Camping on the Wrong Side of the Jordan
“Early in the morning Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over …. 5 Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” Joshua 3: 1, 5 The leader of the women’s ministry at my new church talked about this verse at a Bible study last weekend, and what she said has stuck with me. We can’t know the frame of mind of the Israelites as they camped their last few nights in the wilderness. But peppered throughout the book of Joshua are the instructions “Be strong and courageous.” You don’t need to be admonished to do those things if you’re not in the least afraid or uncertain. So chances are, they...
Humility
For Christmas I got myself a book on humility, because I figured it was something I really needed. It will be a slow and difficult read, but a good one. Here is the opening paragraph: “In Paradise there are many Saints who never gave alms on earth; their poverty justified them. There are many Saints who never mortified their bodies by fasting or wearing hair shirts; their bodily infirmities excused them. There are many Saints too who were not virgins; their vocation was otherwise. But in Paradise there is no Saint who was not Humble.” (from Humility of Hear by Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo Whether or not I learn much from the rest of this book, I suppose I would do well to reflect on this paragraph every little while.
Tradition! Tradition!
Every Christmas, my husband and I pick up the mantle of Charlie Brown and decry the misplaced and wrongheaded materialism of the season. One year we struggled with whether to put up a Christmas tree or to build a creche that would take the tree’s place in our house – we decided in favor of the tree. We’ve taught our daughter that Santa is pretend, which goes over really well at daycare, where she has learned not to talk about it because, as she puts it, “some of their parents don’t know.” We don’t spend a lot on presents. We’re not humbugs – I love the celebrations of Christmas, and we play Christmas music all December, put up lights, decorate, and throw parties. We just want the celebrations to come from joy...
Psalm 95: 1-7
Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
The Fruit of My Spirit is Sour
When I look at the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, I shudder a little. Because I don’t have them. It was easier for me to look at Galatians 5 and feel good about myself before I began to see myself through the eyes of my four-year-old daughter. Before, I believe that I thought I had most of the fruit well in hand. I would look at the list and say to myself, “Well, I think most people would say I am kind and loving, gentle, faithful, even joyful.” But my blind spot was spelled out in the first part of that thought: “I think most people would say …” That is how I view my character: through what other people think of me. So it’s instructive now to be subject to the all-day, every-day gaze of a child who...