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Fighting Foxes
There are foxes in London. Shortly after we moved here, when I first glimpsed one slinking down the street, I actually cooed, like we all do over a puppy. I know, I know… All of my London friends are shaking their heads at this silly Yankee but in my defense, although plenty of deer visited our house in Wisconsin, including an eight-pointer that engaged me in a staring contest (and won), I was not as familiar with foxes. So, I was a bit intrigued by the cunning little faces that often appeared at dusk. During that same settling into London time when emotions were raw, one of the songs I…
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Buried Truth
What is truth? Such is the question Pilate, governor of Judaea, posed to Jesus, the very person who shockingly claimed, ‘I am the Truth’. History is full of sages who have grappled with the notion of truth: Socrates: Lies are the greatest murderer. They kill the truth. Buddha: Three things can not be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. Gandhi: An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. Good stuff. I’ve been pondering truth lately and I’d venture to guess some of you have been as well. No matter…
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Mission Impossible
( originally published https://blogs.efca.org/posts/mission-impossible EFCA) I am not moving to London. At least that’s what I told God from our rented room on the top story of The Forester Pub in west London. It was the third night of our family’s vision trip, the culmination of months of praying, counsel-seeking, investigating and eventually applying and interviewing with ReachGlobal. This vision trip was designed to help us determine the fit; to help us answer the question, Is God calling us to join the mission field in London? Three days in and my answer was no. God was not calling us to the mission field in London. My emotions, common sense, as well…
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Training the Thumb
If I’m honest, summer 2020 lockdown included too much scrolling. Too often I reached for my phone and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled, past pandemic statistics, protests, half-true statements, videos without context, videos with too much context, riots, memes, and flash sales. Like a leashed dog wheezing next to her master on a motorbike, my mind scrambled to keep up with my ever-swiping thumb: I don’t trust this article. This one I believe. This one is insanity… or maybe it’s satire? Oh, Jesus would wear a mask. Oh wait, I guess he wouldn’t. Woah, great price for a blouse! But I read something about about child labor… How many kids…
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Love mercy, even though it’s not fair
Last week we examined how God’s people are to act justly. Now we turn our attention to the follow-up command of Micah 6:8: Love mercy. mercy /ˈməːsi/ noun compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. What’s not to love? Yet from a human perspective, mercy is hardly ‘fair’ and the Bible is full of such examples: It wasn’t fair when a city who burned, beheaded, and dismembered people, repented of their evil and were spared destruction. [Jonah 3] It wasn’t fair when David, leader of Israel, slept with a woman, had her innocent husband slayed, then utterly repented before God and…
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Act Justly, but how?
The Bible is clear; as Christians we are to ‘defend the cause of the oppressed’. What seems less clear is how? And which injustices? How do we live out Micah 6:8? And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Tragically, dauntingly, many are oppressed, many have been wronged, many are without a voice. Some injustices are public, splashed across the media. Others remain private, hidden from all but a handful of people. Injustice is not bound by race, country, or generation. Sin is an equalizer. We are all selfish, we are all prone to let our selfishness play…
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Storytime: Mother of My Son
Remember storytime? Remember sitting criss-cross applesauce on carpet squares in the Public library? I do. Fondly. During this crazy new world of quarantine, I’ll be reading/recording my novel Mother of My Son on youtube. My hope is to post a couple chapters every weekday, 7pm London UK time, 1pm US central time. No one likes a cluttered inbox so I won’t blog post every time chapters are available so be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel for updates. Discussion welcome! Sharing encouraged! Pop questions in the contact me page and I’ll address them, hopefully during one of the readings (and I won’t embarrass you by revealing your name). Grab…
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This Is the Time
This is the time to rediscover Old books, old movies, old games, each other How technology connects us and less can sustain How sunshine, bloom, wind, and rain Are gifts. This is the time to reorder Our shelves and closets and drawers jammed with junk. Our muddled thoughts and careless words Our misplaced priorities, erroneous expectations and presumed rights of what life should be. This is the time to resist Face touching, handrails, shared food, sleepovers Extremes of ‘it’s nothing’ and ‘all’s lost’ Fear, panic, hoarding, hopelessness Blaming, shaming, authority berating This is the time to recognize Our frailty and feebleness Mortality and brevity That control is…
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10 Cultural London Surprises
Ten Cultural London Surprises (from an American Midwesterner’s point of view) My Love. For a city known for its aloofness, strangers sure can come on strong. Don’t take it seriously when the Tesco bloke (grocery delivery) or cashier at Wilko (a wannabe baby Target) refers to you as My love. Your love? I hardly know you! You alright? Americans only ask, “Are you alright?” when someone is obviously not alright. If one has tripped or is crying or throwing up. When something bad has happened, that’s the time to ask, “You alright?” So you can understand my alarm when, a couple months after moving here, not one, not two, but…
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Child of Weakness
If I could take on a superpower it would be not to need sleep. I like sleep, yet it doesn’t seem to fancy me, especially this past week as jet leg kicks our butts something fierce. Insomnia, no matter the reason, forces us to face the reality of our human weakness. Even when we desperately desire and need sleep, when we’ve tried all the tricks in the book minus hard narcotics, we lack the power to make ourselves fall asleep. (Blessed are those who are the exception.) What’s more, try as we might with coffee in hand, we can’t decide we don’t need sleep. Our reliance on sleep is one…