A Quote
“As for the notion of some lost golden age, it is truly very hard for any competent historian to be nostalgic. What past times were better than the present? An era before antibiotics when childbirth or even minor cuts might lead to septicemia and death? The great days of the 19th century when the church was culturally powerful and marriage was between one man and one woman for life, but little children worked in factories and swept chimneys? Perhaps the Great Depression? The Second World War? The era of Vietnam? Every age has had its darkness and its dangers. The task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he or she lives but to understand its problems and respond appropriately to them.”
-Carl Trueman, The Rise And Triumph Of The Modern Self
A Book
The book I'm working on right this moment is called Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin. It's an immigrant story, about a man that came from Somalia. I'm only a little bit into it, but I just feel like it's going to be good. I love reading immigrant stories from people who have escaped difficult circumstances in their homeland - so many of them have an appreciation for the blessings of freedom in America that a lot of Americans-by-birth take for granted. I think this is going to be one of those uplifting immigrant stories, and I'm here for it.
A Bit Of Sparklers
Excuse me for sharing sparkler pictures instead of nature this week - we had way too much fun last weekend with our ridiculous stash of sparklers! We had probably 20-30 boxes of sparklers that we had somehow gathered over the years, and we used most of them in one night when my family came to visit on the 4th.
A Recommendation
This section is going to be a little long!
I've got an interesting recommendation today, and it's from a podcast I listen to occasionally called "Sheologians". In the latest episode they were discussing gossip, and as I feel there is a definite dearth of Christian resources on gossip, I clicked on it. The actual discussion starts around 20 minutes, but basically what they are doing is taking the Westminter Larger Catechism question surrounding the 9th commandment to help explain what qualifies as gossip or "bearing false witness" against someone. It's a lot more than you might think! I was so convicted by so many of their points. If you want to get the gist, you can read the relevant Larger Catechism passage here (Questions 144 and 145). How many of us think about gossip like this? How many of us recognize the sin of lying in the way we are thinking about others? My mind was kind of blown to be honest.
On a related note, their episode from a while back on forgiveness also gave me a ton to think about. They discuss that "therapeutic forgiveness"(the idea that forgiveness is for myself, not the other person), is actually not the biblical model of forgiveness. They argue that forgiveness in scripture is a transactional thing - a person is repentant toward the person they wronged, and the other person then gives them forgiveness, and it's followed by reconciliation. I take a little bit of issue with the way they expressed certain things, but they explained their points more fully later in the episode, so listen to the whole thing. I love the distinction that forgiveness isn't just some internal feeling, it's an external process that happens between two people that ultimately results in reconciliation in some way. I think we've lost that idea by making forgiveness only something that happens within someone's heart.
Like I said, I'm still mulling it over, but if you want some spiritual meat to chew on, give these episodes a try.
A Moment Of Happiness
A met up with a friend last night that I haven't seen in over a year - for no other reason than that we are both very busy moms of big families, and we were just slacking. What I love about this friend is how there is no awkwardness over the fact that we haven't seen each other in so long - I just send a text saying, "hey, let's get dinner together", she says "I'd love that!", and we make it happen. It's rare to find those friends that you can connect with easily even when it's been a long time between visits, and it was so refreshing to catch up with her over ridiculously large bowls of pasta.
How is everyone's week going? Are you getting back into swing of things after the long weekend?
I love a good immigrant story too- if you get a chance to do a book review of it when you are finished, I would like to know what you thought about it. Before the last presidential election,my husband was talking to our neighbor who emigrated from Vietnam. My neighbor told my husband that the Vietnamese born who live in the area now overwhelmingly supported the presidential candidate and VP who overtly shared their love of our nation and who were patriotic because those born in Vietnam who made it to America have a deep and abiding love and appreciation for America.
Glad you made the time to go out with a friend. So important even in very busy periods of life :).
I love that quote!!
I’ll have to try those Sheologians episodes. I really struggle with that podcast for various reasons, but they do have some good episodes. There was one episode of theirs I listened to recently and loved, but I’m blanking on which one it was. Ahh! Just looked. It was their episode on oversharing. Gave me a lot to chew on.
I've come back to read that quote several times. It is a good one..and I have a terrible time remembering things (just right) so I finally printed it out! Very thought-provoking. And love your sparkler photos!! What fun:)
Review the book when you're done! Sounds like something, J would want to read!
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