Faith and Flowers

One spring a few years ago our back yard was suddenly full of wild violets, and they've returned each spring since. Nice for someone like me who is into wildflowers.

I keep thinking about faith and how to define it--how to know what it is and what it isn't. Since a friend of mine has recently abandoned the faith, I'm paying much closer attention to what the scriptures actually say about faith.

One thing I've recently noted is from the book of James--that somehow, poor people are more likely to have faith than rich people.

James 2:5 Listen, my dear friends! God chose the poor people of this world to be rich in faith

The context of this verse, is James scolding his readers who are giving preferential treatment to the wealthy folks in the congregation. He is urging them to treat everyone the same, and furthermore, he says, the poor are more likely to have faith in Christ than the rich.

Wow, that doesn't make much sense, does it? But when I was pondering this, I started to analyze who the rich and the poor are. My conclusion: the poor are typically less educated than the rich. Is that a coincidence? Maybe not. Maybe the more we learn, the harder it is to believe?

That thought took me on to another: What about Christian apologists? You know, people who collect all the evidence that God is, that Christ lived and died and rose again, and, and, and. WE LOVE TO READ THOSE BOOKS! We love to have our faith confirmed by hard facts.*

But wait--if we have hard facts, then what about faith? This is one thing I'm puzzled about. If a Christian apologist can make such a great case for Christianity, then what is the role of faith? After all, it doesn't take faith to accept something that's been proven--it just takes common sense.

The best I can sort this out at the moment is that God provides a few "facts," (things about Christianity that are historically provable), but not enough of them such that every human being would have to accept them. That is where faith comes in and that is why faith is part of the picture. A very big part of the picture, in fact.

I'm going to keep thinking about faith.

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*Please note, I'm not intending to say anything negative against Josh McDowell. Nor am I saying it is bad to be educated. But it does seem to be that faith for an educated person is somewhat of a different animal than for a non-educated one.

Bad Weather

I'm feeling a bit of anxiety (though why I mention that here, I don't know, since blogs don't seem to be that great of a place to express negative emotions) at the moment due to the heavy rain and the fact that I'm supposed to drive to the airport to pick up my husband and daughter coming in this afternoon. Their flight took off two hours late from Frankfurt, I suppose in order to not hit the worst of it here.

Many outbound flights are being canceled; I don't know what they are doing with inbound flights.

And not only the worry about flights, I now have to drive to the airport during rush hour. :-(

Sarah's Bridal Shower

Sarah Cover's bridal shower (with details about the cake)

Click on the above photo to go to the web album that shows some of the steps for making the cake I posted yesterday.

Also included are photos from the shower this morning. It was a lovely shower, and Sarah got lots of great gifts.

Labor of Love

It took me two full days to make this. Now I hope I can transport it to the bridal shower tomorrow without wrecking it!

Jury Duty

Today I drove downtown to answer my jury summons, which had been postponed from earlier when Laura was here last month. I was in the first panel, sent upstairs to the 6th floor of the George Allen court building. These are two photos I took from the 6th floor while waiting for the attorneys to get their acts together. (There was a list of forbidden items, but cameras were not on the list!)

If you know your Dallas history, you may recognize a bit of Dealey Plaza and the famous triple underpass on the far right of the photo. But it is mostly covered up with trees. The famous "grassy knoll" lies along Elm street and cannot be seen in this photo; the grassy knoll you see here is opposite that on the Commerce street side of the triple underpass.


Directly in line with our court holding tank was the Kennedy Memorial.



The 36 of us on the jury panel went through the voir dire process, and it seemed like it got a bit out of hand. It was a civil case involving a car accident and the woman pressing the law suit was represented by a personal injury lawyer who actually asked us, "Do you dislike me? Because if you do, I'll excuse you from serving and I won't hold it against you." I couldn't quite say I disliked him, but he did look a lot like Mr. Bean.

Mr. Bean got us all a bit on edge when he went into minute detail about that famous McDonald's hot coffee case from several years ago, like we were all supposed to know the specific details about that. Then a bunch of potential jurors asked to be excused when they learned that in a personal injury auto accident case it is against Texas law to say anything about car insurance. While I said I could try the case without regard to insurance, that rule seems a bit stupid. Because of course, whether a person is insured or not can be part of the reason a law suit is brought against them.

Anyway, as our stomachs were growling for lunch, we were sent out into the hall to wait some more. A few minutes later we were brought in and told the parties had settled. They weren't allowed to say who "won," but we could figure out a few things by the looks on the faces.

Wishing You A Great Trip

Who on earth did they hire as an art consultant when they built the new Terminal D at DFW??

I've been left alone for a week. 8 days, actually. And my desire for some peace and quiet is already being thwarted by jury duty tomorrow.

Life Goes On

The baby shower was oozing in hormones--three pregnant women were there. Janet and Sarah made some great sandwiches and Italian cream cake was for dessert. Gwennie got lots of nice baby boy things. There was a game to guess the mother-to-be's girth. Another old lady and I tied with a guess of 40 inches. So she and I had a playoff by guessing the measurement across the belly, top to bottom. I won with 14 inches, and got a Starbucks card for my reward. Too bad I don't like coffee.

The wedding was nice too. Lovely hammered dulcimer and guitar music by Paul and Cathy McAndrews. There was a minor hitch during the ceremony when the unity candle refused to stay lit. They kept trying and trying. The accompanying song finished and they still kept trying. Finally a groomsman produced a jackknife from his pocket and the groom did some excavation on the candle, and then it stayed lit. Pastor Ken used it as a humorous teachable moment: "You know, becoming one isn't all that easy." True enough.

Cards

I wonder how many greeting cards I will have to make before I break even on the money I've spent to buy the stamps, ink, paper, etc?

I don't just sit around and make cards for fun. It is more like "cards on demand" whenever a baby shower or wedding come up.


Speaking of which, tomorrow we've got a baby shower at 11 and a wedding at 2 and the cards have been stamped and signed, ready for delivery.

Today I Voted

...for Ron Paul.

I hate politics. I have no clue about global economy. I just deal with life on a personal level. Ron Paul at least takes my personal stance on the abortion issue. (Now how that translates into legislation for him, I don't really know.)

If I were voting for someone to be my personal friend, I would have voted for Huckabee. He seems like an all-around nice guy.

However, neither Ron Paul nor Mike Huckabee have a chance, so, perhaps it was futile to even vote.

Another observation: at my precinct, the Democrat-Republican line was drawn very obviously along racial lines.

Rejoicing With Friends

This isn't the best quality video in the world, but the content is great. It shows the dedication of the Mofu New Testament which took place a couple weeks ago in Cameroon. Carrying a translation project all the way through to completion is really hard, there are so many things that can go wrong. So we praise God for the persistence our coworkers have had in order to be able to finish well.

And now we hear news of unrest in Cameroon. Our other colleagues who went there to escape unrest in Chad are really wondering what's up.

When the Body of Christ Lets You Down

That's kind of how I've been feeling recently. However, since I try not to whine too much on this blog, I won't go into the specific details.

I remind myself that disappointment in life comes from expectations that don't get fulfilled. So if my siblings in Christ fail to show interest in my well being when I have clearly expressed a need, I'm disappointed. Perhaps my mistake was expecting it in the first place.

Scripture (Galatians 6) tells us to bear one another's burdens, but in the same passage it also says to bear your own burden. Does that mean that I should help others when they hurt, but not necessarily expect they will help me when I hurt? Maybe it does.

2 Help carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will obey the law of Christ. 3 If you think you are something when you really are nothing, you are only deceiving yourself. 4 You should each judge your own conduct. If it is good, then you can be proud of what you yourself have done, without having to compare it with what someone else has done. 5 For each of you have to carry your own load.

That Didn't Work

After complaining in my last post about having no men around to fix my birdfeeder, I decided to try to fix it myself today. The weather is nice, and it would be a nice small project for the afternoon, I thought.

So I got out all the stuff and cut rotten bottom off the bird feeder's post with the idea to attach new feet. But a couple cuts later, I decided it might not be worth the effort.

Bird Post

It has been a long time since I've made a bird post. I've hardly done any bird watching this winter. I blame that on the fact that my wooden birdfeeder broke, and I couldn't find any male in my family to fix it. I should just go fix it myself, huh?

Today Gary and I went for a stroll at Cedar Hill State park. The weather was lovely--warm, clear, and sunny--but I have no photos because I forgot both my camera and my binoculars.

I did observe some red-winged blackbirds in a marshy corner of the lake. They are one of those kids of birds where the male and female are so different from each other you think you're seeing two different species.

Have you noticed the Birdstack in the right hand column of my blog. This is a cool way to track the birds you've seen, created by a nice young man who works just down the hall from me. He's an LU grad too--some of you folks may know him.

View From My Desk Meme

I was tagged by Lingamish to provide a photo of the view from my desk. Lingamish is a coworker whom I've never met IRL, who lives in Africa, and who seems to have VERY good internet access by the volumes of things he posts in his variety of blogs! (We hear complaints of poor web access from other places in Africa, but Lingamish gets none of our sympathy on that front.)

We've turned one of the kids' bedrooms into a large home office with our computers just a few feet apart. You can see (even if he can't) that my beloved has a BIG screen and a BIG closed circuit TV as aids to help him cope with Stargart's disease. He does a great job with that, and manages almost always with a cheerful attitude. Also, if you look very carefully you can see his mug has a Lingualinks logo on it.

One reason our computers are so close to each other is because I read his work email to him out loud each morning before going to the office. It is tedious, and we get annoyed with each other during the process, but it does help him to cope because reading is so slow for him.

And speaking of computers near each other, when asked (like at a wedding shower) what bit of advice I have for the new couple, I aways tell them: if you and your spouse both have computers, put them in the same room.

Even More about Faith

A few posts ago I mentioned a young friend who has lost her faith. On a personal level, I've been puzzling about how to relate to her now that she claims to no longer be a Christian, a child of God, or a believer--whichever term you want to use. More about that in another post, maybe

I've already mentioned that the unreasonableness of Christianity is what she cites as the reason she has fallen away. Her words: "You can't prove Christianity by reason. It always comes down to faith."

The irony about that is that if Christianity were provable by reason, we wouldn't need faith--but, indeed, faith is what God asks for.

Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Also, Jesus' words come to mind,

"...you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure."

This is part of what doesn't make sense in Christianity, part of why God asks for faith and not for understanding. If it were understanding that he wanted, we could earn heaven by just learning enough and deducing enough. No, somehow faith is what he wants. But if you actually don't believe--because of problems with reasonableness or problems of suffering or disappointment with God or, or, or--then how can one get faith?

(Personally, I believe, but I can sure relate to that guy in Mark who said, "I believe, but help my unbelief.")

When she explained to me about her loss of faith, she told me, "There is a saying: 'For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.'" The funny thing about that is when I researched this saying, I learned it is attributed to a magician, or mentalist, called Joseph Dunninger. No Christian there.

Unrequited Love

...is one human malady that God actually knows something about.

Happy Birthday, Ron!

Last night we attend a fun birthday party for Ron, a friend from church and home Bible study.

There was a fun and yummy cake with two photos of Ron.

And liturgical dancers from a church in Kansas City. There was also lots of other music from family and friends.

It was a blessing to hear testimony of how Ron has blessed many people over the years, especially hearing from his family. I posted more photos on a web album, but likely only folks from our church would be interested in seeing them.

Conversation Hearts

I gave my true love a bag of candy this morning and he told me I was his valentine. That is enough.


Speaking of hearts in conversation, I saw a quiz on another blog and decided to take it. It was only 7 questions and it was easy to tell the man answers from the woman answers, and I think I scored 4/7 on the woman's side.

Do You Communicate Like a Man or a Woman?

You Communicate Like a Woman

You empathize, talk things out, and express your emotions freely. You're a good listener, and you're non-judgmental with your advice. Communication is how you connect with people. You're always up for a long talk, no matter how difficult the subject matter is.

And for fun, I decided to go back at look at posts I had made on previous Valentine's Days:

• 2007: I want chocolate!
• 2006 was in two parts: single men and single women. I guess I was on a soapbox that year.
• 2005: true love and heart earrings

Too Early for Blogging

I don't normally blog at 7:45am. But today I'm up nice and early, in spite of the fact that I was going to take a day off of work and maybe sleep in. Sometime in the wee hours we were awakened by a strange click, click, click and noticed that it was pretty chilly. So I had to get up and fiddle with the furnace thermostat. Turns out that one of the AA batteries in the thermostat had leaked and corroded onto one of the terminals. So I cleaned it and replaced the batteries, and then tried to go back to sleep. No luck. Of course, this thermostat is so complicated it nearly requires one to have an HVAC license to reset it, so I'll have to spend my day off figuring out how to reprogram it.


In other news, when I checked my Facebook account this morning, it told me, complete with a cute little heart, that my friend Martha is now married! Yay for Martha. Nevermind that she's been married as long as I have.

Speaking of Facebook getting the relationships all wrong, yesterday Facebook told me that my daughter and her ex-bf were attending a Valentine's Party on Thursday. I don't think so.

Some More About Faith

Faith continues to be on my mind. I've recently read I and II Thessalonians. The topic of faith is fairly prominent:

• I Thess. 3:2-3 Paul sends Timothy to check up on the people in Thessalonica and to "help your faith, so that none of you should turn back." Apparently, they believed, but their faith was kind of shaky.
• Again, a few verses down, "I sent him to find out about your faith. Surely it could not be that the Devil had tempted you and all our work had been for nothing." The possibility of them dumping their faith and turning away from God was acknowledged.
• And, a few more verses down, "we as God ... to supply what is needed in your faith." Apparently, their faith was lacking somehow.
• Over to II Thessalonians 1:11 "May He fulfill by his power all your desire for goodness and complete your work of faith."

I also noticed two other things:

• The trio of faith, hope, and love recurs in I Thess. 1:3 and 5:8 (as well as other places in scripture). Somehow, these three things go together.
• II Thessalonians chapter 2 is kind of scary reading. I'm not sure I understand all that chapter is saying, but it is a warning to those who more or less intentionally turn from the truth.

Today I heard yet another story of a twenty-something who is seriously reconsidering her faith. She is filled with intellectual doubts about the Bible and feels like her parents have more or less crammed it down her throat. Of course, the parents don't see it that way. She asked them to not talk to her for a couple months.