Quotidian Quotations - April 11, 2012

Another quote from Stanley Hauerwas today:

"Jesus's disciples are not called to do great things, although great things may happen. Rather, Jesus's disciples are called to do the work that Jesus has given us to do - work as simple and hard as learning to tell the truth and to love our enemies. Such work is the joy that our master invites us to share."

Quotidian Quotations - April 10, 2012

Image from www.brazospress.com

Today's quotation comes from the excellent Brazos Theological Commentary series, which is so good that I'm reading through the books like novels in my study time. Not your average commentary line!

This quote is from Stanley Hauerwas, commenting on the book of Matthew.

"There is no place one might go to know with certainty that Jesus is who he says he is. To know that Jesus is the Son of God requires that we take up his cross and follow him. Having taken up the cross, Christians discover they have no fear of the truth, no matter from where it might come."

Quotidian Quotations - April 9, 2012

Steve and I - and now Anastasia, too! - are big baseball fans.

So in honour of the Toronto Blue Jays' home opener, today's Quotidian Quotation is a hybrid between spirituality and the wonderful world of baseball:

"Baseball is like church. Many attend, but few understand."

- Wes Westrum, former major league catcher

New Blog Series Begins Today!

Today I'm starting a new blog series, called Quotidian Quotations, in honour of my return to work from maternity leave. This series has been percolating in my mind as I've posted quotes regularly on Facebook over the past months. It's been a good discipline for me to find helpful quotes, and it's been really interesting to have friends around the globe interact with them.

Here's how the new series will work: I (or Steve) will post, more or less daily ("quotidian"), an interesting excerpt or thought ("quotation") we've found. It will likely be spiritual in nature - but it won't always. Whatever has caught our fancy and we think others would find appealing, challenging, encouraging or funny.

I hope you'll enjoy the quotes, and occasionally also be transformed by or even laugh out loud at them. And I'd be delighted to have you start a conversation about them, through commenting on the blog.

Stay tuned...the first quote is coming soon!

-JGP

Lenten thought for the day: "To worship God rightly we cannot distinguish who we are from what we do." -Stanley Hauerwas What might it mean for us today to live such an authentic, honest, freed and intentional life? - JGP

Minor miracle or coincidence?

Here I am, wearing my new-old, free-of-charge glasses.

Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 

- Jesus (Matthew 6)

I went to the eye doctor today, hoping my prescription for my glasses hadn't changed. I 'm extremely near-sighted, so new glasses cost $500-$700, and we hadn't budgeted for that this year. 

It turns out that my eyes have actually improved over the past two years (I've reached "that age," no matter how nicely the eye doctor tries to explain it) and that was good news for my eye health. However, not-so-good news for my bank account, as it meant I needed new glasses.

And here's where the minor miracle - or coincidence - comes in. I just happened to have brought my old glasses, bought in 2005 and used only until 2007, and they just happen to be in great shape. And they just happen to be exactly the new prescription I need. As a result, I just happen to have a fantastic new-old pair of glasses that not only fit the bill but also give me a new look!

So...did all of this "just happen" as a series of happy coincidences? Or did God intervene on my behalf, creating a minor miracle?

I guess the conclusion we draw depends on whether we take Jesus' promise in Matthew 6 at face value or not. We'd all say that of course it is better to not worry, and to trust God for everything. But it's a lot harder to do that when it's your own real expense and your own real income in question.

Again, was it all just coincidence? Or was it God's promise in action? You can decide for yourself, and all of us do every day, in small and big ways, in our own lives.

All I have to say for today is...thanks be to God!

Habakkuk's Justice

Last week our churches hosted the 2012 World Day of Prayer. This year's theme was "Let Justice Prevail."
Biblical texts and themes were taken from Luke 18 and from Psalms 33 and 82.

But what most grabbed me were the excerpts from the prophet Habakkuk. They grabbed me because Habakkuk is such a shocking and powerful story, and they seemed to embrace his theme of justice while skirting the shocking nature of that justice in this tiny little Old Testament book.