Love and Other Problems

Mother Teresa said,"Love is the fruit in season and within the grasp of every hand."

On Valentine's day it is customary for woman to expect something from the men they love. I've been there.
Some years I could have bought a new wardrobe for what my poor hubby had to pay from the flower scalpers. Ok, that's a slight exaggeration...

Most men don't get bent out of shape if they don't receive flowers or candy, or do they?

And then there are the pining singles, with no one to attach that sense of expectation. Lucky ducks.

How we do set ourselves up, and so soon after the frenzy of Christmas! You'd think we'd learn.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic here, but really? There's a day of the year you HAVE to show your love or it's over? What about the other 364 days of the year? Are they off the hook? Besides, Anniversaries and Birthdays, of course.

I'm proposing a new look at Valentine's Day, and new look at love.
Expect love from yourself, not from others. Hold yourself to the acid test. Am I loving? What else do I have control over, anyway?

Just sayin's all. I'm the first to love chocolate and flowers. Frankly, I'll take them on any day of the year. 

Scary Things

You just never know, do you, what a day may bring forth?

Today a good friend told me how her life was falling to pieces with one swoop of the ax.

Her soul is intact, mind you, but her outer life is a nightmare that makes Afghanistan look like a next door neighbor.

Which reminds me that He, the living Lord is here, as well as there. Good thing. My brother just signed up for the Army, and he may be sent to Afghanistan.

Scary things are everywhere.

The domestic situation in Jesus' day was no picnic either. He, the Prince of Peace, was born under life-threatening situations to poor people far away from the comfort of home. I guess He knows.

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;)" 2 Corinthians 10:3,4

If we could see as God sees, we would see his protective love and light where there is darkness. Give us eyes!

Find a Way To Win

ESPN's interview with Jarrett Bush, cornerback for the Packer's after the arguably 'surprising' win on Sunday left me with a phrase he repeated several times. We had to "find a way to win." And win they did.

That kind of drive and dedication, though concentrated into a four hour ordeal in front of the entire world is a result of many more hours of training when no one was watching, no one was cheering, and no one knew if they would win or not.

If winning matters to you, and there is all kinds of winning, then both the steady attention to everyday detail, and the last rush of oomph when the pressure's on are what makes the difference. Sometimes I find that I don't win, because I don't care enough to do what it takes. But, after watching the game for the first time in my life, I must admit, I want to win.

The details may be different for you, but join me? Let's find a way to win!

Feeling Good

Humans like to feel good. This basic drive causes us to make money, spend money, develop friendships, marry, have children, listen to music, create art, and a myriad of other activities that bring satisfaction.

In this fallen world, the craving to feel good also leads us down some very destructive alleys which initially feel good and ultimately feel horribly bad. This in turn creates a vicious cycle in which we choose increasingly more dangerous alleys in search of, you guessed it, feeling better about how the last thing we reached for didn't make us feel better.

I'm not trying to be simplistic, I've just been made startlingly aware of how many times during the day my mood spikes and plummets, and what I choose to do about it. Food, my spouse's approval, shopping for something new are all my drugs of choice. Sometimes, not often enough, I just live in the moment and thank God that He knows what He's doing. Of course I ask for help too, but no matter how good I feel in one moment, the hunger to feel good again is always lurking around the corner.

Realizing our motivations, and telling ourselves the truth about them., and perhaps confiding in someone else is tremendously healing in and of itself. It even can make us feel better about why we did what we did to make ourselves feel good.

Being able to withstand emotional pain is a skill reserved for maturity, but none of us ever escape the need to have positive feelings. The next time you find yourself feeling bad and reaching for a cure, allow yourself the full weight of the emotion. Don't do anything, just experience it. I feel a little like a LaMaze instructor here, but feeling pain is not the end of the world, it just feels like it.

What kinds of things do you reach for to feel better? How has emotional pain helped you to mature? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Writing Uphill

Writing is easy. Well, at least that sentence was.

But I've never felt as uphill as I do now, writing the play that is to be performed for the first time this spring by my drama class. I've been studying form, structure, plot, inciting incidents, curtain lines, and length guidelines. Writing, editing, and rewriting.

So to clear my head, I went out for a mild jog with my daughter. It was the equivalent of what the bunny hill is to the skier. But exhilarating nonetheless, heart pounding, and skin tingling. Perhaps I'm a little out of shape??? And right in the middle of our walk, unexpectedly, it came. The climax of the event. My dog pulled herself off the leash and ran up to a very tall fence where a very vicious looking lab was heads up almost over the fence.

Then, my heart pounded faster. My perspiration rate accelerated. We reprimanded, we grabbed her leash again and walked on. And finally, without further incident, we resumed our walk.

And that's the experience I want our audience to have.

So, it's back to the keys...I'm gonna make you sweat!!!

Reading Cahill is Like Watching a Movie!

 How The Irish Saved Civilization

In cinematic-like prose Thomas Cahill presents images of history breathtaking, absorbing, and sometimes disturbing. While culling from a wide variety of sources, and presenting it in a way that tempts the literary palette for more, this work spans the history of more than a millennium to tell the story of the link from ancient Greece to the twentieth century. 

I suppose being Irish aids my fascination with the subject matter, and being a contemplative type Christian doesn’t hurt either. Still, Cahill’s description of life in the early centuries provides illumination into what have been termed the Dark Ages for more reasons than one. The reader feels as if he had sat by an ancient fireside, complete with smells and sounds. 

It remains to be seen what we will do with this illumination. I’d love to read Cahill’s thoughts on modern culture. 

Seldom have I read a contemporary work of this magnitude and complexity, with such ability to engage. Happily, it is one of five in a series titled Hinges of History. I’ll be going back for more!

Finding Our Way Illuminates

A Review of:

Finding Our Way Again

by Brian McLaren

Like the aging actor, fumbling lines he has long ago committed to memory, America’s sense of faith seems to have forgotten the lines. We’re in danger of being lost in a watered down soup that could only be described as postchristendom.

Brian McLaren sounds a warning that is at once heartening comfort food for the wandering spiritual traveler, and a gentle wakeup call for sleeping souls.

Finding our way is about integrating ancient liturgical practices of the Catholic and Anglican tradition with the individualized spontaneity of Protestantism. The broken marriage between Catholics and the Reformers has divided the church for centuries and produced a spiritual disorientation that McLaren believes can be made whole by a return to practices that have only been preserved in certain denominations. Far from a book about reviving dead ritual, the book sparkles with meaningful suggestions about transforming each day into a new worshipful experience with God. 

One fly in the ointment for the average Christian is McLaren’s inclusion of Islam as one of the three Abrahamic religions. While he doesn’t develop this idea, it stands out as an odd grouping to a westerner. 

Questions at the end of each chapter provide opportunity to interact with the book. 

I received  a copy of the book from Thomas Nelson Publishers through the booksneeze program in return for my honest opinion.