Polka-Dot Girlie

I sure do love this sweetie...almost 10 months and such a joy to us every day!

A Severe Mercy-Sheldon Vanauken “Van” #6

Hands-down, this is the best book I have read in a long time. It had the perfect balance of being genuinely enjoyable and thought-provoking at the same time. The author, Van, writes in a novel style as he shares the story of him and his wife while weaving in their relationship to C.S. Lewis including letters by Lewis’ hand. I think what I loved the most about this book was the way Van and his wife Davy work to build a love that lasts - a passion that they have long before they become followers of Jesus Christ. They go through the process of building what they call “The Shining Barrier” - which meant to them all the ways they planned to grow the most powerful love possible. I love this quote...”If one of us likes anything, there must be something to like in it-and the other one must find it. Every single thing that either of us likes. That way we shall create a thousand strands, great and small, that will link us together. Then we shall be so close that it would be impossible-unthinkable-for either of us to suppose that we could ever recreate such a closeness with anyone else. And our trust in each other will not only be based on love and loyalty but on the fact of a thousand sharings-a thousand strands twisted into something unbreakable.”:

It was also great to read Lewis’ letters - I enjoy reading his books, but there is something different in almost being able to hear his voice as he “spoke” through his letters to Van and Davy.

Well, eventually something comes along to test the “Shining Barrier”, but I won’t give anything else away in case you read it, but I definitely recommend this one. It was awesome!

So - I was curious - what are some of your “thousand strands” ? Some of the things Rob and I share a joy in are...playing in creation (especially enjoying the beach), music, reading, trying fun hole-in-the-wall local restaurants, hanging at coffee shops, dreaming of owning our own coffee shop, dreaming of planting a church together, cooking together, running, lovin’ on our Brynnie...the list goes on, but there is a start. How ‘bout you?

Beach Bum Babies...and a few others

We have had the most gorgeous weather here lately so the girls had to get in their first trip to the beach of the summer. It was fantastic!

#5

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis...#5

Although I won’t say that this is my new favorite book, I really did enjoy the read and was very impressed once again with Lewis’ ability to write and think on a very deep level. Perelandra is the second book in his space trilogy. This series is science fiction and talks about Ransom (the main character) visiting planets in outer space. I’m not much of a science fiction person myself. I will sit through a science fiction movie with someone if they really want to watch it, but it definitely wouldn’t be my pick. These books can be a little confusing at times because he is explaining such strange things...you can imagine some of the strange things you have seen in science fiction movies, now consider just reading about them in a book. Sometimes I was a little stumped. However, I think the most incredible thing is that Lewis uses Perelandra as a sort of analogy to the events in the Garden of Eden between the Serpent and Eve. He weaves the tale around a lone woman that he meets in Perelandra. They have many interesting conversations, but when they are joined by a man possessed by the devil it becomes a battle. Ransom trying to help the woman make the right decision and the devil working to trick the woman into making the wrong decision. The conversations are deep and I couldn’t help imagining Lewis in my mind sitting with the Inklings and discussing the topics he does in Perelandra. I don’t want to tell you how it ends....what the lady decides, but I will say it was a new way for me to look at our redemption, and I enjoyed that.

break out the bubble-bath

I don't know how well you can see our "pre-reglazed" tub...but it was pretty nasty. The person who lived in our house before us painted it and it was chipping like crazy when we bought the house. Well, obviously it's taken a while to get to it, but finally we had it reglazed this last week and it is awesome!!!! I took my first bath ever...after living here for almost four years :) So, if you have a massive tub that will not be easy to be removed, try reglazing - I highly recommend it. Oh...this next pic is Brynne of course...I couldn' t leave her out. Then the last pic is the new version of the tub.

We are lovin' the sunny weather lately!

Just like new!

Rob's Reviews: Jack's Life, Jack, The Shack

I've been a little behind in posting on these, but so far I have conquered 3 of the books on my list. Some coincide with what Julie has read, so sorry for the redundancy.

Jack’s Life - January 2010 Douglas Gresham

I will admit that halfway into this book I was slightly disappointed. When I purchased the book

from Barnes and Noble I was under the impression that I was buying the book by George Sayer. Jack’s Life turned out to be written by Douglas Gresham, Lewis’ step

son t

hro

ugh his marriage to Joy Gresham. This book is written from the perspective of one who obviously looked to Lewis as a hero. Fr

om reading Gresham’s account one would think that Lewis could do no wrong. Gresham

writes in almost a journaling style, recounting the history of who Lewis was as a person. It is not his intent to take apart or pass judgme

nt on Lewis or his works, merely to expose his history from the viewpoi

nt of one who was influenced by him and loved him. I found Jack’s Life to be a fun read, although not incredibly thought provoking.

Jack - February 2010 George Sayer

Jack is a delightful biography of the life of the great literature professor and popular theologian, C.S. Lewis. George Sayer, the book’s author, and a student and friend of Lewis, engages the reader through his depiction, observation, and, at times, frank judgment of Lewis’ life.

This book is the third biography of Lewis I have read, the first being Surprised by Joy, Lewis’ selective commentary of his own life, then Jack’s Life, by Lewis’ stepson, Do

uglas Gresham, who very obviously witnessed all that was bright and good about C.S. Lewis. Jack was different than these, as it provided an outside perspectiv on the man from one who was a clos

e friend, and, with all respect, did not see Lewis as some kind of superhero, although a great man.

Sayer recounts Lewis’ life from his birth in Ireland and early childhood experiences through his sch

ooling, war experiences, time at the University, and relationship with Joy Gresham, on to his

death. All of this provides a backdrop for the keen insight Sayer provides into Lewis’ literary works. All of this he accomplishes with no attempt to hide the warts of Lewis’ life.

It

was no surprise to find that Lewis had his struggles. Sayer recounts his unhealthy relationship with his father following the death of his mother, His sexual addiction in his youth, his struggle with morbid introspection, and his decline into atheism all right alongside of his description of Lewis’ brilliant mind, his loyalty to his friends, His life changing love for God when he found Him, and his unfailing generosity.

In many ways I found myself identifying with Lewis through Sayer’s portrayal of him: his love for beauty alongside his rationality - which contributed to his coming to Christ, His struggle and then release as he learned to walk with God, his love for laughter and good natured criticism and discussion at the pub among friends at Inklings meetings, and his ability to see and love the fingerprints of God everywhere.

In other ways I was intrigued and surprised by him. He had no taste when it came to furniture or indoor decor, possibly because of

the rationing during the wars - I certainly imagined him sitting in an overstuffed leather chair with a good book, smoking his pipe, surrounded by rich bookshelves in a lavishly carpeted and furnished library, but it seems he preferred the simple to the elegant. Furthermore, He thought the life of an author irrelevant to his literary works, a thought that is foreign to me probably because of hermeneutical training (though I’m not sure he would have held this view in regard to Scripture). Then the reasoning behind which he justified his relationship with and marriage to Joy Gresham, a married woman when he met her, was certainly mystifying.

Jack has enriched my understanding of and appreciation for C.S. Lewis. It is both fun and insightful. I would certainly recommend it as a window into the life of this man who has impacted so many by his wit and wisdom into the life of God and relationship with Him.

The Shack - February 2010 Wm. Paul Young

The Shack is a fictionalized story about a man’s encounter with God in His (as supposed) reality through his own grie

f, anger, tragedy, confusion, and misunderstanding. It is a moving story. I found myself weeping through some passages for joy and delight through the presentation of the depth of God’s care for us and the prospect of knowing Him fully, and weeping out of sorrow as I found myself identifying with the portrayal of both pain and delight in God.

I think Young touches the important issues of God’s sovereignty through tragedy, the nature of relationships and image-bearing, love, choice, and the deadness of the face of much of “cultural” Christianity. I found much to enjoy about the concepts of face-to-faceness, love, submission and joy in the trinity, about the relational idea of our walk with God versus the deadness of religion, about some of the explanatory conversations between Mack and God, especially the depiction of the Spirit, and about some of the ideas of life in God and image-bearing.

How

ever, I did find cause for concern as well. To me, it seems that Young’s fault is that he is reacting at the same time as trying to be deep - maybe a conflict of agendas. He will make great statements about

the nature of the Godhead, but then smack of heresy in the way in which he plays out that statement. For instance, he declares that jesus was demonstrating true humanity through miracles, a statement I enjoy and am comfortable when the emphasis is on Christ’s joyful relationship with and submission to the fore-ordained plan of the collective Trinity regarding redemption. This is the very reason why He did not make rocks into bread to pacify a human craving, because He was, as a man living out the perfect relationship He had with the Father and Spirit. However, Young goes farther to say that jesus has no power in Himself, but its only derivative of the Father and Spirit, as if his humanity somehow robbed him of deity. This if false. True, Jesus never operated independently of the Father or Spirit, but when has he ever done this anyway? It certainly did not start with the incarnation. And what about the fact that Paul says that right now Jesus upholds the universe by the word of His power? That would make it seem to be a very grave and erroneous statement indeed to say that Jesus has no power in Himself. Somehow I felt that much (not all) of Young’s depiction of Christ was lacking the majesty and reverence He deserves.

A second cause for concern was Young’s depiction of God as a cosmic “firefighter” of sorts. The premise is that love will never force someone to do something they don’t want, which premise I find faulty. God would never force himself on us, but longs for use to lose our lust for independence and come running to Him. Nothing “evil” is part of His plan, but is purely the result of human choices which God did not design, although He is skillful to still get what he wants in the end through his putting out of the fires. This goes back to the ancient question of sovereignty and freewill, which is not easily solved. But I ask, is this the best comfort for someone suffering through tragedy? When Mack asked why God did not stop the brutal murder of his daughter, its as if God’s answer is “my hands were tied by my love; my love rendered me unable to stop this.”

I feel this book has great merit in its thought provoking presentation of issues that need to be wrestled with, some that often never are touched because a certain thought has been accepted for so long. The message of relationship with God through Christ and the need to forgive are essential. But as with any book, we need to chew and spit. This of course needs to be read with a discerning (not necessarily prejudiced) eye, never replacing books such as this for actual deep, theological study of Scripture itself.

Cousin Sleepover

I had a fun time hanging with Cade and Brynne last weekend. It was a little crazy, but not as scary as I thought. You can tell that Cade was ready to be done by the picture at the top...how I found her right before I took her back to mom. They are so funny together. All I have to say is that those out there who have had multiples...you are awesome!

My Sweeties

I love this little outfit that someone made for Brynnie

More adventures with rubber ducky

Reading at bedtime

Brynne is officially 8 months this weekend. God reminds me all that time to enjoy and appreciate her as a special gift from Him and not to take this time for granted. It's easy to wish the time away when things are inconvenient or difficult, but at the same time crazy to think how fast time goes. I just put all her 0-6 month clothes away, and I can't believe she was that little at one time! Any thoughts on enjoying and appreciating every day...parent or not?

Rubber Ducky...you're the one...

Rob and I have been laughing lately at how much Brynne loves her rubber duck. It’s not the usual color, but I guess pink is appropriate. Anyways....she LOVES to play with it during her bath and when I take her out to dry her off and get her dressed, she clings to it like it’s her best friend. I never understood that song until now....rubber ducky, you’re the one...that makes bath time so much fun...it is so true...

And here are a few other latest pictures of our sweetie. She will be 8 months in a week and a half...time is flying!

#4

Don’t Make Me Count to Three, by Ginger Plowman

CONFESSION...I only finished this book...started it a while ago. A few of the books on my list this year are “finishers” and this is one of them. I think I lacked motivation because Brynne was so young and not really at a discipline stage yet. Well, she’s getting there a lot faster than I would have imagined. Anyways, this book is a discussion of a philosophy of discipline based on scripture. Ginger is very thorough in handling what discipline is, why we should do it, how to do it, and gives a lot of application and great examples. One of her main points is that we are working to reach the heart of our children, not simply their actions. This is so important!!! Especially as Rob and I have talked, we desire so much to have children that love God and desire to serve him - not little robots that simply follow orders mindlessly. One of her examples that was so simple caught my attention...how often do two children fight over one toy and someone walks up and says “who had it first?”...she says that this is not the question to ask - at least with our children. We have to share with both children that their hearts are in the wrong. One is taking and causing frustration, while the other is not sharing and being angry. Neither is acting with a heart of love for the other. It would be easy in this case and so many others to simply take care of the basic issue...”who had it first, well give it back”... but we’re not really reaching the heart.

Another thing she said over and over to her children that I noticed was “I love you too much to let you disobey”. This is something I want to remember...when I don’t feel like disciplining, when they are doubting my reasons for disciplining...I love them too much to let them live however they want, realizing where this will lead them in the future. They often won’t understand, I know I didn’t - but I’m so thankful for my parents and their faithfulness in raising me. One thing that bothered me a little about this book was a tendency to prooftext at times. I’m glad that she tries to back everything up with scripture, but some things are just great ideas and practices and you may not have a specific reference for them. I think she pulled some things out of context to serve her purpose. That being said, I would definitely recommend it for parents as a good reference.

Now, on to Perelandra...another “finisher”.

Wednesday Letters and Snow

I had to laugh at the snow we got here in VA Beach...8 inches or something which absolutely shuts the place down... especially when usually 1 or 2 does..it was great to have a couple days home together though...

And...

Review # 3

The Wednesday Letters, by Jason Wright

This novel was an easy and fun read...I managed to do it in two days...mostly because we had the biggest snow storm in Virginia Beach in 30 years and life stopped! It is fiction about a family going through the loss of their parents and dealing with other life issues. It has a lot of “God talk”...it seems like the author may be a Christian. I liked the theme of forgiveness and redemption throughout. Some of the “lovey-dovey” talk...I’m not so sure is necessary, but perhaps not harmful either. My favorite part is that the parents that just passed away had a very sweet tradition. The father wrote a letter every Wednesday to his wife from the day they married to the day they died. I enjoy hearing about different traditions people have - even if it’s made up in a book...anyways, this was strictly fluff reading, but I guess that’s ok once in a while (and I’ve decided to review every book, so I did).

Jack and The Shack

So, this year Rob and I decided to be a little more purposeful about our reading. We are both working on a list of books that we would like to read by the end of 2010. The other part of this, is that we would like to post at least a short review of each on the blog, just to help us consolidate our thoughts as we finish each one (most likely mine will be short and Rob’s....well...not). :)

So my first two this year were The Shack by William Young and Jack’s Life by Douglas Gresham. Most likely you have heard of The Shack as it has caused quite a stir, especially in evangelical circles. If you have not, it is a novel written about a man who lost his daughter and the way he “meets up” with God and works through his grief. Young is a good writer and has put out something that catches your attention quickly. Over all, I enjoyed reading through this book. There are some very controversial things that he does however. He personifies God as a black woman (the Father), a Middle-Eastern man (Jesus), and an oriental woman (the Spirit). This was very odd to me at first. As I read, I realized that he was mostly trying to break down our misconceptions of God. That is fair although I’m wondering if this is a little confusing and also it seems like there might be some issues with his view of the trinity. I don’ t know enough to discuss it, nuy understand the Driscoll has a scathing review on youtube if you’re interested. He also tends to take a lot of pot shots at “conservative” christianity. While I think he has some good points - I think there should be complete respect and love for all those that are brothers and sisters in Christ - and at times it seems like he (and even God) is sneering at these people. I felt that he did a good job though of helping people work through grief especially relating to their view of God and His goodness. There is a lot of food for thought along the way. It seems to me that the most important thing to do with a book like this is to not treat it like the Bible...instead, take your knowledge of scripture and enjoy the things he hits on that are in line, reject the things that are not. I don’t however think there is a need to shun it completely.

Jack’s Life is a short biography of C.S. Lewis. This was such a fun read. Rob is a huge fan of Lewis and therefore, I have been sucked in. I have read a few of his books and enjoyed finding out about his life. I’m sure it is not the best book written about him, but I liked that it was short and to the point - mostly just telling the story...not analyzing his works or anything like that. Gresham is Lewis’ stepson, and he has an immense love and respect for Lewis that I really enjoyed. It makes a difference to hear admiration from someone that actually spent a lot of time with someone. I was struck with the difficulties that Lewis faced, pretty much his whole life time. I was also struck by the true Christianity he lived out on a daily basis. Having read the Chronicles of Narnia, I couldn’t help thinking that even as Lewis faced tremendous difficulty, it seems he kept the “wardrobe” close by in his mind to step out of the harshness that life often presents, and into the beauty of another world...a reminder to me of the need to live in the reality of heaven and not be too settled into this world. I loved discovering his Irish heritage - no wonder he describes such a beautiful place in Narnia. Rob and I would love to visit Ireland some day...it seems a little bit more exciting because of this thought.

Let me know what you think - I can handle criticism...maybe.

Lovin' on Nana and Papa

This is for Steve

You can ask him about the details

God's good gifts...showing up in a wedding

more pics on facebook

On January 2nd, one of my best friends was married. Jolene and I met in 9th grade when I moved to Wisconsin. We always laugh because we were going to the same church and each Sunday her mom would make her come talk to me because I was the “new girl”. She would ask me the same questions every time, and I would give the same answers. Finally we went on a youth activity together and had a sleepover and the rest is history. We were able to be friends throughout high school and college and have continued a close relationship even though we live thousands of miles away from each other. Jolene is one of those friends that whether you talk every week or have to catch up after months...it’s always the same. She has been a constant spiritual encouragement to me and an example of a single person who constantly seeks to have her satisfaction in Christ instead of living a discontented life wishing for something that is not part of God’s plan. I have prayed often for her to find a wonderful man because I am so happily married to Rob and wished for her to have the same joy. In April, she met Jesse Hiltz online....I know...it sounds a little scary...but it is amazing the means God uses to bring two people together. They totally hit it off and were engaged in October. Then I received a phone call....January 2nd...wow...I hadn’t planned on a trip to Canada that soon, but I was so excited that the Lord was leading them together and they would not have to wait through a long engagement. The wedding was incredible - so perfect - and Jolene was a beautiful bride! I was so thankful to meet Jesse and see all the wonderful things in person that Jolene had been telling me. He really treats her like a queen and I couldn’t be happier for them. I know he will lead her in her walk with God and am so thankful to see God answer this long-time prayer request. He is always good and would have been good if her never brought Jesse along. But how sweet to see Him rejoice over His children and give them such wonderful gifts to enjoy.