Everyone who is bread should get bread.

Canon Wired: Eating and Drinking Judgement

This afternoon I'm thankful we serve a God who delights in our coming to His table and desires to see even the little ones celebrating His death and resurrection. Enjoy the video I've linked above...

The air is wild with leaves...almost!

"No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face."
~John Donne

On this, the first day of fall, I look forward to the crisp air, the turning of the leaves, and the delicious beverage introduced to me last year, right after Eli's birth: hot apple chai at Starbucks.

Contemporvant!

I've seen this video floating around the internet and found it so bitingly true that I couldn't help but share. It's satire at its finest. Read here if the satire is just too much to handle.

At the risk of being too abrasive, I'll add that this video was made by one of the country's largest megachurches. A bit self-deprecating, but I'll take it!

There is no frigate like a book.

"I couldn't put the book down" could possibly be the best words an English teacher could hear. This, of course, depends on the book in question. If one of my students said he couldn't put down Twilight or the latest Nicholas Sparks novel, I would box his ears and burn those books, but hearing this about Charles Dickens' Great Expectations... delightful!

This was the reaction I got this morning from one of my students upon arriving at school, and as we near the end of the novel, I'm anticipating some profitable discussion on many of the books ideas and assumptions. The protagonist Pip, a man with besetting sins to which we can all relate (discontentment and pride, namely), meets his unrequited love Estella after eleven years apart, assuming she has continued her wedded life and that she will want nothing to do with Pip. Broken by her life since their separation, she says to him upon their reunion, "suffering has been stronger than all other teaching."

Although I feel particularly unqualified to agree or disagree with Estella based on personal experience, this idea of suffering as sanctification is a Biblical one that I've witnessed in the lives of many that I love. We all have our "thorns" that result in either rebellion against God or utter dependence on Him. And interesting, too, that humility is often a result of suffering. The most prideful man can be brought low when God brings suffering into his life--and that's what happens in Great Expectations. No other experience would instruct Estella but suffering. Without it, she wouldn't have become the character she was by the end of the novel. In the same way, suffering is a providential tool used by God to teach us, to humble us, to remind us that while He loves us, we're still residents of a fallen world that bears witness to our depravity. And yet He's gracious to His people, "showing love to thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments."

I'm always reminded in classic pieces of literature like this that God has given us a great privilege to enjoy, meditate on, and learn from the insight and wisdom (or the foolishness, in some cases) of these authors. And if you think reading such beautiful literature is a form of suffering? Just remember what Estella said.

Can't.Get.Enough.

Rachel was making Eli laugh and I got a great video of him... I know he's my son and all, but I could watch this over and over again. Seriously.

friends!

Laila and Eli got to spend a whole day together... and Tara got to be mommy to both! She was sweet sweet sweet for agreeing to watch Eli while I went to work.

Thanks, Tara, for taking care of little man. Love ya!