The solution to pride

After James 4:1-10 

The spirit dwells

within us; more grace

is given, grace is

given to the humble.

Submission to God

buries the pride.

Draw near to God,

and he draws near

to you. Cleanse

your hands; purify

your hearts. Mourn

and weep; turn

the laughter of pride

to the mourning 

of faith. It’s

a conundrum:

humble yourselves,

and he will exalt you.

 

Photograph by Timo Wagner via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

David’s God-Entranced Song – John Piper at Desiring God.

 

The Gift of Finitude – A.D. Donahue at Bandersnatch Books.

 

The Terrible Possibility of Adultery – Benjamin Vrbicek at Desiring God.

 

The Lie of Living Your Truth – Rosaria Butterfield at the Institute for Faith and Culture.

Saturday Good Reads - June 13, 2026

Two hundred and fifty years ago, events were accelerating in Philadelphia. The drafting committee for the Declaration of Independence was itself being drafted. As it turned out, Thomas Jefferson wasn’t the only writer, although he’s the one who usually gets the greatest credit. The colony of Virginia not waiting for Philadelphia, drafted its own declaration of rights. The Continental Congress was already showing signs of political factions, with the Nationalists – those who wanted to jump directed to a unified national government – almost winning the day.  

Boston, of course, playing a hugely significant role in the coming of the American Revolution. The spark may well have been the Boston Massacre in 1770, when British troops fired on civilians. Then there were the Boston women who burned “Madame Suchong.” And a year before the Declaration of Independence, colonials battled the Redcoats at Lexington and Concord, just outside Boston. 

 

And if you ever wondered why colonial Americans wore in 1776, Lesley Kennedy at History has the story (and the pictures).

 

America 250

 

The Abandoned American Offensive After Yorktown: the Attack that Never Was – Joshua Shepherd at Journal of the American Revolution.

 

The Indispensable Virtues of the Indispensable Man – Joseph Prud’homme at Philanthropy Daily. 

 

News Media

 

When the Bottom Stories Are the Real News – James Meigs at The Wall Street Journal (unlocked).

 

Art

 

Idiots: On Munch and von Trier – Karl Ove Knausgaard at The Paris Review.

 

Doreen Fletcher in Her Own Words – Spitalfields Life.

 

Faith

 

The God of Small Churches – The Churchman’s Quill.

 

American Stuff

 

There Were Two Civil Wars, and We Weren’t Always Sure Which We Were Fighting – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Liturgy and Middle-Earth – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Three Ways to Lose a Romance Reader – Jenn Windrow at Writers on the Storm.

 

Mercy and Forgiveness in Modern Literature – Joseph Pearce at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Poetry

 

“Proud Maisie,” poem by Sir Walter Scott – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

164 – Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

“The Hollow Men,” poem by T.S. Eliot – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Englishman Visits St. Louis to Honor WWII Pilot – Nine PBS

 Painting: Gentleman reading in an interior, oil on canvas by Gabriel Deluc (1883-1916).

The world

After James 4:1-10 

How do you

define the world?

Quarrels, fights,

passions at war

within, desire,

covetousness, pride,

misguided praises,

adulterousness.

To befriend that,

to be a friend 

of the world,

is to be an enemy

of God, is to declare

war on heaven.

 

God is jealous;

he wants your heart.

It’s why he made

the spirit to dwell

within us.

 

Photograph by Greg Rosenke via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

“What the Young Saint Said,” poem by Gerard Smyth – D.S. Martin at Kingdom Poets.

 

How to Read the Bible When Your Heart Feels Cold – Andrew Dacis at Ligonier.

 

Columba and my calling – Malcolm Guite.

 

“Teach Me, My God and King,” hymn by George Herbert – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

The Overseas Trip Where Language Didn't Matter

Our missions trip was scheduled for September 2001. We’d been preparing all summer. But 9-11 intervened, and the trip was postponed.  

We were an unusual missions team. The mission we’d be visiting had specifically asked for it – a small team devoted to communications to help the mission tell its story, produce a short film for a building fundraiser, and interview missionaries who could use videos and stories to send reports to financial supporters and home churches. We were a team of three: team lead/logistics guy/organizer/general factotum; the videographer, aka the guy with the camera; and me, the writer, the guy with the laptop who would be typing away in airports, planes, homes, offices, and in the car. 

 

We’d be in central Europe for a week, with a schedule so packed I thought we’d need slotted times for breathing. Four countries, five languages, cultural shocks, and no time to detox from jet lag.

 

I could probably write pages about that trip, story after story, detail after detail. But what sticks with me were a few examples of how communication didn’t depend upon language.

Photograph of Dresden by Lukas D via Unsplash. Used with permission. 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Poet Laure: Going Fishing with Dad – Donna Hilbert at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“Casey at the Bat,” poem by Ernest Thayer – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

“In School-Days,” poems by John Greenleaf Whittier – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

 

“The Atlas of Independence” by Chris Mackowski

If I had a mental image of John Adams, it was of a rather dour individual who bridged the presidencies of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, whom my history teachers in high school and college seemed to find much more interesting. 

Then came the 2008 miniseries John Adams, with Paul Giamatti in the title role and Laura Linney as his wife Abigail. I almost skipped it, but we decided to watch it. And I began to understand that my teachers and I had all missed the boat on this major figure of the American Revolution.  I sought out some biographies and histories, and I discovered my understanding of the second U.S. president was seriously misguided.

 

It was with that improving understanding that I began reading Atlas of Independence: John Adams and the American Revolution by Chris Mackowski. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Bob Dylan: ‘I’m a Religious Person’ Who Reads Scripture Daily – Stephanie Martin at Church Leaders.

 

Britain’s Great Self-Loathing Crusade – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

Ghosts in the Field – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

Poets and Poems: Erin Murphy and "Swoon"

I’ve read a considerable number of poetry collections subtitled “New and Selected Poems” or “Collected Poems.” But it was only reading “Swoon: New & Selected Poems” by Erin Murphy that I realized that such a collection could also be a biography. 

Murphy has assembled poems from 11 previously published collections plus a few new ones. The result is a collective story of a life, from childhood memories, through young adulthood, the arrival of children, changes in relationships, the deaths of friends, the music enjoyed, travel, vacations, worries about physical appearance, observations about celebrities. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The chain ferry – poem by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Emily Dickinson, buttercups, and death – Padraig O Tuana at Poetry Unbound.

 

“The Waste Land,” poem by T.S. Eliot – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Uncharted – poem by Bethany Lee at Every Day Poems.

 

Crossing the Trestle – poem by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at Rabbit Room Poetry.

“The Sycomore Fig Tree” by Christine Norvell

You can learn a lot from a sycomore fig tree. Ask author Christine Norvell.

The first thing is the spelling of “sycomore.” I had to fight with AutoCorrect (not to mention Google) to keep it from changing the spelling to “sycamore.” Sycamore is the American tree; the British sycamore is actually a maple. The sycomore fig’s official name is Ficus Sycomorus, and it’s native to the Middle East and some parts of Africa. It’s similar to the common fig (Ficus Carica) we know today.

 

It’s also found in the Bible, and that’s the sycomore Norvell writes about in The Sycomore Fig Tree: Biblical Botany & Scriptural Truth. Her starting point is the prophet Amos, who, when told to go prophesy somewhere other than the northern kingdom of Isreal, says, “I was no prophet, nor prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord” (ESV). (Yes, I see that the ESV spells it “sycamore.”)

 

It is with Amos that Norvell begins her study. The amazing thing is that she adroitly condenses her research in commentaries, ancient Mediterranean horticulture, archaeology, botany, and the Bible into a compact, readableg work of 120 pages. Her thesis: “How the sycomore fig tree and the tending of all trees parallel our life in Christ and the challenges we face.” What follows is something beautiful.

 

Christine Norvell

She provides a history of the sycomore fig (it was originally native to Israel), explaining how it takes root, tended, harvested and gathered, and pruned, and how caring for tree is a communal function. Amos called himself a herder and dresser of figs, but he worked with other people to do his work. She also goes beyond the sycomore fig and describes the trees she and her family care for on their property. She applies the discussion in each chapter applies to living the Christian life. 

 

Norvell is a freelance writer who’s published on literature, education, music, and the Bible. She received a master’s degree in Humanities from Faulkner University’s Great Books program. She published Till We Have Faces: A Reading Companion in 2020. She’s also written for The Imaginative Conservative, Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy, Public Discourse, and University Bookman. The Sycomore Fig Tree also includes notes, a bibliography, and a recommended reading list, and Norvell uses numerous photographs and reproductions to illustrate the text. 

 

We can learn from trees, trees like the sycomore fig. We can also learn, as Norvell, did, from the trees in our own yards and parks. The Sycomore Fig Tree also is one of the most engaging Bible studies I’ve read. Amos the herdsman and fig dresser was called to be a prophet, because he had the experience and qualities that were needed.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Phyllis Bray, Artist  and Doreen Fletcher’s New Paintings – Spitalfields Life.

 

Wendell Berry’s Wisdom for Living in Time – Anne Ryan at Plough Magazine.

 

Poor Bastard: Henry Fielding’s Triumphant Tom Jones – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

“free and Independent States”: The 250^th Anniversary of the Lee Resolution – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Social Media Is Not for Everyone – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.