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Spirit of the Rainforest: A Forty-Something Book Report
“We want people who will really care about us, like the man who came into my village and put his arm around me when I was covered with dirt, sweat, saliva, and mucous…He showed us something we knew nothing about—love.”–quoted from Spirit of the Rainforest Eight years ago my husband announced he would quit his corporate job to go to seminary full-time. I reminded him of his disdain for reading and writing. Not that I wanted to dissuade him, but I didn’t believe him for the aforementioned reasons. Years later I joined him and I took a fascinating class on Angelology. I expected the extensive…
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Teaching Children Safety in Relationships.
A child doesn’t have to be burned to learn that fire is dangerous. It’s not necessary to be hit by a car to learn that a street is not a safe place to play. Children need consistent reinforcement of truth to learn it. For most children, this will be enough to shape their thinking and influence their actions. While they are very young we take them by the hand moving them out of danger while reinforcing with our words, “It’s hot, don’t touch it or it will burn you. It is dangerous to go into the street. That is a no! This is a yes.” Our actions and words influence…
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Rx for World Weariness: Peace in the Midst of Terrorism, Turmoil and Election Chaos
I don’t know about you, but I have been battling world weariness lately. In the last month or so, I have, via the news, witnessed hundreds killed in horrific attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq where my refugee friends have family members. I’ve seen a horrific attack in France and checked facebook to make sure my niece was safe, sheltering in place in Munich. I’ve seen reports of black men dying at the hands of the police, and policemen ambushed in multiple cities. I’ve watched an attempted coup in the country I called home for twelve years and I’m witnessing a presidential race that reminds me more of an episode of…
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Advent/Ferguson: 5 Ways to Respond to a Dead Black Teen, Riots and Looting
“For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men.”— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day) Should the Ferguson Protestors Be TIME magazine’s Person of the Year? As of this writing on the magazine’s website 77% say Yes, 23% say No. It’s one more media headline that hung like a dark cloud over my Thanksgiving holiday and the launch of Christmas. Maybe yours too. I confess I have no idea what it’s like to be Black in America. (Maybe I’ve had just a tiny taste this past year as the prejudice against people who believe in a biblical view…
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Noah. Genocide. The Goodness of God.
This week Darren Aronofsky’s Noah will flood theaters (sorry, I couldn’t help it) with a story kind of like Genesis 6-9. It’s definitely a prodigal movie, taking the text and wandering off to a far country, but it does stick to the basic story line: The humans he made have become God-sickeningly corrupt. So he pours out his judgment in a flood, and all flesh “in whose nostrils was the breath of life…died.” In response the highly inflamatory (and proud of it) TV talk s how host Bill Maher says, "It's about a psychotic mass murderer who gets away with it, and his name is God…. Conservatives are always going…
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Lion of War: David’s story as you’ve never heard it…and a ride outside our bubble
You never know if the dust on the horizon will turn out to be a band of raiders coming to plunder your community and pack you and your children up and take you home. Their home. You never know if you will find yourself claimed by a victor and forced to be his #3 wife or concubine. Or slave. You never know if in your husband’s absence an enemy will break in and rape your beautiful daughters while you wait your turn. You never know if your defenders will be defeated and everyone in your town will be killed. For most of the world…for most of history…women have lived lives…
