Tuesday Traditions - An Evangelistic Easter

Today I'm continuing on with my Easter 'Tuesday Traditions' series. Last week, I wrote about traditions that kept Easter Christ focussed and next week, I'll write about Easter traditions that are just fun and build memories and togetherness for family and church family. This week, I'm focussing on evangelistic Easter traditions. Of course those three categories are overlapping!

In our first year of marriage, we gave an Easter card and a little bag of Easter eggs to the other people in the block of flats we lived in and ended up having a really interesting conversation with our immediate neighbour. He was a lonely old man, an Auschwitz survivor who had left the eggs on his doorstep for several days, not sure what they were, and afraid someone was trying to poison him. (We had earlier tried to give them to him in person, but he was out or not answering the door.) He never came to trust Christ (at least not in the time we were living next door), but the tiny gesture of the Easter eggs and card were the first thing that opened up a little crack in the walls that he had built around himself. The relationship never became easy, but at least after that there was a relationship, and one in which we were able to talk about Christ.

In the Petersham years, we used to go with friends from church to the local train stations in the week leading up to Easter and give out tiny little clip seal plastic bags containing a "Pocket Guide" to Christianity, an invitation to church and some information about it, and an Easter egg. We did that for several years, and got to know one couple through that, who started coming to church and came to faith in Christ. Not sure if there were other good fruits apart from that!

These days, now that we're living in a new(ish) part of the world and a new(ish) phase of our lives we're keen to come up with some new evangelistic Easter traditions that work in this context, so we'd love your suggestions.

Tim Chester wrote a great post recently on how people at his church encourage each other to think about mission. They focus on three simple aims:

1. Building relationships with people who don't yet know Christ.
2. Looking for opportunities to share the gospel.
3. Looking for opportunities to introduce people to the Christian community.

You may find that framework helpful to think about the opportunities Easter offers to promote the spread of the gospel in your neighbourhood or among your networks. Some Easter traditions might meet all three aims at once, others might meet just one or two, but I'd love to hear your thoughts either way.

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Some Christ focussed traditions I forgot to mention!

Following on from last Tuesday's post about Christ focussed traditions, I've thought of a couple of things that I should have mentioned as part of that post.

One other thing our family likes to do is listen to Meet the King, a kids cd from emu music that is inspired by Mark's gospel. Through songs and readings from Mark, the cd runs from the beginning of his ministry to his death and resurrection. We love to listen to it all year round, but it is especially appropriate to listen to at Easter time.

Another thing I'm planning to do, just to focus my own mind on the significance Jesus' death and resurrection this Easter is to read through Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die, by John Piper (you can download it for free, here). It's a book of fifty short readings (about a page each) about the meaning of Jesus' death (as the title suggests!). There are many other books like this that would be good to read at this time of year - Cathy is reading through The Cross He Bore, and another one I have heard of (but have not read), is Jesus, Keep me near the Cross.

Wendy has also written a post today about how her family will be celebrating the Easter weekend itself which contains some great ideas.

Tomorrow, I'll be thinking about evangelistic traditions!

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Auld Lang Syne - by Robert Burns

I thought I'd share what is probably Robert Burns' most famous poem for this last Monday of March. It's better known as a song, which is sung to a traditional folk tune at New Years Eve. I was interested to read that the tune we know is probably not the tune that Burns originally intended.

You can find both English and Scots versions of the poem here.

Auld Lang Syne

Chorus




For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne!




I




Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to min'?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne?




II




And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,

And surely I'll be mine,

And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet

For auld lang syne!




III




We twa hae run about the braes,

And pu'd the gowans fine,

But we've wander'd monie a weary foot

Sin' auld lang syne.




IV




We twa hae paidl'd in the burn

Frae mornin sun till dine;

But seas between us braid hae roar'd

Sin' auld lang syne.




V




And here's a hand, my trusty fiere,

And gie's a hand o' thine,

And we'll take a right quid-willie waught,

For auld lang syne!




Chorus




For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet

For auld lang syne!

"Auld Lang Syne" is reprinted from English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin & Harry G. Paul. New York: American Book Company, 1908.

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A new niece!

This week our family got to welcome a new niece and cousin: Isabel Kate. Dave's sister Kathryn went into labour two weeks early so this wonderful news caught us all by surprise! I hadn't finished the baby present I was making for her - actually, I'd only got to the stage of cutting out the material, so I stayed up late on Wednesday night sewing and stuffing a pink giraffe called Mrs Perkins (finished product shown below).

The next day we bundled the kids into the car after school/preschool and drove off the hospital to meet Isabel for the first time. (There was some very cute conversation on the way there from the back seat about why babies are born in hospital. Jacob shared that he thought that it might 'hurt a little bit' to have a baby because the mummy bleeds a bit).

Here are some photos of us meeting her. It was very exciting for all of us!

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Grace and Judgement

Those who have read The Sunday Philosophy Club: have you got any thoughts about the character of Grace? My thinking is that her name must surely be something more than a co-incidence. I've shared a few thoughts and quotes about this today at EQUIP book club. You are all most welcome to join in the discussion!

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Book of the Week: 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'

Last week I shared a book that I had 'discovered' a few days earlier. This week, I've chosen a book I've pretty much known (and loved) for as long as I can remember: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.

I've chosen it this week because last Friday was its 40th anniversary. This beautiful book has sold twenty nine million copies and captivated many little and big people over the past 4o years.

There are many reasons why this is a good story, and my dad has shared some of the reasons he thinks its a classic (they are much more academic that what you'll get here, so I suggest you read them!). Here's what I love about it:

• the illustrations are colourful and his art is unique (apparently done using tissue paper);
• the holes are just the right size for little fingers (all three of my kids have wanted to poke their fingers through every single one of those holes!!);
• it's a simple story, but well told with a lovely rhythm;
• my kids have loved it so much that we're on to our second copy (and the first copy was meant to be an indestructible board book!!);
• I can read it to my kids and remember my mum and dad reading it to me when I was a kid - that's the beauty of a picture book that's been around for 40 years!

Here's a short animated clip of the book for you to enjoy (thanks dad for discovering this). Enjoy!

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Stoppard on art and language

Dave and I pooled together our Christmas and birthday presents from each other and from various sources last year and bought season tickets to the Sydney Theatre Company. Last week we got to see Tom Stoppard's play Travesties, which was lots of fun. Like most Stoppard plays, it's all about the dialogue, and it's an ideas play (but in a playful way, not in deadly earnest like some of his later plays).

It is set (mostly) in Zurich during WW1, and it creates a series of semi-fictional encounters between Tristan Tzara (one of the founders of Dada), V.I. Lenin, James Joyce and a minor official at the British embassy called Henry Carr (all of whom were living in Zurich at the time), all retold through Carr's confused memories half a century later, and woven into the plot structure of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Just across from where we were sitting, in the same row, were a couple of the boys from The Chaser, so we were half expecting a bit of unscheduled Chaser-style performance art, but nothing eventuated!

To give you a little sample of the play, here's a great little scene in which Henry Carr and Tristan Tzara are debating the legitimacy of the Dadaists' attempt to redefine the meaning of 'art':

Carr: Then you are not actually an artist at all?

Tzara: On the contrary. I have just told you I am.

Carr: But that does not make you an artist. An artist is someone who is gifted in some way that enables him to do something more or less well which can only be done badly or not at all by someone who is not thus gifted. If there is any point in using language at all it is that a word is taken to stand for a particular fact or idea and not for other facts or ideas. I might claim to be able to fly . . . Lo, I say, I am flying. But you are not propelling yourself about while suspended in the air, someone may point out. Ah no, I reply, that is no longer considered the proper concern of people who can fly. In fact, it is frowned upon. Nowadays, a flyer never leaves the ground and wouldn’t know how. I see, says my somewhat baffled interlocutor, so when you say you can fly you are using the word in a purely private sense. I see I have made myself clear, I say. Then, says this chap in some relief, you cannot actually fly after all? On the contrary, I say, I have just told you I can. Don’t you see my dear Tristan you are simply asking me to accept that the word Art means whatever you wish it to mean; but I do not accept it.

Tzara: Why not? You do exactly the same thing with words like patriotism, duty, love, freedom, king and country, brave little Belgium, saucy little Serbia.

And so on...

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You Can Change (7) - Why I don't change

This week's chapter looked at three broad reasons why people often don't change:

1. Proud self-reliance


2. Proud self-justification (excusing, minimising, hiding sin)


3. Hating the consequences of the sin, but not the sin itself.

As I read it, a lot of it resonated with me - particularly from the second category (proud self-justification), so I'm going to focus on that:

Excusing

I can definitely make a lot of excuses for my anxiety - and some of those are very real. I do come from an extended family of worriers (including some with severe anxiety/depression). I do get affected by lack of sleep and biological factors seem to feed my negative feelings. But while these factors are genuine, they aren't an excuse for the times that I fall into a pattern of not trusting the goodness of God and get anxious about my life. All it means is that I will need to fight harder against this sin than others who haven't inherited the same genetic material as me, or don't need as much sleep!**

Minimising

It is easy to minimise the seriousness of anxiety. One of the reasons is that it doesn't feel like a 'bad' thing to do. In fact, I think in my mixed up mind I often think of my anxiety as if it was a good thing - e.g. worrying about my kids comes from my fierce love for them and a desire to protect them; people who don't worry constantly about the kids obviously don't love them as much as I do, and so on... And then there's the invisibility of anxiety: because it's not an outward action but a state of mind (that is saying to God 'I don't trust your good and perfect plans'), it becomes so much easier to minimise its seriousness.

Hiding

I think I am very proud, and don't like to admit to my sin. The section of the chapter about hiding sin from others described me exactly. This does all come back to pride. I don't want people think less of me. I'm afraid that if I show weakness the other person will hold that against me. It will give them a good reason to think that I am more sinful than they are.

Having said this, I did appreciate the fact that Tim Chester did go on to say in this chapter that it isn't always appropriate that you go around telling a huge circle of people that you struggle with a particular sin. But we should be confessing to those we are accountable to.

I'm not sure that it will always be helpful for me or for the other person if I am always blabbing about my anxiety issues and the particular things I am anxious about. One reason is that with this type of sin, people tend to jump in quickly and do the minimising for you. And another reason is that it could be destabilising for the other person; like some other sins, worry can be contagious! (Jean and Simone have had some great conversations about this from time to time that are worth a read!)

Going to the cross

The key to change, the way to overcome all these barriers, is to go continually to the cross:

A changing life is a cross-centred life. At the cross we see the source of our sanctification (Ephesians 5:25; Colossians 1:22; Titus 2:14). We find hope, for we see the power of sin broken and the old nature put to death. We see ourselves united to Christ and bought by his blood. We see the glorious grace of God, dying for his enemies, the righteous for the unrighteous. We see our hope, our life, our resources, our joy. At the cross we find the grace, power and delight in God we need to overcome sin. If we don't come to the cross again and again, we'll feel distant from God, disconnected from his power and indifferent to his glory - and that is a recipe for sin.

...

When we go to the cross, we see our God dying for us. If you let any other god down, then it will beat you up. If you live for other people's approval or your career or possessions or control or anything else and you don't make it or you mess up, then you'll be left feeling afraid, downcast or bitter. But when you let Christ down, he loves you still. He doesn't beat you up; he dies for you.

Let his love win you love and let that love replace all other affections. The secret of change is to renew your love for Christ as you see him crucified in your place. (pp.138-9)

** I do however, think that if the anxiety is severe, it is worth addressing any physical factors that have lead to anxiety/depression. In the past I've used anti-depressant medication and found it helpful in getting back to a point where I could address the triggers of my anxiety. At the moment, I'm also trying to balance my hormones because there are points in my monthly cycle where I struggle more. Exercise and eating well, and getting enough sleep are also things I've found useful.

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Tuesday Traditions - A Christ Focussed Easter

Easter is less than three weeks away, and I've just realised that I need to start thinking about ways that we'll be celebrating this year. I've written before about why I think it is important to be deliberate in how we celebrate occasions like Christmas and Easter. If we don't work out how to approach these events as Christians, then I think we just end up being dragged along with the tide of how the rest of our society does things. We end up with a 'plastic' version of a celebration that is supposed to really mean something to us! If we are parents we also lose valuable opportunities to teach our kids about what we believe and create memories and closer bonds that can come through shared family celebrations.

I think a part of not being pulled along by our non-Christian neighbours at Easter and Christmas involves starting our own family traditions. Since I found your ideas so helpful in the run up to Christmas, I thought I would resurrect my 'Tuesday traditions' series with an Easter theme this time. Over the next three weeks, I'm hoping we can brainstorm ideas for how to have:

• a Christ focussed Easter
• an evangelistic Easter
• a fun Easter (this is where we share recipes, decorations ideas, general fun traditions)!

Today I thought we could start with some Christ-focussed traditions. I'll share some we're thinking of doing as a family, and then I'll hand it over to you. (I've got a lot of my ideas from Kent and Barbara Hughes' Disciplines of a Godly Family and Noel Piper's Treasuring God in our Traditions which you can read online!)*

Daily readings

We're going to do two sets of readings this year. I've discovered an Easter themed set of Table Talk called 'Easter Unscrambled', that we've starting using over breakfast (when we normally do Table Talk). Jacob will do the corresponding XTB notes in his quiet time. They come in the one booklet, and are really wonderful - I recommend them!

We're also going to set aside a time at night (probably when we normally read the Bible with the kids straight after their stories), and do some readings accompanied by visual reminders of what we've read.

Like last year, we'll use a kit called resurrection eggs that I found at a local Christian bookshop. The basic concept is a series of Bible readings leading up to Easter, each one correlated with a plastic egg containing a little object to symbolise the Bible reading (eg. a donkey for Matt 21:1-9).

I did hesitate before I introduced this tradition last year, because I wanted to make sure we weren't introducing a little collection of sacred trinkets into our house. But after thinking it through with Dave I decided that using visual aids to help children remember the story would be a useful exercise, as long as we were careful that they understood that there was nothing special about the objects themselves (and believe me, if you saw the little, tacky plastic donkey etc, you wouldn't be tempted to venerate them!). Thankfully, there's no little plastic Jesus or crucifix.

If you can't get your hands on a set of these, or you just feel creative, you can make a similar set with with Kinder Surprises (like Wendy has done).

In a similar vein, Noel Piper suggests a bare branch that you can decorate with symbols which remind us of different aspects of the Easter story (similar to the Jesse tree). You can find suggestions for how to do this in Disciplines of a Godly Family or you can use this set of readings that Roni, a reader of this blog (and friend to many of my friends, even though I don't think I've met her in the flesh!), sent to me last week.

Memory verses
Last year, we also introduced the tradition of learning a memory verse together as a family. I was thrilled with how well it went, so we'll do it again. The way we did it last year was that we set up a series of envelopes on the wall (a bit like some of the advent calendar idea) with a new word inside the envelope each day (and maybe an Easter egg on some of the days!). I let the kids decorate the envelopes, to kind of add of the anticipation. Every night, after our Bible reading, one of the kids would get to open the envelope and we would add the next word to the memory verse. By the end of the 12 days, Jacob and Rebecca had learned it, and it was a lot of fun.

Celebrating passover

This is an idea from the Disciplines of a Godly Family, and is something we used to do at our old church as a church family. For the last two years, we have done something very simple on the Thursday night before Easter. I didn't really attempt to do the proper food either time, we just read the passover story and sat on the floor to eat! This time, now that the kids are a little older, we might try something a bit more ambitious. I would love to hear some ideas about this one!!

Reading Easter 'storybooks' or parts of childrens' Bibles

It's hard to find good storybooks about Easter, but we do have a couple that we bring out at this time of year. We also read the relevant parts of our children's Bibles too (I like this one, this one and this one). I think I'll use Noel Piper's suggestion to put all our resources like this in a basket for the coming week, so they'll be 'on hand'.

Playdough mountain

This another idea for retelling the Easter story I found in Noel Piper's book. You can find some instructions and see some pictures of the finished product here. Again, the visuals help to tell the children the story.

Listen to Easter music

Songs for the Cross Centered Life from Sovereign Grace is a good cd to help you reflect on the cross at Easter. Resurrection (songs by Nicky Chiswell) also contains some good Eastery songs, though not all the songs on the cd are Easter themed. Dave also tries to introduce a little culture into our Easter music with the Bach Passions and the Easter bits of Messiah.


Act out the Easter story
We didn't do this last year, but I still remember acting out the story with Jacob on Easter Sunday when he was about 3. We didn't act out Jesus' death, but the moment when the tomb was discovered to be empty. In the process of acting it out, it was like the significance of the event suddenly dawned on him, and he couldn't stop crying out 'Jesus is alive!'. Now that I've remembered that, I think we should probably do that again this year!!


Have a 'Jesus is Alive' cake on Easter Sunday
We have a cake (usually chocolate) that I decorate brightly, and then put a smashed Easter egg on top to symbolise the empty tomb. This always goes down well.

So, now it's your turn. What traditions do your family have to make Easter Christ focussed (remember we'll save up the 'fun' and 'evangelistic' ideas for the next two weeks)?

* A lot of these ideas I wrote about in this post last year.

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To a Mouse, by Robert Burns

Another week, another Robbie Burns favourite. Since I've blogging a bit about anxiety in my 'You Can Change' series, this one seemed quite apposite.

You can find a 'translation' here.

To a Mouse

WEE, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,

Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I was be laith to rin an' chase thee,

Wi' murd'ring pattle!

II

I'm truly sorry man's dominion

Has broken Nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion

An' fellow-mortal!

III

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen-icker in a thrave

'S a sma' request;

I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,

And never miss't!

IV

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!

Its silly wa's the win's are strewin!

An' naething, now, to big a new ane,

O' foggage green!

An' bleak December's winds ensuin,

Baith snell an' keen!

V

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,

An' weary winter comin fast,

An' cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

Out thro' thy cell.

VI

That wee bit heap o' leaves an stibble,

Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!

Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,

But house or hald,

To thole the winter's sleety dribble,

An' cranreuch cauld!

VII

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft a-gley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

VIII

Still thou art blest, compared wi' me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But och! I backward cast my e'e,

On prospects drear!

An' forward, tho' I cannot see,

I guess an' fear!

"To a Mouse" is reprinted from English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin & Harry G. Paul. New York: American Book Company, 1908.

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Harmony Day help needed!!!

Tomorrow is Harmony Day in Australia, but because it is falling on a Saturday this year, Jacob's school will be celebrating it on Monday. The main way they'll be celebrating is by bringing along a plate of food to share. The food is meant to be the type of food eaten in your country of origin.

Some of you who have been reading my blog for a while might remember that this event last year caused me a lot of stress. I couldn't work out what to send, and then in desperation baked some pumpkin scones that all came back with Jacob at the end of the day because the kids didn't like them. I ended up crying down to the phone to Dave because no one ate my food.

Looking back, I think I must have been a bit overtired and still quite overwhelmed with my firstborn starting school to have had such an extreme reaction! And, while I don't want to get all competitive about it, I'm keen not to make the same mistake again and send something that no one will eat.

So, I need your help! I'm looking for suggestions of Australian food which is reasonably healthy that the kids will eat. Any ideas?

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Book of the Week: 'Eyes in the Dark'

I discovered 'Eyes in the Dark', by Kim Dale this week. Jacob borrowed it from his school library and as he emerged from his classroom on Monday afternoon, the first thing he wanted to tell me was that he had found a book that was non-fiction with flaps. In his opinion it was a winning combination.

I must admit that at the time, I was just expecting just another DK style book with photographs of animals. But when I took a look at it when we got home, I was delighted to discover he had chosen a real winner!

It's written and illustrated by Kim Dale, who is a wildlife advocate, and who, I discovered after looking at her website, has written and illustrated quite a few lovely books about Australian animals. 'Eyes in the Dark' was shortlisted for the Childrens Book Council Book of the Year award in 2002 (so, yes, I really should have known about it before this week I guess!).

This one has a series of nocturnal animals, with a poem on the left hand side, and a set of eyes peering at you on the right hand side.


You have to guess what type of animal it is, from the eyes and the clues in the rhyme. When you lift the right hand page, underneath you discover a beautiful illustration of the animal. Like this:

The pictures of the eyes and the types of species are suitably difficult to make it interesting for kids Jacob's age (animals like the kowari, spotted cuscus, green python and dainty green tree frog are some of the inclusions). It is a good source of information too, with maps and detailed information about the animals included at the back of the book.

But although some of the information was a bit more challenging, it was also appealing to Rebecca and Elsie because of its engaging illustrations and poetry. Done using mixed media, the striking pictures against the black background are mesmerising.

Reading a bit about Kim Dale, it is obvious that she is passionate about Australian wildlife. As a parent reading the book, I liked the way that she uses her obvious artistic gifts to share that love with kids. Unlike other books with a similar message, it didn't seem 'preachy'. She just presents the animals, and shows the reader their natural beauty. Reading the book as a Christian made me remember how wonderful God's creation is; her implied warnings about these beautiful animals' endangered status had another level of meaning for me, against the backdrop of what the Bible says about the responsibility God has given us to rule over and care for his world.

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Mortality and Sunday Philosophy Club

I blogged about the theme of mortality in The Sunday Philosophy Club, over at EQUIP book club today. Next post will be about Grace and grace.

Picture: Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533).

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Being broken hearted

My temptation with feelings of guilt is to push them aside. It's a bit like sweeping the mess into the corner of a room and leaving it there - and hoping it will go away. I'm forgiven anyway, so why think about my sin? It just makes me feel bad! Or I'll make excuses for myself, or compare my sins favourable with other people's sins.

I listened to a sermon the other day by John Piper ('A Broken and Contrite Heart God will not Despise') that challenged me on this. Looking at Psalm 51, it helped me understand how different David's approach to his sin was. He was broken hearted about his sin against God, but doesn't wallow in it and give up. Instead, he turns to God. He asks for forgiveness, asks for cleansing (v.2), confesses the seriousness of his sin (vv. 4, 5, 6) and pleads for renewal (vv.8-12).

Reading through Tim Chester's book this past month has forced me to look hard at myself and see some of my habitual sins in somewhat clearer definition. My sin has been moved from the corner of the the room right back into the centre! I've wondered: 'am I sinning more than usual?', because I've noticed it so much more. But the truth is, I'm just being made more aware of my sin. It's always been there, I've just had the blinkers on!

The realisation that is slowly starting to dawn on me is that turning to God in repentance again and again is a core part of the Christian life. Continuing to follow Jesus means returning to the cross again and again. Being a Christian doesn't mean I have to stop asking for forgiveness. It means that I can be assured that my Father will forgive me when I do ask.

So, God is being gracious to me in showing me my sin. As John Piper concludes:

This is foundational to everything. Being a Christian means being broken and contrite. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you get beyond this in this life. It marks the life of God’s happy children till they die. We are broken and contrite all the way home—unless sin gets the proud upper hand. Being broken and contrite is not against joy and praise and witness. It’s the flavor of Christian joy and praise and witness. I close with the words of Jonathan Edwards who said it better than I can.

All gracious affections [feelings, emotions] that are a sweet [aroma] to Christ . . . are brokenhearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble brokenhearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is a humble brokenhearted joy. . . . (Religious Affections [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959], pp. 339f.)

* This talk is part of a larger series on the Psalms, called 'Thinking and Feeling with God'. So far I've found every one of them really helpful.

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'You Can Change' - back next week!

It's been a busy week, and I'm only halfway through the next chapter of You Can Change, so I'll continue with the series next week!

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My Place Walk

Back in January, I kicked off my 'book of the week' series, with 'My Place', a children's book, set in Sydney, which tells the history of Tempe/St Peters through the eyes of fictional children who lived there. I had also discovered that the very dedicated St Peters Church, Cooks River's History Team will do 'My Place walks' for those who are interested, and went on to organise one for my family (and a few interested blog readers!).

So, last Saturday was the big day. We met Bob and Laurel (our guides) at 2pm near Tempe Reserve - my mum and dad, our friends Cathy, Winton and Audrey and our family. (We had planned to meet with other blogging friends, but alas, bad traffic and the fact I hadn't thought to ask for a mobile number stood in our way!)

I was impressed by the knowledge of our guides. Laurel has lived in the same house in Tempe all her life, and was a wonderful source of knowledge. Here she is explaining a bit about Tempe House to us:

and explaining a few things about the maps to Winton and Jacob (she had a big folder filled with the maps from the book, as well as other historical photos of the area and relevant people, and real maps and other documents):

Jacob carried his copy of the book for his reference:

I probably shouldn't show you this photo, but this is the big tree mentioned in the book. Nadia Wheatley moved things around a little, so it is actually located nearer to the river - and yes, in someone's backyard:

Here are some of the houses from the same street as the main house in the book (you might recognise them from the front cover):


And the church, complete with the cemetery (this bit was fascinating!):

By the end, we did get tired. The kids were great though - they lasted for 2 1/2 hours without much of a rest (well, here they are having a little stop with my mum):


We ended up at the brick pits which feature so much in the book. In many ways, this was the highlight. You can still see so much of them, and get a 'feel' for what it would have been like. The kids enjoyed peering in to the old kilns (here are Elsie and Audrey):

And climbing them!
Cathy and me (laden with cameras!):

We had a wonderful time. I read the book again the next day, and got so much more out of it once I could imagine the places. I felt like I learnt a lot of interesting local history too. It gave me a new appreciation for how much research Nadia Wheatley had done before writing this book, and how intelligent it is.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

PS. My dad has also written about the walk on his literacy blog too.

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Appreciation and approval

From as far back as I can remember, I've been the kind of person who feels a strong desire to please people. I want their approval and praise for the things I do - sometimes I've even wondered if I have a kind of addiction to the brain chemicals that come with receiving affirmation and acclaim! Mark Twain famously said that he "could live for two months on a good compliment"; I'm not sure I could last that long, but I can certainly relate to the sentiment.

The Bible warns us in many places against the dangers of this type of attitude. It's a complicated issue, of course - affirmation and approval are nice things to get, and it's not wrong to enjoy them. Luke is not making a criticism of the early church (or of Jesus himself!) when he says that they experienced the "favour" of the people (Luke 2:52, Acts 2:47). And there is a sense in which "trying to please everyone" is exactly what we ought to be doing as Christians (1 Cor. 10:33), as part of a quest for their good - ultimately their salvation - and the glory of God.

But to live for the approval of others, to seek it as if it was a basic need, to be addicted to it, is a desperately dangerous mindsight, that almost inevitably ends up overshadowing and displacing the desire to please God. (See for example, the warnings and reminders in passages like John 5:44, John 12:43, 1 Cor 4:5, Gal 1:10, 1 Thess 2:4 and Eph 6:6)

Recently I found myself thinking about my desire for human approval, and to the way in which I feel the pull to be a people-pleaser more strongly in some relationships than in others. It's partly, of course, about the status and position of the other person - our sinful human hearts value the praise and approval of the powerful and beautiful and popular more than we value the praise and approval of the nobodies. But even when I've made a generous allowance for that variable, I think there are still some people whose approval and disapproval I worry about more than others.

As I analysed the reason for this, it set me wondering whether there was something in the way those people related to me that contributed to me feeling that way, and whether I in turn might be relating in the same way to others. The phenomenon I noticed was how full some people's speech is with the language of approval and disapproval - how instinctively and habitually some people seem to set themselves up as arbiters and adjudicators and evaluators of those around them. In some cases (though not always!) I buy right into their expectation and start responding like a performing seal, in the hope that they'll throw me a fish or two from time to time. Which, in turn, encourages them to keep throwing fish, and so the cycle rolls on.

When that dismal and dangerous pattern begins to assert itself, what do I need to remind myself of?

....You can read the rest at The Sola Panel...

Pics from Stockxchng.com

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Lost in Austen (2)

Warning: contains spoilers!

Last night was the second and final instalment of Lost in Austen, and it was brilliant! The characterisation and dialogue were as convincing as they were in the first instalment, the plot twisted and turned its way toward a neat and immensely satisfying conclusion, and there was so much to talk about afterward, at the level of ideas.

At one level, I thought the ending was a triumph of free will over predestination, as Jane, Bingley, Lizzie and Darcy one by one mustered the courage to overthrow the destiny that had been written for them in the novel, and Amanda defied the expectations of two worlds to make a triumphant and joyful return to Pemberley.

At another level of course, the real arm-wrestle was not between characters and the novelist but between Austen and Guy Andrews, the screenplay-writer. In the end (predictably!) Andrews won, and the values of twenty-first century emotional authenticity asserted themselves over prudence and social convention, but I'm still not sure that Austen would have been entirely displeased!

What did you think?

PS. A friend told me you can download the episodes free online, but I couldn't find the link (does anyone know?)

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O my Luve's like a red, red rose, by Robert Burns

This is another famous Burns poem. It's beautifully simple, though I guess a critic might say that once you strip back the Scots blarney the imagery is pretty unoriginal. Still, I love the lines "Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear / And the rocks melt wi' the sun!". I think there's something about those lines that transcends cliche!

O my Luve's like a red, red rose,

O MY Luve's like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O, my Luve's like the melodie,

That's sweetly play'd in tune.

II

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,

So deep in luve am I,

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

III

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun!

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

IV

And fare thee weel, my only luve,

And fare thee weel a while!

And I will come again, my luve,

Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

"O, My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose" is reprinted from English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin & Harry G. Paul. New York: American Book Company, 1908.

Pic from stockxchng.com

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"O tempora, O mores!"

It's impossible to read The Sunday Philosophy Club without noticing how frequently Isabel finds herself musing about the decline that she sees around her in the morals and manners of her society:

Good manners depended on paying moral attention to others; it required one to
treat them with complete moral seriousness, to understand their feelings and
their needs. Some people, the selfish, had no inclination to do this, and it
always showed. They were impatient with those whom they thought did not count:
the old, the inarticulate, the disadvantaged. The person with good manners,
however, would always listen to such people and treat them with respect.

How utterly shortsighted we had been to listen to those who thought that
manners were a bourgeois affectation, an irrelevance, which need no longer be
valued. A moral disaster had ensued, because manners were the basic building
block of civil society. They were the method of transmitting the message of
moral consideration. In this way an entire generation had lost a vital piece of
the moral jigsaw, and now we saw the results: a society in which nobody would
help, nobody would feel for others; a society in which agressive language and
insensitivity were the norm.

She stopped herself. This was a train of thought which, though clearly correct, made her feel old; as old as Cicero declaiming, 'O tempora! O mores!' ['O the times! O the customs!'] (p.159; see also pp. 38, 58, 104, 179, 209)

Unlike Grace, of course (e.g. pp. 120-121), who is unashamedly committed to the view that society is locked in a steep and terrible decline, Isabel 'stop[s] herself', a little embarrassed at how old-fashioned the words sound as they come out of her mouth. But even as she stops herself, she confesses internally that her reluctance to embrace a train of thought that is so 'clearly correct' has little to do with the merits of the argument and much more to do with the intellectual fashions of the day. Along with her whole generation, she surmises, she has been been deeply affected by 'the subtle, corrosive power of relativism' (the idea that there are no moral absolutes by which one culture or generation can judge the morals and manners of another) - even if, as a philosopher, she is unconvinced by the relativists' arguments.

I found myself asking where my own sympathies ought to be, as a Christian belonging to (roughly!) the same generation and culture as Isabel, and exposed to the same kinds of cultural influence. When I find myself in a conversation about this sort of thing, should I be weighing in on the side of the O tempora, O mores! brigade? Should I be a bit more upbeat than that, taking note of all the positive changes that have happened over the last generation or two, or across the last few centuries? Or should I be agreeing with the relativists (though not for the same reasons!) that no culture or generation is any better or worse than any other? And how should I be relating those sorts of observations and sentiments to the gospel and to the view of the world that I get from the Bible?

Here are a few thoughts I've had as I've mulled this issue over...

You can read the rest of this post at EQUIP book club...

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Kids and philosophy

I've just put up a short post at EQUIP book club about an interview I heard on the radio this morning. It was with a Principal who has started a philosophy program in her primary school. I think this will probably be a growing trend, and is yet another reason why Christians need to understand philosophy better.

What do you think about this? If you've got any thoughts, please head on over and share them!

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On studying

I haven't written much about my college studies yet, so I thought I should share how they are going.

To be honest, I had the wobbles about doing it for the first few weeks. I always feel nervous when I start a new venture, but I was seriously worried about doing a subject at college. 'I have 3 kids - I already have enough to do!' I kept saying to Dave. 'How am I meant to remember anything!?'. It just all felt too much like hard work - and I already have enough hard work to be getting on with. I was so negative about the whole thing thatI forgot my Bible the first week. Very embarrassing!!

But sitting in class last week, my attitude changed. I was learning about the gospel of Mark, and I noticed things about Jesus that I'd never noticed before. I think I finally got it. It's not just academic. It's REAL. Studying the Bible is different from studying the Law of Torts (as much as enjoyed studying that - really!). I even found myself reading the textbook for fun last Saturday morning.

Digging deeper into the Bible produces joy in the Christian life. I was reminded of what John Piper says about reading serious books (not necessarily within the structures of formal, academic 'study'):

I would challenge you to throw off the notion that weighty books of doctrine are joy-squelching while light-devotional books are joy-producing. It's true that the joy of serious reading and the thinking that goes with it (sometimes called study) may not be as immediate as the joy of singing in church, or seeing a sunset, or talking with a friend, or hearing a preacher with lots of stories. But the payload for joy may be greater. Raking is easier than digging but you only get leaves. If you dig you may get diamonds. (When I don't Desire God, pp. 125-126)

At the moment I'm thinking about the Kingdom of God for an essay (I've realised that I've never really understood what that means, and yet Jesus tells me to 'seek it first'!), and I'm reading through John as a reading assignment. So, I'm hoping that I'll be sharing a bit more about what I'm learning about those two things as I go along.

Pic from stockxchng.com

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You Can Change (6) Learning I'm not the centre of the universe!

The title for this week's post is my own creation. The actual title of the chapter I read this week was: 'What desires do you need to turn from?'. In this chapter, Tim Chester argues that we sin because we desire or worship idols instead of worshipping God. Often the things we make into idols are good things: marriage, kids, food, sex. But he writes that: "a good thing can become a 'god-thing' if it eclipses God, if the gift matters more to us than the Giver" (p.114).

I liked the fact that Tim Chester encouraged the reader not to go on an 'idol hunt' all the time, obsessively exploring every motive for every action. (That answered some of my questions I raised a couple of weeks ago.) Instead, he argues, it's a useful exercise when you "see the bad fruit of sinful behaviour and negative emotions in your life" (p.120).

I found it a very helpful exercise to sit down and think about what idols I might have in my life that are leading me to sin (by the way, the questions at the end of all the chapters are very useful!). I needed to repent of a tendency to make my children and marriage into idols at times, and I came away with a fresh resolve to fight against this temptation. But it was this paragraph that I found got to the guts of the issue for me (hence the post title):

Our problem is that we think of ourselves as being at the centre of our world. We think of our lives as a story and, if we're Christians, God is one of the character in our story. We look for him when we need him, and expect him to be grateful when we serve him. He's a lovely piece of our story, but we still think of it as our story. But it's not our story. It's God's story. Of course there is a sense in which God is there for us. But the bigger reality is that we're there for God. We exist to give him glory. He doesn't owe us anything, not even explanations. Meanwhile, we owe him everything as our Creator and Redeemer.

It's so much better to be a minor character in God's story that to try to write our own script. Living with God at the centre is the good and sane life. It's better to enjoy the warmth of the sun than to light a bonfire in our home. It's better to reflect the glory of God than to be consumed by the empty pursuit of our own glory.

...This new God-centred perspective is both humbling and liberating. It's humbling because it puts us in our place. We're not the centre of the world. We're not even the centre of our world. But it's also liberating. We no longer need to try continually to be in control. We can let God be God. Our reputation is no longer what matters. We're no longer controlled by the approval or rejection of others. We're free to serve others in love (p.116).

I think this will be a lesson that will take me a while to learn, but in this past week, I have already started feeling liberated from my anxiety. The most helpful thing, practically speaking, in this chapter was what he says about starting habits. I've come to the realisation that I fuel my worry. I let myself meditate on things, situations and possibilities that aren't helpful. This past week, I've tried to get into a new habit. Whenever the beginnings of an anxious train of thought starts: 'did I say the wrong thing there?', 'what did that person mean when she said that?', etc etc, I've tried to shut it down immediately. I've told myself I don't have the option of worrying about it, so I may as well save myself the trouble. I've reminded myself that I'm not the centre of the world. I can't say honestly that I've been completely successful in my habit changing strategies, but am noticing the beginnings of change. And for a worrier like me, that is a real encouragement.

Pic from stockxchng.com

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96% girly

I noticed that Ali and Simone have done this test and the results for their blogs were almost gender neutral. My blog, on the other hand, came out with a 96% likelihood that it is written by a woman. And I don't even have a floral template!

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The Persistent Widow

Prayer is an area of the Christian life that I struggle with. I get discouraged and give up when I don't get immediate answers. I wonder if God tires of the hearing the same prayers over and over again. I am tempted to question if it is worth praying at all if God is Sovereign and has his own plans anyway.

Looking again in Bible study group last week at Jesus' parable about the Persistent Widow was a really valuable reminder of a few things for me.

In the first place, it helped me to remember how different God is from the unjust judge - he doesn't need to be nagged or cajoled into answering the prayers for justice and relief that I pray on behalf of myself and others. He answers them 'speedily', and without delay. He doesn't drag his feet in doing justice! This is the case even if (as Jesus' punchline in verse 8 seems to imply) the answer to many or most of our prayers for justice, and the ultimate answer to all of them, won't be until Jesus comes again. At one level, of course, there is a 'delay' before God answers our prayers - the whole premise of the parable is that there will be a period in which we are tempted to give up waiting for God to answer and give up asking him. But from the vantage point of eternity, and from the perspective of God's heart and his motivations, there is no 'delay' or reluctance on God's part; we will look back and give thanks for how swift and how willing his justice was.

And then in the second place, it reminded me powerfully of how much I need to keep praying. If I give up and stop praying, it says either that I have stopped caring about the injustices and problems that I see around me and have become apathetic, or that I have stopped trusting God and resorted to some other strategy as my ultimate hope to see them redressed. The big question is not whether God will ever get around to bringing justice on earth; it is whether, when the Son of Man comes, he will find us still trusting (and therefore praying).

Pics from biblical art on the www and stockxchng

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Lost in Austen

I watched the first half of the first episode of Lost in Austen last night (I've taped the second half of the episode to watch later). It took me a little while to grant the outrageous premise, but once I did, I found myself really enjoying it.

If you missed it last night, you can read a bit more about it on Ali's blog, and catch the second half next Sunday night on ABC1.

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Green Grow The Rashes, O, by Robert Burns

Megan said she had a soft spot for this poem last week, so (because it says such nice things about us lasses!) I thought I'd use it this week. I've gone with the Burns original, but there is a 'translation' here just in case you are tempted to think this poem is about a rare skin disease or something!




Green Grow The Rashes, O

Chorus
Green grow the rashes, O;
Green grow the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e'er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O.

1. There's nought but care on ev'ry han',
In every hour that passes, O:
What signifies the life o' man,
An' 'twere na for the lasses, O.

2. The war'ly race may riches chase,
An' riches still may fly them, O;
An' tho' at last they catch them fast,
Their hearts can ne'er enjoy them, O.

3.But gie me a cannie hour at e'en,
My arms about my dearie, O,
An' war'ly cares an' war'ly men
May a' gae tapsalteerie, O!

4. For you sae douce, ye sneer at this;
Ye're nought but senseless asses, O;
The wisest man the warl' e'er saw,
He dearly lov'd the lasses, O.

5. Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O:
Her prentice han' she try'd on man,
An' then she made the lasses, O.

pic by calumdonald on flickr

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My friend Kara

Last week I got the chance to see my friend Kara.

Kara was my closest friend in my teenage and young adult years. We spent a lot of time together. She came on our family holidays, and her family introduced me to camping. We'd throw birthday parties together for friends (with some wacky themes I can remember!) and hang around playing cards with our church friends every weekend. We were members of the same Bible study group that my mum and dad led every Friday night and later we led a girls' Bible study together. She supported me on my wedding day, as my bridesmaid, and cried with me when I lost my babies.

For the past 2 years she and husband Peter and their two boys have been living in Madagascar as missionaries. They are back in Australia at the moment and she is expecting their third boy to arrive at any moment now.

After seeing her the other day, I was reflecting on how amazing friendship is when Jesus is our Lord and King. It's the same with many of my friends. Years can go by without seeing the other person, and we often end up separated by oceans, but when we see each other again we still have so much in common! Not only do we have all that shared history but we also have the same goal and same eternal destination.

If you get a moment pray for her and her family as they welcome a new baby and prepare to go back to Madagascar in the coming months.

A 'self portrait' from the other day

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Book of the Week: 'The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle'

The girls and I have been re-discovering Beatrix Potter books this week while Jacob's been at school. Every so often, one of the kids grabs all of them off the shelf and we work our way through the collection.

I love all her books so much that I found it hard to decide which one to choose for this post. I asked the girls to choose, and Rebecca suggested The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. She likes this one the best, because 'there is a girl in it' (Lucie). But there are lots of other things going for it too. Mrs Tiggy-Winkle is a great character - a curiously spiky washerwoman, who secretly washes and presses the garments belonging to others, and then returns them just as secretly. In the story, Lucie comes across Mrs Tiggy-Winkle's little house and finds her doing her laundry, has a cup of tea with her and then awakens to wonder if it is all a dream and if Mrs Tiggy-Winkle is a an ordinary hedgehog after all. The book ends with the author assuring us (in smaller type, as if sharing a secret) that Mrs Tiggy-Winkle is very real.

There's a lot to love about Beatrix Potter books. Their small size (a deliberate choice by Potter, to make it easier for small hands to hold), the beautiful illustrations, the astute observations of the animals she writes about and the human nature that they mirror. (It's frightening how much of myself I see in Tabitha Twitchet, for example!) Her stories are cute, but not syrupy - there's a dark side to the country life that she depicts. There is childish (and adult) naughtiness, and she's not afraid to call it that, and there are real threats (e.g. the fox in Jemima Puddleduck). There is also a degree of moral complexity - it's not just that there are good and bad characters, but that there are characters that are genuinely mixed in their conduct and motivations.

Inspired by all this Beatrix Potter reading, I decided to have a 'Beatrix Potter morning' with the girls one day this week. We found the Peter Rabbit website, complete with games, craft activities, recipes and colouring in sheets. There's also lots of information about Beatrix Potter including some of her sketches and letters. It was an absolute goldmine - especially on a week where I've been sick with a cold and have been feeling very unmotivated to leave the house!

Here are some photos of what we did:

The Benjamin Bunny toy spinner

In an attempt to be authentic, we painted the colouring in pictures in "watercolours".

Rebecca was so inspired that she asked to see one of the books, so she could copy one of the pictures. She's studying it carefully in this photo.

We had a lot of fun.

What about you? What is your favourite Beatrix Potter book? Any good ideas for how to enjoy them with kids?

Pic of Beatrix Potter at 15, from allposters

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The Women

WARNING: this contains plot spoilers (and I don't really mind spoiling this movie, to be honest!)

While Dave was up at Men's Convention the other night, I thought I'd rent a 'chick flick'. A title like The Women sounded like it fitted the category, and it was PG, so I chose it, without really knowing much about it.

I can't say that I had very high expectations of the movie, but it still managed to fall below them. It really was the worst sort of unsubtle, drearily predictable propaganda film for feminism. What I don't understand is how the ideology, when it is presented like this, could be attractive to anyone.

Here's the basic plot: Meg Ryan is a wife of a rich and famous man, with a daughter and a gorgeous house in Connecticut. In the same week she gets fired from her job (in her father's company - he's also rich), and finds out her husband is sleeping with someone else.

Lots of other stuff ensues, but the critical part of the movie comes when she meets a blonde agent from LA, who has had no fewer than five husbands. Meg Ryan's character tells her about her life, and how she's a 'good' person, she's done her duty all her life, been nice, etc etc. The agent gives her some advice which triggers Meg Ryan's epiphany, and to me seemed to be the core message of the movie: "don't give a **** about anyone. Be selfish. What do YOU want?".

So what does she do to pick up the pieces of her life? She goes on to design her own fashion collection. She ignores her daughter while she's preparing for it - and she knows it - but it's all okay on the night, because her daughter looks up to her in a whole new way because she's A SUCCESS.

There are literally NO men in the entire film. Not one (oh, except the boy baby born at the end!). Men are an irrelevance in these women's lives - even Meg Ryan's character declares that losing her best friend is worse than her husband cheating on her.

The moral of the movie seems to be not that you should necessarily 'do it all', but that you should 'get what you want', and no man should stand in the way of what you want. So, it's okay to ignore your kids and what your husband wants, as long as that's what YOU want.

At its best and purest, feminism is a kind of us-ism, on behalf of half of the human race; it's half as good as humanism and falls infinitely short of for-the-glory-of-God-ism, but it's not the worst philosophy going around. At its worst and shallowest (e.g. in this movie) feminism collapses down into a simple, straightforward me-ism. I guess the one positive I could find in the film was that the writers were at least honest enough to admit that.

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You Can Change (5) The truths I need to turn to

Here's the gist of chapter 5:

I want to identify four life-changing truths about God. Psalm 62:11-12 says: 'Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O LORD belongs steadfast love' (ESV). The key truths that God declares about himself are his greatness and glory ('that power belongs to God') and his goodness and grace ('that to you, O LORD, belongs steadfast love').

1. God is great - so we don't have to be in control.
2. God is glorious - we don't have to fear others.
3. God is good - so we don't have to look elsewhere.
4. God is gracious - so we don't have to prove ourselves.

There's much more to be said about God than is covered by these four truths, but they offer a powerful diagnostic tool for addressing most of the sins and emotions with which we struggle.

I found this chapter very helpful in analysing where I need to change my thinking. In fact, it was quite uncomfortable for me to read it. I was squirming. I was a bit surprised by the thought that the truth I might need to remind myself of the most is that God is glorious. For some reason, I kind of thought I knew that one. But if I fear disapproval from others, if I worry about what they think and whether they are judging me, then I obviously don't see the big picture: that God is a glorious God who is bigger than all those people whose opinion I am so anxious about. Food for thought there!

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A train trip

The new train line near us is finally open and for the first 100 days you can travel free. So, on the weekend, we decided to take advantage of the free offer, and check it out. It's a cheap family outing, and was an adventure for the kids (brought back too many memories of commuting for me though!).




Elsie had never been on a train before, or even been up close to one (which is funny because we lived next door to a train station when Jacob was born - just shows how different our current suburb is). She was a bit scared of the whole thing, and wouldn't leave my side.

Jacob looking out into the darkness (it was a little disappointing for him that it was all tunnel and we couldn't see anything!)

Coming back up the escalators. They were huge - it is a loooong way underground (I tried not to think about that too much though).

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Sunday Philosophy Club

When I first picked up this book I expected to be reading about the meetings of a the club alluded to in the title - the Sunday Philosophy Club. As I read on, I kept waiting for the club to turn up in the story line, perhaps playing a key role in solving the mysteries surrounding the death in the opening chapter... And yet by the end of the novel the club still hadn't met!

In fact, I got the distinct impression that the club had never met, and wasn't likely to in the near future. This interaction between Isabel and her niece Cat, gives us a little insight into what is going on:

'I've decided that I'm not too keen on the public', said Cat. 'I'd like to have a private shop. People would have to apply for membership before they could come in. I'd have to approve them. Rather like the members of your philosophy club or whatever it is'.

'The Sunday Philosophy Club is not exactly very active,' she said to Cat. 'But we'll have a meeting one of these days.'

'It's such a good idea,' said Cat. 'I'd come, but Sunday's a bad day for me. I can never get myself organised to do anything. You know how it is. You do know don't you?

Isabel did know. This, presumably, was what afflicted the members of the club'. (pp.21-22)

And then there is a similar interaction between Isabel and Jamie near the end of the book (p.181), where Isabel laments the fact that the club has never met.

The club seems to be a metaphor for the place of serious philosophical conversation in our society today - it's a 'Sunday' pursuit, on the margins of the week, and one that doesn't rank particularly highly amongst all the other things one might do on a Sunday.

There's an irony here, of course: the Sunday Philosophy Club may never get around to meeting, but a novel called The Sunday Philosophy Club is a best seller (along with Alain de Botton, Jostein Gaarder and the rest...)! Obviously there's some sort of a market for popularised philosophy, presumably reflecting an interest in talking about morality, the meaning of life and so on.

It got me thinking about our role as Christians, and the place we ought to have in the (pop-)philosophical conversations of our own society...

You can read the rest at EQUIP book club today.

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John Anderson my jo, by Robert Burns

Because I'll be blogging about The Sunday Philosophy Club, at EQUIP book club this month, I thought I would choose a Scottish poet for Poetry Monday in March. Not just a Scottish poet, but the Scottish poet - Robbie Burns!

Here's one of his best known, and best loved.


John Anderson my jo

John Anderson my jo, John,

When we were first acquent,

Your locks were like the raven,

Your bonie brow was brent;

But now your brow is beld, John,

Your locks are like the snaw,

but blessings on your frosty pow,

John Anderson, my jo!

II

John Anderson my jo, John,

We clamb the hill thegither,

And mony a canty day, John,

We've had wi' ane anither;

Now we maun totter down, John,

But hand in hand we'll go,

And sleep thegither at the foot,

John Anderson, my jo!

From English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin & Harry G. Paul. New York: American Book Company, 1908.

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EQUIP book club and The Sunday Philosophy Club

I'm going to be contributing notes for The Sunday Philosophy Club at EQUIP book club this month, along with Dani Scarratt (you can read an interview with her here). I've written an explanation of what we're planning to do, if you're interested.

I'm really looking forward to discussing this book. It's our only secular and fictional book on the list, and I think we'll have some good conversations. If you haven't got involved in the book club before, I reckon this month would be a good time to take the plunge. We start tomorrow!

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