The house or the builder

After Hebrews 3:1-19 

What deserves the reputation,

the glory, the house or

the builder of the house?

Which is greater, deserving

our praise? We can admire

the house, but it is the builder

to whom, of whom, we

sing our praise.

 

Because the builder is

the greater, we put our faith

in him. Remind each other,

daily, encourage each other,

daily, not to fall away, not

to harden our hearts, not 

to be imprisoned within

the deceitfulness of sin,

the deceitfulness of our

own hearts. Hold firm,

to the end.

 

Photograph by Jacek Dylag via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Mothering Sunday – sonnet by Malcolm Guite.

 

Two Common Mistakes Christians Make about Government – Robby Lashua at Stand to Reason. 

 

How Christians Should think about IVF-Created Embryos – Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Surging Growth of K-12 Classical Education – Keri Ingraham at Real Clear Education.

 

Beauty, Nature, & the Quest for Meaning in Sigrid Unset’s “The Wild Orchid” – Mark Bjelland at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Because he suffered

After Hebrews 2:5-18 

Because he suffered,

he was crowned king,

the founder of earth, king,

the one who sanctifies, king,

the one given to us.

 

And so, when we suffer,

we see the king who

suffered as well,

who suffered for us,

who suffered so 

we could live.

 

What we suffer,

he has suffered.

He suffered first and 

died so we could live.

He knows who we are;

he knows what we suffer

because he suffered first.

 

Photograph by Frantisek Duris via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

An Elegy Towards Hope – Mark Clavier at Covenant.

 

24 Years of Being a Dad – Tim Challies. 

 

David and Goliath – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

 

Snakes in the Rock – story by Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule. 

The one who suffered

After Hebrews 2:5-18 

In the midst of trials,

it’s easy to forget

the one who suffered

and died, the one who

gave you his name.

 

He was made first,

he made all things first,

and he was reduced

to something lower

than angels for a time.

 

Now he is in control,

now all are subject to him.

Though we don’t see all,

we do see one thing:

the one thing that is him.

 

Photograph by Wesley Tingey via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

What is a Mother? Ireland’s Progressive Integralism – Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule. 

 

Burying the Talents of the Great Rewarder – A.W. Workman at Entrusted to the Dirt.

 

The Sermons of the Golden Mouth: Preaching Lessons of John Chrysostom – Dan Miller at Desiring God.

 

10 Reasons the Old Testament Matters to Christians – Jason DeRouchie at Crossway.

 

“What about this man?” – poem by Sarah Crowley Chestnut at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Opting for Benedict in an Ordinary Parish – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

Saturday Good Reads: Planned Peasanthood

It’s one of those things about the internet – a tweet on Twitter leads to a link on a web sites leads to a link on a blog that leads to another blog. It was (if I remember my links correctly) how I found Rick Dawson at Planned Peasanthood. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

It doesn’t matter. Good reading is good reading, no matter who finds whom. The name of his blog, he says, has its origin in a running joke between him and his wife. And in spite of the joke, or perhaps because of it and what lies behind it, he’s a generous, caring, encouraging man.

Over the course of his lifetime, Rick has been a clerk, a DJ, a radar operator, a dishwasher, and a musician. He’s been a software installer, a factory worker, a web site developer, an emergency responder, and an airline customer service agent. He’s always been a musician, playing the guitar since he was 13. And he’s a cancer survivor, and you can read his story at Caring Bridge from 2012.

But of all the things he’s been, the most important one is his faith. His home church is the American Reformed Church in Luverne, Minn.

Rick’s posted a series with a fellow blogger this week on the discipline of silence (and it’s not only for monks). Silence is a larger topic than you might think (or than I thought), and I’ve found the series moving and inspirational.

So please visit Planned Peasanthood, and meet Rick yourself. You can also follow him on Twitter.

Painting: The Gleaners, oil on canvas by Jean-Francois Millet (1857). Musee d’Orsay, Paris.

Dena Dyer’s “Grace for the Race”

The entire time I was reading Dena Dyer’s Grace for the Race: Meditations for Busy Moms, I had the picture of my daughter-in-law in my mind. The daughter-in-law with the 2-year-old and the infant. The daughter-in-law whose idea of heaven has evolved to a 10-minute shower during the time both boys might be asleep at the same time.

It’s a funny book, this Grace for the Race. It’s a funny book – but also a wise book, written by a mother who has not only been there, but is still there.

Every wonder why all the neighborhood kids cluster at our house and clean out your refrigerator?

Do you ask yourself the question where did this flood of emotion and tears come from?

Do you notice how you’re the only mother in a t-shirt and jeans when you drop the kids off at school – while the other mothers are dressed for tea with the Queen?

Have you tried to sneak the sleeping toddler from the car seat to his bed without waking him up?

Do you discover you’re using exactly the same threats as your mother did – the ones you swore you would never use with your own children?

Dena Dyer has.

Dyer is an author, writer, speaker, and editor for The High Calling – and most importantly, a wife and mother. (She blogs at Mother Inferior.)

The book is designed for a quick read. Each meditation takes about a minute to a minute-and-a-half to read. Each is structured around a story and followed by “Notes from the Coach” – Bible verses that apply to the particular situation. The mediations are grouped into nine thematic sections – Training Well, Warming Up and Stretching Out, The First Lap, Using Proper Equipment, Hopping over the Hurdles, Handing It Off, The Final Stretch, Crosssing the Finish Line, and On the Podium.

It looks like a simple book – but like motherhood, it’s anything but simple. What Grace for the Race should do more than anything else is provide encouragement: mothers, you’re not alone. Someone has gone through this before. And kept her sanity. Or at least most of it.

First published in 2004, it’s been reissued as an e-book by Patheos Press. (I thought of my daughter-in-law here, too – it would work perfectly on her iPad, except the two-year-old knows the pass code and she hasn’t had time to change it.)

Related:

The High Calling has published an excerpt from the book, Operation Enduring Sleep.

High Encouragement

The past several weeks have been busy and rather intense. Work has been hectic and heavy, and then 10 days ago I threw my back out (again). It’s still trying to figure out how to get un-thrown-out, and I started physical therapy. My back muscles are a mess, the therapist said, tied up tight. It’s called tension and stress – I take it right to my back.

Last week, some good friends moved to San Antonio; we’ve known them for 20 years. We saw them on the Sunday before they left. We could probably walk into their house five years from now and it will seem like only five minutes have passed.

It’s one of those times when I need a little encouragement. OK, so perhaps more than a little.

I will tell you one thing that helps.

The High Calling.

It’s almost an embarrassment of riches – riches produced by real people.

I’ve been connected to The High Calling as a contributing editor for more than a year. I write for it, yes, but I get far more from what I read.

If you’d like to see how I start out each morning, take a look at Mark Robert’s Daily Reflection. Right now, we’re doing the Gospel of Luke.

On Mondays, it’s usually the Book Club, led by Laura Boggess; right now we’re taking a break between Guy Kawasaki’s Enchantment and the next book.

Tuesdays are work post days, edited by Bradley Moore. Most of the articles I write for THC end up here. The section covers a broad array of aspects of work, but all of it is about living our faith in the work place.

Wednesdays are what I call Family day, edited by Ann Kroeker. This is where you find people dealing with family issues of all shapes, sizes and varieties.

Thursdays are Gordon Atkinson’s meditations on faith. These are deep, honest, often raw and always profound.

Sam Van Eman edits and often writes the Friday posts on culture.

And then we have additional posts added on most days (including the Random Act of Poetry!) and the links into the posts written by the THC community on their own blogs.

Sunday usually brings an audio message from Howard Butt, the guy who started the whole High Calling thing way back when.

Riding herd on all of this is Marcus Goodyear, the editor, and Laura Barkat, the managing editor.

About three weeks back, I received an email from a reader who had just discovered my blog. As she was checking out various posts, she noticed the THC badge on the right-hand navigation. She clicked on it, and discovered “ a wealth of material” she had never run across before (her words, not mine) (but I agree).

The High Calling is about community, yes. But it’s also about individual people, people who are fallen and sinful just like I am but who struggle to serve God and to serve others.

And in that struggle, there for all of us to see, is where I find high encouragement.


Bonnie Gray over at Faith Barista is hosting a blog carnival on faith, and today’s topic is encouragement. To see more posts on the subject, please visit Faith Barista.

And check out The High Calling, too.

Photograph: From left, Sam Van Eman, David Rupert, yours truly, Claire Burge and Gordon Atkinson at Laity Lodge in Texas last fall for a meeting of the THC writing and editing staff.

A Little Light Seeping Through the Darkness

If there is one thing that is always in short supply, it’s encouragement.

I don’t know why that is, but it is. And how you can tell is by the oversized reaction that occurs when someone gets encouraged.

It’s something in the water, I think. Or the culture. It’s become something of an endangered species. We hunger and thirst for encouragement.

I don’t actually think this is anything new. Encouragement is one of the spiritual gifts highlighted by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (12:8). In other words, it was unusual enough to be classified as a special gift from God.

Over at Faith Barista, Bonnie Gray is doing a weekly jam on the topic – posing a prompt on Thursdays and then participants post by the following Thursday. The prompt for this week is unexpected encouragement which, given my opening words, is the only kind I think there is.

I think of encouragement as grace – a grace bestowed particularly in those times when life looks bleak, you’re surrounded by trouble, there are awful events you’re having to deal with, or any other of those things that comprise part of a normal life.

Like when your son has to have emergency brain surgery, and a pastor shows up to pray with you.

Or you’re a young couple, pregnant, move to St. Louis and their house in Houston won’t sell for 18 months because the mortgage industry has shut down (1979-1980), and an older couple takes them into their hearts.

Or you’re struggling with politics at work, and a co-worker comes into your office, closes the door, and says, “I know it must be bad. How can I help?”

Or someone sends you a direct message on Twitter. Or an email, telling you how much your blog post meant.

I’ve experienced all of these things, and it is always surprising, wonderful and welcome.

Little things. Small acts of grace. Gentle evidences that you care. Unexpected but experienced like a drink of cool water in the desert. Or a little light that seeps through the darkness.

Related: The link for next week's discussion at Faith Barista, Letting Go of Worry.

Photograph: Hayloft by Nancy Rosback. Used with permission.