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Art Saves Lives
I just finished reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. The student who brought me the book to read also told me I must listen to an interview in Brainpickings with Gaiman. In it the author tells this story of his 97-year-old cousin, Helen, a Polish Holocaust survivor: “She started telling me this story of how, in the ghetto, they were not allowed books. If you had a book … the Nazis could put a gun to your head and pull the trigger—books were forbidden. And she used to teach under the pretense of having a sewing class… a class of about twenty little girls, and they would come in for about an hour a day, and she would teach them maths, she’d teach them Polish, she’d teach them grammar….“One day, somebody slipped her a Polish translation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind. And Helen stayed up—she blacked out her window so she could stay up an extra hour. She read a chapter of Gone with the Wind. And when the girls came in the next day, instead of teaching them, she told them what happened in the book.“And each night, she’d stay up; and each day, she’d tell them the story.“And I said, ‘Why? Why would you risk death—for a story?’“And she said, ‘Because for an hour every day, those girls weren’t in the ghetto—they were in the American South; they were having adventures; they got away.’“I think four out of those twenty girls survived the war. And she told me how, when she was an old woman, she found one of them, who was also an old woman. And they got together and called each other by names from Gone with the Wind…”Gaiman concluded, “We [writers] decry too easily what we do, as being kind of trivial—the creation of stories as being a trivial thing. But the magic of escapist fiction … is that it can actually offer you a genuine escape from a bad place and, in the process of escaping, it can furnish you with armor, with knowledge, with weapons, with tools you can take back into your life to help make it better… It’s a real escape—and when you come back, you come back better-armed than when you left.”Nelson Mandela once described Chinua Achebe, the most widely read African writer and author of Things Fall Apart, as “the writer in whose presence prison walls fell down.” Achebe’s words sustained him in prison. I once heard Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie say, “Fiction does matter. It can make literal prison walls fall down, but it can also sustain prisoners where they are.”While people in our world tend to think of the art as the painted fingernails instead of the marrow in our bones, ISIS gets what a threat the arts can be to freedom. Consider that CNN ran an article in March titled, “Why ISIS destroys antiquities.” It tells of the numerous historic sites that ISIS has smashed. One of these was the Museum of Islamic Art in Egypt, which contained more than 100,000 pieces. The museum, having recently undergone an eight-year, multi-million dollar renovation, had to close again after its reopening because ISIS planted a car bomb that caused catastrophic damage. The writer of the CNN piece concluded, “The smashed artifacts of the Mosul Museum and the destruction at Nineveh and Nimrud . . . are the material record of humanity. They are not just for scholars, they are for everyone. They are the text of the past that helps define our future.T. Anderson, the YA author of Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad told a group at Calvin College last week, “We think of the arts as dessert, but they change the way we live.”His historical-fiction novel demonstrates this truth vividly as he recounts in it the story of how Leningrad (i.e., St. Petersburg, Russia) was surrounded by Hitler’s troops during WWII and held under siege for three years. Did you catch that? The beautiful city starved out for three years. Hitler’s experts had predicted that everyone would be dead after the first winter. Yet the people lived on and on.Two great factors in Leningrad's survival were the arts and community. Logically speaking, those who survived should have been the ones who stayed in their beds to conserve energy. But those who did so actually tended to die first. In actuality survivors were more likely to be the librarians who held reading groups in twenty-below-zero rooms or the teachers who searched out flats to find orphaned children. In the midst of it all, the famous composer Dmitri Shastakovich created a symphony that retold the story of what the Nazis had done, and the spirit of defiance in that music gave the Russian people hope. The score was smuggled out to the US, where people heard it and came to the aid of Leningrad. Art saved lives.
What I've Been Reading
I'm teaching a course that includes taking a team of writers to the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing 2016 in April. Every other year Calvin College brings in some of the most acclaimed writers in the world, which includes people from different faith backgrounds. My favorite conference.I just finished reading (all on audio) Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad, by M.T. Anderson. Having visited St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) in 1992, I was amazed to learn that the city endured a three-year siege under Hitler, during which he sought to starve them out and nearly succeeded. Anderson tells the story like a novelist. Great stuff, though quite macabre in places. The big takeaway: music saved lives.An altogether different kind of read was Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, by Nadia Bolz-Weber. The founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Bolz-Weber also authored the New York Times bestseller Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People (Convergent, 2015). She's an ELCA-ordained pastor (Lutheran) who swears like a truck driver, sports a zillion tattoos, and lifts weights. She's also married with two kids. And she really gets grace.The entire class is reading The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma, a depressing but well written story set in Africa. And I also read This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff. All these talented authors will be at Calvin, if all goes as planned. Next up: The Cleaner of Chartres, by Salley Vickers. I've also been listening to White Teeth, by Zadie Smith, but I'm having trouble getting into the story. So off to Chartres it is.
How to Host a Bible Study
More to Life magazine recently featured my advice on how to start a home Bible study. You can find it on page 18.
The Beauty of Books
Why does our society still value books so highly? Why do we love and respect them so? We know why. Tweets and Vines have their place, but a book is a slower and deeper thing. Every book is an invitation to spend meaningful time alone with the person behind it—a storyteller you love, a mind you admire, a member of your family. Once you pick up that book, you have that person’s full attention, for as long as you choose to spend in his or her company. In our distracted world, that’s worth a great deal. —Joel Segel, Publishers Weekly, “Enduring Value,” Jan 30, 2015
The Emotionally Healthy Leader
While I'm in Africa, I'm happy to bring you a guest post from Peter Scazzero, author of The Emotionally Health Leader: 
It is possible to build a church, an organization, or a team by relying only on our gifts, talents, and experience. We can serve Christ in our own energy and wisdom. We can expand a ministry or a business without thinking much of Jesus or relying on him in the process. We can boldly preach truths we don’t live.I was in my early years as a Christian when I first came to grips with the sad truth that God appeared to use prominent Christian leaders whose relationship with Jesus was either nonexistent or seriously under-developed. It was a discovery that left me confused and disoriented. Yet, after decades in ministry, I am no longer so confused. Why? Because I have experienced to some degree what it’s like to be one of those leaders. I have prepared and preached sermons without thinking about or spending time with Jesus. I know the experience of doing good things that helped a lot of people while being too busy or caught up in my own whirlwind of leadership worries to be intimately connected to Jesus.Consider the following quick check-up of how your experience of remaining in loving union with Jesus is going:You Know You’re Not Experiencing Loving Union When You . . .
- Can’t shake the pressure you feel from having too much to do in too little time.
- Are always rushing.
- Routinely fire off quick opinions and judgments.
- Are often fearful about the future.
- Are overly concerned with what others think.
- Are defensive and easily offended.
- Are routinely preoccupied and distracted.
- Consistently ignore the stress, anxiety, and tightness of your body.*
- Feel unenthusiastic or threatened by the success of others.
- Routinely spend more time talking than listening.
____________* Geri and I like to say, “The body is a major, not a minor prophet.” In other words, the body often knows before the mind when our life is out of alignment with God. For example, my stomach gets knotted, my neck tightens, I sweat, I clench my fists, my shoulders stiffen, I can’t sleep, etc.Jesus faced overwhelming pressures in his life — pressures that far outstrip anything most of us will ever face. Yet he routinely stepped away from those endless leadership demands to spend significant time with the Father. He slowed down to ensure he was in sync with God — that he was in the Father and the Father was in him, powerfully filling every crevice of his body, mind, and spirit. In routinely stepping away from his active work, he entrusted the outcome of his circumstances, problems, and ministry to the Father. And as a result, every action Jesus took was rooted in a place of deep rest and centeredness out of his relationship with God.The question we each must wrestle with regularly is this: In what ways does my current pace of life and leadership enhance or diminish my ability to allow God’s will and presence full scope in my life? And may God give you the grace to make one or two changes in your schedule to slow down for loving union with Jesus today.
Peter Scazzero is an author and pastor of New Life Fellowship outside of New York City and is the author of The Emotionally Healthy Leader. Find out more about emotional health at www.EmotionallyHealthy.org
Great Summer Read: All the Light We Cannot See
Need a great read to take with you poolside this summer? Check out Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.While in Italy, I overheard a number of friends with great taste in fiction raving about this beautifully crafted story. It's about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France during World War II.The narrative with interwoven lives intrigued me; and Doerr’s gorgeous metaphors and descriptions captivated me. At times I said “wow” out loud.The book took Doerr ten years to write, and it bears the marks of careful craft in contrast with the hurried prose of authors cranking out their next crowd-pleasers. This one landed on the list of National Book Award finalists for good reason.The LA Times described Doerr as a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill.” I completely agree.
Hit Pause: An author interview
Recently Chris Maxwell answered some questions for my readers. Chris is the director of Spiritual Life and Campus Pastor at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia. He served as a lead pastor in Orlando, Florida, for twenty years, is an epilepsy advocate, and has authored six books. His most recent work is Pause for Pastors: Finding Still Waters in the Storm of Ministry. This is part one of two:Your schedule looks crazy—working with college students, writing and editing books, speaking around the world. How do you do all that?I work hard to balance my own busy schedule as I seek to encourage others to find balance. Many of us can easily become obsessed with outcomes. I try to emphasize to myself what I say to others: seek to enjoy the moment. I do not want to miss the reality of the now. Keeping that mindset helps me “pause” in the middle of the hurry.It can’t be easy to live out your theme of “pause.” How can we learn to pause in our rapidly racing world?Most of us choose to embrace the pace of our times. We multi-task in our hi-tech world. We set our goals. We establish our plans. We hurry our way there to achieve such plans with perfection. Those aren’t all wrong but they can become damaging as we dash from one accomplishment to another. We must learn to hit “pause.” Doing so is a choice we must make. Rather than letting our schedules, our insecurities, our need to prove worth, and our culture’s drive control us, we should reject that pressure. How? Slow the pace. By choice, slow the pace.I tell people to notice all the beauty beside us—the stillness of God, the wonder of his world and his people. We can marvel at words and faces, clouds and stars, songs and stories, Scripture and conversations. We can rest more and be controlled less by stress. We can sit and eat—slowly. We can read—slowly. We can pray—slowly. A word, a sentence, a face, a life—these can all be more important experientially instead of just in theory if we choose to breath in the moment. Maybe we can grow in this as we learn to see value in stillness, silence, nothingness. Letting Psalm 23 be a poetic prayer of life. Finding our own still waters even amid our hurried tempo and crammed schedules.The first book in your “pause” series is geared toward all of us. The second, for busy moms. And your latest, for busy pastors. Speak to mothers and pastors and all leaders who seem to feel guilty if they rest and pursue times of solitude.There are so many times I have let what I do for God take the place of being with God.When I first started serving as a lead pastor, I set aside time for personal spiritual formation. But over the years, things changed. I needed to do more and accomplish more. People needed me—or, maybe I needed to be needed. We live in a driven, obsessed world, even in church business. Fortunately, I learned the importance of returning to “pause.” These three books aren’t just a series. They offer an invitation to open eyes and see that beauty nearby, to open ears and hear the sounds.I had a few advantages in my nineteen years of pastoring. Our congregation allowed me space. My family was a priority. But I also had a team of accountability partners who didn’t care about my sermons or books or attendance. They focused on soul care, on my priorities, on my health, on my motives. They asked me difficult questions. So many pastors live without that.It is important for pastors to choose to be intentional. Plan unplanned time. Schedule unhurried Sabbath moments. Eat a meal and refuse to discuss church talk. Self-care comes from remembering our importance to God and people. Prayer time, study time, walks, music, artwork, healthy conversations, and service projects are not to impress God or improve our status. They are steps in a walk with our Father. They engage in healthy relational dialogue with our Lover. We choose to just sit with Him. We read his words not just to prepare a sermon but to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2).Each book in the Pause series is intended to guide readers toward an awareness that the opportunities are there. We just miss them too often.(Part 2 tomorrow.)
And the Pulitzer Goes to...
Fiction, Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See (Scribner)Non-fiction, Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (Holt)Biography, David I. Kertzer's The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (Random House)Poetry, Gregory Pardlo's Digest (Four Way Books)History, Elizabeth A. Fenn's Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People (Hill and Wang)
How to Read the Bible Like a Seminary Professor
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In Dr. Mark Yarbrough’s book, How to Read the Bible Like a Seminary Professor, each member of his family
makes an appearance in at least one anecdote. Yarbrough reported, “They all said, ‘Dad, I’m in.’ Some wanted even more than one page.” From left they are Jacob ("Contaminated with diesel fuel"); Kayla (“I grows, I growd!”); Kayci (“Look Daddy, no hands!”); and Joseph ("Lost at a rock concert"). |
In the history of evangelicalism, we’ve been blessed with great books about the Bible. We have wonderful commentaries, and we’ve listened to sound expositors, especially in the past thirty years. But one of the potential side effects is that we have forgotten to teach people how to feed themselves. So my hope is to give people confidence in their study of the Word. If just one person who reads this book gains the confidence to run toward the Word, I’ll be eternally grateful.
The “voice” of the author makes it seem like you had fun writing it. Yes?
I had a blast. It was so much fun. I loved everything about it. I loved talking it out, storyboarding, and even getting up at 3 AM. Sometimes I would get up early and an entire chapter would just come out. I did most of my work at our kitchen table when the chaos of life happened around me. I could build a little mental glass wall while the spaghetti was being slung around me, and occasionally I would stop to help a kid with algebra. The book came out of the midst of life.
You used lots of personal illustrations, especially stories about your kids. What’s your favorite in this book?
I guess I don’t have a favorite. I love them all because they are about my kids! However, “Contaminated” (Chapter 19) makes me laugh, and it was such an unusual experience. My oldest son, from the moment he hit planet earth, was full of life and energy and into everything. On one occasion he drank some diesel fuel, which scared the living daylights out of me. Especially because I was the parent on duty—a little fact that I don't think I mentioned in the book. I learned this funny thing about how the human body dissipates fuel. You know how the “Peanuts” character, Pigpen, is surrounded by a little cloud? That was my little boy. Ultimately it was a great picture of who we are in our sin—an event drawn from everyday life that speaks theologically.
What audience did you have in mind when you wrote your book?
The reader I envisioned was someone with a passion for the Word of God. I didn’t write an apologetics or evangelism book. This work speaks directly to someone who has a heart for the Lord—someone with a real life, real family, real struggles, and real inferiority. I mean, the Bible can be intimidating. It’s big. (He whispers) and GOD WROTE IT. As the author, I’m just a normal person, and I wrote out of the context of life.
I do think some schools will use the book in programs where the Bible is the central text. But lots of people will never take a class. These folks simply want to be better students of the Word. I tried to speak to both groups.
What are some of the most common ways we misuse the Bible?
We misuse the Bible by lobbying for our personal perspectives without understanding the whole of Scripture. We appeal to the Bible as an authority to validate our opinions. In fact that is where I start the book. Some teachers read a text and ask, “What does this mean to you?” without first finding what the text actually says. So the most common misuse is that we don’t slow down and observe the text and see what is actually in front of our eyes.
How do you think a seminary professor’s take on the Bible differs from that of the average person?
Typically seminary professors, the ones I envision at least, approach the text assuming it is authoritative. In other words it is God’s Word. He has spoken. It is truth. But seminary professors also acknowledge that the Bible is really good literature. Many people don’t understand that second part—that the Bible is God’s Word given through human means. God spoke his authoritative Word, and he chose to reveal it through those carried along by the Holy Spirit. And because of that, we have different “types” of literature. We want to honor how God chose to reveal it to us in all its majesty. In evangelicalism there is—I hope and pray—a strong authoritative emphasis. But often the average person does not see the Word or approach it as having great literary beauty.
What’s a common misinterpretation or misapplied passage that you deal with in your book?
I spent a lot of time, my longest example, talking about how to read narrative literature. Take the Book of Jonah and your typical Sunday School message out of the book: “Shame on Jonah; he didn't go. God got his attention. Jonah finally gets it.” We teach it this way. But then we have no clue what to do with chapter 4 [the part where Jonah pouts and waits for God to destroy the Ninevites]. I wanted to show the power of narrative literature, because when we see “what the author is doing with what he’s saying,” (to quote one of my colleagues), he paints readers in a corner at the end. Jonah is a bad prophet from beginning to end. God basically says, “You are that prophet”—if your heart is like Jonah’s. And think about that in its larger historical context. Oh, how God wished his people in his land had responded like the Ninevites did. God desired Jeroboam II to respond like the king of Nineveh! The Book of Jonah is a parody and a challenge—for then and for now.
What are some wrong ideas that people have about the Bible?
They think, “It’s only for professionals.” I hear that regularly. Or people say, “I can’t understand it” or “I’m overwhelmed with its complexity.” We make it complex, and the evil one helps us. J. I. Packer once said, “’If I were the devil, the first thing I would do is keep people from digging in the Word of God.” That quote has motivated me for years. We need to know the master story of the Bible, and often we don't. People hear bits and pieces. They might hear a good sermon, study one Bible book, or get a good lesson from a Sunday school class. But most people don't get the big picture. So that is where this book begins—with the big picture.”
A Year's Worth of Book Fairs, Cons, and Book Conferences
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
Where: Minsk, Belarus
When: Feb. 11–15
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
Where: Prague, Czech Republic
When: May 14–17
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
Where: Frankfurt, Germany (In conjunction with Frankfurt Book Fair)
When: Oct. 14–18
NOVEMBER
Finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards
The awards will be presented on March 12 at the New Schoolin a free ceremony that is open to the public. The full list of nomineesfollows:
Q&A with Carolyn McCulley: On Women, Work, and the Home
I'm happy to have as my guest today Carolyn McCulley, author of The Measure of Success: Uncovering the Biblical Perspective on Women, Work and the Home:
Welcome, Carolyn! Your book is about work, success, and family life as a woman. And you’re not afraid to say, “Yes, women should work.” Tell us what you mean by that.
Should women work? Absolutely! Women should work and work hard every day. The Bible calls Christ-following women to work for the glory of God. But the location where we work is neither the definition nor the measure of our success. I think it’s no surprise that far more verses in the Proverbs 31 portrait of a successful woman are about productivity and financial management than relationships. In the biblical narrative, work is a co-labor of love, tasks done in partnership with a gracious God who uses our labors to bless others. In response to criticism that He healed a sick man on the Sabbath, Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17 ESV). His work was to glorify His Father and help others. Ours is the same.
Why do you think there is so much controversy, not just in the church, but also in society, about whether or not women should work outside the home?
There’s always a new controversy erupting. As I was working on this book, one top technology executive was rounding the speaking circuit telling women how to be more ambitious. Another top technology executive built a nursery next to her office and returned to work after a mere two-week maternity leave. Then she ruffled the “sisterhood” by recalling the work-at-home privileges for her employees. A third woman, a successful professor, published an article seriously skewering the idea that women can have it all. Each time, factions from multiple perspectives fired warning shots into the blogosphere that these were untenable ideas. Individual skirmishes in the “Mommy Wars” always have collateral damage—wounding weary women who are trying to do the best they can with the resources, opportunities, and responsibilities that they have. We need perspective.
So you wrote this book as a way to offer some perspective…
Absolutely. I am passionate about calling out “facts” that don’t line up with the grace, mercy, and freedom offered to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ—especially for those who have never heard that good news! That’s why I wanted to write this book: to help women in all stages of life think clearly about the God-given gifts and opportunities they have, and how to invest those individual and specific situations in light of eternity. What we really need to know is the purpose of work or how to think about the multiple facets of productivity that make women’s work different from men’s. This isn’t a new idea. What we really need are timeless wisdom principles straight from Scripture.
We should think as recipients who will one day give an account for how we managed what we were given. We are stewards of all that we have received, including our relationships. It is God who gives us the relationships, children, time, talents, interests, opportunities, and tasks that fill our days and years. We may be wives or mothers, but as important as these are, they are roles that end in this life. We continue on into eternity as children of God and sisters to those who have been rescued by Christ. We may work in highly esteemed professions or we may not be paid for our daily labors. Those roles are not our identities, either. They are merely opportunities to be invested for the glory of God. Those things God gives us in terms of relationships and opportunities, He wants multiplied for the sake of His kingdom. That’s the true measure of success.
Many hold up the Proverbs 31 woman as the ideal. Do you think that's wrong?
Not completely. But the most important thing you need to know about this Old Testament “superwoman” is that she never existed. Found at the conclusion of the Old Testament’s book of wisdom, she is only an archetype of what an excellent woman looks like, a compilation of fruitful activity in various seasons of life. Though we might think we know the Proverbs 31 woman well, once again we need to dust off our notions of her and examine this tribute closely to “reveal” what we can learn from her. This poetic tribute is a jumble of feminine qualities—addressing relationships, productivity, fruitfulness, and financial savvy—with only one short verse about beauty. It’s easy to overlook the fact that this chapter has a lot more to say about her work than anything else. This virtuous woman is praiseworthy because she has “done excellently.” It’s her hard work that earns her commendation. Motivated by a love and respect for the Lord—her crowning virtue—her work is fruitful, praiseworthy, and excellent. The fruit of her diligent labors marks the final sentence in this Old Testament book of wisdom.
You go back even further into the Old Testament to find the purpose of our work...
Yes. In Genesis. In the very first action word that follows the creation of mankind, we find our purpose: to fill and subdue the world. Not like some monarch who issues impossible demands so that all her servants scurry to accomplish her will. We are created to subdue, or rule over, the world so that our labors imitate our working, creative God. Verse 28 expands clearly upon that concept with this command—given to both male and female—“be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.” In the paradise God created, human beings were designed to work and it was called very good. Work is how we imitate God. “When God created people and placed them in a perfect garden, work was part of his provision to give life meaning,” theologian Leland Ryken writes. “It can still have that purpose today.”
You encourage readers by saying that God gives us the grace we need to transform our daily work right now. How does he do that?
God transforms our work by first transforming us. This is the effect of the gospel on our work: God gives us hope that He can take our less-than-perfect attitude about work and sanctifies it, all because we are united with Christ. He takes what we have (which isn’t much) into His perfection, giving it all the qualities we don’t possess. Knowing this helps us to avoid segregating work into secular and sacred categories—for to God, all work is a sacred calling. It’s important to remember that God is working through you even in the most mundane tasks. The antidote to this feeling of meaningless is remembering that our Creator has given dignity to our work.
Do you think Mary and Martha's story is relevant for today's woman, and if so, why?
Yes. First, no husbands were mentioned for either of these women. No children were mentioned, either. Perhaps they had them once. Perhaps they would have them in the future. But also, no mention was made of their social status, either by wealth or social connections or job skills. Their one identity that was most important was the one that would exist forever: a follower of Christ. This is the identity we need to affirm among ourselves, not the labels that come with the kind of labor we do. As Christians, we are to be grounded in this identity, even as we add other roles and ways to express that identity in relationship to others. We might have an interesting job for a season. We might be married for a season. We might have children at home for a season. But those things can be taken away from us or never given to us at all. They are gifts for this life only.
For many, ambition—especially in women—is a negative word. But you think otherwise…
We all want something. That’s the drive behind ambition. The truth is that we were actually created to be this way. God has made us to be people who have desires. Jesus knows we have desires. This is why He came to earth. Sin corrupted our drive and our desires. Jesus came to redeem that brokenness and to give us renewed desires. He doesn’t tell us to quit being ambitious. He just tells us to quit being fools amassing useless junk like those poor souls featured on a hoarders program. Go for the gold, Jesus says, the real gold.
There are women who are trying to do it all, balancing work and home life. How would you encourage them today?
First, the work you are doing has eternal significance so don’t give up. If you are raising your children to fear the Lord, then you have already given them an incredible inheritance. Second, remember that your sacrifices will be rewarded: “So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised” (Heb. 10:35–36, emphasis added).
You liken the woman in mid-life to a head coach—as one who helps others achieve success.
As a midlife manager, mother, or wife, you job can be described as coaching others to greatness. At home or at work, you are building a team—and the required skill sets are extraordinarily similar. A good coach of either gender is supposed to call forth the best possible qualities and performances of his or her team by providing the resources, tools, and guidance needed to achieve concrete and specific goals. Management is really a form of serving—meaning it is directed at making others the best they can be in order to achieve a larger goal. As Christians, we shouldn’t be looking to achieve a certain level of success just to impress others or win lots of awards; instead we should be asking and praying for the kind of success that draws people to the steadfast love of God. This is the head coach’s ultimate mission and He defines a successful team by this benchmark.
Incredibly Close and Extremely Precious
I returned last night from a quick trip to Oregon. Two weeks ago my mother fell and broke her clavicle and some ribs (like daughter, like mother?). But she also had a head injury that scared the bajeebers out of us. I arrived in Woodburn, Oregon, onWednesday, spent Thursday going to three therapy sessions with her, and on Friday was able to be with Dad when we brought her home. Meanwhile my dad’s on at least a one-month break from radiation treatments. How I needed to hug their necks!I’m one of those blessed people with loving, supportive parents. And let me tell ya, there’s nothing like hearing your father pray for his beloved of sixty years (they’re less than two months from celebrating their sixtieth). Watching her, with one side out of commission, rubbing moisturizer on his radiation burn—I’ve just witnessed much stronger love than the Hollywood glamour version.The weather was fantastic, offering fab views of Mts. Hood, Jefferson, and St. Helens. One 31-degree morning as I drove to the rehab center in Mt. Angel, the sun rose and turned frost to droplets. So the sun glistened on dew-filled fields full of tulip shoots in the foreground, against a snow-covered backdrop of hills and a mountain or two.On Friday afternoon, I drove with Dad to retrieve Mom’s wallet from the hospital where I was born and where he receives his radiation treatments. From there we swung by nearby Keizer, the town where my parents raised their five kids till I was ten. We found our old house. It used to sit on five acres overlooking the Willamette River. Now it sits back from the road in a cul-de-sac. Our orchards, lawn, and view have morphed into a residential neighborhood with a string of houses backing up to the waterfront and blocking any view of the river. Some things change; some things remain the same.That night my nephew, Jonathan, starred in Vancouver, Washington, as Aslan in a production of “Narnia.” That quiet nephew whom few of us realized could sing stood up on the stage and belted out songs in perfect pitch. Those who know he lost his dadtwo-and-a-half years ago in a collision with a texting driver especially appreciated that in the Playbill he gave thanks for the support of his family, his friends, and his heavenly Father.Because I booked such a last-minute flight, I had one-stop flights—going through San Francisco on the outbound and through Denver on the return trip. That means I spent all day on either end getting to and from my destinations. So I did a lot of reading.
In April, I plan to attend the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing, where one of the scheduled keynoters is Jonathan Safran Foer. So I read his book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.In this novel the main POV character is nine-year-old Oskar Schell, an unusual boy who lives in a Manhattan flat with his mom. Together they mourn in their own ways the loss of Oskar’s father, who was in a meeting in one of the World Trade Towers on 9/11/2001, when an airplane flew into it.A year after his father’s death, Oskar discovers a vase in his father’s closet that contains a key. The key is tucked inside an envelope that has only one thing written on it: “Black.” So Oskar sets out to meet everyone with the surname “Black” living in New York and also to try every lock in the city. He thinks doing so will lead him to find an important final message from his father. It certainly leads him to have some interesting experiences and conversations.Throughout the book Foer uses photos as a literary technique to connect some of his themes. He also uses Oskar’s grandparents as additional POV characters, taking readers back through different timelines set during WWII, the most vivid of which are the fire-bombing of Dresden and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. These cities were obliterated by the alliedforces and United States, respectively. The firebombs killed about 30,000 in Dresden; the atom bomb killed about 90,000 in Hiroshima. In setting these within a story about a 9/11-associated loss, the author makes a statement without making a statement.Knowing what happened in these cities gave me an advantage as I read. Many in my generation and later are unaware especially of what happened in Dresden. But I had received an introduction to those events somewhat by accident. As part of my PhD research into classic literature, I listened to a Mars Hill Audio recording in which the interviewer mentioned that Kurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden—being there as a POW—and it left an indelible mark on his work. Maybe the interviewer also noted, or at least I certainly made the connection, that Vonnegut’s experience paralleled that of another great literary mind, T. S. Eliot, who served as a fire warden during the blitz in WWI.Foer’s photographic elements in the narrative, his partially non-linear chronology, and his different POV characters make Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close an unusual work. It’s like a modern version of a Modern novel.The book provides readers with an up-close view of some dynamics at work when we lose something and must come to terms with that loss. I found a lot of overlap with my own feelings. But maybe everyone would. Are we actually ever, in this life, not mourning something?