Sunday, April 12, 2009
happy easter!
praying that resurrection stories abound with evidence both here in murfreesboro and wherever you are today.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Still Bleeding
The speaker is Jayber Crow in Wendell Berry’s novel of the same name:
For a while again I couldn’t pray. I didn’t dare to. In the most secret place of my soul I wanted to beg the Lord to reveal himself in power. I wanted to tell him that it was time for his coming. If there was anything at all to what he had promised, why didn’t he come in glory with angels and lay his hands on the hurt children and awaken the dead soldiers and restore the burned villages and the blasted and poisoned land? Why didn’t he cow our arrogance?...
But thinking such things was as dangerous as praying them. I knew who had thought such thoughts before: “Let Christ the king of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Where in my own arrogance was I going to hide?
Where did I get my knack for being a fool? If I could advise God, why didn’t I just advise him (like our great preachers and politicians) to be on our side and give us victory? I had to turn around and wade out of the mire myself.
Christ did not descend from the cross except into the grave. And why not otherwise? Wouldn’t it have put fine comical expressions on the faces of the scribes and the chief priests and the soldiers if at that moment he had come down in power and glory? Why didn’t he do it? Why hasn’t he done it at any one of a thousand good times between then and now?
I knew the answer. I knew it a long time before I could admit it, for all the suffering of the world is in it. He didn’t, he hasn’t, because from the moment he did, he would be the absolute tyrant of the world and we would be his slaves. Even those who hated him and hated on another and hated their own souls would have to believe in him then. From that moment the possibility that we might be bound to him and he to us and us to one another by love forever would be ended.
And so, I thought, he must forebear to reveal his power and glory by presenting himself as himself, and must be present only in the ordinary miracle of the existence of his creatures. Those who wish to see him must see him in the poor, the hungry, the hurt, the wordless creatures, the groaning and travailing beautiful world.
I would sometimes be horrified in every moment I was alone. I could see no escape. We are too tightly tangled together to be able to separate ourselves from one another either by good or by evil. We all are involved in all and any good, and in all and any evil. For any sin, we all suffer. That is why our suffering is endless. It is why God grieves and Christ’s wounds still are bleeding.
For a while again I couldn’t pray. I didn’t dare to. In the most secret place of my soul I wanted to beg the Lord to reveal himself in power. I wanted to tell him that it was time for his coming. If there was anything at all to what he had promised, why didn’t he come in glory with angels and lay his hands on the hurt children and awaken the dead soldiers and restore the burned villages and the blasted and poisoned land? Why didn’t he cow our arrogance?...
But thinking such things was as dangerous as praying them. I knew who had thought such thoughts before: “Let Christ the king of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Where in my own arrogance was I going to hide?
Where did I get my knack for being a fool? If I could advise God, why didn’t I just advise him (like our great preachers and politicians) to be on our side and give us victory? I had to turn around and wade out of the mire myself.
Christ did not descend from the cross except into the grave. And why not otherwise? Wouldn’t it have put fine comical expressions on the faces of the scribes and the chief priests and the soldiers if at that moment he had come down in power and glory? Why didn’t he do it? Why hasn’t he done it at any one of a thousand good times between then and now?
I knew the answer. I knew it a long time before I could admit it, for all the suffering of the world is in it. He didn’t, he hasn’t, because from the moment he did, he would be the absolute tyrant of the world and we would be his slaves. Even those who hated him and hated on another and hated their own souls would have to believe in him then. From that moment the possibility that we might be bound to him and he to us and us to one another by love forever would be ended.
And so, I thought, he must forebear to reveal his power and glory by presenting himself as himself, and must be present only in the ordinary miracle of the existence of his creatures. Those who wish to see him must see him in the poor, the hungry, the hurt, the wordless creatures, the groaning and travailing beautiful world.
I would sometimes be horrified in every moment I was alone. I could see no escape. We are too tightly tangled together to be able to separate ourselves from one another either by good or by evil. We all are involved in all and any good, and in all and any evil. For any sin, we all suffer. That is why our suffering is endless. It is why God grieves and Christ’s wounds still are bleeding.
Monday, April 6, 2009
..those who wait..
our sweet friends the carleys passed court today! we met precious silas when we visited the house of hope for Christmas.
from of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him. isaiah 64:4
from of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for Him. isaiah 64:4
Saturday, March 28, 2009
to pyle and phatty...can i call you that?
i've been thinking for a little while now about how to pay proper tribute to these two new friends. kyle and madey boldly stepped forward to trek with us to ethiopia without any prior international experience and without knowing us, really, at all. to say that they far exceeded any expectations would be a grave understatement. they were simply amazing (video=proof). they never complained, they stepped up to lead, they worked hard, they played harder, they kept us laughing, they became family.
speaking of family, to the entzels and the hornungs: you have raised two remarkable children. thank you for sharing them with us! thank you for encouraging their hearts in a Godward direction, and thank you for supporting their recent worldwide adventure.
kyle and madey, thank you for the honor of serving in your company. may you change the world one madlib at a time!
speaking of family, to the entzels and the hornungs: you have raised two remarkable children. thank you for sharing them with us! thank you for encouraging their hearts in a Godward direction, and thank you for supporting their recent worldwide adventure.
kyle and madey, thank you for the honor of serving in your company. may you change the world one madlib at a time!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
z guesthouse fave moments
i've been meaning to compile these thoughts for a few weeks. got busy. i asked the crew to send me their favorite moments at z guesthouse. suffice it to say (and it doesn't actually suffice) z guesthouse was a Godsend. this beautiful little plot of land, tucked away off a side street, amazing family, incredible food...we hope to visit again! we experienced a variety of funny and soul-molding moments there. i've pieced together a concise but explanatory version, so here goes:
oh! one more thing. addis ababa offers an array of accommodations including the luxurious bungalows at the hilton. on several occasions we verbally acknowledged that we could not possibly have had the same experience at the hilton (no offense).
madey
1) Peaceful mornings
2) The coffee ceremony! (on Sunday afternoon one of the staff girls treated us to the traditional coffee ceremony...so indescribably delicious! and everybody participated with little to no sugar.)
3) Meeting the two German couples and their new Ethiopian babies
4) Fresh breakfast & coffee every morning (we had oatmeal, eggs and tomatoes, pancakes, fruit, bread and jam, YUM!)
5) Relaxing in the beautiful garden under the warm African sun
6) Stuffing all those stockings! What teamwork! (we had quite the system going for stuffing approx 300 stockings. i will say everyone pitched in and worked hard. we were blessed with a great team.)
(madey gets the prize! she sent her top 8, but i eliminated the ones that overlapped.)
elizabeth
meeting "joy" and learning about the coffee berry - watching her shell them and rinse them (the z family has coffee trees on their property. 'joy' picked, rinsed, and shelled their homegrown beans and roasted them while she served us coffee.)
and every night, the electricity went out
and not being sure if we should leave or stay or go eat or go to bed!
playing games by candlelight and flashlight...mad libs and yahtzee
i think it helped with team unity! (so they told us the night we arrived that the street lights are turned out at 10pm. i'm prone to believe something more along the lines of the electricity goes out every night like it or not. one night it stayed off all night long. the z family brought us matches and candles, and mr. mtemc (andy!) came fully equipped with flashlights.)
andy
The cat that would jump out of a tree and land on our tin roof in the middle of the night. Every night. The noise was almost like an explosion and then the cat would start yowling and wake up all the dogs. Kyle, of course, would sleep right through it.
Hearing the call to prayer at a mosque and smelling charcoal fires and coffee beans roasting while lying in bed in the hours before sunrise.
kyle
Favorite memory #1: Kandyland!
Only kidding of course, although it was a nice little place cold showers and all
(sorry kyle, i had to include this. kyle and andy stayed in a different little area of the compound which was fondly renamed kandyland (kyle+andy=kandy))
Picking 2 favorites will be hard but I think they are: 1) the food, 2) the people that I got to live with for the week. Getting to know Andy, Elizabeth, and Ellie over a Mad Gab and the World's Best Cup of Coffee was an experience that I can only hope to encounter again.
they just about covered it. i did enjoy spending Christmas day out on the lawn with the whole z family. and i appreciated that their english-speaking son greeted us at the airport (for a brief moment i thought i had been blessed with the gift of interpreting tongues). one recommendation: if you visit z guesthouse, the owners are not actually named mr. and mrs. z.
oh! one more thing. addis ababa offers an array of accommodations including the luxurious bungalows at the hilton. on several occasions we verbally acknowledged that we could not possibly have had the same experience at the hilton (no offense).
madey
1) Peaceful mornings
2) The coffee ceremony! (on Sunday afternoon one of the staff girls treated us to the traditional coffee ceremony...so indescribably delicious! and everybody participated with little to no sugar.)
3) Meeting the two German couples and their new Ethiopian babies
4) Fresh breakfast & coffee every morning (we had oatmeal, eggs and tomatoes, pancakes, fruit, bread and jam, YUM!)
5) Relaxing in the beautiful garden under the warm African sun
6) Stuffing all those stockings! What teamwork! (we had quite the system going for stuffing approx 300 stockings. i will say everyone pitched in and worked hard. we were blessed with a great team.)
(madey gets the prize! she sent her top 8, but i eliminated the ones that overlapped.)
elizabeth
meeting "joy" and learning about the coffee berry - watching her shell them and rinse them (the z family has coffee trees on their property. 'joy' picked, rinsed, and shelled their homegrown beans and roasted them while she served us coffee.)
and every night, the electricity went out
and not being sure if we should leave or stay or go eat or go to bed!
playing games by candlelight and flashlight...mad libs and yahtzee
i think it helped with team unity! (so they told us the night we arrived that the street lights are turned out at 10pm. i'm prone to believe something more along the lines of the electricity goes out every night like it or not. one night it stayed off all night long. the z family brought us matches and candles, and mr. mtemc (andy!) came fully equipped with flashlights.)
andy
The cat that would jump out of a tree and land on our tin roof in the middle of the night. Every night. The noise was almost like an explosion and then the cat would start yowling and wake up all the dogs. Kyle, of course, would sleep right through it.
Hearing the call to prayer at a mosque and smelling charcoal fires and coffee beans roasting while lying in bed in the hours before sunrise.
kyle
Favorite memory #1: Kandyland!
Only kidding of course, although it was a nice little place cold showers and all
(sorry kyle, i had to include this. kyle and andy stayed in a different little area of the compound which was fondly renamed kandyland (kyle+andy=kandy))
Picking 2 favorites will be hard but I think they are: 1) the food, 2) the people that I got to live with for the week. Getting to know Andy, Elizabeth, and Ellie over a Mad Gab and the World's Best Cup of Coffee was an experience that I can only hope to encounter again.
they just about covered it. i did enjoy spending Christmas day out on the lawn with the whole z family. and i appreciated that their english-speaking son greeted us at the airport (for a brief moment i thought i had been blessed with the gift of interpreting tongues). one recommendation: if you visit z guesthouse, the owners are not actually named mr. and mrs. z.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
just in case...
albeit insufficient, the paper version of our gratitude is on the way to your mailbox. you may never have noticed, but i feel the need to let you know i made a mistake (read: misspelled word). being the perfectionist i am, this haunts me. so thanks for understanding!
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