gaining sisters

This is a bit of loose prose I put together at the end of my singlehood. Nothing very poetic or grand, I am just feeling nostalgaic tonight about the wonderful women God has put into my life since moving away from home - and the wonderful ones I grew up with there. I am thankful.

six years away from home -

(college and then work)

sharing living costs and life

with other girls on their own for the first time.

and now

I feel like I have so many more sisters

young energetic beautiful

weary questioning longing lonely

laughing hilarious different-from-me

sisters

who have cooked at the same stove

and scolded each other for leaving dirty dishes

or the door unlocked

and woken each other up in the middle of the night

with pain or laughter or stories of What he said to me

sisters

who have split the chores of emptying the trash

and cleaning up after the communal dog

and mowing the grass

sisters who have cried and sighed and cried again

late at night

and woken each other by preparing breakfast too noisily

and tried to figure out how to fix the garbage disposal together

and been creeped out by the same dark basement

and huddled on the same couch

when the house was cold and the heat bill already high

in six years I have accumulated

ten new roomie sisters

[Jordan, Emma, Tali, Jonte, Gigi, Bailey, Mel, Sara, Susanna, Jenny]

plus the eight baby sisters at the houses I boarded

[Lottie, Flora, Iona, and Opal, Cat, Ellie, Hazel, and Laura]

and their mothers, who became something like older sisters to me

[Mick and Heather]

and these non-related sisters

deepened my love for my blood sisters

[Vicki, Maria, Becki, Laura, Emili, Elsi, Abbi, Lydia, and Naomi]

and helped teach me how to love my sisters-by-marriage

[Brianna, Theresa, Claire]

and all of whom have reminded me

daily or weekly in their own ways

what sisters are for:

help and honesty, silliness and support, grace and giving

Serving the Body of Christ

Rachel Jankovic at Femina Girls has such a good post today. Read it. Just do it.

http://www.feminagirls.com/2014/02/24/fight-for-us/

Boys and Men

This links to something written by Pastor Joost Nixon of Spokane, WA. Good words.

"One of the deficiencies of Western culture is that there is no objective marker for young men to know when they have passed from "boy" to "man." . . . But what this ambiguity about adulthood does, practically, is leave our mature males to be "boys-in-men's-bodies"; irresponsible, piddling around with follies, instead of moving the football of cultural dominion down the field and into the end zone."

Read it. http://biblicalchildrearing.blogspot.com/2012/10/piddling-with-follies.html?spref=fb

Rock that is Higher than I

Pastor Wilson gave an excellent sermon this morning on Psalm 61. Excellent. I told my roommates when I got home that I feel like it is cliched when someone asks you how the sermon was to say it was just what you needed... but sometimes that is 100% true. Much of the time it is, in fact.

I wish I could post a link to a video of this, but I don't think that it was filmed. There is probably audio available for it a couple days afterwards. I'll find out. Here is a link to the sermon notes. A couple things that I think weren't on there that stuck in my mind were, "Pray about your troubles. If it's big enough to trouble you, it's big enough to trouble God with," and at the end of the sermon, "Don't live like your troubles ARE'NT present; but live as though Christ IS present."

Leithart on the music of the spheres

"Earthly time is tuned to be a harmonization on the music of the spheres." (via twitter)

Read his blog post Tuned Cosmos.

charis: gift and counter-gift

http://www.leithart.com/2012/05/26/grace-and-gratitude/

on Lent

This is a great piece written by pastor Toby Sumpter. I am sharing part of it here in case you don't have time to go read the full thing, but you really SHOULD go read it. :)


"If you plan to fast during Lent, do not kid yourself into thinking that fasting is the same thing as suffering for Jesus. Just because the pastor said that Lent is dangerous doesn’t mean you’re being a great risk taker by abstaining from chocolate or coffee or beer. Do not come up here and take the sign of the cross upon your forehead and pat yourself on the back and say that you have somehow done something courageous for Jesus. The point of abstaining, the point of taking the cross upon your brow, the point of prayer and fasting, the point of all this must be evangelistic, inviting the gospel to fill our lives, our families, our communities. The point is to make time to pray for the lost, to love the lost, to invite the lost and the hurting into our homes, and to share life with the lost and dying in our community. Abstaining from something is not the mark of Christ, but if you give yourself to heart-aching prayer for your neighbors, you have begun to be a disciple. If you plead with an unbelieving loved one to submit to Christ, the word of the Lord is going forth. If you graciously confront your roommate for obvious sin and folly, realizing that you may lose or strain a friendship, you are beginning to be a disciple. If you love your wife like Christ loved the church, and give yourself away for her more and more sacrificially, you are beginning to be a disciple.

And if you fast, let your fasting and prayer be toward particular ends, particular needs, particular hurts, not vague feelings. Fasting does not benefit us. Fasting is a bodily posture. Just as you might kneel or lift your hands in prayer, so too fasting is a posture of humility and urgency. Some of you need to learn to fast and pray. You might dedicate one day a week, one meal a week, you might do it individually, or as a family. But the point is not for a show of piety, the point is not to harness some mystical power. The point is to cry out to God. Peter says that humility is evidenced in casting all our cares upon the God who cares for us. Some of you need to cry out to God because you haven’t been. Some of you need to cry out to God because you’ve been carrying all your cares yourself, because you are weighed down with burdens and stress and fear and unbelief. Use this season of Lent to repent. Set aside time to pray, to pour out your heart to the Lord. And pray it out. Pray until it’s all out. Pray your cares on to the God who cares for you."

Leithart: enlightenment gratitude

Peter Leithart's most recent blog post: read it here.

In which he quotes various people including Descartes: Gratitude is “a sort of love, excited in us by some action of him to whom we offer it, and whereby we believe he has done us some good, or at least had an intention to do us some. So it includes all that goodwill does, and this besides, that it is grounded on an action we are very sensible of, and whereof we have a desire to make a requital.

Doug Jones: Mary Bursting

Great essay on the inexpressible glory of this season we are celebrating.

Next year on Oct 31...

Stumped on a good Christian response to the secular and weird ways October 31st is celebrated? I definitely have been. But this article by pastor Ben Alexander is extremely helpful and I plan on passing it on to others who might be benefited from it.

Herp Glory

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:24-5

Yesterday we went herping (hm, yes, I guess Jordan was right, that does sound pretty weird. Yet it is a real verb). Herpetology is the study of Reptiles and Amphibians, and I'm taking this elective from Dr. Gordon Wilson, our resident scientist. Kenny headed up the expedition, and with Kellen, Lindsey, Stephen, Noai, Dr. Wilson and his nephew Rory, I went a-herping in the hills around Moscow for the entire afternoon. Here are a few finds.

Western Skink (Eumeces skiltonianus)

This is the second skink we found (#1 had lost his tail, and wasn't as pretty). Fiery little fellows, quick as snakes and quite frightened of us, but would settle down as soon as they'd scurried up onto the black shirt of Kenny or Kellen. Then they'd wait, completely still, as if successfully hiding from us there in the dark. Their golden-brown-black striping, fine cycloid scales and stunning blue tails make them quite handsome.

Rough-Skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa)

Reading Wodehouse for years before meeting newts, I've been tempted to think they were his brainchild - like Finknottles or Black Shorts. But they're completely real. This fairly calm fellow lived under an old stump. His underside was brilliant orange, his costal grooves obvious, his nubbly back almost purplish brown, hands pudgy and childish, and his throat would move up and down quite a bit as he breathed.

Long-Toed Salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum)
Catch #2 (the first was badly enough injured that Dr. Wilson thought it better to not let him loose to suffer in the wild). This one was dark, his green dorsal stripe not as easy to see. His tail was flattened, almost like a newt. It was easy to identify him as a Long-Toed rather than a Coeur d'Alene, simply because of his long 4th toes on his rear feet. I love how salamanders walk, and the way their little elbows stick up above their splayed front feet.

Columbia Spotted Frog (Rana luteiventris)
Mr Frog (the only specimen we found) was small. The field guide tells me they are avg of 1 3/4 to 4 inches long, and I would guess he was at the very smallest end of that range. His belly was pale yellow, his ear drums small, his back covered with small spots and insignificant warts. Frogs are always a bit difficult to convince to stay on your open hand, but we did get him to hang around long enough for a few pictures before we let him go again.

(Northern?) Alligator Lizard (Elgaria coerulea)
Can you tell why he has this name? Look at his head, short legs, general configuration, scale pattern, ect. This one didn't try to bite (unlike one last year), but he really wanted to go back home rather than be a celebrity in the midst of our admiring circle and cameras. You might be able to see the fold of skin along his side, between belly and back scales, which expanded and folded thin again with every breath he took.

Wandering Garter Snake (Thamnophis elegans vagrans)
The only snake we found, this fellow was pretty tiny. He was content to wind slowly around our fingers as we talked and took photographs. The wandering is a lot plainer looking than the common garter, lacking its nice red-orange spots, but is still pretty captivating. He has keeled scales (running your finger down his back, you feel more texture than a smooth-scaled skink). His tongue flicks in and out, darting dark and sinister looking.

The way of a serpent upon a rock was one of three things too wonderful for the wisest man of all, King Solomon. And we have this glory, to seek out in the world those things which God has hidden for us.

"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter." Prov 25:2

Who You Are

Pastor Toby Sumpter posted this communion message a couple days ago. I just read it, and re-read it - glorious and gracious truth!

http://havingtwolegs.blogspot.com/2011/01/this-is-who-you-are.html

Pre-writing, or What *AM* I doing after graduation??

One of my professors' assignment was writing a 1250-word paper, due week 7 of our term. But the method meant starting back around week 3: multiple paper drafts, each one written in at least two sittings, printing and proofreading before typing the next one. Confusing? Yes.

The best thing about this plan was stage 1, which we call the Zero Draft. It's seriously the least-intimidating, least-stressful kind of writing on earth: brain-dumping. You don't have to have a thesis statement, an argument, even complete sentences. You just start typing about anything remotely related to the subject, plopping in block quotes from sources, brilliant and idiotic statements from you, questions to self... yes, stream-of-consciousness brain-dump.

Of course, once you've done the gathering-of-stuff, it's time to take up hammer and nails and actually construct something out of the mess of materials. But this pre-decision, pre-building, is not to be underrated: you need it to check inventory: what you have, what you need, what you want, what you like, what is a possibility and what has absolutely no basis for inclusion here.

I'm pretty sure this is time for Zero-Draft inventories regarding my life, and the pages aren't pretty at the moment. I don't have a strong thesis statement yet, but I know I need to eventually: decided, supported, printed up and stapled with a satisfying click. Maybe graduation would make a nice deadline for this plan to be complete. For now, I have a lot of random thoughts, likes, notions, dreams, all bumping around in my noggin, that aren't formed enough for me to pick out of it a direction to go, a blueprint to build on, a paper to write.

But I'm grateful for the time I have for zero-drafts and rough-drafts and red-pen editing of my life's plan. Teach me to number my days, that I may gain a heart of wisdom.

Literary Notes from Wilson

Just enjoyed a fine article by my pastor.

To get you started: "The brain is not a shoebox that 'gets full' but is rather a muscle that expands its capacity with increased use. The more you know, the more you can know. The more you can do with words, the more you can do."

Read the rest.

http://www.dougwils.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8171:ancient-roman-toddlers&catid=102:literary-notes

Ben Alexander: GOD'S HOSPITALITY

Benjamin's Tribe: GOD'S HOSPITALITY: "The hospitality of the Lord Jesus for us is a home filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread and a feast for all senses. He makes a fuss..."

Toby Sumpter's message on Weirdness

Yesterday at CRF Pastor Toby Sumpter exhorted us (stepped on our toes and jabbed at our eyeballs) with a clarity, conviction and encouragement that has me going over it again today. The talk was called Dealing With Weirdos but( could have also been titled something like Thankfulness, or Unity).

The next best thing to hearing it with all the life (eye contact, humor, kindness) of good speaking, would be reading it. So here you go.

www.havingtwolegs.blogspot.com

Children of the Covenant

Check out Joost Nixon's posts. So much assurance and wisdom for the family.

http://biblicalchildrearing.blogspot.com/

poem written in Mr. Jones' class

August 5, 2006
Peace

I come dripping up from the lake
into air heavy and sweet
with propane fumes and smoke
and settling twilight.

With an old blue towel
rough around my shoulders
I take the long-handled fork
you offer me,

serve the thick black steaks,
cris-crossed with imperfect diamonds
and sprinkled with salt and herbs,
and sit beside you.

Our plates are smeared with charcoal and fat
and a little blood from center of the beef
as we saw with plastic knives
that will break so easily.

morning monastics pt 2

Remember the monastic routine we're doing for our history class?
I usually remember it.
I did forget one day until after 10 am, and another day I messed up and copied down the wrong Bible verse... in pen of course. Nastiness. I've got to get better about this. It's going to be pure humiliation to hand in my finished copy if I make any more mistakes.
Mr. Schlect encouraged us to do this in groups. I never have. I think it's probably a good idea, but most days of the week I stay here until about 11... and I have made a habit of doing the reciting, reading and writing the same time & place every day (after breakfast in the study). Yes, that is one suggestion I have taken.
Another suggestion was adding one small bit. I poked a little 5-or-8-minute Latin Bible reading into it. Usually I only read a few verses, but I flatter myself I may keep the language partially green and alive in doing so.

Talking to Myself

Lately I've been trying to talk to myself a lot more. It's something that both Doug Wilson (in the sermon last Sunday) and then Nancy Wilson (in the Bible study Wednesday) have been shoving at me, and finally, it came through. God just had to re-send it.
What am I talking about? Well, when things are rough, we usually do one of two things: we either talk to ourselves or listen to ourselves, and these two options really don'y go on at the same time. Listening to oneself might sound something like one of these: I'm such a failure at this... I'll never get my assignments all done on time... Why is he so mean to me... God doesn't even care... and you get the picture. This is what our fallen hearts do to us all the time- maximizing our trials and troubles so that all we do is drag ourselves down into the mire of self-pity or doubt or bitterness.
Talking to oneself is more like: Look at what you've made it through already!... This is all for your good... God gave this to you... He will help you... Remember to sing...
Pastor Wilson was using David as an example. You've seen those Psalms- they start with depression, Where are You, Lord? and end with, The Lord will deliver. David starts to tell himself what he knows is true, instead of doubting.
It is true that you can change your own mood.