Grieved to the Point of Death

And He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved to the
point of death; remain here and keep watch."

Mark 14:34

How quickly do we read this verse? It has just become part of the story for us. A means to an end. Do we ever sit and ponder the humanity of Jesus at this point? Do we think of him more as God than man? Able to handle the sorrow and pain to come, I mean, he is God after all.

Grieved to the point of death. What does that even feel like?

The hour is late. Stillness settles like an eerie cloud over Jerusalem. As He enters the gate in the wall around Gethsemane, Jesus motions to Peter, James, and John to come with Him...

Jesus moves slowly, perhaps stopping to lean against a gnarled tree trunk. White knuckles protrude from tightened fists and His head hangs in weariness. The men glance at one another, wondering what to do. Their Teacher has never been like this before. They saw Him cry when His friend Lazarus died; and only a week ago, as He entered Jerusalem, He sobbed out loud over the neediness there. Yet that was a strong cry--laced with sadness perhaps, but not despair.

This is different. Overwhelming sorrow consumes Him. Teeth clenched, Jesus utters: "My soul is grieved to the point of death"...a beleaguered bellow from the depths of His being.

from Contemplating the Cross by Tricia Rhodes, p. 6

New Blog: Mountains of Books

I started a new blog, Mountains of Books. It's about books, authors, reviews, and reading.

Stop on by and have a look.

Noel Piper on Lent

"It is a time for turning away from anything that has kept us from God and for turning or returning to him. It is a time to pray that God will renew our love for him and our dependence on him."

from Treasuring God in our Traditions, p. 93

The Practicality of Knowing God

The basic premise of Practical Theology for Women is to live your life based on the truth of who God is. It's simply stated, but so profound.

Who God is and how we respond to life circumstances are in direct correlation with each other. If we know God to be faithful, then even in the most dire of circumstances we have hope. If we know God to be just, then we can be assured wrongs will be righted. If we know God to be loving, then we will have no fear in confessing our sins. If we know God to be Father, then we can trust his guidance.

The problem, as the author Wendy Alsup puts it, is "some of us don't know the truth of the character of God" (p.99). We know of God. We know about God. We know stories of God. But, oftentimes, we don't live as if we truly know God and he is real. This reminds me of a quote by Dallas Willard, "Namely, we believe something not when we say we or even when we believe we do, but when we act as if we do."

Wendy continues,

"How often are we devastated, disappointed, or frustrated by problems that cloud our day and hang over our head? It may be as simple as getting a flat tire, more serious like losing a job, or the most serious issue of losing a loved one in death.

What issue has put you in a bad mood? What situation is hanging over your head right now like a thunderous rain cloud? What thought patterns are governing your attitude? And are you going to allow those thought patterns to be your master, or are you going to take those thoughts captive and make them submit to what you know to be true about God? (emphasis mine)

This is why knowing theology--knowing God--is so important. It's practical.

Practicing Hospitality: Chapter 4

Here we are on chapter 4 already--halfway through the book! I'm still enjoying it and it's really encouraging me to practice hospitality in my life and family, while still broadening my view. For the book discussion visit Passionate Homemaking.

The standout point for me was that orderliness is the goal, not perfection. Also, I thought it was a good point in having a guest ready home and a right perspective of our possessions--they're to be used.

Now, on to the discussion questions:

1. How can you become a planner of generosity?
For me, I've been thinking (and am now planning) to invite people over to our house twice a month--a group event and then one-on-one with another couple or family. For the group event maybe a game or movie night and invite 3-4 people (possibly have them invite a friend too as a way to meet new people and get to know acquaintances better).

2. How can you begin to change you perspective to view household management with an eternal purpose?
It's not just about my desire for a neat and orderly home, but preparation for sharing in God's kingdom. Being an open door, a safe haven, and refuge. Chaos and disorder rarely, if ever, feel safe and can make a guest--especially an unexpected one--feel like a burden and inconvenience.

3. What tips might you have to help maintain a more orderly and prepared home?
My tips would be:

• have a couple of "go-to" meals that have been tried and tested with the ingredients stocked in your kitchen
• have a cleaning schedule--having one has helped keep me sane even though I don't follow it religiously
• daily or weekly schedule--I don't do this every day or week, but I do for days that there is a lot going on. It helps me not to forget something and breaks things into segments so I can see how I'm spending my time. Sometimes I feel like my schedule is jam packed but when I write it down I see I have more open time than I thought...usually.
  

quote from Practical Theolgoy for Women

I read this the other day and felt it was a good word to ponder during this Lenten season.

"Rather than grasping all of his [Jesus'] rights and power as sovereign God, Christ made himself nothing for our sake. It is not that he thought badly of himself. The point is that he did not think of himself at all. He opened his hands and willingly let go of his rights, forgetting about himself completely. He allowed himself to be maligned, spat upon, treated as a bastard, liar, and traitor, and ultimately allowed himself to be murdered...

We are called to willingly give up our rights and welcome sacrifices that accompany being a servant to others. We are not called to think badly of ourselves. People who think badly of themselves are as self-centered as those who think highly of themselves. Instead, we are called not to think of ourselves at all. As our grasp on our perceived rights weakens, our needs fade into the background, and we become little images of Christ--consumed with the needs of others to the forgetfulness of our own."

from Practical theology for Women by Wendy Horger Alsup, p. 87

What's on your nightstand?

Recently I discovered that 5 Minutes for Mom has a 5 Minutes for Books site, which is right up my ally! The fourth Tuesday of every month is "What's on your nightstand?" sharing what you've bben reading and plan to read the next month.

Let's just say this, I've been a reading madman...rather mad "woman" lately. In the last two weeks I've finished three books from my booklist for the year!

This month I finished reading:

• Jane Austen (a biography) by Claire Tomalin
• Through the Shadowlands: The Love Story of C.S. Lewis & Joy Davidman, Brian Sibley
  
• Daisy Miller, by Henry James (short and sweet)
  
• Prisoner of Tehran, by Marina Nemat (I read this one in two days!)
  

I'm still reading:

• Practicing Hospitality, by Pat Ennis & Lisa Tatlock
  
• Practical Theology for Women, by Wendy Horger Alsup (I'm a little over half way through this one.)
  
• Montessori from the Start: The Child at Home, From Birth to Age 3, by Paula Polk Lillard & Lynn Lillard Jessen (I just started it today!)
  
• Mi primera mirada a Los Tamanos/Colores/Formas/Numeros (These are Spanish kids books on size, color, shapes, and numbers. I'm reading them to Joe, but more for my benefit than his. I'm trying to get my Spanish back.)
  

Next month I plan to read:

• Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde
• Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World, by Carolyn McCulley
• Story, by Robert McGee
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver

I really enjoyed reading the biographies/memoir. Prisoner of Tehran wasn't originally on my list for this year, but I saw it in the library a few weeks ago and on my most recent trip I picked it up. I read it in two days. It was really good, but sad. I'm really interested in Middle Eastern culture and literature, especially in regards to Iran. The book is the story of a woman who became a political prisoner during the Islamic Cultural Revolution. It follows her time in prisoner and how she got out.

It makes me want to go back and reread Lipstick Jihad, which I never actucally finished. It'd be interesting to see the difference of Iran from a woman who was coming of age during the revolution and a woman who goes back to Iran as a young adult 20 years after the revolution.

Just a note...

Practicing Hospitality is in conjunction with the book discussion over at Passionate Homemaking with Lindsay. The discussion and questions are posted on Mondays, although I usually post on Thursdays. You can join the discussion here.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is the next book in Simple Mom's Sound Mind, Sound Mom Book Club. The reading dates are March 19 - May 21, 2009.

Practicing Hospitality: Chapter 2

Hospitality & Strangers

This book is redefining my view of hospitality (and how I practice it) more than I thought it would. It's challenging the way I currently practice hospitality and how I can be extending hospitality toward others.

Here are some questions from Lindsay at the book study:

1. How was your definition of hospitality re-defined after reading this chapter?
I really liked how the authors defined hospitality as "a daily pursuit because of our love for people, which flows out of our love for God." Hospitality is more about extending love, than just entertaining. Another thing that stood out to me was in biblical times people didn't necessarily have to have know the person to extend hospitality to them. I also like how they mentioned at the end of the chapter that hospitality is really a reflection of God's nature.

2. How can you begin to switch gears from focusing on “entertaining” to truly demonstrating Biblical love?
For starters, I've been trying to interact more with people I meet while I'm out and about. Instead of simply going through the check out register bored and seemingly impatient, my goal is to interact with clerk or others in line. You never know where a short conversation might lead. (I did this the other day at Michaels and the woman was a little shocked!)

3. How can you begin now to start including a variety of “strangers” into your hospitality practices?
The application process is hard for me at times. It requires getting past my regular way of thinking. But that is the point, isn't it? This could be ministering to the homeless with my church, making a meal for a busy family I know, and/or getting together a game night with old and new friends. (It feels like thinking of these shouldn't be this hard...)

You can join in on the book discussion over at Passionate Homemaking. It's good.

Practical Theology for Women

I am so looking forward to reading this book. Along with my the rest of my booklist for the year, but this one in particular.

It just sounds good. The idea that theology, the study of God, is practical in our everyday lives makes sense. Why wouldn't it? To know God, or to know anyone for that matter, is to study Him. But sometimes the word theology is toted as this lofty subject kept for theologians, pastors, and other academicians. It comes off feeling stuffy and impractical for our everyday lives, when in actuality it should be our everyday life.

Here's the back cover:

Have you ever wanted to understand the deep things of the Word but been put off by the intimidating vocabulary of theologians? Have you assumed that studying the attributes of God is for seminary students only? Or maybe “just for men”? Have heavy doctrinal themes felt beyond you and your everyday world? If so—if you’ve ever thought theology was too deep, too impractical, or too irrelevant for your life as a woman—this book is for you.

As author Wendy Alsup explores fundamental theological issues you’ve always wondered about—minus the daunting vocabulary and complex sentence structure of academic tomes—she brings them into real life… into your world… and reveals the heart of true theology. It’s really about “simple yet incredibly profound stuff that affects our daily lives,” she says. Stuff like faith and gaining a right knowledge of God as the foundation for wise daily living.

Alsup writes: “Truly, there is nothing like a good grasp of accurate knowledge about God to enable you to meet the practical demands of your life—the practical demands of being a daughter, mother, wife, sister, or friend.” Let Practical Theology for Women show you the everyday difference that knowing God makes.

I can't wait to read it and share, so far the reviews say it's great.

Practicing Hospitality Giveaway!

Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking is getting ready to launch a new book study. The book is Practicing Hospitality by Lisa Tatlock and Pat Ennis.

You can enter the giveaway for a copy of the book here. One of the authors actually contributed 9 more books, so there will be ten copies given away--how exciting (and generous)!

Give­away ends Friday, Jan­u­ary 16, at 5:00 pm PST.

Booklist for 2009

Books for the new year...

Simple Mom Book Club

• Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver
• It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff, by Peter Walsh

Biographies

• Becoming Jane, by Jon Spencer
• Jane Austen, by Claire Tomalin
• The Journals of Jim Elliot, edited by Elisabeth Elliot
• Through the Shadowlands: The Love Story of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, by Brian Sibley

Non-Fiction

• Story, by Robert McGee
• Birth, by Tina Cassidy
• More-with-Less Cookbook, Doris Longacre
• What's Wrong with the World?, G.K. Chesterton
  

Fiction

• Daisy Miller, by Henry James

• Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde
• Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw
• The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate DiCamillo
• The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery
• Sandition, by Jane Austen
  

Christian Non-Fiction

• Sacred Chaos, by Tricia Rhodes (My pastor's wife!)
• God is the Gospel, by John Piper
• Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, edited by John Piper & Wayne Grudem
• Practical Theology for Women, by Wendy Horger Alsup
• The Hidden Art of Homemaking, by Edith Schaeffer
• Stepping Heavenward, Elizabeth Prentiss
• The True Woman, by Susan Hunt
• Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World, by Carolyn McCulley
  

Santa and Christmas

Since we're now approaching the "parenting years," there's a whole new slew of questions for Joe and I to answer. Pertaining to Christmas (which is fast approaching) is the question, Will we introduce the idea of Santa Clause to our children?

Our decision has been no. We aren't going to actively introduce (or promote) the idea of Santa to our children nor will we join the camp of anti-Santa activists either. After reading Treasuring God in Our Traditions, Noel Piper made some points that were quite interesting on the subject of Santa, Christmas, and children.

She listed some reasons the Piper family chose not to include Santa in their Christmas stories and decorations:

"First, fairy tales are fun, but we don't ask our children to believe them."

"Second, celebrating with Santa and manger will postpone a child's clear understanding of what the real truth of God is."

Noel expounds on her second point by saying, "It's very difficult for a young child to pick through a marble cake of part truth and part imagination to find the crumbs of reality. We want our children to understand God as fully as they're able, at whatever age they are. So we try to avoid anything that would inhibit or distort that understanding."

"Third, think how confusing it must be to a literal-thinking, uncritical preschooler. Santa is so much like what we're trying all year to teach our children about God. Look at the "attributes" of Santa:

• He's omniscient--he sees everything you do.
• He rewards you if you're good.
• He's omnipresent--at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
• He gives you good gifts.
• He's the most famous "old man in the sky" figure.

Noel goes on to say that there is a deeper level that young children can't yet comprehend that Santa is not at all like God, most importantly that God gave the gift of His Son when we weren't good at all (Ro. 5:8). "He gave his gift to us to make us good, not because we had proved ourselves good enough."

It makes sense to me. Why, when we're trying to teach our children who God is and His purpose for sending Jesus, mix it with folklore when we should be feeding them the truth?

Do I think introducing Santa in children will inhibit them from knowing God? No. But it could inhibit them from knowing and understanding God in a meaningful way from an early age. Isn't that, as Christian parents, what we want for our children?

Treasuring God in our Traditions

I finally finished reading Noel Piper's Treasuring God in our Traditions. I thought I would have gotten through it much faster than I did. It is only 105 pages long and I started reading it in the beginning of the year. Nevertheless, I have finished it.

The basic premise is that our traditions can help the next generation (focusing on our children and family) treasure God and give them a taste of His amazing worth. Noel Piper goes about describing how we can do this in our family through everyday traditions in the family, such as mealtime prayers and reading to our children, and the "especially" traditions of birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, Easter, Christmas, and even funerals. There are many great ideas for making our traditions not only meaningful, but have an eternal significance.

The question in Treasuring God in our Traditions is, how do we demonstrate that God is at the heart of every celebration? Noel says, "Through him we have birth and life and every thing and every person in our lives. So God is the reason we have anything to celebrate. He is the ultimate source of any of our celebrations."

Ultimately, our traditions should have God at the center. Noel sums up the book with these points three points,

"Let's just remind ourselves of what we're after:

• Remembering what God did for his people, for us, and
• giving glory to God for what he's done,
• so our children and their children will know him."
  

Literary Meme

My friend April "tagged me," so here goes...

Who is your all-time favorite author and why?
Jane Austen. Why? She's like the fly on the wall who not only explains all the happenings in the house, but knows the inward thoughts of all. What I love about her is her sense of humor and her intelligence in looking into the human race, but not only that she had a great deal of feeling. She takes normal emotions and explores those that possess them. Then there's always the question, how could she write such compelling stories of love and never married? Which leads to the questioning of a certain young Irish man's attentions, Tom Lefroy.

I think what I find so interesting about literature in general is it really is the exploration of the human mind and experiences. It's an opportunity to look at life in another realm and experience than your own. For me, it's almost the study of people and I think Austen did a superb job of that.

Who was your first favorite author and why? Do you still consider him/her to be among your favorites?
Probably the authors of the American Girl series. I've always been interested in what life was like for people back in ___fill in the blank___, especially in relation to history. I grew up on the east coast, so seeing historic landmarks for the Revolutionary and Civil Wars it was much easier to be sucked into the idea and wonder of the old South. I mean, who couldn't fall in love with plantations? Then, I found the idea of traveling west to the unknown and its trials fascinating.

Who is the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?
Flannery O'Connor. She's unconventional (esp. for her time and religion), yet writes the truth of human nature.

If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?
Jane Austen and Elisabeth Elliot (She holds nothing back when it comes to the Truth. She's not afraid of offending someone's opinion, and she doesn't feel the need to write in a flowery words to appeal to women. I love that about her!)

...then Louisa May Alcott (and not just Little Women, you have to read the short stories that couldn't be published under her own name)

My Tagees:

Joe: My Family's Money

Mom: Rockville Down South

Brandon (Bro): Brandon Oxendine

(I guess I don't know that many bloggers for "real.")

Rules

• Link to the person that tagged you.
• Post the rules somewhere in your meme.
• Answer the questions.
• Tag six people in your post.
• Let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.
• Let the tagger know your entry is posted.

But is this all?

“No thoughtful person can question the fact that, for the most part, the Christian life, as it is generally lived, is not entirely a happy life. A keen observer once said to me,

“You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it. You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable.”

All of God's children, I am convinced, feel instinctively, in their moments of divine illumination, that a life of inward rest and outward victory is their inalienable right. [...] And yet, to many of you, how different has been your real experience! [...]

• You have not lived as you feel children of God ought to live.

• You have had perhaps a clear understanding of doctrinal truths, but you have not come into possession of their life and power.

• You have rejoiced in your knowledge of the things revealed in the Scriptures, but have not had a living realization of the things themselves, consciously felt in the soul.

• Christ is believed in, talked about, and served, but He is not known as the soul's actual and very life, abiding there forever, and revealing Himself there continually in His beauty.

• You have found Jesus as your Saviour from the penalty of sin, but you have not found Him as your Saviour from its power.

• You have carefully studied the Holy Scriptures, and have gathered much precious truth therefrom, which you have trusted would feed and nourish your spiritual life, but in spite of it all, your souls are starving and dying within you, and you cry out in secret, again and again, for that bread and water of life which you see promised in the Scriptures to all believers.

In the very depths of your hearts, you know that your experience is not a Scriptural experience; that, as an old writer said, your religion is “but a talk to what the early Christians enjoyed, possessed, and lived in.” And your hearts have sunk within you, as, day after day, and year after year, your early visions of triumph have seemed to grow more and more dim, and you have been forced to settle down to the conviction, that the best you can expect from religion is a life of alternate failure and victory, one hour sinning, and the next repenting, and then beginning again, only to fail again, and again to repent.

But is this all?”

from chapter 1 of The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith

I think it's funny...

...that I'm really not reading any of the books in my Current Reading (see sidebar). Those are definitely books I've started, but haven't quite finished. Don't get me wrong I want to finish them. It's just that I find there are other books I want to read that seem more interesting at the moment.

What am I really reading?

Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Mrs. Piper is getting picked up about once a week these days. It's a shorter book and should be classified as a "quick read," but I just haven't committed the time.

Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free by speaker/radio host of Revive Our Hearts Ms. Nancy Leigh DeMoss. (Truthfully, whenever I hear her name I can only think of it as my husband imitates it as a high-pitched Midwestern woman.) I'm reading this with my accountability group. We're reading a chapter a week. It's good. I'd definitely recommend it. I'm also excited about her new book with Dannah Gresh Lies Young Women Believe.

Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan & Sarah Edwards by Elisabeth D. Dodds is my latest read. I started this on our trip to South Carolina a few weeks ago and by the time we got home only had two chapters left. We've been home a week now and I have about 1 1/2 chapters left. Almost there! It's really good and interesting. I'm finding that I'm enjoying biographies more and more these days.

That's it really. I'm about halfway through Lipstick Jihad, but I haven't picked it up in months. Next weekend, we're heading out to Indiana for a friends wedding and it's my plan to bring it on the plane. We'll see how that pans out. *wink*wink*

Finally...Book List 2008

I've been wanting to post my book list for the year these last few weeks, but never really got to it. The reason, in part, being I haven't finished my list. I figured blogging about it would help me to put my thoughts down on paper. So, this is my "working" book list:

Biographies

Flannery O'Connor (I haven't decided on which biography)

Fiction/Literature











On Writing

(I've started this last year, but it's a long read...)

Children's/Young Adult Literature

This is just my running list. I still want to add one more category. There's likely more I'll want to add, some I'll put down and not pick back up, and some that I'll forget altogether. What are you reading lately?

I finished!

So tonight...I finally finished reading Persuasion! Oh yeah...it was really good. The PBS adaptation was good, but not accurate. The novel much better. Jane Austen is wonderful!

What happened to Mansfield?

Needless to say, if you've seen my three previous posts, Mansfield Park was a complete disappointment. There was so much left out of the movie. It jumped around, lost all humor as well as passion, and I didn't really care for the characters. Overall, it was lackluster.

My husband asked what I thought about it and I told him that it didn't even seem like a Jane Austen adaptation. I couldn't tell the difference between Aunt Norris and Lady Bertram. Fanny never went back to Portsmouth. Julia and Maria definitely weren't built up to be the silly, foolish sisters that they were. And overall, it was all so rushed.

This clip is from the last bit of the movie. Edmund's realization that it's really Fanny he loves happens all to quickly. And I think the most disappointing thing about the whole movie is that Fanny seems to be this secondary character with little to say and no depth, except occasionally running around the house and the lawn. It's a sad, sad adaptation.

Where is Miss Price?

Fanny seems to be simply a secondary character instead of the heroine. Where did she go?