My Super Trooper

 Teddy's surgery on his hand went well.  He wins the Super Trooper award for handling a long arm cast with an uncomplaining spirit and sweet smile.   He'll get an early Christmas present when his arm is unwrapped on the 23rd.

Led by the Hand or Dragged by the Coattails

A powerful book has the ability to take you gently or forcibly to a place you might not venture on your own.  Here are my recent reads to move the most complacent to think.

 

Beware of some strong language.  This is a book of a North Korean defector and the inside workings of the hermit kingdom.  Freedom is so precious that many attempt escape from their repressive homeland, but few make it.   Even fewer escapees pen what they know, due to the fact that family and friends left behind will face certain disappearance. 

 

Fast moving and quite incredible that a Jewish lady finds help among the Muslims as she flees her native land in front of Hitler's advances. 

 

A book to confirm that God's plans can never be thwarted.  He placed a pharmacist behind bars so that she might meet Himself.  The prisoner becomes free as only God can do.   In a place of despair and brokenness, Jesus reshapes a woman's whole way of thinking and consumes her with His grace. 

Crazy and well-researched.  God is indeed humbling the proud and working all things to his good purpose.  Thought provoking for America's future.

 

Out of intense grief, a woman pours herself into a worthy call.  She rescues kids from human trafficking and sets up safe havens for them in which to learn and grow.  This book is a transforming tale of how her cause for the rejected and misused sweeps away her former expectations for what makes a good life.  She finds she doesn't miss the things and wishes she could only do more for the people.

 

If I ran a high school, this would be required reading for every graduate.  This is where Communism will eventually lead.   The personal epic moves without justifying survival behavior.  A Cambodian man traces his heart-breaking escape story from Pol Pot's genocide.

c is for coat

 

Hunt To Remember

 

Us

A Head Covered By Prayer

When we were at our favorite thrift store the other day, Jane found a precious panda bear hat for Teddy.  Since the hat had no price tag I took it to the register and inquired.   The lady seemed to be sure it was $8.00 even though it had no price.   Now at thrift store I don't expect to pay retail prices.  I told her that sounded a bit high and said I would not buy it.  As Teddy already has a warm hat, this was an unnecessary purchase.   Well, the little kids and I went to pick up the big kids at school.  I felt increasingly bad that I had not gotten the sweet hat for Teddy.  In the realm of things, $8.00 to make a little boy feel special is nothing.   After the big kids packed into the car, I turned around and went back to the thrift store.   We found the hat again and took it to the register.   This time I was resolved to pay the $8.00 and not worry about it.   I told the new cashier that there wasn't a price on the hat.   She crisply responded, " It is $2.00."

"I'll take it."

There is really no story here if it hadn't been for what Jane told me on the way out the door.   She relayed to me that in the car on the way back to the store, Teddy asked, "Do you think we should pray to God that the panda hat is $1.00?"

Some of you may be skeptical that God answered the voice of a child, because the hat was a dollar more.  However, I am convinced that for a hat to drop $6.00 in thirty minutes God gets the glory.
 

 

Now when I see my cute son wearing his black and white hat, I will be reminded and assured that the Creator God who spoke into existence pandas is also speaking to those who bow their heads. My son, who isn't yet a believer, was prompted to pray to his Creator who cares about every little detail of his life.   May you never forget that God blesses us with more than we need and listens when we call to him.  The evidence is on Teddy's head.

 

 

When the Dog Eats Your Cape

I need a hero.  There is nothing I need more.  It may surprise you in a day when us, mortals, are suppose to be superheroes and wear capes even when we sleep that mine went missing.  I think I had a soft, pretty cape when I was much younger, more invincible and had less worries.  The sadder and wiser me thinks the dog ate my cape.  Wherever I place the blame, I can relate so well to 2 Corinthians 4:8-10.

"We are hard pressed on every side...perplexed... persecuted...struck down."

Those of you who know that verse realize that I left out the best part.  Here enters my hero.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

My Glorious Hero allows himself to be crushed when I am hard pressed.  He substituted himself for me.   My Glorious Hero captures my tears in a bottle when I am perplexed.  He numbers them each like the drops in the ocean.  Flee, despair; I matter that much to him.   

Psalm 56:8
"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book."

My Glorious Hero shows me his pierced hands and feet and whispers his presence in the midst of persecution.  My Glorious Hero knows what it is like to be struck down, and he knows what it is like to be destroyed.    And on the cross in his dying breath when he said, "It is finished", he meant it.  Jesus made those he called eternal. I can never be destroyed.

Jesus gives himself in overflowing measures.  He is always sufficient for the need.   Every time people, things, institutions and should-be securities disappoint us, we must turn our eyes away from circumstances and fix our eyes back on our Great God.  

From Isaiah 6, we know this Glorious Hero's cape fills the temple.  May our hearts and minds, the new covenant temples, be so filled with the cape of his Presence that there is no room left for doubts and discouragement.  When everything comes unravelled, may I hold tighter to the indestructible cape of Jesus who brings hope and peace to all he covers.

Camping with Beavers

We took a much needed trip away from the craziness.  It was incredibly restful to not have Ben's cell wake us at 3 in the morning, to not have 4 hours of homework every evening, to not have anyplace to go or do.   We took in miles of hiking, crystal clear water and perfect camping weather.

 

Ruggedly Good-Looking

 

Flag Confusion

Recently Teddy believed that all the flags around our house were China flags.   Ben told him that the China flag is red with yellow stars, and he seemed very surprised that it wasn't red, white and blue.  There's such a lot to learn for a new American citizen. 

The Color of the Day

 

Slowing Down the World

 Reading is my way of slowing down the world.  The pages wait for me to turn them.   

 

 How do you condense the tears of a ninety year old? How do you allow strangers the peek into your most horrendous heartaches? Somehow this book was tender and miraculous without being weepy.  A mother waits her entire life to see her first-born daughter, adopted at infancy.  Only God could write such an ending.

The poor of Mozambique have seen the richness of Jesus.  Heidi and Rolland Baker are an amazing missionary couple that believe with all their hearts that Jesus is always enough.   They live out the sufficiency of Christ in a radical faith and away from the physical bounty of the first world.  I have a deep respect that they are not victims of impoverished spirits.  They are abundantly joyful where they are stripped of everything to rely on, except Christ. 

N.D. Wilson has an intellectually stimulating, but refreshingly light writing style.  You may find this book a bit scattered, unless you are already a dreamer and see the world with wonder-lit eyes.  However, the book's crazy whirl encourages you to look at the world with curiosity, ask questions again, and savor mix-ups and messes.  All the pieces (even the ones I wish weren't) are the telling of Christ's unique story in my life.  Wilson writes in confidence that Jesus puts all things right in the end.  People who live like this can never be bored.

 

G.K. Chesterton could have written the forward to this book with his succinct quote, "The world will never starve for want of wonders but only for want of wonder."

 

 

 

Why did I read this?  Ben and I love John Piper.  Sadly, his son seems to currently struggle to be his father's son.  This is a melancholy rambling book that really came to no conclusions and offers little resolution.  I could understand it quite well without being a pastor's kid, because what Barnabas observed is more universal than the ministry (even though he might not know it).  All young adults go through a growing up stage that is painful.  They question their spiritual identity, the expectations set on them, and the values of their parents.  Everyone wants to be valued for themselves rather than who their dynamic relatives are or what their kinfolk think.  Paradoxically, it is often the young adult with the most to be thankful for which struggle the most to have grateful hearts.  In another decade lived, Barnabas probably would have found a better topic to write on.  His heart bleeds with wanting to be understood, but it seems he hasn't quite come to the place of beauty and security where he is fully known and loved in Christ and where the wound of human disappointment is healed.