Another great online find was passed on to my from Vicky (thanks!) Here are two quotes from the blog, but its the magazine that looks really inviting… “Seeing the Everyday” is all about noticing the ordinary and small things that make up life. Check out the magazine to see amazing layout and inspiring content!

“Cloaked in their very ordinariness, the prosaic events that truly shape our lives–escape our notice . . . . The infinitely numerous and apparently inconsequential ordinary ones, which taken together, are far more effective and significant.” – Gary Saul Morson

“[Home] is the center from which we define and understand the nature of everything we encounter in the world.

The home . . . is not one thing among many in a world of things; nor is it merely the product of a culture. Rather, the world of things derives its sense, and a culture its significance, from their relationship to the home. Without the home, everything else in the world or in a culture is meaningless.”
- David Patterson

I had a professor while at Garrett who is a liberation, feminist, Baptist, post-Pentecostal theologian (yes, you read that string of adjectives right). Dr. Nancy Bedford often taught about praxis, the liberation theology-inspired concept that asserts that it is only in practicing, or acting out our faith, can we see its full form and can God truly touch the church. While it’s an over-simplification, Pietism’s emphasis on faithful living from ‘true believers’ has a similar feel to me as liberation theology’s call to praxis. Bedford talked a lot about making small moves, taking small actions, that helped us become more faithful and more Christ-like. An article that she wrote explains this better then I ever could; but the short explanation of what she is pointing toward, and what I got out of this concept, is good for me to remember.

“If we remember those times and places -and there are so many- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us,is itself a marvelous victory.” –Howard Zinn

Acting, even if imperfectly, changes things. If nothing else, it changes us. Faith has more to do with trying, with starting in some direction, with listening and forgiving and trusting and taking the first step - then it does with always being right.  

Acting is not meant to be the end all – or reduce our life to being practical instead of thoughtful. But maybe it is a good balance for all of us who have ever over-thought, over-analyzed, or perfectionistically waited for … something more. Little moves against brokenness – little moves toward Christ.

I like that.

I have recently found a whole slew of great blogs to learn from and who provide a community of voices different then my own to challenge me. Woo hoo! (Of course I am also putting off finishing my current dissertation chapter tonight by reading blogs online but…) Check out the mommyrevolution, missional moms, green mama, moms acting up, theology mama and more than serving tea for women who are speaking about their context, faith, families and race. I think the conversations that are coming out of places like these are helping to reinvent and create space for women and families and moms and discipleship of all stripes. Praise God.

I also love Experiential Theology, a new blog I found by a Christian Psychologist that has a wealth of information on it! While it’s largely very easy to read and written in a conversational style, he has heavy resource content – like publications and commentaries on everything from economics to theology in the public square, to Freud to Marc Driscoll.

Other blogs that I’ve either recently added or frequented include Arloa Sutter’s blog (at Breakthrough Urban Ministries – they do AMAZING stuff here in Chi-town), along with Soong-Chan Rah’s always fascinating read (ProfRah). JesusCreed (Scot McKnight) akways has a LOT of info and comments, which are fascinating to read – but lately the topic of gender and race have been covered more frequently. Informative.

These sites are reminding me to read, to think, to engage concepts with new dialogue partners…and also to do my own writing and reflecting more again. Also, to do my homework. I am now heading back to dissertation writing. Will peak my head out again later.

O Lord, who hast mercy upon all, take away from me my sins,
and mercifully kindle in me the fire of thy Holy Spirit.
Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh,
a heart to love and adore Thee, a heart to delight in Thee,
to follow and enjoy Thee, for Christ’s sake, Amen
—St. Ambrose of Milan, 339-397

To read a concise and clear history of the celebration of Ash Wednesday, read this article.

… but you just might find, if you try sometimes…. that you get what you need.”

These lyrics from a well-played song in our house lately (thanks to the Glee soundtrack, a la Rolling Stones), have reminded me of this idea. Not getting what you want – or what you think you want – but instead finding that you get exactly what you need, is a hard lesson. And it reminds me of the question, what do I really need – what do I just want? What is enough?

I want a lot of things; I see potential, options, security, rewards, connections, and how to change the world all out there on the horizon…. but what do I really need? Peace? Wisdom? Grace? I want answers, clarity, control, balance, beauty, and a fast car someday… but what do I need? Prayer? Patience? Strength for a day?

It’s like the Lord’s Prayer, when we intone, “Give us this day our daily bread.” What that phrase really means is – give us enough for today, give us manna out of this desert for one day, give us drink and sustenance for right now, give us yourself, Lord, for today. Daily bread. Enough for today – only. That can seem hard to navigate in our culture that is about saving, hoarding, accumulating, and seeing so far ahead. It can feel hard to only ask for a day’s worth of bread when you think you’re starving, or you would feel better with a few loaves in the pantry just for back up. But God is saying that we will get what we need from Him – each day. God also seems to be big on dependence and trust, as I’ve been in a season of learning, so this whole daily turning to God for what we need just for that day, means that we also rely more on God, and are less aware of all we see up ahead that we think we might need/want. It also has some powerful political implications for God desiring that everyone have enough, instead of just a few having too much and others literally starving. But that is another post…

Thank you God, for always giving me what I really need. Maybe my prayer needs to be – God, help me to see all that you give me, that I already have all I need, and to know what it is that I don’t need. Give me today my daily bread. Give everyone today their daily bread. Give us just enough for today.