From Sunday's Sermon

A paraphrase of Puritan pastor Thomas Brooks, regarding a person believing himself righteous based on being less sinful than the person next to him: When you are in Hell, suffering God's wrath for all eternity, will it comfort you to know that you are better than the person next to you?  Gotta love those straight-shootin' Puritans.

There was apparently a time when people who worked on large wheat farms were taught to escape a sudden oncoming bush fire this way: they were to burn the area around them, stamp out the fire, and try to get down into the dirt as much as possible.  This way the fire would go around and over them but would have no fuel where they were laying, leaving them unharmed once it passed.  In the same way, we cling to the cross of Christ because it is the only place where God's wrath has already been poured out and spent.  When the day of judgment comes and God's wrath falls, we will be safe in Christ.

In Which I Am Reminded of An Important Truth

(Incidentally, doesn't that sound like the beginning of a chapter in Winnie the Pooh?  If it said "Pooh is" or "Piglet is" instead of "I am" especially.  Or if it ended with "Important Truth About Hunny.") 

I was reminded recently of something very important, which I either didn't realize or had forgotten.  A dear friend sent me a brief text with just a couple of sentences addressing something I'd been angsting about -- honest words that stung a little, to tell you the truth.  It wasn't a sermon or a long conversation, just something I really needed to be reminded of about my affections.  Which I'll come back to.

I'm a pretty cerebral kinda gal.  Being cerebral is one of those characteristics that's a lot like the Girl with the Curl from the nursery rhyme: when it's good, it's very, very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid.  The good part is that I love to think deeply and ponder and muse and learn and wonder and teach my students to do the same. The horrid part is when I get so far inside my head that I can't escape, and what ends up happening is that I live an almost parallel life, some self-narrated alternate reality in my head until I'm so wrapped up in it that everything about real life seems less real and far, far more disappointing.

So back to the affections.  Jonathan Edwards wrote of the affections that they "are no other than the more vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul."  Wait, what?  Are you trying to tell me that my affections are exercises of my will?  To be used sensibly and thoughtfully, not merely letting them light wherever they want, but to be directed and applied in a godly way?  Far out.

In that self-narrated alternate reality that's constantly competing for my attentions, I have allowed my affections to be directed toward things and circumstances and people thoughtlessly.  Rather than choosing to set my mind on -- to direct my affections toward -- "things above" as the Scriptures say, I have too often chosen to allow my affections to be cast about by my mood, my temperament, my situation, and countless other factors. 

I needed (and am very grateful for) the reminder that my deepest affections belong only to God.

Conversations With My Students

My poor little darlins... their brains are just fried from end-of-school craziness.  We were talking today about how our Kindergarten and 1st/2nd grade classes are almost full for next Fall, but there are only a handful of kids in 8th-10th grades.  Bless 'em:

Me: Well, y'all need to pray that the Lord sends us some families with older kids who've been classically educated so y'all can have some more classmates.

Boy: They have to be guys.  And they have to be athletic, so we can play basketball!

Girl 1:  And they have to be cute!  We'll pray for cute guys.

Me (rolling my eyes): Yeah.  Why don't you go ahead and pray that a couple families will move here and enroll at CCA with upper-school-aged boys who've been classically educated and are athletic and cute... and why don't you throw in that they have Australian accents too?

Girl 2 (fists in the air): YEAH!!

Me (as their parents): Honey, I appreciate your newfound interest in prayer, but you've been kneeling there since you got home from school and it's time for dinner.

Pride is a Trap. No Really.

A blog-acquaintance of mine just put up some musings about homeschooling and asked about a particular curriculum she's thinking of using for her kiddos. It got me thinking.  Schooling is one of those topics that can turn mild-mannered Christian parents into red-faced UFC contenders in the time it takes to say "unschooling."  It's ridiculous, and I see why it makes people so neurotic -- even once you've decided on public or private or home, you still have to choose between classical! Montessori! Charlotte Mason! Waldorf!  And then curriculum!  Do you go for the tried-and-true Abeka even though it's KJV-only?  Or Sonlight?  Or Veritas?  Or one of those online accreditation things?  Or WHAT?  And then methodology -- five days a week, 8-3, nine months a year?  Or something else?  Dedicated school room or kitchen table?  Or picnic table?  Or the table in your RV?  No wonder so many threads about homeschooling end with people getting all capsy and BUT YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!  WROOOOONNNNGG!

That reaction?  Is all about pride.

So I was amping up to do a thundering post about pridefulness in schooling choices, when it hit me: I am just that bad about my "stuff."  People who watch Glenn Beck.  People who send their kids to school with a can of spaghetti-o's for lunch three days a week.  People who use the N-word.  People who tell rude jokes about Obama.  People who roll their eyes at women who want a natural birth... All those people just get my blood pressure going.

And that reaction is ALSO all about pride.

AUGH.

Links!

I'm going to be extra-American and gush for just a second about Mikey Lynch -- I think his blog, Christian Reflections, is one of the most quietly impactful blogs going right now in Theology Land.  Mikey doesn't feel compelled to make a bunch of high-falutin' theological points or write a sermon for every post, but in the meantime he's evaluating and making connections in an incredibly smart way.  Just about everything he writes I wish I had written instead, that jerk.

Anyway, take a look at his series on Crowded House, which is full of alternately fascinating, funny, and important insights.  Here's Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.  Check back for more of his thoughts -- I know there will be a Part 4!   

And An Update At Long Last

Hey y'all, as usual I've hit the Crazy Time at the end of the school year, and haven't had the time or energy to post.  Only two weeks left of school!  Here's what's been going down:

My students, God love 'em, have been going crazy writing their end-of-year thesis papers.  We use this curriculum, The Lost Tools of Writing, about which I was extremely skeptical at first.  Having taught it for a year now, I've changed my tune -- it's terrific.  I can't imagine a more valuable program for helping kids do every single part of a paper, from coming up with ideas to fine-tuning their sentences. 

I've gotten a little obsessed with Australian Rules Football (which, fyi, is neither soccer nor rugby) in the last week. I got to see an old Tassie friend last weekend when he came up to play against the Louisville Aussie Rules team, and it was so much fun that I've been watching games on ESPN3 to try to pick a team to follow.  My friend Kate (mum to Pablo) is a Carlton supporter but says I have the freedom in Christ to support any team except Collingwood.  It's nice to be able to shut my brain off for a little bit while I'm watching the games!

I participated (briefly and with much eye-rolling) in a little dustup in the comments section of a post by well-known worship music writer Stephen Altrogge called How To Write An Awful Worship Song.  As usual, a few humorless trolls came and took a tongue-in-cheek post and started making accusations and dropping big words like "judgmental."

I'm starting to get really, really, REALLY excited about going back to Australia in less than two months!!  Yes, I'll be there in the dead of winter, but I'm super pumped to see everyone.  I've been thinking about all the fun stuff I'll get to do... and "fun" in my universe is best defined by good food, good drink, good friends, and maybe some footy on the tv.  What could be better on a cold winter night?