Sabbath Sentiments

Tomorrow, September 1, marks the beginning of the month of Ramadan in the Muslim world. Join many Christians in praying for Muslims during this important month of fasting and feasting by checking out this site. They offer prayer items for the 30 days, along with many other resources. May God be pleased to turn many hearts towards Himself during this time.

Book notes

I am slowly working my way through a little reading, though my brain is a bit fuzzy and I fall asleep easily. Here are my thoughts on a few recently finished or currently underway...

Scott Card's "Shadow" series sort of petered out for me. I enjoyed Ender's Shadow, and Shadow of the Hegemon, but in Shadow Puppets, I got very weary of the long passages exposing Card's Mormon misunderstandings about children and procreation. I must say this is the only major place where this has bothered me in the whole series, apart from his obvious misunderstanding of Christianity throughout. Still, I'm glad I finished it off. Now to return to Xenocide, and finish the series.

Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsy and Harriet Vane mysteries are just plain fun. And the most fun of them all is Busman's Honeymoon, though it is best enjoyed when one has completed the other Peter and Harriet novels. It is funny, warm, erudite and charming. It was my best reread of the summer!

I have enjoyed rereading Pilgrimn's Progress so far, and am finding that what was true the last (and first) time I read it is still true for me: I find the first part, as we follow Christian on his journey, compelling and endearing. But when we get to Part 2, when we return to follow Christiana, I get bogged down and have a harder time plowing on. But I am committed to finishing it off sooner or later.

I have recently been surprised by Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I have heard good things about it, but I guess I expected a cute little feminine mystery. What I am getting instead is a nicely written account of life in Botswana through the eyes of a lady detective-in-the-making. It has been delightful so far, and along with the light and interesting mysteries she encounters, our protagonist introduces us to life in the South African diamond mines, the dark side of witchcraft in Africa, and a multitude of other fascinating details.

I am also in the middle of The Night Journal, which was given to me by my parents. It takes place in nearby New Mexico locations (Pecos and Las Vegas)and is simultaneously a tale of pioneers and their descendants. Some of the historical background is fascinating, but it's not great writing, and I'm afraid some of it is a little sketchy for me (and perhaps will grow more so.) I'll let you know what I think when I've finished.

Most of my serious reading is just resting on my nightstand, awaiting the time when my brain can again function a little better. But I am really enjoying reading Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. Each chapter has its own theological and practical gems that seem to apply to life right now, and help me gain perspective. If you want an accessible, practical book on suffering, this is an excellent choice. (Of course, my favorite book on suffering is The Crook in the Lot by Thomas Boston, but I am not up to those Puritan prose right now. And while we're on suffering titles, if you have never read R. C. Sproul's book, Surprised by Suffering, it is also excellent, as is the video series by the same title.)

I hope you are all finishing off the summer with some good books, gentle readers. Let me know what you have been enjoying!

Weary to the bone

Today I have been tired to the bone. I didn't sleep well, probably because I didn't rest enough yesterday. Don't get me wrong: I didn't actually accomplish anything yesterday, but I didn't really lay down and sleep. Then last night I was tender and ached all over, couldn't get comfortable, had nasty dreams when I did sleep, and got up this morning more tired than when I went to bed last night. So I conducted a forced march for 45 minutes this morning without enjoying it. I listened to good music with uplifting words, and read scripture, and tried to get my focus where it needed to be, despite how tired of the struggle I was feeling. I showered, and headed off to treatment especially thankful that My Gal Thursday was driving so I could rest to Santa Fe and back. And after lunch, I headed to my comfy chair with a book, ready to fall asleep reading.

The book I took with me to my comfy chair was Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. David Powlison, in his chapter, "God's Grace and Your Suffering", said this profound thing:

How does God's grace meet you in your suffering? We can make the right answer sound old hat, but I guarantee this: God will surprise you. He will make you stop. You will struggle. he will bring you up short. You will hurt. He will take his time. You will grow in faith and in love. He will deeply delight you. Yu will find the process harder than you ever imagined--and better. Goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life (Psalm 23:6). No matter how many times you've heard it, no matter how long you've known it, no matter how well you can say it, God's answer will come to mean something better than you could ever imagine.

As I dozed off to sleep contemplating this, I kept coming back to the idea of delighting in God. And it occurred to me in a flash that as God makes us more and more into the image of His Son through our suffering, He not only gives us delight in Him, but He delights in us. This Sovereign God not only allows me to delight in Him, but He chooses to delight in me. So when I am bone tired and dragging, the Sovereign of the universe delights in me, not because I deserve it, or because I've gotten anything at all done (or nothing at all done) but because He chose to make me into the likeness of His Son, and he chose me to delight in me. That is soothing salve for my weary bones.

Wednesday Without Words

Sabbath Sentiments

“...though it may be from a comparatively higher and purer class of motives that we may be induced to disobey the Lord, no sooner are we committed to an act or course of disobedience, than motives far less high and far less pure, may immediately assert a most humiliating mastery over us...The enemy at first may have needed to draw upon his more subtle devices, in order to waylay, deceive, delude, disarm you; but once you are disarmed, he can dispense with any refined style of dealing. Coarser methods now will suffice.”
- Hugh Martin, Jonah, p.58

Writing as craft

Earlier this week I held a meeting for parents and students who are enrolling in my composition and worldviews classes this year. I guess it confirms my calling as a teacher when I get really excited about diagramming sentences and analyzing the prose of Washington Irving, and just the whole planning, interacting, and discipling of students. Though I am still too tired to be starting (and I'm not starting until October) I am definitely looking forward to starting. I become downright enthusiastic about classical education when I stop and think about it!

As I pulled together thoughts about my composition class, I was struck anew with how right the classical approach to writing seems to be. The ancients approached writing as a craft. Not everyone will become an artist with words, but everyone should be given the tools of language, and taught how to use them to become efficient craftsmen with words. Add to this the Christian perspective that writing, like so much of the Christian life, is tied to dying to yourself and writing for your readers, and I think it is exciting to come alongside young writers and watch their minds (and vocabularies) expand!

The best way to learn a craft is to apprentice yourself to a master craftsman: and here, I don't mean the teacher, but a great writer. The legacy for hundreds of years in the West has been to sit at the feet of those who write well by reading carefully and analyzing what they have done, and then imitating it yourself. Just because somewhere around 1900 they tossed out the tried-and-true in favor of the new-and-experimental, doesn't mean that we have to continue following in the same lock-step way. Contemporary writing curriculum, especially in the pre-college years, is very student-centered, either overly formulaic or entirely self-expression oriented. I reject this approach. So with my students, and the help of wiser authors like Fr. Francis Donnelly, Frank D'Angelo, Edward Corbett, and Aphthonius, we sit at the feet of Washington Irving for our first semester. He was a master of sentence construction, and he has much to teach us still. And after that, we return to the progymnasmata.

I don't teach anything new in my composition class. I teach only what I have borrowed or stolen from others. But what wisdom! Why are we so quick to think that something new must be better, when there was a wealth of wisdom and experience to be found in those who came before us-- but the answer to that would be a worldview question, and I'll have to write about that another day.

If you are interested in how I approach composition, you can see more here.

Wednesday Without Words

Ben's New Venture

These are my kids in Indiana. Aren't they cute? They are smart and love the Lord, too. What parent could ask for anything more?!

Ben is beginning a new venture... or at least checking to see if he can start a new venture: offering online tutoring in his beloved classics! Below is a summary of what he's doing, and how to get in touch with him if you are interested. I think he is making a fine teacher!

My name is Ben Finnegan. I am a former homeschooler (all through elementary, middle, and high school), and, having finished my Master's degree, I am currently working for my PhD in Classical Studies at Indiana University. I'm looking for more teaching experience in an environment that I know and enjoy, so I thought I would offer Greek, Latin, and Classical Culture classes or tutoring to members of the homeschool community.

I would be willing to do a larger cooperative class or smaller tutoring sessions in any of these subjects. I must say that, given the difficulty of the material and my expectations as a teacher, these classes are generally limited to those of high school age, though if a student is well developed enough and has a good work ethic I would be willing to accept younger children as well.

--Beginning Latin
Using the venerable and exacting Wheelock's Latin Course, this course of study would introduce students to learning foreign language in general by close grammatical study, and would provide the same amount of Latin as one semester of College language study.

--Intermediate Latin
With this offering, I would ask for a diagnostic meeting with any prospective students in order to ascertain at what level their Latin is. This course would work towards greater reading comprehension and analytical grasp of the Latin language.

--Advanced Latin
As with the above, a diagnostic meeting would be required. I would give students an overview of several types of Latin literature (poetry, history, drama, oratory), and then move on to intensive translation and study of particular authors and works, dependent on the interests of the student. Books for this class would likely be more expensive than any of the other offerings, given the high price of original language texts.

--Beginning Classical Greek
The study of Greek is a difficult but rewarding enterprise. This class would be at a much slower pace than any of my Latin classes, as the material is much more demanding. The textbook used would be Chase and Phillips' course for Classical Greek

--Beginning Koine (New Testament) Greek
For those who do not wish to embroil themselves in Ancient Greek literature, but would like to approach the Bible and other Late Classical and Patriarchal authors. Koine is a slimmed-down, simplified form of Greek. The text used would be the beginning text written by the great J. Gresham Machen.

--Greek Literature in Translation
This class avoids the problems of a second language altogether, but still gives a larger cultural and historical grasp of Ancient Greece. With this class, I would read at least one work by all the major authors, and at least one work of each literary genre. The emphasis here would be on religious, political, historical, and cultural ideas viewed through the lens of beginning literary criticism and a good understanding of the Greek world-view. A word of warning, though: much of Greek literature deals with troubling themes of violence and sexuality. While I will avoid the lewd and obscene, these currents are too strong for any class in Greek literature to avoid completely. So please consider this offering only for those spiritually and emotionally mature enough to discuss these subjects from a Biblical world and life view

--Latin Literature in Translation
Like the above class, this will deal with English translations of the great works of Latin literature. Again, the emphasis in this class would be on developing a good understanding of the Roman world-view through literary-critical reading and involving discussions of the Roman religious, political, historical, and literary world. As with Greek literature, much of Latin literature is filled with themes of violence and sexuality. Again, I would avoid the more lascivious of the works, but the history of Rome is filled with too much corruption and deviance for any course to completely avoid the actions of immoral men and women.

These classes would be offered twice a week beginning in September and continuing through early December for the first term, and beginning in February and ending in May. The exact schedule of the classes will depend on interest and enrollment. I can accept a maximum of 18 students per session because of the software that I will be using.

At this point, I do not want to settle on a price, as that will depend on demand and the number of students. Books for each course should be readily available at an online bookseller, and would average about $40-60 per class, depending on the class. My rates for each class will be negotiable, but as a ball-park idea, in the past I have been paid $15-20 per hour of one-on-one tutoring, $12-18 per hour of class with less than five students, and $8-15 per hour of class with more than five students. However, I am perfectly willing to work with anyone who wants to come to a reasonable price that they find more appropriate for the services rendered.

If you are interested in any of these classes please either e-mail me at: bdfinn@gmail.com or call 505-690-8936.

References available upon request.

Wednesday Without Words

Sabbath Sentiments

Teach me, O God, so to use all the circumstances of my life today that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin.

Let me use disappointment as material for patience:
Let me use success as material for thankfulness:
Let me use suspense as material for perseverance:
Let me use danger as material for courage:
Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering:
Let me use praise as material for humility:
Let me use pleasures as material for temperance:
Let me use pains as material for endurance.

~John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer

Wednesday Without Words

Brokenness

On Saturday, I attended the memorial service of a child. A baby, really. Just over nine months old, she had begun her life prematurely, with a myriad of medical problems, but the image of God stamped upon her. In her short life on this earth, she touched the lives of others in ways they will never forget.

As heart-breaking as the death of a child is, there was something more heart-wrenching at that service: the brokenness of her family. Her parents are estranged and with other people. Her grandparents are divorced. One of her grandparents saw her for the first time at her memorial service. I could feel the tension and division in the air, and because I love each of them, I wept. I wept for their pain, and the scars they have accumulated and given one another. I wept for the way God created things to be, and the distance between that and the reality of all of our lives.

It made me think of Romans 8:18-25:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

I could hear the groaning of the creation at that service. I could feel the groaning of my own spirit, and it's longing for things to be made whole again. I long for healing for me and for the family of this dear little baby. But that patience part, that's the rub. I am growing impatient for the promises of God to be fulfilled. I am so longing for the brokenness of our fallen world to be made right, for healing to flow, to find rest in God's arms. What precious promises these are! And I guess, after all, they are worth waiting for, and I can wait expectantly for their fulfillment. But oh, what longing...

Sabbath Sentiments

'For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.' (Lamentations 3:31-33)

'God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to us. He does not delight in causing us to experience pain or heartache. He always has a purpose for the grief he brings or allows to come into our lives. Most often we do not know what that purpose is, but it is enough to know that his infinite wisdom and perfect love have determined that the particular sorrow is best for us. God never wastes pain. He always uses it to accomplish his purpose. And his purpose is for his glory and our good. Therefore we can trust him when our hearts are aching or our bodies are wracked with pain.'

~Jerry Bridges, Trusting God

Happy anniversary, Dave!

This was Dave and myself 28 years ago tomorrow. We were babies then, with so much to learn!

On our first wedding anniversary, Dave wrote a sweet "Marriage Alphabet" poem for me, and on our 25th anniversary, I wrote one back to him. So at 49 or 50 years, it will be his turn again: and every 25 years or so is plenty! Mine isn't very good poetry-- and I have some excellent poets in the family-- so you will have to be generous with me! But Happy Anniversary, Dave! I'd marry you all over again!

A Marriage Alphabet (after 24.5 years)

Always together, from where we began.

Boys, we’ve watched grow from a child to a man.

Care is the way we look after each other,

Dying to self for the love of another.

Every day cuddling when the day is done.

Father and Friend, you’re a wonderful one!

G is for Grace, on which we depend,
and

Hope which will carry us through to the end.

“I” is for each of us, forming a “we”.

Jesus, is making a “one” of us three.

K is for kitchen, where we make a great pair,

Laughing and Loving and cooking out there.

Your Mom now has joined us as part of our home.


Never is when I will leave you alone.

One and Only: for me that is you!

Pain is for changing and growing anew.

Q is for Quicken, which helps with my math.

Running is always a part of your path.

Saving and dreaming and planning together,

Tenderness, Trust increasing in measure.

Useless are Satan’s attempts to defeat us,

Verily going where Jesus may lead us.

Wanting you still after all of these years, after

X-rays and chemo and trials and tears.

You are God’s perfect plan for me.

Zealous for you I forever shall be.

My Garden: a Belated Wednesday Without Words

Sabbath Sentiments

“Quit you like men.”

Be men! In courage; not cowards, turning our back on the foe, or giving way in danger, or reproach, or evil days. In solidity; not shifting or shadowy, but immovable as the rock. In strength. As the man is, so is his strength. Be strong! In wisdom. Foolishness is with childhood, wisdom with manhood. Speak and act with wisdom, as men. In ripeness. The faculties of men are ripe, both for thinking and working. They speak ripe words, think ripe thoughts, plan and execute ripe things. In understanding be men! In all things; what you do, and what you refrain from doing, be men. Act the manly part; let nothing effeminate, luxurious, sickly, childish, puny, little, narrow, be seen about you. Christianity makes men, not babes. Adorn the doctrine of Christ by your manliness. In the Church, in the world, in business, in conversation, — in prosperity and adversity, —quit you like men! Let no man despise thee; and let no man despise the Gospel because of thee.

Taken from The Christian Treasury, Bible Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, 1864.

With thanks to HF, who shared this in his exposition of the scripture passage.

The big read

With a nod to Kris, here's my version of this circulating list... though I'd love to know how this list was compiled... and also, I couldn't figure out how to make Blogger underline or remove underlining. So the underlined ones are Kris' picks that I also loved, but I couldn't tell you which others I loved with underlines, so I placed an asterick in front of them...!

************************************************

The Big Read was a 2003 survey carried out by the BBC, with the goal of finding the “Nation’s Best-loved Book” by way of a viewer vote via the Web, SMS, and telephone.

The Big Read figures that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books. How do you stack up?

How to Play:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
*4 Harry Potter series
*5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman
10 Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
*34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
*73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol- Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams –freaky.
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wednesday Without Words

Being cut down to size

That's how I feel lately: God is cutting me down to size, reminding me of just who I am before him. I feel like I imagine Ustace felt in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Aslan had to painfully cut and scrape through the rough dragon hide he'd grown in order to expose the real boy underneath. It hurt, and it was not any fun, but even as the pain was taking place, there was comfort that it had to happen, and it would be good in the end because while Aslan was not tame, he was very good.

The wonderful words to this song by Jason Gray, from his album All the Lovely Losers, express it quite well:

The Cut by Jason Gray

Under your blade
As you carve out Your image in me
You cut to the core
But still you want more
As you carefully, tenderly, ravage me.

As you peel back the bark
And tear me apart
To get to the heart
Of what matters most
I'm cold and I'm scared
As Your love lays me bare
But in the shaping of my soul
The cut makes me whole.

Mingling here
Your blood and my tears
As You whittle my kingdom away
But I see that You suffer, too
In making me new
For the blade of love cuts both ways.

Hidden inside the grain
Beneath the pride and the pain
Is the shape of the man
You meant me to be
Who with every cut now you try to set free.

With everyday
You strip more away
But in the shaping of my soul
The blade must take its toll
So God give me the strength to know
That the cut makes me whole.

Sabbath Sentiments

There is no need for prayer at all as far as God is concerned, but what a need there is for it on our own account! If we were not constrained to pray, I question whether we could even live as Christians. If God's mercies came to us unasked, they would not be half so useful as they now are, when they have to be sought for; for now we get a double blessing, a blessing in the obtaining, and a blessing in the seeking. The very act of prayer is a blessing. To pray is as it were to bathe oneself in a cool stream, and so to escape from the heats of earth's summer sun. To pray is to mount on eagle's wings above the clouds and get into the clear heaven where God dwells. To pray is to enter the treasure-house of God and to enrich oneself out of an inexhaustible storehouse. To pray is to grasp heaven in one's arms, to embrace the Deity within one's soul, and to feel one's body made a temple of the Holy Ghost. Apart from the answer, prayer is in itself a benediction. To pray is to cast off your burdens, it is to tear away your rags, it is to shake off your diseases, it is to be filled with spiritual vigour, it is to reach the highest point of Christian health. God give us to be much in the holy art of arguing with God in prayer.

~C. H. Surgeon, Effective Prayer