With Rinah spending so much time eating, playing, sleeping, and running around with my uncle, aunt, and cousins, I’ve had a lot of time to read. It’s been wonderful. Years ago, I started reading Schmemann but life got in the way and I never finished it. My cousin Christopher had a copy sitting on his shelf and I’m trying to finish it before I leave. I don’t know if I can because it’s slow going. One reason is because I keep rereading what I’ve read already. This book been an answer to prayer, showing me the way out of some of the struggles I’ve had in my life.

(The italics are Schmemann’s. The underlining is mine.)

Weltschmerz, hunger, desire, pain.
Created in the image of a perfect Triune God, three Persons in eternal fellowship and friendship and trust, I am filled with a yearning and longing for that same fellowship and friendship and trust. The imperfect human fellowship I have found does not satisfy my hunger, but merely whets my appetite to the point of starvation. Trusting and desiring Man leads to pain and betrayal. There is no true love, no joy, no faithfulness, no peace with Man. But Christ invites us to His table, gives us Himself, His blood and His flesh.

Man is a hungry being. But he is hungry for God. Behind all the hunger of our life is God. All desire is finally a desire for Him. (p. 14)

Read the rest of this post »

Link-hopping blogs this morning (something I can do because Rinah-Baby is in the living room with her grandmother so I can have a few moments of peace and quiet, LOL … yes, I’m in Tokyo now and that pic was taken in the train yesterday) brought me to the blog of Gene Helsel, CREC pastor in Wenatchee, Washington. It’s a church I’d like to visit someday.

There is a story about a church family that was visiting a friend’s church on Sunday. Guess what happened … it’s a good post. Go read it.

Dr. Leithart just put out another book!! It’s about baptism!! Go get it now (at Canon Press)!! Or wait just a bit and get it at Amazon for over 30% off.

Dr. Leithart has a new post about the Church and pop culture that is relevant to education. It starts off with a quiz. I’ve copied it below. My answers are in bold italics.

I got 8 of 13 questions correct in Part 2. I’m 38% pagan and illiterate. (Paganism and illiteracy being measured not by how many of Part 1 that you know but how many of Part 2 you don’t know.) Leave your answers in the comments!

Quiz Part 1

Finish the following sentences or phrases: (3/9)

- With great power …
- Hasta la vista … baby. (Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger)
- Do the … (Dew)
- Shaken, not …
- Space, the final …
- Think outside the …
- I’d walk a mile for …
- Life is like a box … chocolates. (I don’t know where that’s from.)
- May the force … be with you.

(My cousin said this to me once when I was 12. When my father heard me saying a few days later, he stopped me and told me never to say it again because it was tantamount to blasphemy. He then explained how there is no power or “force” in itself but that all comes from God, he told me about the evils of dualism, yin and yang and it’s cultural impact from ancient times to the present, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and a lot more about comparative religion and the Bible and how Star Wars was making how the people making Star Wars were making paganism accessible, popular, and fun for apostate America by using Biblical language in a science fiction movie. I never said those words again.

Identify the advertisers by the following taglines: (1/9 … I only know one.)

- I’m loving it. (MacDonald’s … they use the same line in Japan.)
- You’re in good hands.
- Where’s the beef?
- Have it your way.
- Be all you can be.
- Can you hear me now?
- Is it in you?
- Obey your taste.
- The king of beers.

Identify these people: (8/8. Dang. I know all these people.)

- Captain Jack Sparrow
- Paula Abdul
- Paul McCartney
- Elvis
- Beyonce
- Orlando Bloom
- Brad Pitt
- Johnny Depp

Quiz Part 2

Now, the rest of the quiz is from me, not from my kids. Again, finish the following sentences or song lyrics: (4/7)

- Let God arise … ummm.
- I bind unto myself today … the strong name of the Trinity.
- We praise thee, O God, We acknowledge thee … to be the Lord.
- Midway through the journey of our life I found myself in … no idea.
- As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods … It’s something from Shakespeare, But I can’t remember what.
- I believe in one God, the Father Almighty … Maker of Heaven and Earth.
- Call me … Ishmael.

Identify these people: (4/6)

- Zelophahad - Israelite with 5 daughters (and one of them was named Noah, I think … yep … and Milk and Hog)
- Polycarp - (early church leader)
- Dominic - Founder of the Dominicans.
- Becky Sharp - Argh, sounds familiar, but I don’t know. (I looked up the answer and now I remember.)
- Charles Wesley - Methodist preacher, 19th century.
- Karol Wotyla - Also sounds familiar but I can’t place it. (After seeing the answer, yeah, of course. Duh.)

Go to the article at leithart.com for the answers.

When my children are old enough to talk, I want them to be able to answer the second part of the quiz without even thinking.