partsofspeaking

If you haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire yet, you should. Wonderful film. Swept me away. I rarely say that. My theory is that movies are supposed to transport you into another world. Most do not. This one did. Also I would recommend the book The Contested Public Square by Greg Forster. He is amazingly Reformed in his approach; the book discusses the various leading views on political theory throughout the church's history. I learned a lot, or I should say, my understanding of many concepts deepened. I would like to teach the book in my Baptist church, but Baptists like to have their ears tickled more than study something in depth (oh, that was cruel). I can write this because no one reads this blog anyway. I have gotten into Facebook. I see its appeal, but it's tempting to write really innocuous and frivolous things on it. I was surprised to find out a former student had voted for Obama. I was tempted to scold him for claiming to be prolife and voting for someone who waste...

I now know what I'm giving up for Lent. Anger. More specifically, in the spiritual journey to the resurrection that is traditionally called Lent, I want God to mine the depths of the anger within me and reveal its source to me so that I might pursue a path of repentance and renewal and then experience the resurrection in a metaphorical way, as Christ did in a factual and literal way. What am I angry about? It's not so much the object but the disposition. I am angry about the economy; the stupidity of this situation we're in both politically and morally and economically; the lies of the news media; the belief that we must be what our emotions tell us to be and must do what our inclinations tell us to do; the holocaust of abortion and all oppression of the stronger and powerful by the weaker, whether in Darfur , China, or the more polished society of the U.S.; the greed that got us here; the apathy of the church, (not even sure it qualifies as apathy--one must be aware bef...

For some reason I am more conscious of Lent this year, maybe because I'm conscious of Mardi Gras , maybe because Lent is a reasonable but unrecognized part of the year (by Baptists). Giving up something for Lent is, of course, a misunderstood cliche, and not what this is about. If Christians, especially evangelicals, understood the origin of ceremonies or rituals such as Lent, we would appreciate them more and seek to weave them and the cycles of the natural world into our spiritual focus. Which, of course, has nothing to do with Mardi Gras , the New Orleans version of Carnivale , which of course comes from " carne " or "flesh", that is, a celebration of the flesh before repentance. Party before you straighten out; get really drunk before you sober up. Eat a gallon of ice cream before a diet, something like that. Yesterday a coworker had brought in a king cake. I "got the baby"--the little plastic doll that's baked into the cake. It is symb...

I'm at least disappointed and at best terrified by the stimulus bill. It's just payola to Democratic cronies. If the media would shut up and Americans would study history, they would know this isn't as bad as the Great Depression but might be if the government doesn't leave it alone. Why is federal government giving states money for schools? Why are the states accepting it? Don't they know what this will mean? And what is this about the census being taken over by the White House? Since when was that their job? The temptation is for Christians to hunker down and try to wait this out. Well, our first act should be prayer for God's intervention in this human craziness. Then get our own house in order--are we as led by greed as the whole country? We are in this mess because of sin--greed, lies, fast buckitis, failure to pay our bills and taxes, etc.

First reactions. 1. Very similar to I Thess 1 – not written a long time later 2. How many personal pronouns are there? 27 we, us, our, you. What does this say to you? I am reminded of Matthew 10:29-31, Matthew 6. a. I’m going to be honest here—I struggle with believing God cares about little details of my life. Because I take great pride, too much, in being a person who takes care of things, I figure I can handle it. That is the wrong attitude, one because it’s pride, two because it’s denying the Scripture, and three because it’s not letting me enjoy God’s attention to detail in my life. I figure God takes care of the big stuff, I’ll take care of the little stuff, but the little stuff keeps getting bigger and bigger until I’m running the show. Example—I don’t pray for help in daily tasks that may seem insignificant but are really very major. And because I don’t pray about the little things, I don’t pray about the big things either. I had a roommate in college who was having a bad hair...

We have been studying, and I have been teaching, I Thessalonians for the last two months. It has been a special study for me, for one reason that I Thessalonians is a quiet book, one with treasures to be unearthed but often overlooked. In that way, I Thessalonians is like most people--quiet with overlooked wonders. This is one reason I want to write fiction, to uncover the lives of unnoticed people, of unnoticed good people (much fiction today tries to elaborate the lives of bad people or people who have hidden darkness or evil secrets.) P.D. James said once that it is much harder to write about good people, but I don't know truly evil people, nor do I care to, so I'll pick up the challenge of writing about the good. I have put my writing aside for a while because in the middle of the school year there are too many demands, but my mind is starting to turn over plots for my next novel or novel series, which is set here in northwest Georgia/Chattanooga and resembles my husba...