Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

My first encounter with Anne Lamott was during my sophomore year at GC in a Fiction and Poetry class: 20 seniors, Brad Shaw, and myself. Lamott came at a good time (I was asked to actually write and share poetry---in the grand scheme of things, I would live in cute, Fiction land where the things in your mind actually sprung to life and you went to talk about them at the local ice cream shop that looked like a 50’s diner with lots of colors for inspiration, while those Poets would spend all their time at Walden Pond being transcendental like and looking a lot like Thoreau-just looking for the right word that, as everyone knows, is actually worth fifteen sentences in prose writing, because it’s that fitting and perfect.) Needless to say, I was a little intimidated. Bird by Bird, written by Lamott about the actual task of writing, helped a lot. And I fell in love with her style of writing-sort of a more liberal and outspoken Lauren F. Winner of the 90’s.

I really appreciate that laced throughout Lamott’s story of coming to God and then Jesus is her emphasis on prayer. Prayer for Lamott means stopping what she is doing, writing out her request to God, or kneeling and putting her face in her hands, and knowing that she will have an answer even if it is weeks later in some form she may not recognize at first. She also describes her need for prayer as her ‘inner little child reminding her to pray about something that seems trivial or outlandish to her.’ For Lamott, keeping the communication open between us and God is the most important thing. Today, as I was expounding on this thought on my walk, I was getting myself into an unproductive mindset, to say the least, and then I talked to God about it, and it wasn’t that hard to change my mindset when I wanted to. Which is encouraging because I spend a lot of time thinking about things (intellection) and not actually doing them—putting faith into action, the pedal to the metal, and all that jazz-type metaphors. So I moved past appreciating what Lamott had to say to actually experiencing it.

Lamott’s comparisons are perfect. She tells us that her son couldn’t possibly understand the concept of having a bad self image because he is a cross between God and Cindy Crawford. She described baby’s rolling around in the sand next to her as ‘breaded veal cutlets.’ She personifies grace as a person (Grace Paley) and when things don’t go the way that Lamott wants them to go, Grace says “It was what it was.” But there’s always another (better) chance waiting for the next time.

Lamott would definitely be out at Walden Pond, waiving her left wing banners as her dread locks bounced up and down while she thought of a perfect comparison of the entire thing in her mind. Her books are also laced with poetry, showing her love and appreciation of just one or so many thoughts being captured in so few words. If we ever met, I’d bring a milk shake from the diner as an icebreaker and we’d sit out by Walden Pond and we’d be able to enjoy its beauty together. In other words, I’d want to talk to her about stuff that she’s written in her books, but I’d probably come off as a blond fan that says something like “wow, your hair is Super cool.” But there’s always the hope that we’d be able to look past our exteriors (and my intimidation of someone who has made it in the writing world) and just talk.

I opened up Plan B right after I was done with Traveling Mercies and a book mark for Book Man Book Woman flew out. I didn’t even see the lady put it in there in Nashville! It says that their books range from $4.95 to $75,000….but mostly in between $10 and $14. What costs $75,000 there??

The Blessed Day Has Arrived

Nashville, Tennessee will always hold a special place in my heart because it was there that the culmination of the Harry Potter series and eight years of my life occurred. Anna and I were the first to Borders to receive color coded wristbands corresponding to when we could stand in line that night to receive our books. At 8 a.m., with a Starbucks right down the block, people kept walking by the store, wondering why we were waiting outside so early. More and more people started to gather and more and more people started to wonder what was going on. We were the wizarding community to those outside muggles who didn’t know what day it was.

Anna and I went back to Borders that night for the Grand Ball, Anna with her roaring lion witch’s hat and me with my pink hair. People greeted us as Luna and Tonks. It was more fun than I’ve had in a long time.

As for the book, can I quote the Goo Goo Dolls song that says “I went to fiction to look for the truth?” Because that’s what I feel like when I read Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling is a master story teller who underlies her stories with the fact that we have a choice in our actions in this life, that doing the right thing is always better than the easy or responsible thing, that relationships with people are one of the highest priorities in our lives, and so much more.
Reading her books is an aesthetic experience. You open that hard binding, you see that familiar font, you quickly dive into her style of telling the story from Harry’s point of view. The Harry Potter series are the only books that I have a preference on hardback or paperback.

And it is here that you need to stop reading if you haven’t read the 7th one yet.

There are several scenes that I just want to read over and over so I can have them engrained in my memory so I can think of them later, verbatim, with perfect clarity.

1. Hermione and Ron’s kiss. “Hang on a moment!” said Ron sharply. “We’ve forgotten someone!” “Who?” asked Hermione. “The house-elves, they’ll all be down in the kitchen, won’t they?” “You mean we ought to get them fighting?” asked Harry. “No,” said Ron seriously, “I mean we should tell them to get out. We don’t want any more Dobbies, do we? We can’t order them to die for us…” There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione’s arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. Ron threw away the fangs and broomstick he was holding and responded with such enthusiasm that he lifted Hermione off her feet. “Is this the moment?” Harry asked weakly, and when nothing happened except that Ron and Hermione gripped each other still more firmly and swayed on the spot, he raised his voice, “OI! There’s a war going on here!”

2. Snape’s memories of Lily. “Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?” Snape hesitated. His black eyes, eager in the greenish gloom, moved over the pale face, the dark red hair. “No,” he said. “It doesn’t make any difference.”

His voice trailed away; she was not listening, but had stretched out on the leafy ground and was looking up at the canopy of leaves overhead. He watched her as greedily as he had watched her in the playground. “How are things at your house?” Lily asked. A little crease appeared between his eyes. “Fine,” he said. “They’re not arguing anymore?” “Oh yes, they’re arguing,” said Snape. He picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. “but it won’t be that long and I’ll be gone.” “Doesn’t your dad like magic?” “He doesn’t like anything much,” said Snape. “Severus?” A little smile twisted Snape’s mouth when she said his name.

“He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!” The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. “And he’s not…everyone thinks…big Quidditch hero…” Snape’s bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily’s eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead. “I know James Potter’s an arrogant toerag,” she said, cutting across Snape. “I don’t need you to tell me that. But Mulciber’s and Avery’s idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don’t understand how you can be friends with them.” Harry doubted that Snape had even heard her strictures on Mulciber and Avery. The moment she had insulted James Potter, his whole body had relaxed, and as they walked away there was a new spring in Snape’s step…

These scenes mean the most to me and I have no idea why. Probably some combination of girlish hope for Ron and Hermione and some much needed understanding for Snape.

All in all, the book was a brilliant way to end a brilliant series. No commentary of mine could add to what she has already done, and the need for you to read it!

Well Played, Paul

Anna and I just walked out of Book Man/Book Woman (a.k.a Nashville’s Greatest Used Book Store) with five pounds of books. Anna set the mood for the day by wearing her shirt that says ‘Calvinism: This Shirt Chose Me.’ Therefore, this was the attitude we had with buying books….they chose us.

If you want the truth, that’s how it goes with me normally. I’m a book wanter, not a book buyer. Normally I have a list of books that I want to add to my collection-most of them I haven’t read. All of the items on this list have answered one specific question in my mind: not only will they be special to me at this moment in my life, but they have the potential to grow on me and speak to me in different ways as time goes on. I don’t know why I pretentiously know that they will, but I can’t just look around a book store and pick something up that I’ve never heard of before—there has to be some background knowledge, and some reason why I’m reading it.

This list has been growing in my mind since my Freshman year at GC. I’ve had books on that list that I’ve wanted to read for two years. This is where the Calvinism part comes in: I always see specific books on the list at specific times and they always mean so much to me for that specific time period. And if they’re on the list, I know they’re ‘good enough’ to speak to me later. As we walked around the bookstore that made use of twenty wall alcoves besides shelves that seemed to go up forever, doubly stacked with books (books behind books, books on top of books), I perused the fiction section, the religion section, the mystery section…before settling back into the fiction section. And who do I see starting back at me right across from the beautifully bound Jane Austen books? Anne Lamott!
She chose me…and I’m excited to read Traveling Mercies and Further Thoughts on Faith.

Anna kept coming around the corners of the shelves with books containing Mark Twain and L. M. Montgomery. Perfect.

All of this made me think of scripture, and my slight obsession with Paul after taking Pauline Epistles in the spring. I’m currently reading Paul: A Novel….basically a strung together account of his life right before and then after his conversion and calling to the Gentiles. I really like this book because it encompasses the theology of Paul in areas such as the Torah, the status of people, Jews and Gentiles….even though the whereabouts of Paul are so heavily debated. Each chapter is written by a different person that was around him at a different part of his life: Luke, Titus, Prisca.

I thought of Paul because, after rereading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, I started thinking about our repainting of the Christian faith. So much of Paul’s ministry was the ‘casting in a new light’ of parts of the Torah and repainting snippets of truth Paul found that was held by non-Jews: telling people that they knew of God because they saw what was outside them in creation. In Paul’s opinion, these people had experienced the God of Israel and they were completely non-Jewish (sacrificing to the god of the games and the god of this and that) just because they could see creation!

This repainting of the Christian faith includes reading books by Anne Lamott and what she thinks about grace, something I’ve asked God to help me wrap my mind around. Grace, for me, is God calling us out again, even though we screwed up the first time. Being called out to be pure, to live life abundantly, to choose God….every day

It's All Just Really Chutes and Ladders

Last night I had the privilege of hanging out with three guys that are close to my heart. They might as well be my brothers, considering one of them is. On the outside, the evening looked normal-the drive in, Denny’s…some may even consider that Litchfield tradition. But, as the storm swept in as the credits started to role for the last movie, we all cloistered around a booth at the blessed 24 hour restaurant that has come to be the home of many beautiful late night conversations.

For the record, this conversation came up because Andy and Tim ordered milk shakes, and as any good Denny’s going customer knows, not only do you receive a milk shake in a glass, but you also receive the goodness in the silver glass used to make and pour the milk shake, commonly known as ‘the extra.’ The boys got off on a kick trying to compare ‘the extra’ to things in life. “It’s like getting a bag of 40 pizza rolls and getting 42.” “It’s like wow.” And then it was said: “It’s like winning at chutes and ladders.”

My brother’s analogy of the summer.

That every boy seems to agree with…..wholeheartedly. Imagine boys laughing and going crazy before other guys finish sentences because they agree so much with what is being said—this is the magnitude of how much this metaphor resounds with all boys.

Chutes and Ladders: the game of life….more specifically, the game of life as dictated by women. According to the boys, you can’t avoid the game and it all just basically boils down to the fact that men are ruled by the basics and women are ‘anti-basic.’

The Basics: food, sleep, the opposite sex, and pride. Men have accepted the fact that their lives are ruled by the basics. They have to have these things in their lives. They are also willing to forgo one of the basics in order for another one of the basics to be fulfilled: for example, I guess I can stay up and talk to this girl because I’ve had enough food and sleep lately.
But it seems that whatever is most pressing, whatever is ‘next’ in the logical progression of things, like breakfast, for instance, takes precedent.

Women: the rule writers of Chutes and Ladders.

A relationship with a girl is like playing chutes and ladders. Sometimes a guy does something and he gets a ladder, aka a good thing happens. A ladder may be something as small as reaching for her hand and she holds yours and smiles. That’s definitely a step up.
But with every ladder, there is, inevitably, a chute.
The next time that you may reach for her hand, she may pull away. But wait, this worked last time? What the heck? The definition of a chute….or any reason for a guy’s pride to deflate.

Crazy things happen in the game of Chutes and Ladders, mostly because all women are different and write different rules pertaining to the chutes and the ladders. Also, sometimes women change up the rules completely from what they were before, just to do so…and apparently this is the epitome of all evil in this metaphorical game (if you’re still following me by this point. My sources say that if you’re a guy, you are getting this completely, but if you’re a girl you may be trailing off a bit. I’m working on being a liaison.)

At the end of this conversation, I came to the conclusion that I’m basically the giver of chutes and ladders, and that it’s good for guys and girls to be together because a ‘symbiotic relationship’ happens between basic and complex.

And this is all very good, like the extra of a milk shake.

Sunset Walks

In preparation for Walkabout the Third, I have been quite disciplined, if I do say so myself, to walk/run a couple miles everyday. What better time to do this then right before, during, and after sunset? Besides the obvious reasons being the painted sky and the temperature actually dropping, I have found others at the high school track (yes, I know, I’m not actually athletic enough to run on a road or sidewalk.)

The track is hopping during sunset.

And what’s great is it’s the same people everyday. Like we have an unspoken agreement to all be there at the same time, because believe me, we don’t actually talk to one another. Here’s the breakdown:

Citizen Cane: This older man walks in the outside lanes of the track and he carries a cane with him as if he’s carrying it for balance-right out in front with both hands, swinging back and forth. About every third step his hip gives in and his leg bends in unnaturally, but all I can think of is how much I admire this man: he obviously wants to improve his walking, and he’s not out for a stroll-he does a couple miles right along with me.

The Ya Ya Sisterhood: This group of women spans three generations, with the youngest being, oh, I’d say 48. They take up six lanes of the track, (each walking a lane apart from one another) just stroll along, and talk very loudly about who’s suffering from what addiction and how that’s the worst one to possibly have. It’s always awkward passing them because I have to use a lane right next to one of them. Courtesy track passing either means you acknowledge the person behind you and move two lanes over or, as the passer, you move a couple lanes over, pass, and then retake the inner lane. These rules are strict and rigid and everyone follows them….except the Ya Ya’s.

The Married Couple: They start off walking at the same time, but he naturally speeds up and leaves her in the dust. We’re talking ¾’s of the track ahead of her…he’s practically caught up to her again by the time they are done. If I were the wife, I’d be ticked! Walk next to me! But for some reason, I have this thing that I can’t let the husband pass me. I’m always there when they start out and we always start out half the track apart and he always almost catches up to me…but then they leave and I win the silent war.

The Woman with Different Children: This is the woman who brings her children (that happen to be different everyday) to the track to “play”-which, of course, means running up and down the bleachers, running the opposite way on the track, riding bikes around campus-while she walks 2 or 3 laps. There’s a lot of ‘get down from there!’ and ‘be careful!’

After three miles, the sun has set at the high school, leaving the sky pink, orange, or purple. I get in my car, drive home, and after I pass that certain cornfield, the sky is completely ablaze because the sun hasn’t quite set at my house yet…and the best thing about my house is the panoramic view-no buildings to get in the way, just fields and sky and me. It’s one of the best parts of my day. I never thought the sunset would be so important to me.
Ok, Rob Bell, I’m trying to interact with nature/creation here!

I’m thinking about implementing the sunset walks at Greenville…now to find a place where I can actually see the sun set.

The Difference Between Shooting Stars and Satellites?

Harry Potter mania has officially begun.
Anna saw the new movie last night at midnight....I'm pathetically making it to the 4:30 matinee today, you know, on the actual relase date when the sun is shining. But I'm going with three people who will think the special affects are awesome, who will get goosebumps when the music crescendos at the climax of the movie, and who will want to talk about what just happened on screen. Yes, I'm going with my brother and two younger cousins---a family of nerds! I'm so glad they're in my life!
I read a quote on J.K. Rowling's website about how she would take time off after she finished each book, but then her hand would start itching for a pen and she automatically wanted to be back in a cafe, scratching words across a page. Sigh...what a life! After a summer of being home and having nothing to do but read and write, I almost said amen to those words when I read them. Oh to live a life of blank pages in binding with ink blotches on my hand.
And then I'm also happy to be back at Greenville soon, because when people hear me say stuff like that their immediate response will be, "Em, you need to be around people more often."
J.K. also said she knew she wanted to be a writer from a young age because she was perfectly happy sitting in her room all day, just making stuff up.

My dad tells me about once a week that I can do what she has done. Isn't that sweet? : )
Maybe not a crazy series that gets translated into every language, but a book.....yes, a book.

Transition

I started thinking a lot about this year, to be more specific this year that starts in three weeks for me. And summer was over like that. I started thinking about what we’re going to do during training and how we’re going to work together as a team and what boxes I’m going to pack my stuff in and that antsy feeling I get every year before I go back that is only a slice of what I felt before my freshman year-a combination of being excited and not knowing what is going to happen and knowing I will be crazy busy but will remember random things from the whole RC/Walkabout/Moving In process-yeah, that was there today. So the transition of being back in school has begun….a lot earlier than some, but I do need to start thinking about it.

I talked to Laura on the phone today, actually Mele ( pronounced May-Lay) on the phone. Mele is the new Laura. The Laura that doesn’t write anything down in her planner book. The Laura that surfs. The Laura that GIVES guys her PHONE NUMBER without them asking. Laura went to Hawaii and Super Confident Mele is returning to the mainland in a week. And I’m stoked because she’s so full of life and we’re going to take walks during the school year and she’s going to tell me to be more confident.

I’m going to see Anna in a week in the little red truck. We’re going to single-handedly be responsible for reversing the mainstream culture by waiting in line for a midnight release of a book. Ok, so, we’ll be doing it with a billion other people across the world, but it is kind of noble and purist reader-like, isn’t it?

And yes, it is for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

And yes, I’m really excited.

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash

For an avid movie fan, you would think that I would get around to seeing movies that are thought of as particularly good by everyone and have won several awards.

Somehow, that doesn’t always happen and I see a movie a year or two late.

Tonight I saw Walk the Line for the first time.

I loved the poetic retelling of Johnny Cash’s life-the writer fully encompassing the pain and sorrow that comes from addiction and life on the road.

I absolutely adored June Carter as a character and Reese Witherspoon as an actress all at the same time. And I did like watching them fall in love—granted it was after failed marriages, infidelity, and lots of issues, but it was a true story that included forgiveness and redemption. Plus, who can say no to a completely non-cheesy ‘here I’m going to teach you how to do this and touch you at the same time’ classic love story scene? Yeah,
best one that I’ve seen in a while.

I love when screenplay writers start off the movie with a scene towards the end and successfully progress through the movie to that scene. The writing, needless to say, was awesome: enough background of Cash’s life, just the right scenes to show the emotion that was going on, and just enough to develop June as well.

My dad’s favorite scene is when June’s family chases the drug dealer off Cash’s property with a gun. We laughed. “Sometimes that’s the way it has to be done.” –Dad
And you know, I would have to agree with that. Sometimes we have to vehemently chase things away.

My favorite scene happens to be when June and Johnny first meet and she gets her dress stuck on his guitar strap. She rushes on stage and inadvertently leaves a piece torn from her dress on Johnny’s guitar. Where was the deleted scene showing that he still had that piece of dress with him years later?? : ) But really, the way that they looked at each other…..(insert low whistle here). You should read about how a couple looks at each other in Sex God by Rob Bell…; ).

My mom’s favorite scene is when Johnny and the boys are first auditioning and the label guy comes out with this monologue that book ends the rest of the movie-“if you had to choose one song to sing before you died.” Again, incredibly, not cheesy! June has some zingers too which I especially enjoyed.

I’ll probably watch it again tomorrow.

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality by Rob Bell

I loved this book. You should go out and read it right now.
If you don’t recognize the author, Rob Bell also wrote Velvet Elvis which you should read right now as well. This book was good because it opened up a scriptural view of marriage as I had never experienced before. This also included expounding on the marriage language that God uses in scripture to refer to the Body of Christ.
Read it!

Favorite Quotes/Ideas:

-Bell expands on the idea when Jesus talks about gouging out your eye before your whole self ends up in hell from lusting. He points out that the main purpose of this teaching is that something hellish happens when we treat people as objects, as something less than human. And that something hellish happens to us; it happens to our hearts, souls, and mindsets about other people. He provides a great example of appreciating people: this woman, named Lil, has devoted herself to taking care of another woman that will be developmentally six months old for the rest of her life. Lil says that her family can’t imagine life without the disabled woman. This is appreciating life.

-We need to be connected to the Earth-to look at trees and hike to see a view and to plant things, because this reminds us of God. We also need to be connected to people of all ages and socioeconomic statuses because we are connected-and to be connected has a sexual dimension.

-Bell’s definition of sexuality with connection in mind: “If we take this understanding of our natural state seriously, we have to rethink what sexuality is. For many, sexuality is simply what happens between two people involving physical pleasure. But that’s only a small percentage of what sexuality is. Our sexuality is all of the ways we strive to reconnect with our world, with each other, and with God.”

-“When I meet someone who has been burned by an institution, my first question is, “What was the person’s name?”

-“There are these two extremes, denying our sexuality or being driven by it, and then there’s the vast space in between.” In the thought that we can’t be angels or animals, we have to live in the tension of being human. “When we deny the spiritual dimension to our existence we end up feeling like animals. And when we deny the physical, sexual dimension to our existence, we end up living like angels. And both ways are destructive, because God made us human.”

-“He (Paul) insists that everything God created is good, and we come to see this through what he calls “the word of God and prayer,” which is the hard work of study and reflection and meditation and discussion and debate. The temptation is always to avoid things that are difficult and complex. To go around them rather than through them.”

-“The problem for Adam and Eve isn’t the food. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the food. The food is good. This is what Eve notices about it, that it’s “good for food.” It’s created by God for the enjoyment of people. The same goes for most of the things and people we lust for. In most cases, there’s nothing wrong with them inherently-her body, that product, this food. The problem for Adam and Eve is what the fruit has come to represent. Rebelion against God. Rejection of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Another way.

-“Adam and Eve fixate on this one piece of fruit from this one tree when God has given them endless trees with infinite varieties of fruit to enjoy. Which is often our problem. There’s so much to enjoy, and yet we fixate on something we don’t have.” Favorite quote, hands down. We need to get in the groove of thanking God for what He has given us. What are you fixating on? One pomegranate doesn’t compare to the rest that He’s given you…..ok you get the picture.

-“God made us to appreciate aesthetics: taste, smell, touch, hearing, sight. Shape, texture, consistency, color. It all flows from the endless creativity at the center of the universe, and we were created to enjoy it. But when lust has us in its grip, one of the first things to suffer is our appreciation for whatever it is we’re fixated on.”

-“Whatever it is that has its hooks in you, you will never be free from it until you find something you want more. It’s not about getting rid of desire. It’s about giving ourselves to bigger and better and more powerful desires. What are you channeling your energies into?”

-Bell talks about love as a risk. He uses the Song of Solomon-talking about the lover coming home to the beloved and asking to come into their bedroom. She does not respond favorably and then he leaves. And God takes a risk with us.

-“Love is a giving away. When we love, we put ourselves out there, we expose ourselves, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.”

-“If you’re God and you want to express ultimate love to your creation, if you want to move toward them in a definitive way, you have a problem, because just showing up overwhelms people. You wouldn’t come as you are. You wouldn’t come in strength. You wouldn’t come in your pure, raw essence. You’d scare everybody away. The last thing people would perceive is love. So how would you express your love in an ultimate way? How do you connect with people in a manner that wouldn’t scare them off but would compel them to want to come closer, to draw near? You would need to strip yourself of all of the trappings that come with ultimate power and authority.”

-“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.”-Ephesians, v 23 somewhere. “The word head is the word kephale in the Greek language. We could spend hours analyzing exactly what it means, but the larger point is that the husband is supposed to be like Christ. And what does that look like? Notice how the text continues. Verse 24 repeats the submit command, and then verse 25 reads, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Christ’s “headship” comes from his giving himself up for the church. His sacrifice. His surrender. His willingness to give himself away for her. His death. Whatever authority the word head carries with it is rooted in the sacrifice of Christ, and therefore the sacrifice of the husband.” Or to quote Corrie’s pastor: “This is not the ‘headship’ that we think of in corporate America-to be the ‘head’ of a company, or the likes.”

-“Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re worthy. Agape makes them worthy by the strength and power of its love. Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re beautiful. Agape loves in such a way that it makes them beautiful. There is a love because, love in order to, love for the purpose of, and then there is love, period. Agape doesn’t need a reason.”

-“Now often the Ten Commandments are seen as the harsh rules of a God who is looking for ways to judge and control people. Just follow the rules and no one will get hurt. As if the best that God can come up with is a list of things people shouldn’t do. Often religion with this understanding of God has very little to say to people beyond “don’t do this and don’t do that.” But the Ten Commandments are about something else. In a Jewish wedding ceremony, a legal document called the ketubah must be agreed upon and signed by both parties. Essentially it’s a list of what they are entering into. Both the bride and groom must be clear with each other on what they are committing to, what they both affirm it will take for this relationship to work. The Ten Commandments are the ketubah. They’re the agreement between the people and God about how they’re going to live together, which is why the first one deals with having other gods. It’s essentially an agreement that this relationship won’t work if they have other lovers.”

God continues to bring Jewish thought processes to my mind. I’ve been voluntarily reading Lauren F. Winner, but here it is again in Sex God. I’m excited about my Judaism classes at Greenville this coming year.
Another exciting thing that has come with my premature understanding of Judaism this summer is a newfound appreciation for tradition, more specifically the fact that we can acknowledge God through everything as aided by the liturgy, remembering why we do things like celebrate Easter, and, of course, our own specific rituals like taking a walk every night to ‘notice nature’ and see God through that.
I’ve been reading Nehemiah. He gets Israel on track to rebuild the wall and the chapter I read today had to do with the leaders reading the law and the people crying. Nehemiah quickly said ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength’ verse, but was more important for me is that they reinstated the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. And my devotional talked about having a healthy balance of celebrating what God has down in our lives concerning grace, and contrition, repentance, and sorrow. My love for putting a material quality to scripture was enflamed as I read about the ‘booths’ that Jews reconstruct to symbolize the booths that the Israelites dwelt in during the 40 days in the desert.
This all makes me want to celebrate something. I’m thinking about celebrating purity….seriously. And a couple of things came to mind. I need to get scripture on purity-a sort of packet that I can read from and have floating around in my mind as I research these next couple of weeks under the umbrella of: what is purity? I need a community to celebrate with. And I need concrete ways to celebrate—like the booths that are made during Sukkot. Of course, the mindset would be that we are celebrating purity, and therefore celebrating God. And the point would be celebrating the fact that we are a new creation, that sexuality is about being connected (ala Rob Bell), and that God gives us the grace to live pure lives.
Of course this would have to be balanced by the repentance that would occur for the ways we haven’t lived pure lives.

Just a few ideas….

And then all of this thought about celebration made me think about the way the Christian year is ordered, and then, more specifically, the way that we gather every Sunday with a community to partake in both a celebration, a remembrance, and an offering of repentance. Church : ).

Today I was looking at a magazine my mom bought that had to do with weddings. There was a page with a featured cake from each state. I asked her if she could pick out my favorite one. She picked it out in 30 seconds. My dad picked it out in a minute. Out of 50 states! I guess I'm predictable....or they just know me well.