tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-183353392024-03-07T02:06:28.435-06:00LifeSpace WordsWelcome to the Sightings of Delight we call "Words." We are bibliophiles and love words. One of our favorite pastimes is to open old books and stick our noses in to smell the musty paper and ink. In this forum, you will be introduced to words from diverse voices. Each offering employs the beauty of language to turn your gaze upon the God of words. With so many voices out there, the forum will change often. Check back periodically so that you do not miss anything.Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1614678646181832182009-05-13T09:32:00.003-05:002009-05-13T10:00:22.517-05:00Moving NorthSeveral months ago, when quoting Steven Furtick's comments about Samuel, I knew we were on the way <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">somewhere</span>. Now it has become apparent that the path is going to require some winter clothing!<div><br /></div><div>This summer the Pyne family is moving to Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of the Packers, where I will be Director of the Peace and Justice Center at <a href="http://www.snc.edu/">St. Norbert College</a>. I am thrilled with the opportunity, which will have me teaching in the Peace and Justice minor, working with other faculty members to integrate themes of Catholic Social Teaching into their courses, and overseeing a team of enthusiastic student interns to cultivate awareness of international justice issues and champion human dignity on campus. St. Norbert College is a wonderful community of hospitable and passionate people. I am delighted to be joining them! <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Bob</div>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-45952536099370699292008-12-22T22:17:00.003-06:002008-12-22T22:52:59.577-06:00"Be on your way"A couple of months ago, I came across a good word from <a href="http://www.stevenfurtick.com/">Steven Furtick</a>, a pastor from North Carolina. Quoting from 1 Samuel 16:1, he wrote,<div><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."</blockquote><blockquote>It broke Samuel's heart to realize that Saul's reign as king was coming to an end, even though he knew it was for the best. When God brings a season, an initiative, or a relationship to an end in our lives, it can be devastating, even if it's for the best. </blockquote><blockquote>If God is currently bringing something to an end in your life, your church, or your business, consider what God said to Samuel: "Fill your horn with oil and<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"> be on your way</span>." Move on. Receive a fresh anointing and continue making progress. </blockquote><blockquote>You lost a staff member? Learn from it, be gracious, and be on your way. You lost your job? Adjust the family budget, draw near to God, overhaul your outlook and be on your way. . . . </blockquote><blockquote>The oil of God flows freely to those who make a conscious decision to stop mourning for what God has rejected, fill up, and get moving. Be on your way today.</blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>When I first read those words, I mentally filed them away for a day when I might need them. That day came sooner than expected when I left my job about a month later. It has indeed been a grief, but we are now seeking and receiving that fresh oil and moving on to something new. The long term plans remain pretty uncertain, but for the moment I know about as much as I can and need to know—about as much as Samuel knew—the next direction to head on a journey of faith. </div><div>Bob<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-75371849895087509072008-03-17T10:09:00.008-05:002008-03-17T17:30:07.298-05:00Dilemma<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8eUy9hT5todr4-mUDUYsCZOpwDfpZTbC0ZdL7E6BOipXiyh_W3uMJDc79ecVmJJ4Mw0W5v-BBmvpBZvpAWKB-fofVXTv7-N_3DTZnvPep7Kew6SotZv-Zm6hUnsAS9J6ERZhgw/s1600-h/shuttle+launch.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5178840576886629778" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 135px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 225px" height="173" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8eUy9hT5todr4-mUDUYsCZOpwDfpZTbC0ZdL7E6BOipXiyh_W3uMJDc79ecVmJJ4Mw0W5v-BBmvpBZvpAWKB-fofVXTv7-N_3DTZnvPep7Kew6SotZv-Zm6hUnsAS9J6ERZhgw/s400/shuttle+launch.jpg" width="111" border="0" /></a>So...God...help me find the perfect Bible verse. The senior daughter has a tribute page in the high school yearbook. I, the parental unit, must produce the page with a winsome picture of the girl and some pithy words of wisdom to launch the woman-child into adulthood. Tradition places a Bible verse at the bottom of the page. How to pick one? What if I choose poorly and launch her only as far as the city limits versus all the way to college in Tennessee?<br /><br />Some acquaintances walk around with Bible verses for every occasion on their sleeve. Like a poetry slam, they can whip out a nugget of truth that sounds written for the moment. I operate more in the grand narrative realm. Getting my scissors and cutting out the perfect verse makes me cringe. I have to read into a verse and out of a verse and hold it in its context. No pulling out that Jeremiah passage of “the plans I have for you” and applying it carte blanche to my most recent decisions. Lovely verse but I am not a Jew in exile under slavery to the Babylonians.<br /><br />So what verse? Is there one that says “fling love widely and wildly”? Or “err on the side of grace”? Or how about “just breathe”? How cruel to expect all my hopes for my child to fit at the bottom of the page! Is there a verse about a mother latching onto a child's leg to delay the launch? Does the verse mention the mother's sobbing?Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1465165542349273322008-01-07T21:36:00.000-06:002008-01-07T23:01:33.653-06:00SURF'S UP!<span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><strong></strong></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">We deliberately set out for the beach described as “one of the last unspoiled spots in the world where the horizon goes for eternity.” I readied myself to absorb the crashing surf and bask in the unsullied view. Imagine my surprise when I encountered these signs at the entrance to the beach. </span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152945282467227362" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 274px; height: 257px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtA-cwuUipjqfQZCrhK1ikHrDi0sy62GRk6fzgB2i2EJ1j7FfmbvxJD2Mr4oMcwmcwQYTImsbnaRB_l2ap1YzYEI9os5NeGJnZSwHSnpKNJtLo0EFQmDV4mnrh-hKwspHg4YI3Q/s200/Kauai+warning+signs.jpg" border="0" height="233" width="239" /><br />We tout the gospel of Christ as the travel guide hawks the beach. Pure and unspoiled. Freedom as it was meant to be. Horizon of possibility. Then we box it in just as these signs vainly attempt to tame the untameable. Watch out! Fraught with danger! Be safe! Stay on the sand! Keep your lifejacket on!<br /><br />Nothing about Christ as incarnated God speaks of safety. Lose your life. Die daily. Love those who hate you. Give everything away. Surf’s up, my friend. Grab your board and ride! <strong><span style="font-family:verdana;">Joni</span></strong>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-22190219005821738092007-12-12T22:02:00.000-06:002007-12-12T22:23:43.370-06:00Advent SpiritualityFollowing God in the way of Jesus has been called messy, incarnational, or embodied. In <span style="font-style: italic;">LifeSpace</span>, we speak of being fully human. However you describe it, the practice of life with God cannot be separated from our humanness. In <span style="font-style: italic;">God with Us</span>, Eugene Peterson recognizes the draw of a spirituality focused on nature:<br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>They get a satisfying sense of the inherently divine in life itself without all the complications of church: the theology, the mess of church history, the hypocrisies of church-goers, the incompetence of pastors, the appeals for money. Life, as life, seems perfectly capable of furnishing them with a spirituality that exults in beautiful beaches and fine sunsets, surfing and skiing and body massage, emotional states and aesthetic titillation . . .<br /></blockquote>Unfortunately, such an approach is "considerably deficient in person."<br /><blockquote>If we want to look at creation full, creation at its highest, we look at a person—a man, a woman, a child. There are those who prefer to gaze on the beauty of a bouquet of flowers rather than care for a squabbling baby, or to spend a day on the beach rather than rub shoulders with uncongenial neighbors in a cold church—creation without the inconvenience of persons. This may be understandable, but it is also decidedly not creation in the terms that have been revealed to us in Genesis and in the person of Jesus.</blockquote>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-37350405805020823362007-11-01T20:05:00.000-05:002007-11-01T20:34:05.800-05:00A Poetic Priest on Dorm DutyJim Crosby, a priest at St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin, finished reading <span style="font-style: italic;">LifeSpace </span>late one night on dorm duty. Reflecting in the quiet, he began to write:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Duty Night / Gestation Suite<br /></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;">I breathe less deeply.<br />My chest collapses,<br /> bends in upon itself.<br />I grow afraid.<br />Accusing of cowardice my challenger,<br /> I feel my own faith flag,<br /> take flight.<br /><br />Divine breath,<br /> fill my lungs.<br />Expansive one,<br /> explode me.<br />Be the power that kills this me,<br /> that I may live anew.<br /><br />Pounding heart, ravaged nails,<br /> eyes tired and itchy,<br />this is not where I want to live,<br /> or who I will to be.<br /><br />Raise me to relationship,<br /> and service, risen one.<br />Joy, I know, rests in hearing your voice,<br /> seeing your face,<br /> shouldering your easy yoke.<br /><br />Creator, recreate me.<br /><br />And yet . . .<br /> I sense the darkness of this night,<br /> the breaking of this heart,<br /> softening of my soul . . .<br /> all is meant,<br /> in accord with your good purpose.<br /><br />I offer you shards.<br /> Make a vessel for your use . . .<br /> your joy.<br /> <br /> * * *<br />Eyes close toward sleep.<br />Seven score and ten minutes remain of the day.<br />Dreams must wait.<br />Deference to duty subdues the body.<br />Desire denied, discipline is donned.<br />Teach of faith, of lasting.<br />Speak, your servant listens.<br /><br /> * * *<br />Quiet descends,<br /> with scholars at their books.<br />The night grows deep.<br />Fruit of human labor is dubious,<br /> ambiguous,<br /> seen and unseen,<br /> constructive program,<br /> ready destruction . . .<br /> and who, God knows, will win the day?<br />With scholars at their books,<br /> quiet descends.<br /><br /> * * *<br />Tears well behind my eyes,<br /> dammed,<br /> ready to flood.<br />This sadness in me nears its end . . .<br /> its end in joy when tears descend.<br /><br /> * * *<br />May minutes, hours,<br /> days, and years,<br /> time become oblation,<br />looking back show<br /> providence,<br /> loving revelation.<br /><br /> * * *<br />Granite grooved by use and time<br /> beautiful and smooth,<br />your every reason, sundry rhyme,<br /> each smallest, quaintest move,<br />is known, familiar, gazed upon,<br /> and fondly spoken of,<br />where all that's good is focused on,<br /> seen by the eyes of love.<br /><br /> —Jim Crosby (9/9/07)<br /></span></div></div><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Geneva;font-size:0;" ><br />Joni</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:12;"></span></span>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-56065781758372507032007-09-23T15:41:00.000-05:002007-09-23T16:07:43.186-05:00Attentive SpiritualityFrom Jurgen Moltmann's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/End-Beginning-Life-Hope/dp/0800636562/ref=sr_1_1/002-7183486-9724031?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190581084&sr=1-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">In the End—the Beginning: the life of hope</span></a> . . .<br /><br />What are we seeking when we pray?<br /><br />When we pray, what we are seeking is not our own wishes; we are seeking the reality of God, and are breaking out of the Hall of Mirrors of our own illusory wishes, in which we have been imprisoned. That means that we wake up out of the petrifications and numbness of our feelings. We burst apart the armour of the apathy which holds us in an iron grasp. If when we pray we seek the reality of God's world (as with the first petition of the Lord's Prayer), then prayer is the exact opposite of 'the opium of the people'. On the contrary, prayer is more like the beginning of a cure for the numbing addictions of the secular world. . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Pray wakefully—</span>that is only possible if we don't pray mystically with closed eyes, but messianically, with eyes wide open for God's future in the world. Christian faith is not a blind trust. It is the wakeful expectation of God which draws in all our senses. <div id="pqleft">The person who prays, lives more attentively.</div>The early Christians prayed standing, looking up, with arms outstretched and eyes wide-open, ready to walk or to leap forward. We can see this from the pictures in the catacombs in Rome. Their posture reflects tense expectation, not quiet heart-searching. It says: we are living in God's Advent. We are on the watch, in expectation of the One who is coming, and with tense attentiveness we are going to meet the coming God. . . .<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">'Watch and be sober' </span>(1 Thess. 5.6, 8). That is the next charge we hear. Sober people are not intoxicated, and don't suffer from hallucinations; they are under no illusions. When sobriety is added to the wakefulness that comes from praying, we shan't fool ourselves, and shan't let ourselves be fooled, either by political propaganda or by the consumerism thrust on us by the advertisers. We shall accept reality for what it is, and shall expose ourselves to it both in its workaday guise and in its surprises. Then we shall discover that reality is far more multi-coloured and fantastic than all our fantasies. But we shall perceive too that the pain which reality imposes on us is still, at all events, better than the self-immunizations with which we try to protect ourselves, but through which we in fact wall ourselves in.Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1130374209676445022005-10-26T19:45:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:30:26.913-05:00Words of DelightThere was a book out recently titled <em>Women Who Love Books Too Much</em>. Is that really possible? We mentioned one of our favorite pastimes is to open old books and stick our noses in to smell the musty paper and ink. Yes, it is strange. Try it. You will become addicted.<br /><br />God created humans as lingual beings that use words to communicate the essence of who we are. God Himself sent us a love letter through His Word to introduce the essence of who He is. From His declaration to Moses of "I AM," God's Word is an eloquent, timeless collection of language about God as He communes with His creation. Human words join their voices to the resounding symphony of language.<br /><br /><strong>From Thomas Moore's <em>Meditations</em><span style="font-style: italic;"> . . . </span></strong><br />Sometimes in their chanting monks will land upon a note and sing it in florid fashion, one syllable of text for fifty notes of chant. <em>Melisma</em>, they call it.<br />Living a melismatic life in imitation of plainchant, we may stop on an experience, a place, a person, or a memory and rhapsodize in imagination. Some like to meditate or contemplate melismatically, while others prefer to draw, build, paint, or dance whatever their eye has fallen upon.<br />Living one point after another is one form of experience, and it can be empahtically productive. But stopping for <em>melisma</em> gives the soul its reason for being.<br /><br /><strong>Here are words from the Scriptures that call for <em>melisma </em>as we gaze upon God . . .<br /></strong>For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods,<br />In whose hand are the depths of the earth;<br />The peaks of the mountains are His also.<br />The sea is His, for it was He who made it;<br />And His hands formed the dry land.<br />Come, let us worship and bow down;<br />Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.<br />For He is our God.<br />And we the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.<br />Psalm 95:3-7Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1136841298695158672006-01-09T14:50:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:29:34.421-05:00Chocolate as a Spiritual DisciplineIn LifeSpace, we speak of spiritual disciplines in a manner that is a bit different than you may expect. Discipline is laying yourself in the way of allurement, as Jonathan Edwards wrote. Positioning your minutes and hours to encounter the glorious, delightful God of the universe. Up close and personal.<br /><br />I spent four hours blogging today. Updating blogs, checking blogs...blog, blog, blog. The word BLOG is dancing in front of my eyes. To be honest, I really do not care if I ever see another written WORD at this point. The lines and curves of letters have saturated my being.<br /><br />To counteract this unfortunate occurrence, I am going to practice a spiritual discipline. It involves eating chocolate with my teenage daughters. The girls will barrel through the front door any moment. There will be floods of words for me. I can be quiet. I will practice listening well. Chocolate encourages them to keep the words flowing. My tall daughter will drape her loungey, lanky self all over me. My eldest daughter will vascillate between being sophisticated and eating Jello pudding with her index finger.<br /><br />God will grace me with delight in all that it is to be young. When the girls go to their rooms for homework sessions, I will go to the back patio and be quiet. Feel the cool night air on my face. Words will have to find me tomorrow.<br /><br />Joni<br /><br />p.s.--okay, maybe one more word . . .<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/1600/hershey.dark.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/200/hershey.dark.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /></div>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1137887133728866412006-01-21T16:41:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:29:07.951-05:00C. S. Lewis on Desire<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/1600/CSLewis.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 233px; cursor: pointer; height: 185px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/320/CSLewis.0.jpg" border="0" height="225" width="268" /></a><br />C. S. Lewis, writing in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Weight of Glory</span>,<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>described his understanding of self-denial and desire:<br /><br />"The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. . . . <div id="pqleft">Our desires are not too strong, but too weak</div>Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."<br /><br />Our problem is not that we love, but that we love lesser things. Created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, we have turned our gaze inward and settled for far less. In the language of Romans 1, we have exchanged the glory of God for something corruptible and fading.<br /><br />It would be easy to read such words and be discouraged, but that is not why they are offered here. Lewis provides an explanation for our longing. Why is it that on our best days--days when we are filled with laughter and joy in the presence of friends, stand in awe before the beauty of creation, or fall into bed exhausted after laboring wholeheartedly in work that we love--why is it that even on those days we still feel a yearning for something more?<br /><br />It is because we are made for more, said Lewis. And there will come a day when "the door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last."<br /><br />BobJoni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1138596897421794122006-01-29T21:23:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:28:52.296-05:00He had a face . . .<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Paul wrote, "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >What would it be like to see that face? Frederick Buechner writes,<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/1600/1557254559.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/200/1557254559.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >"Whoever he was or was not, whoever he thought he was, whoever he has become in our memories since and will go on becoming for as long as we remember him--exalted, sentimentalized, debunked, made and remade to the measure of each generation's desire, dread, indifference--he was a man once, whatever else he may have been. And he had a man's face, a human face.<br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Ecce homo,</span> Pilate said--<span style="font-style: italic;">Behold the man</span>--yet we tend to shrink back from trying and try instead to behold Shakespeare's face, or Helen of Troy's, because with them the chances are we could survive almost anything--Shakespeare's simper, say, or a cast in Helen's eye. But with Jesus the risk is too great; the risk that his face would be too much for us if not enough, either a face like any other face to see, pass by, forget, or a face so unlike any other that we would have no choice but to remember it always and follow or flee it to the end of our days and beyond. Like you and me he had a face his life gave shape to, and that shaped his life and the lives of others, and with part of ourselves I think we might turn away from the mystery of that face, that life, as much of the time we turn away from the mystery of life itself. With part of ourselves I think we might avoid meeting his eyes, if such a meeting were possible, the way at certain moments we avoid meeting our own eyes in mirrors because for better or worse they threaten to tell us more than we want to know. This is with part of ourselves. But there is another part, the dreaming part, the part that runs to meet in dreams truths that in the world itself we run from."<br /><br />As I read those words, I picture a crowd swirling around Jesus as they might a rock star. I cannot see his face, but </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >he is the only figure walking straight ahead. Fans and followers jostle around him.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:georgia;"><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" > As the crowd makes its way down the street, he pauses. A slight gap opens up between the bodies. Do I rush to him? Or do I flinch, and let the crowd pass?<br /><br />John's words are challenging: "And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming" (1 John 2:28). To be honest, I find Paul's words more hopeful. Writing to the Corinthians, who had all kinds of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >issues</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >, he observed that they were "awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 1:7). Whatever else they had wrong, the Corinthians evidently had this one thing right. It is Christ who would confirm them to the end, and through him they would be </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >blameless</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" > when they saw his face (v. 8).<br /><br />No icon has captured the human face of Jesus. But this we know. It is the face of grace. "Your face, O Lord, I will seek" (Ps. 27:8).<br /><br />Bob</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span><br /></span></span></span></span>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1139621843128060422006-02-10T18:40:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:28:34.270-05:00Uncool Slang<strong></strong>A recent CNN <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/02/10/cool.ap/index.html">story </a>listed slang words that have fallen from fashion. The list included: groovy, neato, hip, slick, keen, chill, NOT, outta sight, far out, dynamite, phat, off the hook, sweet, radical, fab, rad, wack, square, and nifty.<br /><br />A list of uncool theological words would surely include <span style="font-style: italic;">sin</span>. Perhaps <span style="font-style: italic;">sin</span> was a label applied to so many things that it no longer referred to anything. Maybe it was used too often without<span style="font-style: italic;"> grace</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>showing up in the next sentence. In her book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1561011894/sr=8-1/qid=1139623106/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8855082-3198325?%5Fencoding=UTF8"><span style="font-style: italic;">Speaking of Sin</span></a>, Barbara Brown Taylor tries to recover the lost language.<br /><blockquote>Deep down in human existence, there is an experience of being cut off from life. There is some memory of having been treated cruelly, and--a little deeper, perhaps--the memory of having treated someone else cruelly as well. Deep down in human existence there is an experience of seeing the light and turning away from it, either because it is too beautiful to behold or because it spoils the dank but familiar darkness. Deep down in human existence there is an experience of reaching for the forbidden fruit, of pushing away loving arms, of breaking something on purpose just to prove that you can. Deep down in human existence there is an experience of doing whatever is necessary to feed and comfort the self, because there is no one else to trust, no other purpose to serve, no other god to follow.<br /><br />For ages and ages, this experience has been called sin--deadly alienation from the source of all life. . . . It is a name for the experience of being cut off from air, light, sustenance, community, hope, meaning, <span style="font-style: italic;">life</span>.</blockquote>Still, Taylor suggests that "sin is our only hope." Unless we recognize that our soul's incurvature has turned us away from God, away from others, and away from life, we will never appreciate the enduring popularity of <span style="font-style: italic;">grace</span>.<br /><br />Bob<br /><blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1140505813658712542006-02-21T01:03:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:28:15.708-05:00Life Is Always A Novel<strong></strong>I share a quote Bob brought me as a gift from one word lover to another. He brought it from the<a href="http://www.wheaton.edu/learnres/wade/"> Wade Center</a> at Wheaton College, where you can sit at Tolkien's desk, peer inside C. S. Lewis's wardrobe, and enjoy lots of great words. The quote reminded me of our friend, Michael Malone. We recommend his novels often. Michael gets the essence of this quote. Enjoy words of G. K. Chesterton from his book <em>Heretics</em>.<br /><br />"Life may sometimes legitimately appear as a book of science. Life may sometimes appear, and with much greater legitimatecy, as a book of metaphysics. But life is always a novel. Our existence may cease to be a song; it may cease even to be a beautiful lament. Our existence may not be an intelligible justice, or even a recognizable wrong. But our existence is still a story. In the fiery alphabet of every sunset is written, 'to be continued in our next.'"<br /><br />The most exciting and fulfilling part of our work in LifeSpace is the honor of sharing the story of your lives. It is a blessing that washes over me daily as the sun rises and sets.<br />Joni GraceJoni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1141499210340227582006-03-04T13:03:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:27:50.402-05:00Life is a Novel, Part IIHere is a thought to keep in front of you the next time you read a book, watch a movie, or engage some other work of human creativity. In Michael Malone's <span style="font-style: italic;">Foolscap, or, The Stages of Love</span>, a group of actors waited in the wings: "Sweets, the former child star, and Catherine, the former soaps star; all the former stars, now forgotten, and all the company of players who were never to be stars, all of them banded together waiting to go act out life so that people seeing their show could learn--or remember--how life feels."<br /><br />If in living life you have forgotten how it feels or how to feel it, let the artists help you remember. Read a novel. Go to a play. Slow down enough to digest some poetry. Engage the words and the stories--not to escape from life, but to embrace it.<br /><br />Bob<br /><br />See our <a href="http://lifespacerecommend.blogspot.com/">recommendations</a> page for some suggestions.Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1143914704242796482006-04-01T11:55:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:27:37.069-05:00God's Beauty in the CityThis week we enjoyed participating in a conversation hosted by <a href="http://www.ttf.org/">The Trinity Forum</a>. Titled "Children of Prometheus: Technology and the Good Life," the curriculum took us into classic and contemporary literature about what it means to be human in a technological age. One of the readings was William Wordsworth's "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1802." In it, the poet describes the beauty of the reflected glory of God as the <a href="http://www.london-westminster.rotaract.de/upload/Photos/Charity/MoonWalk3.jpg">early morning light</a> strikes London:<br /><blockquote> Earth has not anything to show more fair:<br /> Dull would he be of soul who could pass by<br /> A sight so touching in its majesty;<br /> This City now doth, like a garment, wear<br /> The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,<br /> Ships, towers, domes, theaters, and temples lie<br /> Open unto the fields, and to the sky;<br /> All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.<br /> Never did sun more beautifully steep<br /> In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;<br /> Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!<br /> The river glideth at his own sweet will:<br /> Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;<br /> And all that mighty heart is lying still! </blockquote>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1144169582504008722006-04-04T11:47:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:27:20.383-05:00On SimplicityA note from our friend <strong><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;" >Matt</span></strong>...<br /><br />Interesting quote from the Dalai Lama:<br />"It is fascinating. In the West, you have bigger homes, yet smaller families; you have endless conveniences -- yet you never seem to have any time. You can travel anywhere in the world, yet you don't bother to cross the road to meet your neighbours," he said.<br /><br /><div id="pqleft">...which brings no <strong><span style=";font-family:courier new;font-size:130%;" >real freedom</span></strong></div>"I don't think people have become more selfish, but their lives have become easier and that has spoilt them. They have less resilience, they expect more, they constantly compare themselves to others and they have too much choice -- which brings no real freedom."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/31">http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/31</a>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1144936463818153032006-04-13T08:49:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:26:50.557-05:00Open.<span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><strong></strong></span>From the Christian historian Christopher Dawson...<br /><blockquote>The spirit of the Gospel is eminently that of the "open" type which gives, asking nothing in return, and spends itself for others. It is essentially hostile to the spirit of calculation, the spirit of worldly prudence and above all to the spirit of religious self-seeking and self-satisfaction . . . Even the sinner who possesses a seed of generosity, a faculty of self-surrender, and an openness of spirit is nearer to the kingdom of heaven than the "righteous" Pharisee; for <strong><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >the soul that is closed to love is closed to grace</span></strong>.</blockquote>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1145472309802409292006-04-19T13:21:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:26:30.915-05:00The Message to the Corinthians<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/1600/Message.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/320/Message.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>When the words of Scripture begin to feel stale, it often helps to read a different translation or paraphrase. Eugene Peterson's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1576832899/sr=8-1/qid=1145472019/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1415656-6039907?%5Fencoding=UTF8"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Message</span></a> can be especially refreshing. Sometimes we are not sure how closely he follows the original text, but we enjoy it anyway!<br /><br />Peterson renders 2 Corinthians 6 as a call to expansive life:<br /><blockquote>People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.<br /><br />Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!<br /></blockquote>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1147807302039358142006-05-16T14:07:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:26:13.909-05:00Our True HomeFrom<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0800634608/sr=8-2/qid=1147806987/ref=sr_1_2/104-0899217-9552739?%5Fencoding=UTF8"> </a><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0800634608/sr=8-2/qid=1147806987/ref=sr_1_2/104-0899217-9552739?%5Fencoding=UTF8">Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann</a>.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Our True Home</span><br /></div><br />God before and God behind,<br />God for us and God for your own self,<br /><div style="text-align: left;">Maker of heaven and earth,<br />creator of sea and sky,<br />governor of day and night.<br /><br /></div>We give thanks for your ordered gift of life to us,<br />for the rhythms that reassure,<br />for the equilibriums that sustain,<br />for the reliabilities that curb our anxieties.<br /> We treasure from you,<br /> days to work and nights to rest.<br /> We cherish from you,<br /> days to control and nights to yield.<br /> We savor from you,<br /> days to plan and nights to dream.<br /><br />Be our day and our night,<br />our heaven and our earth,<br />our sea and our sky,<br /> and in the end our true home. Amen.Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1151167462779641172006-06-24T11:34:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:25:59.683-05:00Exulting in GodMary proclaimed, "My soul exults the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior" (Luke 1:46-47). In his sermon on these verses, Martin Luther wrote,<blockquote style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:10;">But the impure and perverted lovers, who are nothing else than parasites and who seek their own advantage in God, neither love nor praise His bare goodness, but have an eye to themselves and consider only how good God is to them, that is, how deeply He makes them feel His goodness and how many good things He does to them. They esteem Him highly, are filled with joy and sing His praises, so long as this feeling continues. But just as soon as He hides His face and withdraws the rays of His goodness, leaving them bare and in misery, their love and praise are at an end. They are unable to love and praise the bare, unfelt goodness that is hidden in God. By this they prove that their spirit did not rejoice in God, their Savior, and that they had no true love and praise for His bare goodness. They delighted in their salvation much more than in their Savior, in the gift more than in the Giver, in the creature rather than in the Creator.</span></span></blockquote>The gifts are sweet, but may they not distract us from the Giver, in whose presence is the fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1152740592923367172006-07-12T16:14:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:25:40.683-05:00Embracing the TensionsMarilynne Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <span style="font-style: italic;">Gilead</span>, contends our society has embraced a collective fiction: "that we are ill despite our apparent health, vulnerable despite our apparent safety. We are contemptuous of transient well-being, as if there were any other kind." Unless our experience of good is permanent, we do not appreciate it. "When a good man or woman stumbles, we say, 'I knew it all along,' and when a bad one has a gracious moment, we sneer at the hypocrisy."<br /><br />In other words, we do not live well with the tensions inherent to human existence. We do not appreciate the fact that we experience simultaneously both faith and doubt, both hope and despair, both what is seen and what is not seen. Robinson suggests we should not only accept such tensions, but enjoy them.<br /><blockquote>To borrow a question from Jean Genet, what would happen if someone started laughing? What if the next demographically marketed grievance or the next convenience-packaged dread, or the next urgent panacea for the sweet, odd haplessness of the body started a wave of laughter that swept over the continent? What if we understood our vulnerabilities to mean we are human, and so are our friends and our enemies, and so are our cities and books and gardens, our inspirations, our errors. We weep human tears, like Hamlet, like Hecuba. If the universe is only all we have so far seen, we are its great marvel. . . . This being human--people have loved it through plague and famine and siege. And Dante, who knew the world about suffering, had a place in hell for people who were grave when they might have rejoiced.<br /></blockquote> <div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size:78%;">(Marilynne Robinson, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Death of Adam</span>)</span><br /></div>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1156613130793122442006-08-26T10:07:00.000-05:002007-06-13T23:25:27.414-05:00John Donne on the Joy of God<div style="text-align: left;">John Donne understood joy, perhaps because he understood suffering. Some of his most important works were written in the context of his own grief and illness. Writing on 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ("Rejoice always"), Donne wrote,<br /></div><blockquote>Because it is alway, it must be in him who is alwaies, yesterday and to day, and the same for ever, Joy in God, Joy in the Holy Ghost . . . not onely the Joy which he gives, that's here, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">but the Joy which he is</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">.</span><br /></blockquote>No, those are not typing mistakes on my part. That is how Donne wrote. He also quoted from a wide variety of sources. In Latin. Keep reading, especially to the fabulous line at the end of this paragraph:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Rejoyce in the Lord always</span>, says the Apostle; and lest it should admit any interruption, he repeates it, <span style="font-style: italic;">Iterum dico gaudete, Againe I say rejoyce, </span>But still in the Lord. . . . He that is settled in God, centred in God, <span style="font-style: italic;">Laetitiae fontem, voluptatis radicem lucratus est.</span> They are all considerable words; <span style="font-style: italic;">Lucratus est, </span>he hath purchased something which he did not inherit, he hath acquired something which was not his before, and what? <span style="font-style: italic;">Fontem laetitiae</span>; 'tis joy, else it were nothing: for what is wealth if sickness take away the joy of that? Or what is health, if imprisonment take away the joy of that? Or what is liberty, if poverty take away the joy of that? but he hath joy, and <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">not a Cistern but a fountain</span>, the fountaine of joy, that rejoyces in God: He carries it higher in the other Metaphore; he hath <span style="font-style: italic;">radicem voluptatis</span>; a man may have some fruit, and not enough, but if he have joy in God, he hath <span style="font-style: italic;">radicem voluptatis</span>, if we may dare to translate it so, (and in a spirituall sense we may) <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">it is a voluptuous thing to rejoyce in God</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">.</span><br /></blockquote>Donne argued that only Christ's joy would allow us to "rejoice always." Read it slowly, for the thoughts are rich.<br /><blockquote>Any Prince, any Counsellor, any Prelate, any Generall, any Discoverer, any that goes in any way of joy, and glory, If they rejoyce in their own names, their own wisdome, their own strength, they shall not rejoyce all the day, but they shall be benighted with darke sadness, before their days end; <span style="font-style: italic;">And their sunne shall set at noon too</span>, as the Prophet <span style="font-style: italic;">Amos</span> speaks. And therefore that shall be Christs expressing of that joy, at the last day, <span style="font-style: italic;">Enter into thy Masters Joy</span>, and leave the joy of Servants (though of good Servants) behind thee; for thou shalt have a better Joy then that, <span style="font-style: italic;">Thy Masters Joy.<br /></span>It is time to end; but as long as the glasse hath a gaspe, as long as I have one, I would breathe in this ayre, in this perfume, in this breath of heaven, the contemplation of this Joy. <span style="font-style: italic;">Blessed is that man, </span>says <span style="font-style: italic;">David</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">that knowes the joyfull sound.</span> . . . <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">How infinitely shall this Joy be enlarged in loving God</span>, so far above our selves. . . . Wee have but this to add: <span style="font-style: italic;">Heaven</span> is called by many pretious names; <span style="font-style: italic;">Life, </span>Simply and absolutely there is no life but that. And <span style="font-style: italic;">Kingdome: </span>Simply, absolutely there is no Kingdom, that is not subordinate to that. And <span style="font-style: italic;">Sabbatum ex Sabbato, </span>A Sabbath flowing into a Sabbath, a perpetuall Sabbath: but the Name that should enamour us most, is that, that it is <span style="font-style: italic;">Satietas gaudiorum; </span>fulnesse of Joy. <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Fulnesse that needeth no addition; Fullnesse, that admitteth no leake.</span> And then though in the Schoole we place Blessednesse, <span style="font-style: italic;">In visione</span>, in the sight of God, yet the first thing that this sight of God shall produce in us (for that shall produce the Reformation of the Image of God, in us, and it shall produce our glorifying of God) but the first thing that the seeing of God shall produce in us, is Joy. <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">The measure of our seeing of God is the measure of Joy.</span> See him here in his Blessings, and you shall joy in those blessings here; and when you come to see him <span style="font-style: italic;">Sicuti est</span>, in his Essence, then you shall have this Joy in Essence, and in fulnesse; of which, God of his goodnesse give us such an earnest here, as may binde to us that inheritance hereafter, which his Sonne our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. <span style="font-style: italic;">Amen.</span><br /></blockquote><br /><blockquote></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1164161350036891732006-11-21T19:33:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:25:01.091-05:00Hurrahing in Harvest<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/1600/stooks.2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3500/1090/200/stooks.2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hurrahing in Harvest</span></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">(Gerard Manley Hopkins)<br /></div><br />Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise<br />Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour<br />Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier<br />Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?<br /><br />I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,<br />Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;<br />And, eyes, heart, what looks, what lips yet gave you a<br />Rapturous love's greeting of realer, of rounder replies?<br /><br />And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder<br />Majestic--as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!--<br />These things, these things were here and but the beholder<br />Wanting; which two when they once meet,<br />The heart rears wings bold and bolder<br />And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off<br />under his feet.Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-90008484977415559352006-12-27T16:40:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:24:46.801-05:00With All My Questions<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rahner">Karl Rahner</a> was a brilliant theologian. One of the most important voices behind the reforms of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_2">Vatican II</a>, he influenced millions more people than will ever read his scholarly books. Thoroughly engaged in dogmatic theology, Rahner also wrote of his own love for God:<br /><br /><blockquote>Only in love can I find you, my God. In love, the gates of my soul spring open, allowing me to breathe a new air of freedom and forget my own petty self. In love, my whole being streams forth out of the rigid confines of narrowness and anxious self-assertion, which make me a prisoner of my own poverty and emptiness. In love, all the powers of my soul flow out toard you, wanting never more to return but to lose themselves completely in you, since by your love you are the inmost centre of my heart, closer to me than I am to myself.<br /><br />But when I love you, when I manage to break out of the narrow circle of self and leave behind the restless agony of unanswered questions, when my blinded eyes no longer look merely from afar and from the outside upon your unapproachable brightness, and much more when you yourself, O incomprehensible one, have become through love the inmost centre of my life, then I can bury myself entirely in you, O mysterious God, and with myself all my questions.<br /></blockquote>I am troubled by the phrase, "when I manage to break out of the narrow circle of self." It may imply that I am to muster the ability to love God more completely. We believe such love comes through the transforming work of the Spirit, who lifts our gaze from our own incurved selves to behold and enjoy the glory of God (Rom. 5:5). However, there is one part of Rahner's statement that I especially enjoy. You do not have to be a theologian to know the "restless agony of unanswered questions." I am glad they do not have to be answered before I can turn in love for God, whose nature and activity remain both mysterious and incomprehensible.<br /><br />Peter said it this way: "You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy" (1 Pet. 1:8, NET Bible). Even with our questions.<br /><br />Bob<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=";font-family:times new roman;font-size:12;" ></span></span>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18335339.post-1900507503371977682007-01-06T11:00:00.000-06:002007-06-13T23:24:31.848-05:00Stepping Back<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikAnSIipfM0D2zdy9K_qGBXQ65KmA9DCQeuYTYJ_gVKF8ZVlFr0bK-oONEUhZavRqxKOxz9p4Or-4unYqS0fXadmMZu-8gJTI7k9PTvYDHkYvg4fSwmeKuo6jlRNrvrz5QYHq4Fg/s1600-h/from+El+Cielo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikAnSIipfM0D2zdy9K_qGBXQ65KmA9DCQeuYTYJ_gVKF8ZVlFr0bK-oONEUhZavRqxKOxz9p4Or-4unYqS0fXadmMZu-8gJTI7k9PTvYDHkYvg4fSwmeKuo6jlRNrvrz5QYHq4Fg/s200/from+El+Cielo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5016966530358831522" border="0" /></a>"I have often wondered why there is such an immense resistance in us to be with God. Why do we find prayer so hard, why do we always prefer to be busy instead of praying? Why do we keep seeing movies, going to parties, reading worthless books, running from one place to another? If God really exists and loves us, if he only wants to show us his love, why then is it so hard to give ourselves to him? Well, because when we enter into communion with God we have to face our demons, too. We have to face our greed, anger, lust, our rebellious nature, and our deep resentments against God himself. As long as we are busy and distracted we never really have to deal with who we are.<br />"We cannot avoid going to the desert if we want to make God our only concern. The desert might mean very different things for different people but by simply staying in the murkiness and ambiguity of our daily lives we come to know neither God nor the demon and our lives remain absurd or blind."<br /><div style="text-align: right;">Henri Nouwen<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Wisdom-Sayings-Fathers/dp/1570753717/sr=8-1/qid=1168103161/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9587603-6596010?ie=UTF8&s=books"><span style="font-style: italic;">Desert Wisdom</span></a><br /></div>Joni and Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05064999093288947299noreply@blogger.com0