A decade of blogging. Uffda.

Also, November 16th was this blog's 10 year anniversary! Wow. That seems cake-worthy. 266 posts filled with prayers and poetry and pain. It hasn't all been pretty. But hopefully it has brought (and brings) praise to the original blogger.

Valuing the maker

"Walk through a museum. Look around a city. Almost all the artifacts that we value as a society were made by or at the order of men. But behind every one is an invisible infrastructure of labor—primarily caregiving, in its various aspects—that is mostly performed by women…. The cultural primacy of making, especially in tech culture—that it is intrinsically superior to not-making, to repair, analysis, and especially caregiving—is informed by the gendered history of who made things, and in particular, who made things that were shared with the world, not merely for hearth and home.

Debbie Chachra, “Why I Am Not a Maker”  (Via Austin Kleon).

I haven't read the article, but I resonated with the quote. I just was struck by the concept of "invisible work" and the connection with prayer and spiritual work that I am ruminating on. But I think the relatively low-valued work of prayer highly relates to its invisibility- in a sense the "not-makingness" of sitting in a room (or standing, walking, kneeling) with a humble heart in conversation with my Maker. That doesn't feel "productive" in my "making=value" sense... and I think that's true for many Americans and it affects church culture and, frankly, the Kingdom of God, in incredible ways. 

Oh, to see and live for the invisible city, whose designer and [home]maker is GOD.

Large plans

If God be your partner, make your plans large. D.L. Moody

Time for turning

Most people want a God who requires nothing of them, who is easy to figure out and who allows himself to be under their control. They do not want a King who is inflexible toward rebellion, unmoved by the arguments and whims of people, and incapable of compromise. Thus the earth is not ready to be ruled by Jesus. It must be prepared. (38)..."Now therefore," says the Lord through his prophetic messenger, "turn to me with all of your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with morning." (42) 

-End Times Simplified, by David Slicker.

(Notice the faint rainbow in the center of the picture... Covenant reminder above St. Paul! He has mercy. But the gate of mercy is narrow and the path of destruction wide.)

Closer

Did growing older bring me closer to Jesus?
-Henri Nouwen

Father's heart/father's ghosts

Words.

Those living breathing knotty things

Welling up in throats

Tangling the ankles

Beseeching the dead

Griefs that plague with unasked for thoughts.

Words of the intention,

Taken as grace from an impure heart salvaged from a bondage

So great, limbs were torn and flesh ripped,

And a flock gripped and ransomed

And becoming.

I taste the salt leftover on my father’s head,

From sweating and a silly ritual of giving him a “sloppy”

Kiss.

I see the lines as he worries for me and happiness,

Worries to an unseen and unknown god,

Worries to a decaying body

Worries to a numbed mind

Worries to a deceived heart

Worries becoming pathways engrained, frames unchanged

Lines un-receeding,
like the tide. 

I take up the words, now,

Take them up like a plow,

Not looking back,

Forward yet and coming 

Again and again 

To the Eternal breast of rest. 

Inspired by “Have you Prayed?, from Behind My Eyes by Li-Young Lee.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182921

Simple conversation

 “Conversation with God leads to an encounter with God.” Tim Keller

Jon Thurlow, simple conversation: http://youtu.be/SYyqGY4AtUo