Category: Books

What can Christ accomplish in me today?

5/14/2024

In the novel  If I Were You, by Lynn Austin, one of the characters asks herself:
What can Christ accomplish through me and how can I follow in His step? The question caught my attention and so I wrote it down.  Why did I bother? What was enticing about it?  I though about it; subject and object, as well as prepositions,  make all the difference.  What can Christ accomplish through me, not what can I accomplish for Christ!
     Usually I ask God  (in a rather folksy way) for a task I can do for Him, "What can I do for you today? I've got time; I'm ready; just give me the okay to head on out; my to-do list is on the table." I am in control.
      Asking what Christ can accomplish through me shifts the tenor. Whether I have time, or am prepared, or have a to-do-list (probably not in God's vocabulary) isn't the point. God is in control.
      Once again I am reminded of a favorite scripture from John's Gospel. Jesus tell me, "You did not call me, but I called you... "And then he goes not to say, " to bear fruit, fruit that will last so that the Father will give you whatever you ask, fruit that will last so that you will love one another."
      What can Christ accomplish in me today?

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The Shack revisited

2/19/2019

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The other day four of us from church gathered to watch the movie, The Shack. I had read the book when it first came out in 2007, but I couldn’t get into it. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit personified as regular everyday people felt too literal and dogmatic, too defined and limiting for my United Church of Christ upbringing.
Watching the movie twelve years later, however, opened my heart. I was ready to let go of the complexities of the Trinity and receive its simple, unified message of love through my willingness to choose to forgive, trust, and hope--Hard to do but the model of support is there.
Christianity (and Judaism) is a faith of the Book. We know about Jesus through stories told in the four Gospels. It make sense, therefore, to build on those gospel stories through the stories of others.

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Compassion from the heart~

12/30/2016

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     Today is my birthday. On Face Book I asked my friends to send me the title of a book they thought I’d enjoy. I’m on a reading binge and am planning to join the Goodreads Reading Challenge, committing to reading 52 books in 2017. I’ve received many suggestions and if any of you want to send me a title, I’d love to hear from you either via email ([email protected]) or as a blog comment. Later in January I’ll post the list.
     I’ve already begun, finishing THE CLASS CASTLE and starting HALF BROKE HORSES, both by Annette Walls. These two books, along with the provocative titles suggested by my friends, are leading me toward new spiritual insights, specifically toward compassion. Not more compassion but compassion from the heart rather than the head.
     Life isn’t about getting it perfect, but doing the best we can with what we’ve been dealt, which is never a full house. The people we read about in story, be it fiction or memoire, show us how to cope, overcome and be resurrected. They find God in the midst because God is there for them. Jesus didn’t have it easy, so why should we ever imagine we will live in a glass house? But by his example as the Resurrected One, we can have such moments in our own life when there is light and clarity. We play with the hand we’re dealt, but Jesus is there to give us new cards. He’s the best dealer I know.

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Clarity~

7/13/2016

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    Here is my cottage-by-the-sea post of yesterday. On this prayerdiary blog I want to tell you how easy it was to let go of those New Age books, and at the unexpected relief I felt in doing so. The topics still intrigue me—past and future lives, energy and chakras and more, but they are all there to ponder from a Christian perspective. In these winding down years of mine, I don’t have to read everything, but it definitely helps not to have the books staring me in the face. Clarity of material possessions helps clarity of mind.

    My husband and I are in the midst of a major purge of stuff. It started when our grandpet had a series of accidents on our wall-to-wall upstairs carpet; that led to the shameful confession that couldn’t remember when it was installed because it was so long ago--at lease twenty years, maybe thirty. It is time to get rid of the rug and think about hardwood floors.
    This has ended up primarily being a book purge; many New Age—past lives, astrology, ‘para’ this and that. Just the thing for someone at the put-and-take. Fewer books means fewer shelves; so far we’ve emptied four.
I’ve been writing about simplicity on this blog for close to seven years. Passing these books on to interested readers opens up simplicity on many levels. When we decide to move, we will have already done some downsizing. If we stay here forever, it will be a BIG help to our kids. In letting go of all those ‘para’ books, I have released all obligations to pursue such topics. Simplicity on the material, physical plane; simplicity on the psychological, spiritual plane.

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The Art of Prayer~

5/16/2014

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Most mornings I read a short section from The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology. Many of selections are by Theophan the Recluse (1815-94), who lived an enclosed life for twenty-eight years in the provincial monastery at Vyshen, Russia. He had plenty of time to write and to pray, and that is what he did--teaching us to open our hearts by repeating the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon us.

The more I read his writings and try to follow them, the more I am aware that this opening of the heart is the way to God. Here are a few excerpts:

Attention to what goes on in the heart and to what comes forth from it is the chief work of a well-ordered Christian life.

It is well known that the whole purpose of those who are zealous in the spiritual life, is to place themselves in a right relationship with God: and this right relationship is realized and made manifest in prayer.

You must descend from your head into your heart. At present your thoughts of God are in your head. And God Himself is, as it were, outside you and so your prayer and other spiritual exercises remain exterior. While you are still in your head, thoughts will not easily be subdued but will always be whirling about, like snow in winter or clouds of mosquitoes in the summer.

Unceasing prayer overcomes evil through hope in God, it leads a man into a holy simplicity, weaning his mind from its habit of diversity in thought, and from devising plans about himself and his neighbors, keeping him always in scantiness and humility of thoughts.

By unceasing prayer curiosity, mistrustfulness and suspicion are destroyed, and because of this other people begin to seem good in our eyes.

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Cottage reading list~

4/8/2014

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I just posted the following list of my pleasure (and other) reading at the cottage this year on my Cottagebythesea blog. An * indicates audio books that entertained me on my roundtrip drives from home to cottage.

This list doesn’t include my spiritual readings, which consist of daily devotionals (I’ll post a list of those in the next few days). And then, there is The Bible, which of course heads the list.

* Allende, Isabelle. Daughter of Fortune.
Anderson, Joan. The Second Journey: The Road Back to Yourself.
Carrisi, Donato. The Lost Girls of Rome.
Ensler, Eve. In the Body of the World.
Dreher, Rod. The Little Ways of Ruthie Lemis.
Ferrante, Elena. My Brilliant Friend.
Ferrante, Elena. The Story of a New Name.
Fiorato, Marina. The Botticelli Secret.
France, Peter. Hermits.
Gallagher, Jeffrey M. Wilderness Blessing.
Gilbert, Elizabeth. The Signature of All Things.
Gordkova. A Mountain of Crumbs.
Grodstein, Lauren. The Exploration for Everything.
Grollner, Adam Leith. The Book of Immortality.
Hanion, Jeannette. The All of It.
Hood, Ann. The Knitting Circle.
* Hood, Ann. The Obituary Writer.
Hossein, Khaled. And the Mountains Echoed.
Kerman, Piper. Orange is the New Black.
Kidd, Sue Monk & Ann Kidd Taylor. Traveling with Pomegranates.
Kline, Christina Baker. Orphan Train.
Kopp, Heather. Sober Moments: A Memoire.
Lamb, Wally. We are Water.
* Merton, Thomas. The Seven Story Mountain.
Moriarty, Liane. The Husband’s Secret.
McDonnel, Jane Taylor. Living to Tell the Tale: A Guide to Memoir Writing.
McKinlay, Deborah. That Part Was True.
Moyes, Jojo. The Girl You Left Behind.
Moyes, Jojo. Me Before You.
* Nuland, Sherwin B. The Art of Aging.
Phillips, Jayne Anne. Quiet Dell.
Russo, Richard. Elsewhere: A Memoir.
Sotomayor, Sonia. My Beloved World.
St. Germain, Justin. Sun of a Gun.
Stedman, M.L.. The Light Between the Oceans.
* Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the PCT.
Welch, Evelyn. Art and Society in Italy 1350-1500.

It is hard to pick favorites but the following stand out:
My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor.
My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name, by Elena Ferrante
Wilderness Blessing, by Jeff Gallagher

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What can Christ accomplish in me today?

The Shack revisited

Compassion from the heart~

Clarity~

The Art of Prayer~

Cottage reading list~

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