Blogging Around

Ducking back in for a sec to show y'all some fantastic posts that I don't want you to miss.

A quick update on me: Everything in Springfield is going really well, up to and including my own personal struggles with patience and temper and all that jazz. My Dad is in what is probably the best assisted living place I've ever seen, and yes I'm including the very ritzy one that my mother-in-law lives in near us in Dallas. If you live in Springfield and have these sorts of needs arise I urge you to check out The Gardens. Once again, let me say that my brother is my hero. Talk about doing the heavy lifting on this deal. I am just the mop-up crew until a couple of weeks from now when my mother probably will move as well.

Now, on to the blogging around!

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ~1 Peter 5:8

I stood up from the table and started to walk back into the kitchen but found myself prostrate on the floor, head face first into the carpet. “Please God…Please! If you don’t take this pain from me I have no choice but to take those pills. I cannot do this…not one more day. I have made my peace with you and I have made my peace with Satan. It’s YOUR MOVE.

I stood up and walked quietly into the kitchen and poured the pills into my hands, glass of water at my side. My hands shook. My tears spilled out on the counter. My entire body was wracked with pain. I raised my hand and…

Hey Jules begins telling her faith journey and it is powerful. It is part of her Top Ten Lessons of what she's learned since coming to Christ. She also points out:

And for those of you out there who will read this and say, “Now that’s what I want! I want to see the big can’t-miss-it neon sign telling me in no uncertain terms that God really does exist” - all I have to say to that is be careful what you wish for. My life has been profoundly changed because of what I went through and it’s not easy carrying around my story day-to-day. Truth be told, if I thought about it all too much I’m pretty sure I’d be a candidate for the funny farm. Also, for those that still think it sounds terribly exciting, here’s another insight I believe to be true:

If you found your way here today to hear my story then try to understand that your ‘miracle’ may well be hearing me tell of mine.

I think y'all understand that concept, right? I share with you and you share with me and Christ is profoundly changing us all in unexpected ways all the time.

"This film is great but it is, in all honesty, evil."
Scott Nehring's review of The Sea Inside confirms the impression I had of that movie simply from the many trailers and articles when it first was released. He also has a brilliant discussion of "dying with dignity" and the culture of death.

This movie is the direct antithesis of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which I have never seen but definitely will as it takes a similar real situation from the book written by the paralyzed man (one blink at a time) and shows us the exact opposite. Especially poignant is the last paragraph of Roger Ebert's review which shows the life affirming power of the story:

At the end we are left with the reflection that human consciousness is the great miracle of evolution, and all the rest (sight, sound, taste, hearing, smell, touch) are simply a toolbox that consciousness has supplied for itself. Maybe it would even be better to be Trumbo's Johnny than never to have been conscious at all.

Pushing God's Envelope and Suffering the Consequences

In particular, I've felt drawn to think about the guidelines that God gives us through the natural world and traditional Judeo-Christian work practices about how much we should attempt to get done in a week. I'll save the details for another post, but the short version is that I realized that a good way to figure out how much God expects you to get done in a week is to attempt to do no more work than you could get done in a six-day week, during daylight hours only, allowing ample time throughout the days for prayer breaks and calm, nourishing meals.

I've been thinking about how much I use modern technology (mainly artificial light) to push myself way past these natural limits -- how I abuse the fact that I can add more hours to a day or week simply by keeping the all lights on until midnight or blowing off Sunday as a day of rest -- and I realize that I do it to keep myself from having to make painful choices about what I can and cannot realistically commit to. ...

Jen at Conversion Diary has had a breakthrough that many of us should consider as well. I am guilty of this in particular and have been trying to establish time boundaries if nothing else for many of my extra activities that get in the way of "real life." Something well worth considering during Lent.

Creativity and Profanity in Films

You want to know what’s wrong with our waterfront? It’s love of a lousy buck. It’s making love of a buck— the cushy job— more important than the love of man. It’s forgetting that every fellow down here is your brother in Christ.

But remember, fellows, Christ is always with you—Christ is in the shape-up, He’s in the hatch—He’s in the union hall— He’s kneeling here beside Nolan and He’s saying with all of you—If you do it to the least of mine, you do it to me! What they did to Joey, what they did to Nolan, they’re doing to you. And you. And
YOU. And only you, with God’s help, have the power to knock ‘em off for good!

Write for God, which I have found has excellent and thoughtful essays, has a great piece about filmmakers' lessened abilities to express themselves without profanity. Featured is this powerful speech given by Karl Malden as Father Barry in On the Waterfront. I just gave a bit of the speech. Go read it all.

Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

Wow. Way worth it. Even if there is no hope whatsoever of any kind of culinary benefit to you for reading this book, you still ought to read it. Even if you aren’t pro-life. And in particular if you aren’t catholic, because it is not a book about catholic (or even theist) perspectives on the topic.

–> If you are catholic, you should read it so that you can speak intelligently to people who want to understand your position on the proper treatment of human embryos, but who aren’t particularly interested in arguments that begin ‘Well, the Pope says . . .’.

Fantastic book review Riparians at the Gate that has me panting to read this book.