. I think he should learn something else too. Poor guy. He doesn’t know yet.

Minimum of 1/2 hour of READING every day.
PinkGirl has decided to start with her BoxCar Children books.
FavoriteSon has no preference so FirstHusband and I have picked some out for him to start:
The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel and Slaying the Dragon: How to Turn Your Small Steps to Great Feats by Michael Johnson.

Minimum of 1/2 hour of physical activity every day:
PinkGirl has the redneck pool (photo HERE), so that’s not usually an issue, except for rain.
FavoriteSon has some sports camps, but on the days he doesn’t, he has committed to strength training and basketball. I’m committed to getting back to a two minute plank before he can do one. He knows I can’t do any strength training until after June 16th, so he’s slacking.

So, learning, physical activity and reading. What else? Any ideas?

I’m thinking I might “strongly encourage” each of them to plan and cook a meal or two, or four per month. It rains every afternoon in the summer anyway, it’s not like we’ll be in the pool at that time of day.

Let’s finish up with a preview of a few GOOD things about summer being OVER:

I will be able to complete a thought.
I will be able to hear clocks tick in the solitude I will have been deprived of for nearly 3 months.

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Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family.

Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer

faith in a vacuum is easy. (a loving God. evil and suffering. part 2.)

I’m not worthy. How can I reply to you? I’m putting my hand over my mouth. I’ll stop talking.
Job 40:4

I know that you can do anything. No one can keep you from doing what you plan to do. You asked me, Who do you think you are to disagree with my plans? You do not know what you are talking about.’ I spoke about things I didn’t completely understand. I talked about things that were too wonderful for me to know.
Job 42:2-3

This is one of what I’m sure will be many posts on the seeming contradiction between a loving God and the presence of evil and suffering in the world.

In a comment on my previous post – the first on this topic, Lisa of Lisa Writes gave me a book referral: John Piper’s Spectacular Sins. I read pages 22-26 on Amazon’s “Look Inside.” Here’s a very short excerpt:

“Surely this Jesus can stop a tsunami, and make the wind blow a jet off its deadly course toward a crowded tower, and loosen the stranglehold of an umbilical cord from around an infant’s neck, and blind the eyes of torturers, and stop a drought. Surely he can do this and a thousand other acts of restraint and rescue. He has done it before. He could do it now. What is his reason for not doing it more often than he does?”

“What is his reason for not doing it more often than he does?”

This is only one of the questions I’m delving into as I explore this topic. Not so much for myself, to assuage my own grieving or anger or other emotion which can so quickly and easily find itself into the heart of humans today, when faced with evil and suffering. As I said in my first post, I want to be able to formulate an intelligent response which adequately, logically, PRAGMATICALLY addresses the question AND the objections to the pat, theological answers. More specifically, I want to be able to articulate this response to someone who may not believe the Bible to be the Living Word of God.

In theory, Christians are easier. Christians are pre-disposed to understand and accept (maybe not agree, but accept) Biblical support I might point to as I try to explain my own personal view and understanding. My background is seeping in here, but I think of it this way: In communication theory, specifically in persuasion, this is referred to as a “latitude of acceptance.” If someone is more likely to accept an idea, they are said to have a latitude of acceptance. If someone is more inclined to reject an idea, they would have a latitude of rejection. If someone is open minded and has no pre-conceived idea or prejudice on a topic, they are said to have a latitude of non-commitment. As a Christian, I have a latitude of acceptance for any Biblical support provided in a persuasive effort. It has to be sound Biblical support, taken IN context, but for the most part I will look to the Bible for my reasoning. (And I’m no stranger to looking up the meaning of original language).

For example, as a Christian, here’s a HUGE reason why I personally accept God’s sovereignty with regard to evil and suffering in the world:

The Book of Job, Chapter 38:1-40:4 (see my responses in parenthesis)

38:1 The Lord spoke to Job out of a storm. He said,

2 “Who do you think you are to disagree with my plans? (ummm)
You do not know what you are talking about. (yeh, but . . . )
3 Get ready to stand up for yourself. (uh oh)
I will ask you some questions.
Then I want you to answer me. (k)
4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you know.
5 Who measured it? I am sure you know! (you did)
Who stretched a measuring line across it? (you did)
6 What was it built on?
Who laid its most important stone? (you did)

8 “Who created the ocean? (you did)
Who caused it to be born? (you did)

11 I said, ‘You can come this far.
But you can’t come any farther.
Here is where your proud waves have to stop.’
12 “Job, have you ever commanded the morning to come? (no, Lord.)
Have you ever shown the sun where to rise? (no.)

16 “Have you traveled to the springs at the bottom of the ocean? (no, Lord.)
Have you walked in its deepest parts? (no.)
17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? (no.)
Have you seen the gates of darkness? (no.)
18 Do you understand how big the earth is? (no, Lord.)
Tell me, if you know all of those things. (no, Lord, I don’t know any of these things.)
19 “Where does light come from? (you, Lord.)
And where does darkness live?
20 Can you take them to their places? (no.)
Do you know the paths to their houses?
21 I am sure you know! After all, you were already born!
You have lived so many years! (what was I thinking? questioning God?)
22 “Have you entered the places where the snow is kept? (I’m going to shut up now.)
Have you seen the storerooms for the hail?

24 Where does lightning come from?
Where do the east winds that blow across the earth live?
25 Who tells the rain where it should fall?
Who makes paths for the thunderstorms?

28 Does the rain have a father?
Who is the father of the drops of dew?
29 Does the ice have a mother?
Who is the mother of the frost from the heavens?

31 “Can you tie up the beautiful Pleiades?
Can you untie the ropes that hold Orion together?
32 Can you bring out all of the stars in their seasons?
Can you lead out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper?
33 Do you know the laws that govern the heavens?
Can you rule over the earth the way I do?
34 “Can you give orders to the clouds?
Can you make them pour rain down on you?
35 Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who put wisdom in people’s hearts? (you did, Lord. Just now.)
Who gave understanding to their minds? (Thank you, Lord.)
37 Who is wise enough to count the clouds?
Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens?

Chapter 39
26 “Job, are you wise enough to teach hawks where to fly?
They spread their wings and fly toward the south.
27 Do you command eagles to fly so high?
They build their nests as high as they can.

Job Chapter 40
1 The Lord continued,

2 “I am the Mighty One.
Will the man who argues with me correct me?
Let him who brings charges against me answer me!”

Job’s Reply
3 Job replied to the Lord,

4 “I’m not worthy. How can I reply to you?
I’m putting my hand over my mouth. I’ll stop talking.

Job 42

Job’s Reply
1 Job replied to the Lord,

2 “I know that you can do anything.
No one can keep you from doing what you plan to do.
3 You asked me, ‘Who do you think you are to disagree with my plans?
You do not know what you are talking about.’
I spoke about things I didn’t completely understand.
I talked about things that were too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak.
I will ask you some questions.
Then I want you to answer me.’
5 My ears had heard about you.
But now my own eyes have seen you. (emphasis added)

After SEEING the Lord, Job had no desire to debate. To question. To “yeh, but.”

Instead, after SEEING the Lord, Job said, “”I’m not worthy. How can I reply to you? I’m putting my hand over my mouth. I’ll stop talking.

Job took the words right out of my mouth.

God explaining the things HE understands to ME? I would be like explaining calculus to a 2 year old. My mind wouldn’t be able to grasp it.

But that’s just me. So, knowing that I have NO idea what I’m talking about, I instead trust God, much like a child trusts that his parents will care for him. The child doesn’t understand what’s involved in raising him, he’s just living in subjective self-awareness. Knowing that I have no CAPACITY to understand the things of God, I believe in God’s sovereignty. Now, this is not to say that when I’ve faced . . . difficulty in the past, that I didn’t grieve and struggle with God’s will. This is not to say that, facing tragedy in my future I won’t struggle and desperately beg God to grant me peace. I’m human. I’m weak. I need God. Which is kind of my point.

I trust in a sovereign God. I believe that He is a loving God, despite evil and suffering in the world.

So now what? Do I just say, “I’m good.” and be done with it? Or, when I encounter others who aren’t able to do that or who choose not to do that, do I step outside of my independent security? Do I reach out to OTHERS and, in compassion and with God’s love and hopefully, His wisdom, do my very best to help them see what I see? Do I say, “Well, I can’t understand the things of God, so I’ll just have faith and I’ll be fine.” and be done with it? Do I stand comfortable and secure in MY acceptance and understanding of Biblical truth or do I prepare myself to address the common arguments to my faith and the truths presented in the Bible? When faced with these arguments, these obstacles of faith, do I seek to understand the things he HAS revealed? The things I AM capable of understanding? Because there are SOME things I CAN wrap my mind around and be able to share.

If I make the effort. Faith in a vacuum is easy.

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There’s a cartoon about two turtles. One turtle says “Sometimes I’d like to ask God
why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it.”
The other turtle says, “I’m afraid God might ask me the same question.”

a loving God. evil and suffering.

I’ll be thinking via my fingertips today. Given the extent of the topic, I’m sure I’ll rinse and repeat so additional thoughts and insights are very much sought after.

I’m reading The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel. (Click HERE for his youtube testimony.) In this book, Strobel attempts to “investigate” the most common obstacles to the Christian faith. He calls these obstacles “the Big Eight.” I’m reading about Obstacle #1.

“Since Evil and Suffering Exist, a Loving God Cannot.”

Why am I reading this? I was led. Compelled. There are so many struggling. Suffering. All ages, genders and walks of life. Suffering physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially. Children died this week. Children die every week. A young mother at my church lost her battle with cancer the day before a friend who defeated stage 4 breast cancer got her breast reconstruction.

I pray. For people I know, and people I don’t. I pray for strength and comfort. For peace.

I pray because I personally believe a loving God does exist, despite the evil and suffering in the world. But in my prayers, unspoken, was always “Why?”

My auto-pilot answer was “Have faith in God.” But in truth? I had nuthin. Except that whole “then we shall see face to face” thing. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

If there is a loving God, why is there pain and suffering in the world?

I’m 44, for crying out loud. I’ve been a Christian for nearly 30 years! I should to be able to ANSWER THE QUESTION instead of mumbling words like “sin” and “test of faith” and “God’s will” and “free will” or quoting scripture to Christians, agnostics and atheists alike. Scripture. Not a credible resource for agnostics and atheists. Quote the Bible if it makes you feel better, but when I’m talking to someone who doesn’t believe the Bible to be the Living Word of God, or to a person who doesn’t even believe in God, I need to approach the conversation in a different way. God can use other books and resources besides the Bible. He can use a sunset, a song or an impossible coincidence. He can even use my personal experience and fallible human intellectual understanding. He is that good. (I just need to gain some intellectual understanding and identify my personal experience.)

Besides not being able to intelligently articulate a reasonable response when talking to others, I personally didn’t like not having answers to the “why” question and the “how can there be a loving God” question. And I believed there were answers. Just because I didn’t know what they were, didn’t mean there weren’t any. This week, I found myself no longer comfortable just believing and trusting in God and accepting suffering without question. (Which I did, by the way.) For some reason, I’m at a place in my life where I want to know WHY I believe what I believe about this issue and be able to explain myself to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Wait. Don’t go off and comment yet, telling me “the” answer. Bear with me. I want to work through this one pragmatic step at a time. I’ve had discussions with “strong” Christians, “longtime” Christians, pastors and FirstHusband. I’ve read the Bible, commentaries, and books. Nothing seemed REASONABLE. The Christians were often patronizing and/or vague, attributing my doubt – or questioning or whatever you want to call it – to a lack of faith or an immature Christian. Because they really believed I lacked faith or was immature? Or to cover up the fact that they themselves weren’t able to effectively articulate an answer either? Back then, I believed it was me. After this week? Not so much. Because I found two authors who were able to articulate their reasoning in a way that resonates with me. It’s not that they “told” me the answer to these questions so much as they rounded up many of my thoughts on the matter (conscious and not) and were able to lay them out in an organized, reasonable way.

Let me back up a bit, before the resonating, and answer a likely question. What have I been doing all these years, with this seeming contradiction between suffering and a loving God?

Years ago, FirstHusband gave me the thought that allowed me to let the contradiction rest – until now. In discussing why a loving God allows human suffering, we had a lot to talk about. In the end, it was this:

Could it be (I said COULD) that one (I said ONE) reason people suffer is so the world can see the difference between how a Christian and a non-Christian deals with the suffering? The theory is that Christians have a hope, strength, peace and comfort that comes from God. Now THAT, I’ve seen. On more than one occasion. And so have you.

But what about non-Christians who approach adversity with a seemingly positive outlook? What about non-Christians who overcome obstacles to make things better or inspire us? Randy Pausch never professed Christianity. Neither has John Walsh. Both remarkable men, who, when faced with tragedy, responded much like we expect Christian men would. And what about the Christians who react to tragedy with anger, blame God or who fall apart and shut down? Non-Christians blame God, fall apart and shut down. It can go both ways.

So I personally choose to believe that there IS a loving, all-powerful God despite the seemingly contradicting evidence of evil and suffering present in the world. For years, I’ve been able to fumble around the God-speak, quoting scripture and using words like faith, free will, sin, and God’s Will, but I’ve never before formulated an intelligent response which adequately, logically, PRAGMATICALLY addresses the question AND the objections to the pat, theological answers.

Faced with the multiple tragedies of the death of her uncle and and her aunt’s diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease and terminal cancer, Lee Strobel’s wife said:

“If someone thinks he can wrap everything up in a neat little package and put a fancy theological bow on it, go somewhere else.”

I don’t want to be “someone” or “go somewhere else.” So, here are some questions and issues I’m going to work through:

Is evil evidence FOR God?
If God is all-POWERFUL, why doesn’t He stop or lessen suffering?
What does “less” suffering mean anyway?
If God is all-KNOWING, what does He know that we don’t?
How can we say that God is good when He allows evil and suffering?

What other questions or issues do you see?