Pearls and Penmanship

CAMP CHRONICLES: ENTRY #1 - REFRESH

, by Unknown

MY ALL

Conviction pierced me this morning when my pastor made this remark:

Do we really mean it when we sing with gusto of the love that demands our 'soul, our life, our all"?

The times I have sang this hymn without contemplating this deep lyric outnumbers the stars. I remember the first time this thought pierced me - it wasn't when I sang it. In retrospect, I believe I have touched on this very article before, but the SheReadsTruth devotion app has a series of reading plans entitied Hymns, and one of those they chose was "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."

It was in the reading of this hymn that I was convicted. Read it again - or for your first time - with me:

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Wow. I am so unworthy.

In this sermon, my pastor spoke of all the distractions we have in our everyday lives. How much time we spend - we make to spend - on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix (yes that one cuts deep) - and we don't give a second thought to spending that "made time" in his presence. The church was silent. I know for a fact that every attentive person present that morning was instantly convicted.

The hymnwriter is saying that even if I had the entire realm of nature to give as payment for my sins alone, it would be far too small. But, Christ's amazing and divine love washes away our sins leaving us as white as snow. We deserve nothing except the fires of hell. Can we not repay even the slightest fragment of the debt by devoting our soul, our life, our all to him?

Naturally the question comes: what is our all?

And it is a tough one to answer. So I'm going to refer back to the wisdom of my pastor.

We have been studying the book of Nehemiah on Sunday mornings. Nestled in the middle of the book is the celebration and the prayer of the people upon the miraculous completion of the wall around Jerusalem in 52 days. What struck me was the behavior of the Israelites during this service of sorts that lasted over six hours.

1. They were hungry for the Word.

My dad used to teach fifth grade English. Naturally, every English teacher has a favorite read-aloud, and his is Caddie Woodlawn. I remember him coming home from school one day describing the eager students meeting him with the book in hand as he entered the classroom begging him to pick up on Caddie's next adventure.

When was the last time our hunger for the Word was this ravenous?

2. They were attentive to the Word.

I'm not going to lie; I know without the Lord sustaining me that I could not remain attentive to a six hour sermon. A ninety-minute sermon would be a stretch. But, Nehemiah states in chapter 8 that "the ears of ALL were attentive..." My pastor also stressed that this attentiveness was part of their worship and is part of ours today. Their hunger drove their attention. And if they grew weary, they called upon the Lord and He sustained them.

3.They were sensitive to the Word.

In their hunger-driven attentiveness, they absorbed what they were hearing and applied it to themselves. The Bible says they wept at their shortcomings before the Lord. They sensed their unworthiness for the miraculous act He had just performed through them in the building of the wall. But, short were their tears!

4. They were joyful in the Word.

This ceremony of sorts where we find the Israelites was in celebration of this work. The passage says they lifted their hands shouting "Amen! Amen!" Full of Joy.

All this to say, I believe our all has to do with these four things. Our increased hunger, attention, sensitivity, and joy for the Lord and his Word will grow our fullness of love to him. Understand again that this goal of giving Him our all is unattainable; the whole realm of nature as a gift would not even scratch the surface of what He deserves. But, rather than discourage, this should drive us to give him everything we have.

How he loves us. Oh, how he loves!

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, by Unknown

Think-ful Thoughts

OBSERVE

In the last month I have been super busy with my new job, finishing up some stuff for school, and just life in general. But a lot has happened in our world in the last month. In our nation. A lot of it is disturbing. I know I am genuinely considering moving to Genovia -- in hopes that it has remained it's 2004 self since the last Princess Diaries movie came out.

Amidst all the craziness, I have been observing. Observing the way people think about themselves, about other people, and about the religious realm. When I say people, tonight I am considering the non-Christians among my acquaintance. My observations are as follows, and I write them in hopes of deriving application to myself and do not count myself guiltless in any of these areas:

1. Selfishness

This one has struck me in a unique way and has perhaps been the most obvious to me in my observation. When I write of selfishness, I am speaking more of the self-focused mindset that threads itself into everything they think, say, or do. Never does a thought directed toward the customer's perspective cross their mind.

"It was so rude of them to not leave a tip on such an expensive order."

"Perhaps they didn't leave a tip because of how painfully expensive the order was. Or maybe they had a rough work day. Maybe their cat died this morning. Maybe today they found out their spouse has cancer."

You just don't know.

Their selfish attitudes towards others has reminded me to put others first. To be understanding. To put myself in their shoes. To treat them as I would want myself to be treated. To serve them and expect nothing from them. And to love them.

Their selfishness has revealed to me another dimension of Christ's humility. True humility is not merely the absence of pride. It is a complete denial of self. It penetrates us to the core. And, it is hard. I struggle with it every day in so many different areas of my life.

May our pride be in Christ as our only source of salvation.

2. Language

My observation here is simple: it is called a "dirty mouth" for a reason. Outward beauty is shattered with foul language and degrading criticism of others. The Bible speaks so clearly on this topic - both in judgement and praise. I will let the inspired Word of the Lord speak on this issue.

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." Ephesians 4:29

"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Luke 6:45

"It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person." Matthew 15:11

James reminds us in chapter 3 and verse 8 that "no human being can tame the tongue." Here lies the root of problem - their hopelessness without Christ.

Let our words be gracious like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healthy to the body. (Proverbs 16:24) Through them our Christ's beauty can shine through us.

3. Hypocrisy

In the sense of speaking behind someone's back, hypocrisy can be friendship's greatest combatant. This observation is practically a subdivision of my previous point, but its significance in our world today demands our undivided attention. As certainly most of you have, I have watched one person speak to another about a shortcoming of a third party, and then watched the first speak to the third negatively about the second. What sort of twisted approach to relationships is this?

Unfortunately, an all too common one.

Tying my first two points together, I would also translate hypocrisy to one who treats you as a friend and then berates you to feed their own pride. These people are hard to love. Hard to not lash out at with snide remarks or even raw rage.

"But I tell you, 'Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.'" Matthew 5:44

Lord, help me when I am provoked.

Now by and large, those I speak of are very nice people. But, my heart aches that they would open their hearts to receive truth. I feel that all too often we categorize unbelievers as unreachable especially if they have proved themselves on the heavier end of fallen human nature. Strive to channel Christ's light to them. Show them who he really is. His character as loving and faithful speaks volumes; let Him do the talking.

Pray for them. Live for Christ.

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, by Unknown

Resourceful

IN THE LIGHT

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, by Unknown

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WHO CAN?

Confession, I have not read a book truly for pleasure for months and months. I know, what kind of English fanatic doesn't lie down and read herself to sleep? I'll have to lay my excuse on my schoolwork and be done. Just now - literally less than a minute ago - I picked up a good ol' religious fiction paperback and read the first sentence. That's all that I read. Suddenly this flood rushed over me like embracing an old friend and I scooted under the covers in anticipation of another world.

All day today my brain was whirling with intimidating grown-up things that have suddenly dropped on my plate. By the end of April, I will have entered the world of employment, gotten my drivers license, and turned seventeen. Add SAT preparations, Prom planning, and the four outstanding papers that need to be written before the school year's end and that pretty much sums up my life right now. Reflecting on my last two days, I know I have spent too much time worrying and procrastinating and not enough time trusting and getting things done. Not enough time breathing words of thanks to my Father who has everything under control. My life in his hands.

And in my hands He put a book. Just an outlet to escape into characters and intriguing events. But He knew what I needed. And here I am telling you about it instead of diving into the story, but I just wanted to say this:

If our God is for us, who can stand against us? Can work or money or hard papers or even student-designed-science-experiments-turned-papers stand in the way?

Nothing can.

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MY RELIGIOUS FICTION TOP PICKS:

Weddings by Bella Series - by Janice Thompson

The O'Malley Series - by Dee Henderson {Personally, I don't like the prequel}

Lake Manawa Summers Series - by Lorna Seilstad

The Saddler's Legacy Series - by Rosslyn Elliot

The Maya Davis Series - by Erin Mangum

A Walk in the Park Series - by Analisa Daughtey

These are a variety of historical, modern, hilarious, and suspenseful novels. I hope you check them out and love them as much as I do!

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, by Unknown

Think-ful Thoughts

HELP

No novel inspires me more than the New York Times bestseller The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It inspires me to fight, to write, to change the world. Considering that the extreme horrors of racial segregation are behind us, a passion to fight and write for has yet to grab my attention. But something inside tells me it will one day present itself. Perhaps my passions will align with Stockett focusing on the rights to which every individual is entitled. Perhaps they will lean toward education or more political matters. Whichever it is, I dream of writing a novel as novel as the one sitting by my side at this very moment.

The Help is daring. Though over fifty years have come and gone since the decade this book was set, Stockett digs into America’s deepest and darkest closets housing the concrete walls of the racial prejudice of the southern ‘60s. Not without caution did she approach this subject. Stockett describes it as a “slippery issue (she had) been struggling with and couldn’t catch in (her) hands, like a wet fish.” Stockett praised the Pulitzer Prize–winning article “Grady’s Gift” by Howell Raines for summing it up in a few simple sentences:

“There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism.”

Reflecting on her work, Stockett is pulled in two directions – the fear of having told too much and the fear of having told too little. As a child growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, she was taught that speaking of “such uncomfortable things…was tacky (and) impolite.” However, she felt there was much more to be told on both positive and negative ends of the spectrum. For some help, conditions were far worse. Unimaginable, even. But others experienced deeper love than Stockett had the “time or ink to portray.”

How I wish I could tie these two up with a bow and beg her for more! Why? Because, The Help is captivating with characters so rich you could eat them up like a slice of Minny Jackson’s chocolate pie. Well, not Miss a-Hilly’s own special pie. You steer clear of that one now, you hear! Stockett masterfully layers the chapters between the story’s three main characters –Aibileen, Minny, and Miss Skeeter. The reader has a unique opportunity to climb inside the heads of these two black maids and a white twenty-something’s whose fingers itch to write change into Jackson, Mississippi. Minny and Miss Skeeter play major roles in the story, but it’s Aibileen with whom we begin and end.

“‘All the babies I tend to I count as my own,’” she says to Mae Mobley – her seventeenth child. Aibileen Clark loves her Baby Girl when her own mama only picks her up once or twice a day. Then it is to reprimand her or get her chubby fingers off the windows. After watching some of her earlier babies grow up, Aibileen resolves to teach her special baby that she is kind, smart, and important despite whatever her mama says or does. As the novel progresses and civil rights becomes a more prominent theme, she also shares Secret Stories with Mae Mobley about someone named Martian Luther King who people hated because he was green.

Equality is a subject that is close to Aibileen’s heart. The Help opens not three years after the death of her twenty-four year old son – a death mocked by white men in their lack of empathy. While working at a lumber yard, Treelore got caught under the wheels of a truck crushing his lungs. White men dumped him on the sidewalk outside of the black hospital and honked the horn as they drove away. People have shown more compassion for a kitten with a broken toe. After that day, a bitter seed took root inside of Aibileen. But bitter as it was, a seed is a seed. And a seed can yield fruit.

Minny Jackson debuts like a tornado of Crisco with a heaping spoonful of sass. One Terrible Awful thing she did gets her out of a job just as the story dawns. With a houseful of kids and a drunk, abusive husband, her friendship with Aibileen is what gets her through these trying times. Her job search is choked by the victim of the Terrible Awful and none other than the queen of Jackson herself: Miss Hilly Holbrook. If Miss Hilly says Minny Jackson is a liar and a thief, then all of Mississippi believes that Minny Jackson is a liar and a thief –all except one corner of Madison County. Miss Celia Rae Foote went and married Miss Hilly’s ex-boyfriend and therefore has no friends, no connections, no nothing. Just an enormous white mansion that needs dusting, polishing, edible food in the pantry, and those floor-to-ceiling windows washed. She wants Minny for the job. But there’s a catch; there’s always a catch. And she’s just going to have to sleep with one eye open.

Though nobody should be more on their guard than Miss Eugenia Phelan. An Ole Miss graduate with a double major in English and journalism, Skeeter is hungry to break her way into the writer’s world, but she is splashing in puddles nobody has ever dared to poke their toe in.

Every person has a lens, a filter, through which they view the world. In Jackson, Mississippi, all anyone sees is black and white. But Miss Skeeter sees color. She sees people drowning in a pool of racial discrimination while others strut by sipping their Cola. Challenged by her superior to “write about what disturbs (her), particularly if it bothers no one else,” Skeeter sees this as an open door to write from the point of view of the help.

And write she does. Skeeter’s ambition, Aibileen’s passion, and Minny’s expression come together to produce Help by Anonymous. Boasting a white dove of peace on its cover, two hundred and sixty-seven pages pile together in a controversial bestseller telling stories ripe with laughter, tears, love, and pain. Life in Jackson will never be the same again. And neither will the perspective of Stockett’s readers.

Why? Because The Help is convicting. Many of its readers identify with either side of the spectrum – the victim or the oppressor. A full generation stands in between myself and that of which the story relates. My conscience is burdened by the injustice and suffering endured by the black population, but in my reflection, I feel no personal responsibility for what they suffered. I have spoken to several members of the white, in-between generation about this book and have found they share a similar response to it: guilt. Guilt for even being white. But even this mindset, this guilt, can be settled by what is The Help’s most prized quote: “We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I thought.”

Putting aside all of the depth and heavy truth integrated into the story, The Help is beautiful. Relationships are built like bridges bringing together different classes, ages, and races. How unlikely is the friendship between solid, sassy, no-nonsense Minny Jackson and flighty, flashy, naïve Miss Celia? Yet, out of every relationship developed, theirs is the most endearing. The story’s sole consistent friendship exists between Minny and Aibileen. They journey the story laughing and crying on one another’s shoulder swearing to stand by each other until the end whatever that end may be. With a substantial amount of time and patience, Miss Skeeter and Aibileen’s relationship conquers the highest peak of trust. The weight of their confidence leaves their lives in each other’s hands. This is an incredible feat to have been accomplished between people of differing color especially in the segregated South.

All others aside, 0ne relationship threads together and bookends The Help – that of Aibileen and Mae Mobley. Stockett preaches racial equality from the rooftops the entire novel, but it is this simple bond that speaks volumes above the others. Human nature at its origin responds to love and kindness not skin color. When Mae Mobley calls Aibileen her “real mama,” she is recognizing the one who holds her, feeds her, and tells her stories as the one who loves her most. The natural instinct characterized in this relationship is the heart of the fight against Jim Crow. We were created equal. Nothing can change that.

Fifty years later, with the bulk of racism behind us, what can we take away from this beautiful story? Aibileen tells us in chapter twenty-four: “All I’m saying is, kindness don’t have no boundaries.”

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, by Unknown

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Pearls and Penmanship

NEW BLOG

CAMP CHRONICLES: ENTRY #1 - REFRESH

MY ALL

OBSERVE

IN THE LIGHT

WHO CAN?

HELP

Welcome to Pearls and Penmanship!

Meet Alyssa Rose

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Pearls and Penmanship

NEW BLOG

CAMP CHRONICLES: ENTRY #1 - REFRESH

MY ALL

OBSERVE

IN THE LIGHT

WHO CAN?

HELP

Welcome to Pearls and Penmanship!

Meet Alyssa Rose

PINTEREST

recent posts

Labels

Blog Archive

Followers

Popular Posts

Colossians 3:12-14

My Blog List

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