Month: March 2013

Categories Recap

Recap (3/30/2013)

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Quotes from this week’s readings:

Tim Challies on Sin and Virtue:

“While it is common for someone to ask how to put off a particular sin, it is rare for someone to ask for guidance in putting on a particular godly trait. We are ashamed of our sin and bothered by it. This is good. But we are less ashamed of our lack of Christian character and less bothered by it. This is not good….

But our ultimate desire is not to be not-sinful but to be truly godly. We are not to aim at being not-sinful but to aim at being marked by Christian character. We experience the greatest success in battling sin when our desire is not only to stop sinning but to have our lives marked by the opposite character trait.“

D.A. Carson on Pluralism and Tolerance:

“Genuine pluralism within the broader culture is facilitated when there is a strong Christian voice loyal to the Scriptures – as well as strong Muslim voices, skeptical voices, Buddhist voices, atheistic voices, and so forth. Genuine pluralism within the broader culture is not fostered when in the name of tolerance none of the voices can say that any of the others is wrong.” (HT: Vitamin Z)

Books added to my TBR list:

Emily of Deep Valley by Maude Hart Lovelace (reviewed by Carrie, Reading to Know):

“I could probably continue on rhapsodizing about Emily. I really, really admired her. It’s an easy story to fall in with and enjoy and I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it! I highly recommend this one!”

I’ve wanted to read a Maud Hart Lovelace book for ages, but was too busy getting married to read a title along with this month’s Reading to Know Bookclub. But I will get to her eventually, I will.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (reviewed by Heather, Do Not Let This Universe Forget You):

“Flowers for Algernon is the story of Charlie Gordon, a mentally handicapped young man, selected for his desire to learn, to be a part of a scientific endeavor….As Charlie’s intelligence grows, he begins to struggle with things he never understood until now…. He begins to notice cruelty and deception and posturing and hypocrisy.”

This sounds like a challenging and fascinating read. Heather gave a few “reader bewares” that are worth noting–but all in all this sounds worth a try.

Categories Theology

Remnants of the Temple

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“It’s like the Wailing Wall,” he told us, “Historically meaningful but not much to see.”

That, coupled with the hefty $18 per person price tag for a boat ride out to Fort Sumter, had me thinking it was an attraction to be skipped. Daniel thought otherwise, so we decided to go anyway.

Our friend from home turned out to be right in at least one respect. There wasn’t much to see at Fort Sumter.

I told Daniel once we got back that this didn’t mean I was willing to skip the Wailing Wall if/when we find our way to Jerusalem.

The Wailing Wall is different, I explained. Sure Fort Sumter is an important part of our nation’s history, but the Wailing Wall is all that remains of the place GOD chose for His Name to dwell.

Today, as I read the plans for the Tabernacle in Exodus and consider the Passion, I recall Christ’s words to the unbelieving mobs of Jerusalem:

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
~John 2:19 (ESV)

The unhearing hearers protested the impossibility of rebuilding Herod’s temple in three days.

And they were right. Herod’s temple, which took 46 years to build, now lies in waste for 1,943 years. The Wailing Wall is all that remains of that majestic temple.

But that temple, majestic and meaningful though it may have been, was nothing compared to the temple Jesus spoke of.

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
~ Colossians 2:9 (ESV)

The ultimate temple is Christ Himself. God in bodily form. God become man.

This temple was destroyed a little less than 2000 years ago. This temple was rebuilt by His own strength only three days later.

As much as I long to gaze upon the remnants of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem at the Wailing Wall, I long much more to gaze upon the Resurrected Temple, my LORD in the New Jerusalem.

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
~I Corinthians 13:12 (ESV)

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
~I John 3:2 (ESV)

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Wedding

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Thankful Thursday bannerFor those of you who don’t know (since I have been rather absent from my blog of late), Daniel Garcia and I were married March 9.

We took a quick getaway to Nebraska City before coming back to Wichita for Daniel’s class and three days of work–then we were off to Charleston for a long and lovely honeymoon.

This week I’m thankful…

…for peace amidst the last-minute details
When we went around the room for prayer requests at Bible Study the Wednesday before the wedding, my sister asked for prayer that she wouldn’t be maid-of-honor-zilla. I was wondering when bridezilla would kick in. She never did. I was relaxed for all but fifteen minutes of those last few days. Multiple people commented that I was the most “chill” bride they’d ever seen. This is God’s grace.

…for my parents’ and sisters’ help
Daniel commented before the wedding that he hadn’t realized how much a bride’s family does. The truth is, few families do as much as mine did prior to a wedding. My dad cleaned the entire church and set up chairs. My mom made Grace’s bridesmaid dresses, arranged the cake and deli trays, altered my dress, made last minute adjustments to the flower girl’s dress, and made the salads and punch for the reception. Anna made her own bridesmaid dress, made the flower arrangements for the reception, and did my nails. Grace helped with making salads for the reception, ran about to pick up last minute items, and made the bows for all the body flowers. I have a wonderful family.

…for a Skype conversation with my brother in Okinawa
I was still in bed the morning of my wedding, reading something on my cell phone, when I got a Facebook message from my brother John. We messaged back and forth a couple of times before he wrote “You wouldn’t happen to be around a computer and willing to waste a few minutes Skyping, would you?” Of course, I would be willing to Skype. It was great to spend some time with my brother on my wedding day, even if he was halfway around the world

…for a terribly happy surprise
I was busy applying my makeup in the fellowship hall of the church I grew up in when I heard gasps from the other side of the curtain, where brunch was set up for family and attendants. I heard what sounded like my brother’s voice and ran to investigate. What I found necessitated the reapplication of my makeup. My brother Daniel, his eight-month-pregnant wife Debbie, and Little Miss Menter were there from Wisconsin for my wedding. Daniel had been sure they couldn’t make it, since he had a work project he needed to get done that Friday–and they’d been unsure anyway with Debbie so far along. But Daniel got done with his project Thursday night, so they made a snap decision to come down to join me for my wedding.

…for precious moments with our parents
We wanted to have some time together before the wedding, so we designated the church nursery as our space for a half an hour before the ceremony started. Daniel and I sat and talked for a while, and then had our parents join us ten or fifteen minutes before the ceremony. We joined hands, the six of us in the center of the nursery, praying for our marriage. It was a sweet time to hear our parents’ hearts on our behalf.

…for God’s faithfulness through our lives
The best part of the day was that at the end of it all, we were married. God has been so gracious to Daniel and I, individually as we walked out our single lives, and together through our dating and engagement. Thus far in our married life, He has proven Himself gracious and faithful.

Which is why, as I raise my thanks today, I raise them with the two hymns we had the congregation sing at our wedding:

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me save that Thou art
…
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

and

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee,
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not,
As Thou hast been,Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Categories Everyday Life

Profile of a Terrorist

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Since we all know that the greatest risk to the safety of Americans is fundamentalist Christians, it makes sense that the TSA engage in terrorist profiling.

I suggest profiling for the following characteristics:

  • White Race
    Everyone knows that most fundamentalist Christians are white. And everyone knows that most white supremacists are white. Which means that white people who exhibit characteristics of Christian fundamentalism are a threat. Obviously.
  • Female
    While most known perpetrators of terrorism are male, any woman who is willing to submit to so misogynist a culture as Christian fundamentalism may be just as easily brainwashed into committing an act of terror.
  • Long hair
    Clearly, just being a white woman is insufficient to make one a terrorism suspect. A vast majority of white women are innocuous. When white women become a risk is when they also exhibit signs of religious fundamentalism like Long Hair or…
  • Long skirts
    See above. Actually, though, just to make sure that we don’t miss any terrorists, we should probably suspect any woman crazy enough to fly in a skirt–no matter what the length.

The above profile most likely explains why I have been “randomly” selected for additional screening the last six times I have flown.

During the last two flights (on my honeymoon), I exhibited fewer signs (I wore jeans on the way TO South Carolina and a knee length skirt on my way BACK from South Carolina) so I only had minimal additional screening–a closer look at my shoes and my tablet. Prior to that, I enjoyed four full-body pat downs.

When I shared this, my pet conspiracy theory, with the Happy Food crowd (friends who get together for dinner every Tuesday night) last night, they offered an alternate explanation: My file has been flagged.

This, it is true, is a more likely explanation for how I’ve been “randomly” selected so often.

But, the question remains: Why on EARTH would they flag ME?

Some potential explanations: I wore long skirts (potentially capable of hiding something underneath) while flying on four different occasions. On the fourth flight, after waiting ten minutes for a female TSA agent to search me, I questioned why a male TSA agent couldn’t do the job (since there were several male agents standing around doing nothing.) Or…maybe…I don’t know.

Oh, wait. I have an idea.

Maybe it’s because I attended a Tea Party Rally.

Yep, that’s probably it.

And…I’m back to conspiracy theories.

Sigh.

:-)

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (March 2013)

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Changing jobs has a way of interrupting routines. So does moving. So does planning a wedding. For that matter, so does honeymooning.

Which is probably why my reading routines have been drastically off-kilter for the last several months.

But now that I’m settled into my new job, moved into my new home, and done with the wedding and honeymoon, I’m ready to settle into some new routines–ones that I certainly hope include reading some more.

With all the busyness of the past couple of months, I read:

  • Communication: Key to Your Marriage by H. Norman Wright (My review here)
    A truly excellent book that Daniel and I read for premarital counseling. We’ll be re-reading this one and working through it at a later date, since our premarital time frame left us with less time than we desired to discuss all the rich ideas found within.
  • Sheet Music by Kevin Leman
    This book was highly recommended by a number of our newly married friends as being a great resource. I read the “premarital” portion before we got married and then read the same portion out loud to Daniel on our way up to Lincoln for our wedding. I read (or scanned) the rest during our little getaway immediately after the wedding. We’ll likely revisit this one again later on in our marriage–but the chapter on honeymoon sex for virgins was great. Even if that’s the only chapter that ends up being useful, it was worth the price of the book. I definitely recommend it for virgins preparing for their wedding.
  • Intended for Pleasure by Ed Wheat
    This is another book on sex, this time recommended by the pastor who married us. Intended for Pleasure is pretty technical and often includes more information than is needed in order to have sex (for instance, it explains menstruation and the woman’s cycle in detail), but overall, it’s a pretty solid book (written by an MD) about sex. I didn’t read the whole book on this one since it includes chapters on sex in mid- and late-life, erectile dysfunction, etc.
  • Scripture
    I was trying to do the Horner plan, which involves reading ten chapters of Scripture a day from ten different places in Scripture, but this turned out to be too much. Because my bookmarks were in my big study Bible, it was hard for me to keep up with the reading as I ran errands, moved, worked on wedding stuff, etc. I didn’t have any big chunks of time to read, and it was hard to just read a few verses or a chapter at a time when I had to lug around my big Bible. So I switched over to the Discipleship Journal Book-at-a-Time plan using YouVersion on my phone. This has done wonders, both because it’s generally only 4-5 chapters per day and because my phone is small enough that I can whip it out and read a bit when I’m between clients or waiting at a checkout or in the bathroom or any of those other little moments of unavoidable delay.

In addition to the above completed books, I have started the following:

  • The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
    A re-read intended to be done in conjunction with the Reading to Know Bookclub. It was February’s selection. I am maybe halfway through. Oh well.
  • Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes
    I bought this book at a conference last fall–and then promptly got engaged, which threw my reading way off-kilter. I’m excited to work my way through this (so far) solid book.
  • The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller
    I’ve liked almost everything I’ve read by Keller, so when his The Meaning of Marriage showed up free for Kindle, I downloaded it. I started the first couple of chapters on the flight home from our honeymoon. So far, so good.

We arrived home from our honeymoon to find our marriage license in the mailbox (Woohoo!), so now I can begin the process of changing my name and GETTING A WICHITA LIBRARY CARD!!!!!!!

I can’t wait to see what my new local library has in store :-)

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Oh yes. I almost forgot. Daniel and I are also working on getting some Nightstands that will fit into the relatively small space we have. My number one objective is sufficient space for books. We just may have found something that might work last night–so maybe by next month I’ll actually have a nightstand of books to show off!)

Categories My Beloved Daniel

Wedding Congratulations

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Few people are aware that there is a specific protocol for receiving line congratulations.

One congratulates the groom on his exceedingly good fortune in winning the bride’s favor.

One does not congratulate the bride, as that implies that she’s lucky she managed to land a man.

Instead, one should make some sort of positive comment about the bride herself.

“You’re a lovely bride” is almost always appropriate.

I am a stickler about this sort of thing, refusing to ever congratulate a bride. Such things are important to me.

Important though the protocols may be, I give today’s wedding guests leave to congratulate me all they wish.

After all, I am incredibly lucky (or would be if I believed in luck) to have landed Daniel.

As it is, I do not believe in luck. I believe in a sovereign God who foreordains our steps. It is He, not luck, who brought Daniel and I together.

I have not “landed” Daniel. I have received him as a completely undeserved gift from an aboundingly generous God. That I should have this man’s love is a daily testament to God’s grace.

So congratulate me all you wish. Call me fortunate, happy, blessed.

Because, truly, I am.

Categories My Beloved Daniel

Parting Gifts

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This is the next installment in a rather long series about how Daniel and I met–and have become engaged. Click on the “Our Story” tag for context.

We spent the next morning with Dave and Katie and their kids.

Well, mostly with their kids.

Daniel’s nephew took Daniel’s lap and his oldest niece (who had gotten over her shyness of me) took mine. E read to Daniel from his books–and P, not to be outdone, went to find some books of her own. P and I “read” her counting books a half a dozen times, counting up from one to twelve and back down again.

E moved on to a movie, his one allowed that week–but P still wanted to play. This time, she wanted both Uncle Daniel and his friend Rebekah to play with her. She handed us each a number of magnets and instructed us to place the magnets, one at a time on a magnetic board.

Daniel and I shared bemused glances as P directed the game of her own making.

“Now your turn.”

“Now your turn.”

“Now it’s my turn.”

“No, put that one on.”

“Now you put that one on.”

Eventually, P tired of her play and moved on to other things–taking pictures with her Mom’s cell phone. She got plenty of shots of the room at large, but eventually her attention turned to the two still sitting on the couch.

Daniel and I

At length, we left for lunch. Daniel would take me from there to the airport.

As I transferred my luggage from my car to Daniel’s and rearranged this item and that inside my bags, Daniel asked if I had room for this.

This was his brand new tablet-a Galaxy Nexus 7.

“Because I want to Skype with you while you’re away,” he explained. “You can give it back to me next week when I come up to Columbus.”

I tucked it into my purse, a little embarrassed at the gesture (and a little unsure of what flying with not one, not two, not three but FOUR electronic devices would be like–I had both my cell phone, my Kindle, and my work laptop with me, in addition to the tablet.)

We went to lunch, and then to the airport. Daniel carried my luggage and waved goodbye.

And then I was off to Philadelphia.