Jonathan's Faith

All my life I've heard the story of David and Jonathan's friendship. When we read the story in 1 Samuel 20, the moral of the story was usually about deep friendship and loyalty. Sometimes Sunday School teachers even pointed out that Jonathan was a dear friend of the man who had been anointed to be the next king, the man who would be depriving Jonathan of his kingdom.

But when you start looking at the conversations between David and Jonathan, you realize it's about more than this.

Why does Jonathan love David? Because he believes in Yahweh, and he desires that God's will be done. He loves and reveres the anointed one. Not only does David's coming kingship mean that Jonathan will not be king, but as Jonathan looked to the future, he probably knew David's kingship was likely to bring about his own death. A change of dynasty seldom goes well for the princes. And yet, he loved David and protected David. I don't think this was so much an example of loyalty to a friend, but it was an example of a man taking seriously what we say in the confirmation vows: we will be faithful to this confession even if it costs us our life.

Sure enough, Jonathan's dad, the king, tried to kill him for his faith in Yahweh and his love for the anointed one. Eventually Jonathan would be killed in a battle with the Philistines -- not by David's followers. I suppose it shouldn't be amazing to me how Jonathan could embrace what God said about David being the next king. How big a fraidy-cat would I be with a future like that stretched out in front of me? But God sustained him through it all.

My Wednesday Daughter

My Anthea

Once upon a time --I think it was Advent or Lent one year-- Anthea began driving an hour to come to church on Wednesday nights for midweek services. We loved her. And once we actually convinced Rachel that Anthea truly existed and was not an invented & imaginary creature, they got to be good friends too. Anthea would come visit on Wednesday evenings, go to church with us, and then watch the results of that week's American Idol show with us.

We took to calling her our Wednesday daughter, and she called us her Wednesday family.

Then she moved to Texas. Many a sigh from Anthea. And her friends. And her bio-family. And her Wednesday family. When she makes it to her folks' in northern Illinois, sometimes she drives all the way out here to see us -- long haul though it be.

She's living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. So are Katie and Nathan now. But man oh man -- that's one big city. It takes forever to drive around it. Not having time to fit in a good visit at either home, we instead met Anthea (on a Wednesday!) at an Argentinian bakery not too far from the airport. We fit in a 75-minute visit and ate some awesome sweets and drank too much delicious "detox tea."

Ah, it's good to see her. She's still job-hunting. Our metro-area is still on her radar for possibilities if she can't find work closer to her hometown. It'd be sweet to have her closer. Especially if she's as good at scouting out northern coffee shops as she is at finding places in Dallas.

Four Generations

My father-in-law wanted a snapshot of four generations of us women for the newspaper.

Interesting that my mother-in-law (who hates having her picture taken because she thinks they always turn out poorly) was the one captured best in this photo. :-) I betcha it's because my father-in-law was the photographer, doncha spoze?

Quick Post on the fly

Been out of town for several days this week at the Wisdom and Eloquence conference in Ft Wayne. I have LOTS and lots of things to "think through" by sitting at the computer writing about them -- mostly about classical ed or certain theological points. Met some great people at the conference and spent some time with old friends too.

While there we also helped load up Katie and Nathan's rental truck for their move to Texas. I would have pictures to post of the friends who helped, but my computer is broken. (I'm borrowing one right now, largely for the sake of letting y'all know why I'm ignoring blogs and emails since Thursday.)

We're supposed to visit the zoo today for the summer outing/picnic for Gary's place of employment. It was drizzly yesterday morning, and has been raining pretty much since early yesterday afternoon. My garden is drenched so I can't do any catch-up work out there anyway. But going to the zoo in a downpour isn't a very exciting proposition either. The weather map makes it look like the afternoon may be okay.

Nathan is in Texas unloading the truck. Katie and Alia are here with us for a couple of days to say their good-byes and also so that I can play catch-up in the kitchen (and apparently not in the garden... darn!) and go to church before we girls take the car to Texas. I'll get to see their new place and then fly home on Wednesday. I flew to Florida when Paul was a baby and to St Louis more than 10 years ago. I'm scared of how to pack post-911 and what they're going to take out of my purse/suitcase and throw in the garbage. Frugal people don't like their shampoo bottles and nail clippers thrown in the garbage!

Hopefully the new computer parts will arrive in the mail by the time I return home and I will be able to return to my computer addiction.

The Bigger Miracle

Exodus 16:2-3 Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!

Exodus 16:11-12 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.'"

We see the miracles and are impressed by them. Wow -- God gave them manna from heaven! Wow -- God parted the Red Sea and let the Israelites cross over on dry ground! Wow -- the Angel destroyed the firstborn of Egypt but passed over the houses protected by the blood of the lamb! Wow!

But Pastor pointed out there's something bigger. For whom did God do these things?

Complainers.
Whiners.
Rebels.
God-haters.

When they sassed Him, He did not give them what they deserved for their murmuring; He did not make them go hungry but gave them quail and manna. When they bemoaned their fate when they were pinned in by the Red Sea, He didn't blow them off for their doubts: He made a way to rescue them.

Adjusting the laws of nature to do what He desires is certainly a miracle. But how much greater a miracle that He is merciful to those who spit in His face! He does what He does because of His promise and because of His heart of love, not because of anything in us.

Today's Very Bad Pun

It was intense like a circus parade.



Someone suggested that, if you don't get it, you could try saying it out loud a couple of times.

Speaking the Truth in Love

This week's [three-year series] epistle was from Ephesians 4. In it we hear about the gospel, and the ministry, and the Church. We hear how the Faith unites the Church, and that God instituted the office of the ministry so that we might not be deceived by false doctrine but be united to Christ and grow closer to Him and one another. Right in the midst of this is the phrase, "Speaking the truth in love."

Usually when I hear people using that phrase, they're in the process of speaking the Law to you, telling you what you need to do to fix yourself and make yourself holier. But, see, they're doing it "in love," so that makes it okay (they say).

When you look at that phrase in the context of the apostle's letter, it doesn't quite come off that way. I guess your perspective kinda depends on what you believe about "the Faith" and "the truth" and what it means to "grow up" into Christ.

Today's Laugh

A lady noticed her husband standing on the bathroom scale, sucking in his stomach.

Thinking he was trying to weigh less with this maneuver, she commented, "I don't think that's going to help."

"Sure it will," he said. "It's the only way I can see the numbers."

Away from Home

It seems to have gotten to be so much harder to go on a trip. When the kids were babies, it was a big to-do: play-pen and diapers and blankies and all that. As the kids became more adept at packing their own clothes and amusements, trips became simpler. But now trips are becoming more intimidating again, and I think I've finally figured out why.

It's hard enough at home to keep track of all the piddly daily self-care items. When we're traveling, it's a booger just to remember something as basic as brushing my teeth! But it's almost impossible when I'm away from my kitchen and my home-routine to remember to take my vitamins and my pills, to drink enough water, to say my prayers, to exercise, to neti, etc. Back when I was young [ahem!] I could skip those things with impunity. But old age means
1) you feel it when you forget those things, and
2) everything is so much harder to remember.

Today's Laugh

A company, feeling it was time for a shake-up, hires a new CEO. This new boss is determined to rid the company of all slackers. On a tour of the facilities, the CEO notices a guy leaning on a wall. The room is full of workers, and he thinks this is his chance to show everyone he means business!

The CEO walks up to the guy and asks, “And how much money do you make a week?”

Undaunted, the young fellow looks at him and replies, “I make $200 a week. Why?”

The CEO then hands the guy $200 in cash and screams, “Here’s a week’s pay, now GET OUT and don’t come back!” Feeling pretty good about his first firing, the CEO looks around the room and asks, “Does anyone want to tell me what that slacker did here?”

With a sheepish grin, one of the other workers mutters, “That was the pizza delivery guy”.

Garden

We picked enough beans earlier this week to add to a stirfry, but tonight was the first time I picked and got almost enough for the supper veggies. I'm beginning to realize that my garden this year is only big enough to be a hobby (because I need a hobby??) and not enough to really supply us much food -- much less produce enough that we can put some veggies up for winter. See my watermelon vines? I think we'll be awash in watermelon. Yummy! The cantaloupes, though, hiding behind the tomatoes, just aren't setting fruit. Gary's even tried hand-pollinating them. We may have to try some more. Cucumbers are in the front corner by the corn -- I hear that the spikey cukes and winter squashes may serve as a deterrent to corn robbers (aka skunks and raccoons).

Our salsa pepper is the plant that bore earliest and, so far, most prolifically. When we picked the first one --not knowing how hot it might be-- I wasn't careful to wear gloves when I chopped it. Burn burn burn! Not gonna make that mistake again! I hope these peppers keep coming along until after the tomatoes ripen. I'm drooling over the salsa possibilities. (Of course, the cilantro ain't doin' squat, so I may have to buy that...)


Beans and one zucchini plant are up in the one raised bed. The other has itty-bitty teeny-tiny rows of turnip and spinach and carrot and lettuce and rutabaga and other stuff.


My sprinkler broke yesterday. The replacement sprinkler doesn't reach as far. My asparagus (in the corner of the "L") was barely dampened with yesterday's watering. We'll need another length of hose or the self-discipline to remember to go out with the sprayer to water that corner. There's a little parsley tucked between the blueberries and blackberries, close to the front of the picture. Yukon Gold potatoes are planted down the middle of this garden section, between the baby raspberries.
Somebody who left hoofprints has been nibbling the leaves of my strawberries. Somebody should die and end up in my freezer. I've heard that the smell of humans can serve as a deer deterrent. So, can you get arrested for public indecency (which in these modern days classifies you as a sex offender) if you decide to pee around the edges of your garden? If you did it at night, the neighbor kids wouldn't catch you. But the mosquitoes would -- owie! Athena does a great job takin' down Thumper, but I don't think she's going to stop Bambi. Given the weird shape of our yard, and the hills and the septic mound, our garden spots are going to have to fit into weird locations with weirder shapes, and 6' high deer-proof fencing could get rather expensive for our garden spaces.

Today's Laugh

A man had to attend a large convention in Chicago. On this particular trip he decided to bring his wife. When they arrived at their hotel and were shown to their room, the man said, "You rest here while I register for the convention. I’ll be back within an hour."

The wife lies down on the bed. Just then, an elevated train passes by very close to the window and shakes the room so hard she’s thrown out of the bed.

Thinking this must be a freak occurrence, she lies down once more. Again a train shakes the room so violently, she’s pitched to the floor.

Exasperated, she calls the front desk and asks for the manager. The manager says he’ll be right up. The manager is skeptical but the wife insists the story is true.

"Look, lie here on the bed. You’ll be thrown right to the floor!"

So he lies down next to the wife. Just then the husband walks in.

"What are you doing here?" he yells.

The manager replies, "Would you believe I’m waiting for a train?"

Rasberry Custard Pie

Combine 3/4 cup sugar
and 2 Tablespoons cornstarch.
Pour sugar over 1 quart of raspberries,
and heat gently (do not cook!) until sugar melts.
(I did it in the microwave.)


While the sugar is melting into the raspberry juice, make a single 10" pie crust and place into pie plate.


Gently stir sugar into berries.
In another bowl, combine
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup milk


Pour berries into raw pie crust.
Pour egg/milk mix over the berries.


Bake at 350 for about 75-80 minutes, until egg is set and top of pie is beginning to turn golden. Do not try to shorten cooking time by baking in a hotter oven. Let cool completely before you even think of cutting the pie.

Sihon and Og

My mom read me lots and lots of Arch books when I was little, and because of that I tend to know my Bible stories pretty well. But Sihon and Og? That's one I either didn't hear, or it's one I forgot.

So many of the psalms work their way through salvation history, telling the wonders God had done for the Israelites. Our psalm for this week is 136, and we run across it every day: "Sihon, king of the Amorites" and "Og, king of Bashan." And I don't know what's what.

So I dug through the Torah until I found the references. After the forty years of wilderness wanderings following the Passover and the exodus from slavery in Egypt, it was time for the Israelites to go into the Promised Land. The high priest Aaron had just died. The Israelites defeated their first Canaanite foe. Then they headed the long way around Edom. The people started sassing Moses. Again! God sent the fiery serpents, and we hear the story of how those who were bitten were saved when they looked at the bronze serpent on the pole. After they worked their way through a few more campsites, God gave them water.

Then Israel asked permission to pass through Sihon's land, promising not to touch anything. Sihon said "no way" and came out to fight, and the Amorites lost their territory. Then Israel again set out on the path toward Canaan. Og wasn't any more pleased about these millions of people traipsing through his land than Sihon had been. So Og and his armies came out to fight. They fared no better than Sihon's armies. And then we get back to familiar stories again, with the Israelites hanging out in Moab, on the east side of the river, across from Jericho, and the Moabite king in a panic and calling for Balaam to curse the interlopers.

Today's Laugh

One day, an immigrant from Poland entered a New York City Police Precinct to report that his American wife was planning to kill him.

The police officer on duty was intrigued by this and he asked, "How sure are ya that she is gonna kill ya? Did she threaten to kill ya?"

"No," replied the nervous immigrant.

"Did ya hear her tell someone else that she’s gonna kill ya?"

"No."

"Did someone tell ya that your wife is gonna kill ya?"

"No."

"Then why in God’s name did ya think she’s gonna kill ya?" asked the exasperated police officer.

"Because I found bottle on dresser and I think she gonna poison me!" He handed the police officer the suspect bottle.

The police officer took one look at the label on the bottle and started to laugh out loud. The immigrant became indignant and said, "What so funny? Can't you see the label on bottle said, 'Polish Remover'?"

Not Too Much

It makes for a glorious day full of joy when a person doesn't try to do in one day what should normally be accomplished in the space of three days. Trying to do too much always makes for stress. And it makes for failure when at the end of the day only a small portion of the day's needs were met. It's totally different when a person is trying to do a reasonable amount of work. Then there's satisfaction in what was done!

Parenting Lessons from the Garden

The tender, new, little plants are more likely to be nibbled by the bugs than are the bigger, stronger plants. Maybe sugar and caffeine and TV won't do as much damage to a 15-yr-old as they will to a 3-yr-old.

Plants will live when there's not quite enough water, but they need abundant water to grow lush. Baptism and the Word?

Daily attention to pulling weeds, five minutes here, ten minutes there, every day, when you're not making a "job" of weeding, prevents problems. Going away for a week or two of vacation results in a huge mess that takes a while to fix. That's when you notice how significant the daily work has been.

New little strawberry plants should not be making fruit but should grow strong for their own health during the first year.

Plants take more space and more attention from the gardener when they're big than the gardener expected when they were just little sprouts.

The amount of fertilizer that helps a mature plant will probably be enough to burn a baby plant.

Without pruning, a vine or tree doesn't make proper fruit.

A gardener may do everything right and still end up with a poor crop. A gardener may do loads of stuff wrong and still reap a great harvest. The work is ours to do, but the results are in the Lord's hands.

Today's Laugh

A customer sent an order to a distributor for a large amount of goods totaling a great deal of money.

The distributor noticed that the previous bill hadn’t been paid. The collections manager left a voice-mail for them saying, "We can’t ship your new order until you pay for the last one."

The next day the collections manager received a collect phone call: "Please cancel the order. We can’t wait that long."

The New Creation

The beginning of Psalm 148 calls on the angels and the Sabaoth, the sun, moon, and stars, the heavens, to praise the Lord. Then it says why:

For He commanded and they were created.
He also established them forever and ever;
He made a decree which shall not pass away.

At the end of the world, come Judgment Day, the world will be destroyed by fire. God will make a new heaven and a new earth. I always thought that meant God was going to destroy it all and start over.

But now I'm wondering.

We believe in the resurrection of the body. We don't believe in a "do-over." WE will be in heaven with our bodies. We won't be different people, with different bodies. We will be our own selves, albeit with resurrected bodies that have been made gloriously free from the effects of sin.

Paul tells us (Romans 8) that the whole creation is yearning with eager expectation for the end of the world, for Judgment Day when the Christians will be revealed, when the world will be made new. Does that mean the sun and moon and stars are not going to be obliterated any more than people will be? Does that mean they too will be freed from the curse and made new? Are the rocks and the stars and mountains going to be like the people, where it's not a "scratch that, let's start over" but a perfecting and remake of what God already created?

Fat

Butter = $0.95 per cup
Walmart's cheapest coconut oil = $1.40 per cup
Real lard from the Darien butcher = $0.35 per cup
Hydrogenated lard from the store = $0.60 per cup
Aldi's raw olive oil = $2.00 per cup
Woodman's cheapest raw olive oil = $1.90 per cup
Woodman's cheapest olive oil = $1.50 per cup
Off-brand shortening = $0.50 per cup
Pomace oil = $0.70 per cup

I ran out of lard when I made soap last week. I can't find butchers around here that actually kill animals and sell the meat and other parts; the "butchers" here are just meat stores. I think I may actually have to buy some Crisco for use in seasoning skillets; it's killin' me to wipe coconut oil and olive oil on my skillets.

I've been using lard for two reasons. 1) It was the cheapest fat I could find. 2) I'd rather use unrefined fats than chemist-made fats. Of course, pigs are unclean animals, so I'm not sure that my usual plan ("I'd rather eat the fat God made than the fat the scientist made") pans out for lard.

Looking online for information on fats, I discovered that somebody else uses the same thing I'd been using as a shortening-replacement. In recipes that called for Crisco, I was using part butter and part lard, with a little more butter than lard. It seemed to work nicely, giving a buttery taste instead of such a piggy taste, with more of a shortening-texture to the baked goods.

For all the grand things my friends have told me about coconut oil and its health benefits, I'm finding that it stinks as a product for greasing pans. When I've used coconut oil to grease the granola pan or bread pan, I can't detach my food from my baking dish. It also makes cornbread turn out with a weird non-cohesive texture.

I wonder if grocery-store meat departments sell suet at this time of year. I have no idea how much it costs.

Last week I made a batch of home-made soap with Crisco. I wonder if the processed fat will work okay, or if it will give me rashes like the typical store "bath bar." If it works, it'd be a lot easier than rendering and washing animal fats. If not, I'm going to have to take a long drive to a real butcher. On the other hand, pomace isn't that much more expensive than the Crisco imitations.

But in the meantime, I'm gonna have to find me some lard, somehow, somewhere.