what we need.

"We hear about every other kind of women--beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women. But so seldom do we hear of a godly woman--or of a godly man either, for that matter...It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife than to be Miss America...It is a far, far better thing in the realms of morals to be old-fashioned than to be ultra-modern. The world has enough women who know how to hold their cocktails, who have lost all their illusions and their faith...The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs soe who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct." ~Peter Marshal

daily motivations; getting down to the basics

Tonight my roommates and I shared some verses from the past week that were particularly insightful to us. I thought it was great how they all pieced together (guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it was pretty awesome). here they are: 


Philippians 4:11-12
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.


That means having the mindset of being thankful for everything, even when it's not what we would choose or how we wish it was--learning to find joy in ALL things.


1 Peter 3:3-4
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.


So in all our striving to be pretty, wear nice clothes, and fix-up our hair (which I do quite a lot of these days!!), we need to have the right motivation. Really, the spirit behind all the adornment is what needs to be in-check before hand...oh so much easier to write than to practice!


Jonah 2:8-9
 Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
But I with the voice of thanksgiving
   will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the LORD!


And then what we set up as gods is all for not. We need to organise our lives in a way that first and formost brings honor and glory to God (that is what our chief end is to begin with!). Only then will our loves come together rightly, and we are freed to flourish as the best we are made to be.


Ps. 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

marginalia

(it's about time, right?!)

"We are a spectacular, splendid manifestation of life. We have language and can build metaphors as skillfully and precisely as ribosomes make proteins. We have affection. We have genes for usefulness...and, perhaps best of all, we have music." Lewis Thomas, Medusa and the Snail

moniker- a name

what I do outside of school:

It's a marvelous morning

a cinnamon roll and coffee with my friend; a talk with my Mother Dear and sister; a clean kitchen and laughing roommates; a creative paper assignment and the morning free to study.

from the abundance of my heart

34. expectation of new and old friends coming to stay this week

35. gold, charcoal, diamond jewelry

36. little blonde friends

37. ankle-length skirts that swish

38. brothers who make me remember life's not about me

39. a sister who is always down for talking with me

40. reading books to strengthen and challenge me walk with the Lord

41. mint ice cream

42. orange nail polish

Easter and the Celebration of Lent

Because I know y'all just love reading superbly long posts (i.e. homework assignments), I thought I'd post my latest paper. enjoy.

comments are always welcome =)!!!

*~*~*~*~*~*

Hand-dyed eggs, fluffy bunny-rabbits, yellow Peeps, an over-population of tulips, and foil-covered chocolates have taken over Eastertide. It used to be a liturgically-rich church celebration, but it has slowly been turned into a commercialized holiday, watered down with modern sentimentalism and artificial flavors. Americans have secularized holidays, heavily emphasizing the celebration of Christmas, but what about Easter? Shouldn’t this holiday—the mark of Christ’s conquering death and our new freedom—be just as important as the lowly Infant birth, if not more so? Where would we be if Christ never rose from the dead? Without Christmas there would not be the first half of the gospels, but without Jesus’ death and resurrection most of the New Testament would be gone. In response to this attitude, Christians should enthusiastically and intentionally observe Easter, a sacramental celebration of Christ’s bodily resurrection.

As Christians, characters in God’s own narrative, we should be recounting His faithfulness towards us and living in continual forward-looking remembrance of Christ. Telling stories about God’s abundant mercy is a way of spreading the passion we have for Christ with the others around us and fulfilling the calling of the Great Commission in light of the future. It is easy to slip into either dead orthodoxy (simply going through the motions and having no clue what is going on) or dead spontaneity (dismissing traditions and dwelling on the death of Christ for a day). That is not what it is all about. Yes, Christ died on the cross as the only sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world, but it did not stop there! Who would want to be a Christian if Christ was still in the grave?[1] The resurrection changed everything. Every week we celebrate a mini-Easter, coming together as the body of Christ and fellowshipping via Christ’s body and blood (the bread and wine of life). Once a year, a few weeks of more concentrated repentance and covenant renewal are set aside as Christians joyfully await the Day of Culmination.

Learning to celebrate Easter as a faith-nourishing feast begins six weeks beforehand. Similar to how the season of advent helps to instill the truth of Christmas in our hearts, Lent is a penitential season of remembrance, focusing on repentance, cultivating attitudes rooted in gratefulness for the Savior’s passion and atonement, and preparing us to more fully treasure the great Sacrifice that was slain on Calvary. Sadly, Easter has lost a lot of its meaning and symbolism to society’s drive towards modernism. Lent is not about jumping over spiritual hurdles of works-righteousness but rather drinking up the glory of the freedom we are given over remaining sin. “Living between the resurrection of Jesus and the final coming together of all things in heaven and earth means celebrating God’s healing of his world not his abandoning of it.”[2] The Son has risen and His world is getting perpetually lighter. Soon we will partake of the final and everlasting meal with the Lamb, drinking His wine and eating His bread.

Lent is often thought of as a Catholic, not Protestant, celebration. On the contrary, it is merely a period of days for reflecting on the pain that culminated in the first Easter, and a time to become more disciplined and diligent in our own personal lives. There are many different ways of observing this festival, but most important is the condition of the heart. Observing 40 self-denying days profits nothing, unless it helps us focus on bringing glory to God in all we do.[3] Fasting from food, media, or entertainment, being absorbed in prayer, searching for meaning in personal activities, carefully guarding the words we say, and studying, most often typifies lent—with the right motivations, these can all be wonderful. As Alexander Schmemann says:

It is by abstaining from food that we rediscover its sweetness and learn again how to receive it from God with joy and gratitude. It is by ‘slowing down’ on music and entertainment, on conversation and superficial socializing, that we rediscover the ultimate value of human relationships, human work, human art. And we rediscover all this because very simply we rediscover God Himself—because we return to Him and in Him to all that which He gave us in His infinite love and mercy.[4]

Although frequently when people celebrate Lent, it is turned into a legalistic forbearance and works of righteous-abstention. All too often self-denial is simply a façade to appear more holy and in tune with God.[5] The purpose of Lent is not to give up things, chances are either you shouldn’t be doing it anyways, or it really doesn’t matter. Both are a misuse of this time of penitence. If, however, something is relinquished in order to spend more time in prayer or exercising some other discipline, that would be a worthwhile pursuit.[6]

Feasting on Sunday and eating a more simple spread of foods the rest of the week sets the tone for a sacramental year. It is a way to remember the specialness of the beginning of the week, building up anticipation for a joyous celebration of the Sabbath. Punctuating daily life with such rich symbolism and intentionality strengthens faith and encourages Christians to persevere through life’s trials in the comforting hope of the future and the amazing things God has in store. The Christian life is all about repentance and thus this season of the year is appropriately thought of as time for confession, repentance, and personal recommitment. Prayer, spending time in the Word, and knowing that our bodies are the temple of His presence are keys to living in an Easter-centered world.[7] The liturgical year begins with life (recreation through Christ), so the period of Lent is a time of death changing into life, just as spring is the visible and tangible realization of this miraculous transformation.

Made in the image of God, humans are physical beings. Because of this, it is so amazing that God gave us tangible reminders that we are his chosen people—the elect called to Himself for His enjoyment—Sabbath dinners should not just be an abundance of food, though they can and probably should be bounteous, they should also carry with them the rich symbolism that we so often lose sight of. Each Sunday is preceded by six days of fasting (living the normal everyday is just that, a time to live in increasing hope of the rest and pleasure of the coming Sabbath). How awesome that God cares so much for His people that he gives us real manifestations that increase our faith! When we become hungry through fasting we see what it is like to be dependent on Christ for all our food.

Food is a means of life and symbolic of our dependence on God for all sustenance. Before we eat, it must first go through death before it can bring life to our bodies. This understated picture of the resurrection appears in daily life, “our present experience, with all its incompleteness, is meant to point us to the fact that we will one day wake up and arise from sleep.”[8] In the beginning, the perfect life that Adam and Eve were given fell in a meal—they ate and the course of history was changed. When Jesus was here on earth He commemorated His time with the Apostles with a meal. We are now continually improving upon our baptisms through the promise effectuated by the Holy Spirit in the sacramental meal Communion. And eventually, when the Kingdom of God has come to earth, we will all be reunited with a meal of consummation—the ultimate Easter dinner. We are living a post-Easter world; Christ came to earth, died, and rose from the grave, ascending to sit at the right hand of the Father. [9] With this “already but not yet” view of the gospel, we as Christians are freed to appreciate what He accomplished on Calvary and advance our faith and life of faith accordingly. Let us celebrate the resurrection; prepare a superb meal, raise a glass of wine-red cordial in merriment, rejoice that God’s kingdom is coming to rebuild the earth as the garden-city of the Lord that it was first meant to be.[10]

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[1]Doug Wilson, Penitential Seasons; Leviticus 23:23-37. 2008, http://www.canonwired.com/sermons/sermon-penitential-seasons-leviticus-2323-27 (accessed April 13, 2011).

[2]N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope (New York: HarperCollins Publishing, 2008) 264.

[3]Rom. 14:6; 1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17 [NKJV].

[4]Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent. (New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974), 105.

[5]Toby Sumpter, The Gospel of Lent. http://havingtwolegs.blogspot.com/2011/03/gospel-of-lent.html (accessed April 13).

[6]Tom Brainerd, email message to author, April 14, 2011.

[7]Schmemann, Great Lent, 97.

[8]Wright, Surprised By Hope, 287.

[9]Wright, Surprised By Hope, 286.

[10]Toby Sumpter, God Back; Celebrating Eastertide. http://havingtwolegs.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-back-celebrating-eastertide.html (accessed March 13, 2011).

The Discipline of Time

My break has been full of family, friends, games, movies, sleeping, cooking, talking, and a little bit of study. I am now reading through a book that a dear friend gave me for my birthday this past summer. Discipline; The Glad Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot, has really been a fantastic read. The first half is good and pretty much what I have learned from Mama and other mentors over the years--great review! The second half of the book is divided into seven chapters discussing aspects of practical discipline. Today's chapter was dealing with time and how to use it well. One of my favorite quotes from the chapter is actually a poem by Amy Carmichael:

Lover of All, I hold me fast by Thee,

Ruler of time, King of Eternity

There is no great with Thee, there is no small,

For Thou art all, and fillest all in all.

The newborn world swings forth at Thy command,

The falling dewdrop falls into They hand.

God of the firmament's mysterious powers

I see Thee thread the minutes of my hours.

There's a time for everything. Usually when I "don't have time" it is more an attitude of not making time or simply not wanting to do it. Everyone has 24 hours in day. It's not so much what you schedule out to do, but what you get done all depends on how you choose to spend it. Take some time and sit in the stillness and quiet around you. Pay attention to the things around you and delight in the silence. It's not all about moving, changing, noise, color, new and different. Just be. Appreciate the moments as the tick by and think of the difference each minute can make and all that can be accomplish by stack them up together.

"Sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. January, May, September. Winter, spring, summer, autumn. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. These are the punctuation marks of time, and what a marvelous mercy that God divided light from darkness."

There is always time enough to do the will of God. Honestly, in all the hectic-ness of life, all the activities and plans on my plate, in the seemingly crazy-busy schedule of the days God grants me the grace to get done all that He has for me to do that day.

Often God's timing isn't mine. And more often than not, it is hard for me to accept that and see how all the little inconveniences that annoy me so, are being woven into the mysterious tapestry of life. Several times in the Bible there are examples of people trusting on God's timing and being blessed for their patience. Even when everything seems to be going wrong and nothing is working out, it is so reassuring to know that God is still in control and it isn't going wrong in His book, rather following the plans He has already laid out for us--we just can't see it and sometimes feel like the blindness is acutely oppressive. As Jesus has said, when we follow Him, He will make our paths easy and our burdens light. It is for us to lay all our cares and sorrows, joys and afflictions, on Him and willing submit ourselves unto Him. What an awesome and amazing God I serve.

I've alway heard that it's best to make time for a quiet time early in the morning. In my persistent stubbornness I have resisted that idea and wanted/tried to read my Bible and pray at night, in the afternoon--basically any time but right after I wake up. Well, I've been thinking about that this break and really wondering if there is something to the idea of giving the first minutes (hour) to the Lord, just being in His presence. So, at the end of this book Eliot talked a bit about just making yourself spend some quiet time before you greet the world. Whether that be before you get out of bed or not until after you have gotten a cup of coffee and a cozy blanket, that there really is no better way to start your day. It really is the most important part of your day--learn to love it and find the joy in rising *early* to spend time alone with the Lord.

from the abundance of my heart

28. "cousins"

29. purple nail polish

30. brothers

31. a new-to-me car

32. talking to far away friends over the internet

33. Bolthouse

from the abundance of my heart

15. a VHS player

16. orange juice

17. gel pens

18. pizza-making-times

19. antisipation

20. conversations with family

21. time to bake

22. Bible study led by friends

23. another beautiful fall day

24. $1 americano friday

25. the opportunity to become more copious

26. frozen gold

27. new and old friendship

from the abundance of my heart

14. a short roommate

13. the growing stack of "finished" books on my shelf

12. getting to chat with Mama

11. trials and tears

10. hugs during said hardships

9. buttermilk

from the abundance of my heart

6. fuchsia skies at sunset

7. fresh berries and cream

8. fall break