“Won’t Someone Please Stop Me?” Part One

I laughed my way through Judith Viorst’s How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities. I’ve long since passed the half-century mark, so it seemed reasonable that I should at least face the music of being forty. Even though I must admit I feel more like thirty . . . until I think about my schedule of involvements. Then I wish I were older and had an excuse for hiding away in a cabin, writing my memoirs . . . as if anybody would ever care to read them.

Writing with Thorns

In pain, grief, affliction, and loss, it often helps to write our feelings . . . not just feel them. Putting words on paper seems to free our feelings from the lonely prison of our souls. It was C. S. Lewis who wrote: Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything . . . . No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid.

The Family: No Substitute Will Do, Part Two

It’s true: there’s no substitute for the family! Yesterday I related a rather amusing story about mine. I’m sure you can recall times in your own family that make you chuckle. Other times those family memories are deeply profound and stabilizing. Who can ever forget the impact of a father’s strong arms around the shoulders of his kids following the loss of someone they all loved? Or the comfort communicated by a mother’s embrace?

The Family: No Substitute Will Do, Part One

Try all you like, you simply cannot find a substitute for the family. God planned it that way. In spite of all we’re reading and seeing these days designed to make us think we’ve entered the family-phase-out era, don’t you believe it! There is nothing on earth that comes close to the benefits derived from relationships revolving around our roots. Nothing.

Grandparenting, Part Two

Grandparents. What amazing gifts from God. Generation after generation He provides a fresh set of them . . . an ever-present counterculture in our busy world. Lest everyone else get so involved they no longer stop to smell the flowers or watch tiny ants hard at work, these special adults are deposited into our lifestyle account. They’ve made enough errors to understand that perfectionism is a harsh taskmaster and that self-imposed guilt is a hardened killer.

Grandparenting, Part One

It’s bad enough that, until recently, Webster omitted “parenting” in his dictionary . . . but continuing to disregard “grandparenting” is somewhere between incompetent and inexcusable! Okay, okay, so it isn’t an official word. So it lacks sufficient roots in Anglo-Saxon linguistic lore to merit a position in the ranks of Webster’s major reference work.

Being Real, Part Two

Yesterday I told you about Dave Cowens, an NBA star who disappeared one day on a quest for solitude and meaning. I noted that to “find yourself” requires that you take time to look. And it’s essential if you want to be a whole person. The word is real. It takes time and it usually hurts. The Velveteen Rabbit is a classy book for children with a message for adults.

Letters of Reference

September 12, AD 61—Dear Paul: We are considering a man to serve as a manager in the copper plant of our growing company, Corinthian Chariots, Inc. We are an aggressive, innovative firm with plans for expansion into major metropolitan regions like Rome, Athens, Antioch, and Jerusalem. We are looking for future employees who would fit into a visionary business like ours.

Workaholics

Strange creatures roam the land these days. Being efficient, diligent, and productive, they are remarkably impressive . . . but beneath the surface they are suffering from a miserable malady. Compulsively driven with an obsessive desire to achieve, these creatures give themselves to labor like alcoholics give themselves to booze. Workaholics. You will find them in every imaginable occupation, and unfortunately, they are usually successful.

The Ghost of Ephraim, Part One

Psalm 78 is a hymn of history. Being a Maskil psalm, it is designed to instruct those who ponder its message. The opening words command us to listen . . . to incline our ears to what the composer, Asaph, has to say. Immediately we realize that he is recounting the unhappy days of disobedience which characterized the Jews during their rebellion and wandering.

Tag Archives: Psalms