Something About The Joy

So I end 2008 eating chocolate for breakfast, spending the morning playing on the computer, and putting off my quiet time until noon. Does not augur well. Lots of fodder for New Year's resolutions here, but I probably won't make any. My dreams for the new year are always pretty much the same: to see Him more clearly, to love Him more dearly, and to follow Him more nearly, day by day. I see little progress from year to year. Maybe it's there but just invisible to the naked eye. I hope so. But it is good to stop now and then and give the Lord a chance to lead me into more of what He wants so I will do that for a moment now. I suspect He wants to do more than I can imagine. My heart longs for Him. I want to reach out for that "more." So if I were to pick a keyword for my goals for the coming year it would be TRUST. I want to consistently, joyfully, confidently trust Him with things I can see and those I can't. To trust that He remains unchanging and fa...

Thinking about deep POV (see http://www.something-about-the-writing-journey.blogspot.com/ ) has drawn me into a deeper contemplation of my own life, and the way we human beings view ourselves and our world, and even--or especially--how we view God. In writing, "deep POV" is point-of-view, or perspective, written from deep inside the POV character. It gives readers a view, not only of the character's thoughts, but of his emotions and his physical sensations—what he sees through his eyes, hears through his ears, and feels in his body. It brings readers as close into the character's reality as the character is. Readers become the character while they are reading. But it's possible for a writer to write from a character's POV and still keep readers at arms length. The character's thoughts are expressed, but the reader (and the writer) are viewing the character from outside his skin. They're reading his mind, but not fully sharing his experience. That's...

God's purpose for inspired writing is not to inform us but to change us.

At first I saw God as my observer, my judge, Keeping track of the things I did wrong, So as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there sort of like a president. I recognised His picture when I saw it, but I really didn’t know Him. But later on when I met Christ, It seemed as though life were rather like a bike ride, But it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back, Helping me pedal. I don’t know when it was that He suggested we change places, But life has not been the same since. When I had control, I knew the way. It was rather boring, but predictable. . . It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, up mountains, and through rocky places at breakneck speeds. It was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal!" I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn’t answer, and I started to learn...

I'm struggling right now. Are you? It seems every time I turn around I find others who are perplexed also--dealing with excruciatingly painful and unsolvable problems. It causes me angst. I'd like to fix everything, in my life and in the lives of people I love. But I'm learning something through this difficult time. Oswald Chambers says it well: "We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process God calls the end. . . .His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. . .that I see him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. . . .God's end is to enable me to see that He can walk on the chaos of my life just now." (July ...

I used to think that conversation was all about talking. To "con-verse" means "to speak words with." Two people speak words with each other, and that’s conversation. Some time ago it began to dawn on me that if two people did nothing more than speak words with each other, there might not be a lot of communication going on. Someone needs to be on the receiving end of the words. And so I grew to understand that conversation was made up of two parts: speaking and listening. Ideally, each participant in the dialogue would do both. Give and take, fifty-fifty, like in a good marriage. I learned this important truth, but it took me a while longer to put it into practice. In conversations with friends, though I was careful not to talk more than my fifty percent, I wasn’t so good about listening the other fifty. I’d be making eye contact and nodding intelligently but my mind was usually on the future—what I was preparing to say during my upcoming 50% talk time. I’m a slow le...

I'm coming to believe that culling books from your library is like losing weight. You want to do it but you don't want to give up anything.

Dear Karin, We got your note yesterday, with the news you’d already given us by phone of the return of your cancer. I’ve been praying for you since you called. I’m encouraged, as I always have been, by your strength (even when you feel weak), and courage (even when you feel afraid), and optimism (even when there are things in your life that might make others with less character see only gloom and despair). I know you will probably have your times of feeling all of those negative things, but I also know you will face them and overcome them. I love the questions you ask! I know the hunger for God that drove you to ask those questions has made it possible for Him to stretch you and grow your faith. I’ve seen that growth happening in the questions, and the decisions you have made, especially lately, about how you will live your life. I love that your main question in all this is how you can serve God and fulfil whatever purposes He has for you. Your heart is so much in the right plac...