A Desultory Phillipic

I've been bumping around the book of Philippians. I do this sometimes; get stuck in a passage. sometimes it's a psalm, or one short verse. Recently it's been in the fourth chapter of Philippians. Note to self: next dry spell, remember that the more scripture you read, the more you love it, and the more juicy goodness you get out of it. This passage is like a strong drink to me.

Warning: biblical obscurity alert! Forgive me while I geek out a while.
I usually read out of the Jerusalem Bible. Reading a certain passage in Zephaniah that was so beautiful it took my breath away won me over to this outdated, Catholic translation. I have a copy of it that is just falling apart but I can't bear to part with it, and it is very hard to find. I finally realized that my falling-apart bible was so much work to read, what with the pages falling out and everything, that it was keeping me from reading the Bible much at all! So I bit the bullet and have started reading out of a different, intact, but very large and unwieldy copy. I made myself a beautiful new ribbon bookmark to entice me into the new book, and it worked. Little things, like the edition of my bible, or an ugly cover, or the lack of adequate bookmarks, often keep me from deep quiet times! (ok, I also like the Jerusalem Bible because J.R.R. Tolkien worked on the translation team. How cool is that? I only know it because I'm such a nerd that I was reading the translation notes. The text notes are mostly bunk; watch out!)
Anyway, I don't recommend the Jerusalem translation for this particular passage. Here is my own paraphrase:

Rejoice! And again, I say, Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and with thanksgiving, present your requests to the Lord, and the peace which passes understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally brothers, fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, anything that is excellent or praiseworthy, whatever is lovely and honorable, whatever is virtuous, whatever is good and pure. Fill your mind with such things.

I was once in a choir. The lowliest choir, really, at St. Olaf College; the only one I could have been in, as I didn't have to audition to join it. Antoine Armstrong, the fabulous conductor described to us how the lyrics, by John Donne, to a piece we were doing, were like a world inside of a nutshell; metaphysical. This passage is worth letting oneself sink into so one can wander around it, marvelling at all the delights therein:
-permission, even exhortation to rejoice! as in God we have great cause to do!
-The Lord is near. How beautiful, to be with God! He is so tender to me, so lovely and sweet.
-Only the voice of God can settle down my worried heart. No one can really tell me not to worry but one who can take care of me, one who knows a lot more than I.
-He gives me something to do with my heart, a practical alternative to worry!
-The closest I can describe the advent, or coming, of the God of peace, is right at the end of Till We Have Faces, when Orual finally meets Eros.
-I very much want help in keeping my heart and mind in the peace that often seems so fleeting.
-That bit about filling the mind with everything good and beautiful and excellent; Yes! This could be the vision for our homeschool, and for my own continuing education. To be filled with all sorts of goodness.

Jesus Would Ride the Bus

My friend Kevin's recent post about taking the bus provoked me to get out a little bus idea that's been marinating in me for a while. There are many environmental, social, and economical benefits to taking the bus, but I'm not going to talk about them now.

In a conversation with my friend Jeff a few weeks ago, it came up that both of us have had some important seemingly random conversations with folks we've met on the bus. Sometimes they were strangers, and sometimes they were people we already knew. I believe that using relationships and interactions between people is a big way that God works our lives and both Jeff and I have experienced it in a somewhat frequent way on the bus. Why is that?

I think it's a matter of opportunity. If we just go along in our own cars in our American way we never interact with others (at least not on a positive verbal level) unless there's an accident or a breakdown or something. (I know God frequently shows up for folks in that kind of situation, but it's not something anyone wants to have happen often.) On the bus there is plenty of room for us to bump into each other and thus plenty of opportunity for God to show up in those those interactions.

I think of it kind of like what happened when Jesus, after beginning his ministry, returned to his home town. People were skeptical that someone they had always known in their small town was anything more than they thought he was. "...he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief." (Matt 13:58 ESV) Why? I don't think the people of Nazareth asked to be healed but didn't score high enough on the faith-o-meter. I don't think they asked. Most of the probably didn't even come to see him. There wasn't opportunity for Jesus to heal anybody because nobody showed up to be healed!

That's why I think Jesus would ride the bus. Plenty of people. Plenty of opportunity for God to do transforming stuff in their lives.

I bet you'll never see that point listed on a Metro Transit poster!

Paul Does a Craft!

Those of you who tune in to The Full Cup for Libby's great creations and do your best to slog through or skip over my technical automotive, biking, or espresso posts - Wait! I did a craft! I got tired of waiting for Libby to make me a nice cover for my ESV Bible, so I did it myself.

Bibles can take a beating in our household, mostly because we carry them around so much. We were talking once with Libby's Rhodes-scholar-semi-genius-friend about Christianity and he was amazed at how well we knew where stuff was in the Bible (though I don't think we're all that unusual in this regard). He said, "I don't know if I've ever known any book that well." My response was that if he knew of a book he could read that would tell him about God and the meaning of life and stuff like that he'd probably read it all the time too. He agreed. My Bible is also a tool for me. I lead a Bible study with a handful of youth once a week for which I prepare and study. I also am writing some new songs for our church and get my text from the Bible. So yeah, it gets a lot of use and abuse.

I made the cover out of some leather that Libby bought at a thrift sale across the street from where I was buying our Mercedes last spring. (We both got what we wanted that day!) I made the cover (with much help from Libby) by folding one end of a rightly-sized strip of leather and sewing it together with a whip stitch. I used a glover's needle and synthetic sinew. The flap holds the front cover of the Bible.
The single piece of leather wraps around the cover back to the front side. I wanted it to have a curved flap on the end. I thought a big plate might help me make the desired curve, but it wasn't quite big enough. I used our pizza stone instead. The tuck-in strap to close Bible was my idea. It mostly works, but might need some improvement if I wanted it to stay shut more reliably.

Overall I'm pleased with the result. I didn't have to buy a cover since Libby had all of the materials already, and I feel like the Bible will stand up to being thrown in my bicycle panier bag much better than it would have otherwise.

Love Your Enemies

I read in the St. Paul Pioneer Press today an interview with the now deceased Abdul Rashid Ghazi who had been trying to start a rebellion to overthrow the Pakistani government in favor of Islamic law. In the article he said this:

"How much money has been spent on the war on terror? If these billions had been spent on us, on basic education, on food, then we would love the Americans. The Americans are not getting benefit from Iraq or Afghanistan. Hatred will not bring you any positive results - hatred from Afghanis, hatred from Iraqis, hatred from Pakistanis."

The Bible says this:

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:20-21NKJV)

Sounds like a good plan to me.