Daring to Speak for God

FINALLY, my new book is ready to meet its reading audience. I am so grateful to the friends who have expressed interest in this project and their desire to read it. My prayer is that it will inspire you to greater depths in your relationship with God and sensitize you to the work of God's Holy Spirit in your life. I assure you God's Spirit inspired the writing and I trust that same Spirit will guide your reading.

The book is available from the publisher: www.parsonsporch.com or from Amazon. I would be most happy to hear from you with your comments, positive or negative, after you read it. If you find it helpful, you could help me by telling others about it and even writing a short review on Amazon. Thank you in advance.

Winning Entry in Mother's Day Writing Contest

The website "A Place for Mom" sponsored a writing contest asking for poems, essays, etc. of less than 500 words telling about your mother. My entry was chosen as one of the winners, and the site is supposed to be posting one winning entry every day during the month of May. However, as of today, only 4 entries have been posted. Several people have asked to read mine, so I'm posting it here:

About My Mother

My mother was the heart of our home, but I didn’t always know that, especially when I was young. As the only girl among three brothers, I was “my daddy’s darling” and he surely thought “I was sweet.” He indulged me in ways Mother didn’t, and so I doted on him.

Mother never showed resentment of my preference for Dad, knowing how my childish devotion pleased him. By the time I reached my mid-teens, however, I had grown to appreciate my mother much more. She and I easily became friends as my need for parental oversight diminished, and we enjoyed doing things together—shopping, visiting friends, cooking and sewing.

One of the traits I cherished most about my mother was the joy she found in her children. I remember when a woman we knew showed up at a social affair wearing a diamond necklace and earrings, in addition to her large diamond rings, Mother commented to a friend, “My children are my diamonds.” And we children always knew if one of us was coming or going from home, Mother would be standing in the front door or on the porch to welcome us or wave goodbye.

As I grew and matured, I truly came to realize that Mother was the hub around which our family revolved. She kept in touch with each child, wherever we were, and kept each of us informed about the happenings in our siblings’ lives as well as in hers and Dad’s.  One day when I was spending the weekend with Mother and Dad at their place on the river, I sat down beside Mother on the couch, put my arm around her and asked, “What is one special thing I could do for you? I would like to give you a special gift that would always be a reminder to you of my love.” Mother took my hand and said, “I can’t think of anything I want that I don’t have. I know you love me, and if I ever need you, all I have to do is call.”

Some weeks later, Mother told me that she and Dad were going to the river that weekend so he could work on his daddy’s old cotton house. She said, “I don’t know what he’s going to use it for, but it gives him something to do and a reason to get up in the morning.” That prompted me to ask, “What about you, Momma? What sort of unfulfilled dreams or wishes do you have?” She said, “I can’t think of anything. You children are all grown and healthy and you all know the Lord. I feel like my work is finished.”

That very weekend, on a gloriously beautiful Saturday in April, as Mother helped Dad lift a board in the old cotton house, she had a massive heart attack and died. It’s now been twenty-four years since that April day, and I still miss her. Scarcely a day goes by that I don't want to call and talk with my mother.

The Sacred Year

I found Michael Yankoski's book, The Sacred Year, profound and transformative! I have read many books on spirituality and have taught courses on spiritual formation in seminary, retreats, and churches, and this book is one of the best I have encountered from a modern writer. Michael spent a year engaging some of the ancient spiritual practices, such as silence, solitude, simplicity, confession, and attentiveness. He wrestles with their meaning, struggling to understand their purpose, and ultimately embraces them as essentially formative for his spiritual life. He devotes a separate chapter to each discipline and describes his initial indifference or ignorance, his journey of discovery, and the impact of the practice on his own formation as he undertakes to experience it. With each chapter, he builds on the previous one, so that the cumulative effect of the book is to encompass the entirety of life, both inward and outward, in a new and more meaningful kind of existence. 

I was particularly touched by the idea of writing gratigraphs, letters of appreciation to people who have blessed our lives, from his chapter on gratitude. When I was in high school, my dad encouraged me to write letters of appreciation to certain teachers around Thanksgiving time, and they were well received. However, in recent years I have become lax about writing and tried to express verbally such appreciation to people in my life. Just as Michael discovered, I learned that people often feel embarrassed or self-conscious with verbal expressions. Writing a letter allows the recipient to read it privately, and re-read it over the years, savoring the knowledge of having made a difference in our lives. Now that even a simple "thank-you" note is rarely written, a gratigraph can bless our friends over and over.

Another area Michael explores where I need work is creation care. I know so much more than I do about this issue. Just since reading this book, I find it impossible to ignore an electrical device I see plugged in that is not being used. I feel compelled to unplug it and end the phantom energy drain. I realize this is such a small thing, but having had my consciousness raised by Michael's convicting words, I'm striving to become more responsible toward creation and my fellow creatures in other ways as well. 

I can't think of anyone who couldn't benefit from reading this book and engaging with the topics Michael explores. Certainly, most committed Christians will find this book engaging, disruptive of complacency, and challenging to the status quo of much contemporary western Christianity. I rarely re-read books, but I have already begun a second reading of this one. I have shared about it on Facebook and Twitter, recommended it to others, and ordered extra copies as gifts for friends. It will remain on my "Re-read Often" list. I have found it compelling, persuasive, and life-changing. Thank you, Michael Yankoski, for blessing my life by sharing what God taught you through your sacred year. 
(I received an advance copy to read through Net Galley.)

"Who is this Jesus?"

Today's Gospel reading in the Common Lectionary is from Luke 7:36-8:3. The finest insight I've ever read or heard about this text was written by Kayla McClurg, who writes for Inward/Outward, a project of The Church of the Savior in Washington, DC.  I share it here because it's a message about Jesus Christ I think everyone needs to hear, whether Christian or not. The italics are mine.

To Love Well

For Sunday, June 16, 2013 – Luke 7:36-8:3

Immediate compassionate response trumps premeditated politeness. The host was thoughtful, no doubt, well-meaning and polite, curious about Jesus, but from a bit of a distance. The ‘sinning city woman’ knew nothing of distance. She was all-out passion. If the host was a small breeze, she was a blast of wind, a tangle of tears and kisses and hair. Intimate. You might say, inappropriate.

The host saw the unfolding action as opportunity to judge; Jesus simply received. Self-love deep enough, secure enough, makes other-love possible. The host had not enough inner resources for such loving attention as this. The dried up heart confuses rules and regulations for real caring, judgment for love. Even the ultimate words of love–”you are forgiven”–are misconstrued. “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” the guests ask among themselves. Why would they not ask, “Who is this, who loves so fully?”

To love well is not to follow a set of rules for loving well. To love well is to follow the tug of a thread that draws us toward this one who loves. The thread takes us where he is, this one who captures our heart. The woman bringing all she had did not premeditate how she could make a scene and disrupt Simon’s dinner party. She herself surely did not yet know how disruptive real love can be. She simply followed the thread.

Love beckoned. What could she do but respond?

By: Kayla McClurg

Season and Scripture: Luke, Ordinary Time C

Quotations I Like

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore – on the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him ‘meek and mild,’ and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.” Dorothy Sayers


“Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple. It is serene. It is amazing. It is triumphant. It is radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time. And it makes our life programs new and overcoming. We need not get frantic. He [Christ] is at the Helm. And when our little day is done we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.” Thomas Kelly

Incredible Christians

I've been teaching a Wednesday night Bible study on 2 Corinthians at my church, Vestavia Hills Baptist. In Chapter 6, verses 8-10, Paul lists a wonderful series of contrasts that describe his ministry:

We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

In studying those particular verses, I found the following excerpt from A. W. Tozer, in his book That Incredible Christian (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1978, p. 11):

A real Christian is an odd number anyway. He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen; talks familiarly every day to someone he cannot see; expects to go to heaven on the virtue of another; empties himself in order to be full; admits he is wrong so he can be declared right; goes down in order to get up; is strongest when he is weakest; richest when he is poorest; and happiest when he feels the worst. He dies so he can live; forsakes in order to have; gives away so he can keep; sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passes knowledge. The man who has met God is not looking for anything; he has found it. He is not searching for light, for upon him the light has already shined. His certainty may seem bigoted, but his assurance is that of one who knows by experience. His religion is not hearsay. He is not a copy, not a facsimile. He is an original from the hand of the Holy Spirit.

I consider that paragraph some profound words to ponder.

Introversion/Extroversion

I just recently finished reading Susan Cain's book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. Have any of my readers read it? Based on my experience as an introvert, I would say her findings are valid. I was blessed to have parents who didn't push me to be anyone other than who I was, so my love affair with books and reading was never a problem. I was also fortunate to be able to make friends easily, and since I only needed one or two at a time, I didn't feel marginalized by my peer group. I will say, however, that my peer group was always relatively small. I also think when I was growing up the "extrovert ideal" hadn't come to full power in our culture. My heart goes out to introverted children in today's world.
This book is worth reading for both introverts and extroverts as Cain not only affirms the value and power of introverts, but she gives wise counsel on how the two groups can relate effectively with each other, whether in school, the workplace, or in the family. Parents, especially I think, should read this book to understand your children's temperaments and how they interact with your own. You will also be able to help your child relate better in their school and social groups as well as learn to accept and value their own temperament and respect the opposite one. I'd also say it's a must-read for engaged or married couples who want to understand better the person they love and with whom they hope to live happily ever after.