Best thing by Camus in 79 pages

Albert Camus wrote a book called The Stranger. I looked him up online and the fellow has a definite Humphrey Bogart thing going on, which is of course spiffy. But I'm not sure about him otherwise. I do not understand him. I don't understand the style, the short sentences, the spare words, the character who does everything without life, without hope, without reason, without belief. How sad and meaningless is this nihilistic jerk and his pitiful life!

I await Mr. Grieser's thoughts on the novel and, in the meantime, relish this, the best quote in the whole book so far:

"I realized then that a man who had lived only one day could easily live for a hundred years in prison. He would have enough memories to keep him from being bored."

muddy and tattered

This picture made me think of this nugget from C. S. Lewis:

“I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience et cetera doesn’t get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time.
We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present to us: it is the very sign of his presence.”

Lone Tulip

[picture by Ann Garrett, words by me]


WITHOUT YOU
The tulips we planted in the fall
budded last week,
a hundred strong darts pricking air
along the wood fence.

Today they bloomed,
the yard splashed with their life,
a red so bright in the midday sun
my eyes began to water.

[Single Red Tulip, from fineartamerica.com]

poem for Holy Week

Easter Communion
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Pure fasted faces draw unto this feast:
God comes all sweetness to your Lenten lips.
You striped in secret with breath-taking whips,
Those crooked rough-scored chequers may be pieced
To crosses meant for Jesu's; you whom the East
With draught of thin and pursuant cold so nips
Breathe Easter now; you serged fellowships,
You vigil-keepers with low flames decreased,

God shall o'er-brim the measures you have spent
With oil of gladness, for sackcloth and frieze
And the ever-fretting shirt of punishment
Give myrrhy-threaded golden folds of ease.
Your scarce-sheathed bones are weary of being bent:
Lo, God shall strengthen all the feeble knees.

Palm Sunday

Some of the random goodness of this day:

-Sermon on Left-Handed blessings (you know, those kinds that look suspiciously UNlike blessings when you receive them? Yeah, those ones.)

-Maria bought us treats at Baskin Robbins. Before lunch. Awesome.

-Grilled cheese sands with sausage in the middle (Becki was right: that was a fabulous idea)

-The sun is shining.

-The Lion King soundtrack

-Re-reading an old, LONG letter from Rachelle, and replying to it. *accomplished feeling*

-Seeing Kelsey, and Bethany and Silas, and Justine and Hans. Why are weekends so short??

-Psalm sing with the church family. Can't wait!!

The Will of God

What is the will of God for you? What does He mean for me to do with my life? What is our goal, our purpose in life?

Of course, the catechism answer is "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." But do we even know what that means? Do we know what it looks like? Do we actually know what to do, every day, in order to fulfill our high calling, or do we just say these words and let them, like so many theological terms we know we subscribe to somehow, just float around like so many flies buzzing loopily around the house - impossible to catch or even get a good snapshot of because they are never grounded?

1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

So simple. And so vast.

Gratitude is what God wants from us. Not sacrifice. Not long prayers. Not putting large offerings in the tithe box, giving our lives to 'full-time Christian work,' or even keeping his commandments. He wants our thanks. Is it any coincidence that in Romans 1, when God gives men over to their lusts, that it is precisely because they did not acknowledge God as God, or give Him thanks?

Giving thanks means that we are humble and that we recognize our beneficiary. We realize we are not enough in and of ourselves, but that someone is giving of themselves to bless us. We realize our smallness, and God's greatness. This is what He wants from us. He wants us to see that the good in our lives is not of ourselves, and to note that it is Him from whom we have all things. And this is how we glorify God and enjoy Him.

This is the will of God for us. And it's why I write lists of things that I am particularly (on a given day) glad to have received from His hand. The world, and all the broken and beautiful and living and dying things in it, are gift.

Do what God asks of you, the thing He wants you to do the most: praise Him.