Love Patiently Perseveres

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds. ~ Elie Wiesel 

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

Wrestling hard to love when it hurts. Asking, am I willing to invest when it's deeply uncomfortable? I don't want to tolerate others, nor be tolerated by others. I want to invest love where it will last. I want to invest in ways that make me, mark me, and move me. Will I choose to give a love I must daily seek to acquire? A holy love obtained solely on bended knee. And you? Where are you loving where it requires growth, grace, and sometimes groaning?

"There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.  If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one." ~ CS Lewis

Love is patient printable

Will Travel. Take Cheetos.

 Thinking...

 How the week passes faster than I can wink.

 Valentine's

I'm thankful for newly finished floors.

Friday evening Cheetos game nights ought to be a tradition. 

Wow, they fall asleep fast after two gymnastics classes in one day.

I could care less about the Super Bowl.

Trying...

 To get kids to sit still for pictures. Hah!

 Need a fun Friday night adventure?

We really enjoy this game, and boy we have a lot to learn!

A Theology of Everyday Life by Rahner

To love God is first and foremost shown not by our ideals, our lofty words, our introspection, but by the act that rips selfishness away from us; by caring, through which we forget ourselves on account of the other; by patience, which makes us silent and wise. People who place their small time into the heart of eternity, are always more than they appear to be, are like drops of water in which is reflected the entire sky, like signs pointing beyond themselves, like messengers running ahead of the message they are carrying and announcing the coming of eternity, like shadows of true reality that are cast over us because the real is already very near. 

Karl Rahner, S.J.

The Common Core

We will be doing a lot of reading on this in the coming year. Here's some links I'll be saving for myself and I'll be watching for more to share.

Common Core Links

Chronicle of Higher Education

From HSLDA 

Minding the Campus

Minding the Campus more

Minding the Campus, Common Core Can Save Us

Townhall Part 1

Townhall Part 2

As far as I can tell, the Core will be good for students in some states by raising the standards of their education. However, it will have a negative impact for students in other states or schools where standards are already higher. It could also have a potential impact on home schooled children. This is worth monitoring, as ultimately parents should have the right to make schooling decisions for their children as long at those children are showing proficiency to a reasonable standard of knowledge. For the vast majority of home schoolers, acceptable test scores are a non-issue.

As the debate rages, I try to remember that as much as I have loved our time home schooling and now our ability to mix home schooling and public school, that is not an option for everyone. I would argue it is a right of citizens and parents of our nation to home school their children if they so wish, but that's another issue entirely. Irregardless, of how we may feel about the Core, I think we can all agree that a quality education must be made available to our nation's children if we want to create healthy and whole adults, healthy families and a healthy nation.

We want healthy children who succeed when they set foot in their schools. I am again reminded of How Children Succeed by Paul Tough. 

Tough ends How Children Succeed dialoguing about education reform and how to best help our disadvantaged students stuck in the cycle of poverty. He makes a strong case that when education reform becomes based on child development and parent encouragement, the prosperity of our children and our nation will rise.

I find myself asking, how can I best support the children in my community I interact with today? What are my responsibilities in educating my own children and being an encouragement to my community, whether I home school or not? No matter how I  feel about the Core, how do I support the teachers I know, men and women who are part of my community? Education and learning are a mind set. Education spans our whole lives, not just 12 years. Am I living and mentoring this attitude daily?

Linking You Up

The God of the Sea and the sea monster

Yet when Job is being tossed by the waves, facing the terrible truth that even a life of faithfulness will not be without chaos, he is also on the verge of something wonderful—the reality of a God who blesses indiscriminately.  A God who is not the summation of a system of demerits and rewards, a God who does not exist as an existential Santa to hand out merit badges.  This is the God who will be fully revealed as the Father of Jesus, the One who “makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and unjust.”  The same waves that took Job down to the depths of the suffering also took him, unwittingly or not, to the brink of the greatest revelation in the history of the world—the revelation of grace.

Keep reading...

http://pastorjonathanmartin.com/uncategorized/the-god-of-the-sea-and-the-sea-monster/

By Jonathan Martin

Everyday Moments

Send that soccer ball my way!

NOAA ships at dock

Mucking around in the bay.

Understanding erosion

Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, Oregon

Sending a variety of waves at our constructed town.

  Looking forward to more classes at Hatfield in the future. 

tube worm attached to shell

 

 

 

 

Notes on Everyday Life

It's cold, cold, cold and already we and others are discussing summer rover excursions. Over the years, our trips have certainly gotten more complex and more remote and yet, somehow we keep going on them. Each trip, I'm reminded that extensive effort, energy and each other can = enjoyable.

 Just a few summers ago :-)

Still balancing!

Life=Balance=Art

 I'm still pondering, "Where am I letting the Light shine in my life?"

Reading Karl Rahner's, The Mystical Way in Everyday Life. Pondering, a relationship with God where mystery is acceptable, even encouraged, in a world that either defines or demands a definition for everything. I long to hold the mystery of God's hand. I long to believe I can hear His voice and He mine.

And yet, people today have an almost radical need to demythologize everything, to tear down all facades, to destroy all taboos, and to ask what is it that remains when all slogans are deleted and all ideologies destroyed. What truly remains is only what can be lived out in the act of loving another, provided this love is real. (Rahner) 

"Provided this love is real?" Real love? I certainly won't be Googling that anytime soon.  They say Christians will be known by their love. But quite frankly I see to many Christians without love, and sadly on many a day, I'm one of them. I wonder at our lack of love. Do we lack love because we've let go of God? Do we lack love because we lack mystery? Did we lose our love when we let go of our longing to hear His voice? And if so, how do we find our way back? How do we find the mystery of God's love at work in the world? Listening.

Karl Rahner, a Jesuit Priest who died in 1984, is widely regarded as one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century. His writings played an enormous role in shaping the documents of Vatican II. But while he is best known for his academic theology, his deepest goal was to help ordinary Christians to recognize and respond to the presence of grace in their everyday lives. Rahner famously observed that the Christians of the future will be mystics or there will be no Christianity. (Amazon)

Photo: mine