Tried With Fire

Cranford is one my favorite novels. It's a charming work set in a small town in England in the 19th century and contains all the ingredients an Anglophile like me could possibly want. But in addition, the author, Elizabeth Gaskell , paints an accurate picture of the class system that was entrenched in society. Perhaps that is why I love her character Captain Brown because he defied those conventions. He had to make do on a very limited income but was unashamed and kind to all people regardless of their class. He helped a poor woman carry her meal from the communal bakehouse to her home and did not apologize for this act, even though the Cranford gentry thought he committed a grave social faux pas. Given the influence of the past, I can't help but wonder if we inherited some of those same classist ideas. We ape our betters by trying to keep up with the Joneses. We pretend we live in a world where everyone is middle class and no one we know (especially not us!) is living from p...

"Hidden Figures" is one of the best books that I've read in a long time. It combines history, science, and some of the most inspiring women you could ever meet. I was so proud of Dorothy, Katherine, and Mary and the strides they made as scientists and black women during an era that discriminated against them as African Americans and women. I could not help but think about the women scientists in my family who immigrated to North America. Their circumstances were different from the women in the book, but there were strong similarities. In fields dominated by white men, they worked hard to get an education and jobs in their respective fields with the goal of making life better for their families here and back home. It wasn't about pursuing self-actualization but to help as many of the extended family as possible to immigrate. I am very proud of my parents and aunts and uncles. But it hit me recently that it took "Hidden Figures" to make me realize that I ...

To begin, please read this post -  Presxit: The Church of the Normal .  This is so good that I don't want to take away from it by trying to paraphrase what the author wrote so well. However in case you didn't click the link, in a nutshell he is calling the church to greater empathy. Not at the expense of orthodoxy but perhaps a better way to "deploy our orthodoxy." If every presbytery asked every ministerial candidate what it means to love the people of God and how that would play out in their ministry, and if every pastor and every session committed themselves to creating a culture of nurturing, accepting, and accommodating diversity in their congregation, then it would open the way for truer understanding of ourselves and others by leading us behind the generalities of norms and expectations. It would lead us to encounter individuals on their own terms, as they’d have themselves be known. Creating such a culture starts with active empathizing, and it starts wit...

I'm at Out of the Ordinary today with a review of Unashamed: Shame: the feeling of "not good enough," acccording to our own standard or our perception of someone else's standard for us. It's what keeps us from being honest about our own struggles, sins, and less-than-perfect moments. Fear of shame drives us to perfectionism in all areas of our lives, so there would be no imperfection for others to notice and judge.  (pp. 57-58) The word "shame" conjures up many memories for me - all unpleasant: - Wondering if God could possibly forgive me again after committing the same sin yet again. - Being mocked for looking different or dressing out of style. - Being scolded for normal human failings like forgetting something or not making the wisest choice. But the ones that haunt me the most are where I have been the one doling out the shame, and I long to lay these feelings to rest once and for all. But where do I go for help and healing from the shame...

Unashamed is a very timely book that has convicted and comforted me. Lord willing, I will post a review at Out of the Ordinary tomorrow. In the meantime, perhaps you can relate to the following quote. I can. "Performance shame comes from trying to perform for the wrong audience - those around us. It comes from the lie that our work, success, and accomplishments are what we need to feel good about ourselves. Performance shame makes us think that our worth is tied to our performance, and when we are plagued by performance shame, everything becomes a performance. Underneath we are asking the questions, Am I loved? Have I done enough to belong? Do I have value apart from my contributions and work? ... The things we do to try to cover up our shame bring us more shame than before... Or we feel exposed that we have not been good enough to outweigh our sins before God. We increase our involvement at church or in our community showing up at every service project, and begin to look ...

These excerpts from Rosaria Butterfield and Francis Schaeffer are rather uncanny given the latest round of Christian scandals. I have no intention of discussing the scandals themselves. Neither do I intend to gloat over anyone's moral downfall. But I think it is worth taking a very hard look at the movements in the Christian subculture that all but guarantee the perfect Christian family. There are conferences and books galore which play off of fear, especially the fear that our kids will fall into sexual immorality. This is a legitimate concern for parents, which I do not want to make light of, but the solutions are often long on rules and short on gospel. Success is achieved and measured by external behavior, and shame is used to enforce the methodology. When a person falls, he/she needs to own that sin without shifting the blame. But I can't help but wonder if these systems set up their adherents for failure. Moralism never kept anyone from sinning. From Rosaria Butterfield...

I love the novel   Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. In addition to the humor and the delightful characters, Gaskell provides insight into the British mindset of the mid-1800's. I also wonder if she has put on paper what many of us think: “Elegant economy!” How naturally one falls back into the phraseology of Cranford! There, economy was always “elegant,” and money-spending always “vulgar and ostentatious”; a sort of sour-grapeism which made us very peaceful and satisfied. I never shall forget the dismay felt when a certain Captain Brown came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke about his being poor—not in a whisper to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, but in the public street! in a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as a reason for not taking a particular house. The ladies of Cranford were already rather moaning over the invasion of their territories by a man and a gentleman. He was a half-pay captain, and had obtained some situation o...

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him,“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  Matt. 22: 34-40 Has anyone kept the greatest commandment their entire Christian life? For one day? Five minutes? You may not have, but I break the greatest commandment every day. I do not love the Lord my God with all my heart, my soul, and my mind. Like the Apostle Paul, what I want to do, I don't do, and the things I don't want to do, I do.  But God's response is this. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 8:1 emphasis mine...