Because I’m just not feeling “little ditties” any more and I am the boss of this space.
But first: One of my dear friends had a long-prayed-for baby this week. I’m overjoyed with the arrival of their new daughter. Moments like this make it harder to be away from Iowa. At the same time, two other long-time friends from the Midwest came to stay with us for a few nights. I would feel homesick, but these two things have made me far too happy to be sad.
Now, onto what I’ve been reading and thinking about lately.
// “A writer’s brain is full of little gifts, like a piñata at a birthday party. It’s also full of demons, like a piñata at a birthday party in a mental hospital.”
// “Don’t paint the world pink and try to call the bad things good. Let the believers consider Immanuel, the with-ness of God, right where we are, not where we wish we were instead.” A guiding thought for me as I wrestle (always) with feeling real sadness and then feeling bad because I’ve momentarily lost my Christian Joy. Which makes me think Christian Joy isn’t what I think it is.
// Another from Emily, this time one that perfectly articulates why it’s been hard for me to write here lately. I’ve been mistaking voicing truth with voicing something written in stone that I’ll never have any shade of disagreement with. “I will always work to pursue and represent truth, but to carry the burden of only writing what I will agree with for the rest of my life? Impossible.”
// And last one from Emily (sorry, I binge read a bunch of her posts I had missed and these three clarified current questions I had). Money quote: “Her friends don’t need an example, they need a friend… They need a friend who knows she needs Jesus.” As I think about how much Brad and I want to show Christ to people here in the Bay Area, I get fearful. I’m not perfect, I don’t have the most sound doctrinal argument for every question, I don’t know how all things work for good when your life is a mess, and I don’t know right this moment how to tell you that having faith is better than having your own way. But, I don’t need to be the perfect evangelist, I just need to be a friend who is honest about not having it all figured out. I can be that friend. (To, like, only two people at once, but that’s an introvert confessional for another time.) This also greatly encouraged me.
// I realize I’m on Twitter. But this excerpt from a longer article on why Twitter is so awful was thought-provoking and even funny. (“I’ve hated it reflexively since its beginning. But with time’s passage and deliberation, I’ve come to hate it with deeper, more variegated richness.”)
// And finally, a fascinating video of huge storm clouds!
