Colorado Mountain Passes

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August 30, 2006

Submission 'Defined'

Here's a draft of a post I wrote a couple weeks ago. I finally finished it. Here it is. It's not edited or anything...just a rough cut.

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American Heritage Dictionary:
1. a. The act of submitting to the power of another: “Oppression that cannot be overcome does not give rise to revolt but to submission” (Simone Weil).
b. The state of having submitted. See Synonyms at surrender.
2. The state of being submissive or compliant; meekness.

Roget's New Millenium Thesaurus:
Main Entry: submission
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: compliance
Synonyms: acquiescence, appeasement, assent, backdown, bowing, capitulation, cringing, defeatism, deference, docility, giving in, humbleness, humility, malleability, meekness, nonresistance, obedience, passivism, passivity, pliability, prostration, recreancy, resignation, servility, subjection, submissiveness, submitting, surrender, tractability, unassertiveness, yielding

How can a hallmark of a relationship be defined? How can I boil my heart and my attitude and my goal down to a series of words? And read these words! "Acquiescence." Ok. "Deference." Not bad. "Giving in." Sure. "Humbleness and humility." Ok. But "cringing?" "Capitulation?" "Servility?" "Subjection?" No. No! I am not a mouse! I am not a scullery maid! I am not a bowing, servile, cringing house-elf who must punish herself when she has an independent thought! I'm a wife, a mate, a partner.

I don't want some pagan unchurched person reading Roget and getting the idea that we are commanded to adopt the mindset of a slave. That is not biblical, and it's not right.

Here is what I've figured out in a year and a month and a week of marriage:

• It's a relationship. It's dynamic, fluid, and filled with change.
• It's a process. We have to take it day by day and sometimes minute by minute.
• Submission works best when a godly, trustworthy, loving man sacrificially cares for and nurtures me. (How do women whose husbands are selfish and selfcentered and ungodly manage?)
• Submission is taking the nature of a servant. It is having an attitude where I don't scrap and fight for my way...it's letting the control-freak tendency go, and choosing to be governed by a set of principals that aren't necessarily my own. But remember, too, that Christianity is basically the same thing. Taking the nature of a servant? Check. Being willing to yield? Check. Yep, those are commands we carry in our Christian walk anyway, so taking the same commands and applying them to my success or failure as a wife isn't a burden. I'm working towards those goals anyway as I walk to heaven.

The rest of it all I'm still learning. I know how it looks in my life and in my heart when I'm not submissive. That's what I shy from. I am working toward deeper and deeper compliance to the command Christ gave us: Love one another. How do I love the Dude? The Bible tells me how: Wives, submit to your husbands in the Lord. It really grates me at times but I know enough to know that Scripture tells us the truth, including the truth of how best to show the Dude that I love him. So there you go.

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Wifely Thoughts

When I was engaged and excited about moving and dreaming of being a bride, I imagined marriage to be superfantastic. I would exchange my life, my ministry, my task of ministering to classrooms full of students for a ministry to one man.

It has been that way. Superfantastic. Great. But it's also been tough. I want my own life too. But I can't have both, and here I am.

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Lame

What a lame blog I have.

I have good things to say. But they don't seem to come across here. Sheesh.

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August 24, 2006

So Long Little Guy

Pluto has been voted off the island.

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On the Road

We just got back from a long, long road trip. I do a lot of thinking on road trips. My ex (ex-bf! not ex-anything else) used to say that our lives were like two highways that came together for a while but then divided again, so there's the obvious metaphor of life being like a road.

That said, here's a deep thought for my friend Carrie:

Most of the time spent on a road trip is boring. There are the gas stops, the food stops, and the bathroom stops, but the bulk of the trip is the "making time" part of the trip, where you just have to aim the car between the lines and keep the speedometer needle steady. There may be excellent company or not; there may be excellent radio or not; there may be a good book to listen to or not--no matter the circumstances, mileage needs to me accrued and the tires have to keep going.

Carrie, that's how life is. I'm sorry that time with your fam is tough. That stinks! I'm sorry that things always seem to be the same, that nothing ever seems to change, that the same baggage always remains there, ready for you or someone to trip over. You feel like nothing ever changes, but it is changing. Even if the landscape never changes and the view never changes, things are still changing. Your life and your heart are changing, growing in self-discipline and sanctification. Your parents are growing older (and I don't know them, so I cannot say if they are growing wiser--but they are at least growing older!).

The more time you put into faithful Bible reading, prayer, and memorization, the more inroads the Holy Spirit has into controlling your heart and influencing your reactions, and He is at work in you, and when you spend time with your family, you do influence them too.

Keep putting in the miles. Keep watching the odometer tick the miles by. Keep you eyes on the goal. Keep praying and obeying God's will for your life (all the commands listed in the Book). Keep on, my friend. It's not in vain, and it's not for nil.

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August 23, 2006

Wednesday Stuff

I have about 9 chigger bites on my right thigh. Gaaah. They're terrible, and so much more itchy than mosquito bites. Mosquito bites don't itch me as much anymore since I got so many of them in Hawaii.

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I received a telemarketing phone call from a new church plant in my neighborhood. Yes, I did. No person whatsoever, just a telemarketing recording. I had a chance to leave my name, phone number, and address on the answering machine, and lovingly told them that personal contact might be a better idea; I'm not a customer, but a person. Those who know me may wonder if I truly was loving and kind. I was.

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I found two clearance dress shirts for the Dude at the Department Store yesterday! And I applied for a Department Store Charge Card and was approved (woo hoo, my first credit card!) and got even deeper discounts on top of my employee discount.

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I have laundry to do and then ironing. But first, Waltopia -- I need groceries, gas, and quarters. Laundry includes sheets (from the InLaws' bedding) and towels (again, InLaws) as well as just clothing.

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My jelly didn't jell. Hopefully today I can reprocess it. Good thing I bought extra lids.

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Off I go. Toodles.

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August 21, 2006

Sunshine

Now the sun is shining. My tea was good. But I am still reading and writing.

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Teatime

It is raining. I will have tea and a bit of lunch. Then I will read all afternoon. And write.

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August 18, 2006

Movie Meme

1. What is a movie that changed the way you think and act? Or just got you thinking, if the first question is too intimidating. I am trying to remember just one. You may laugh, but I'll go with Center Stage. When the girl decides to view her dancing as a gift: "I don't care if I make the audition or not. I see it as just one more day to dance" ...it got me thinking about my life and how I view my committment to my life and my career, that God is gracious to give me one more day to serve him.

   You know what else made me think? Memento.
   

2. It's a late autumn evening and rainy and cold? What do you have for dinner/snack? What movie do you pop in the DVD player? Corn chowder. And the movie is Sabrina or First Knight.
   
3. You are off to wee Himalayan hamlet for a year, your laptop hard drive can hold one film. What will it be? Hah! I've never seen the 6-hour Pride and Prejudice, so I'll take that. Hopefully my laptop will have enough battery to last 6 hours, let alone the whole year.
   
4. What movie made you laugh the hardest? What movie made you cry? I just watched Office Space with SIL this summer and I laughed myself silly. It the movie that keeps on giving because the quotes just keep coming. And the cryfest movie is Little Women, hands down. The family ties, the sisters, the Christmastime, the love found and lost and found, the growing up, the dreams shattered and remade...whoa. It's a Kleenex tearjerker for me.
   
5. Favorite actor (female, male)? Hm. Julia Ormond, I suppose. And I used to like Heath and Jude, but now I don't. Um...can't think of anyone in particular, unless it's Harrison Ford.
   
6. What book or story would you like to see made into a film or what book do you love that could never be made into a film? I'm not very satisfied with the way the Harry Potter movies turned out, though I'm glad they were made. (I just don't think film as a medium captures the magic and detail and pacing of the books! But it was nice to have a visual image of the books and Hogwarts and Quidditch.) I really liked the film adaptation of Holes. And I love love love The Eyre Affair by Fforde but canNOT picture it as a film!!
   
7. What is a movie that immediately after you watched it, you wish you hadn't? The Family Stone. Ick. Don't waste your time and money.
   
8. Do you read movie reviews? Before, after, never? Whose reviews do you find the best? Are you an analyzer? Not so much with the reviews anymore. Sometimes I read normal people's reviews (those who don't review for newspapers) when I know their taste is similar to mine, but otherwise, no. And yes, I'm an analyzer. The Dude and I both happened to be in the same film class in college and were even in the same discussion group in that film class, so I analyze with him.
   
9. What movie do you think is a must see, but that you can only recommend with caveats? What movie do you really like, but can only recommend with caveats? I recommend Cast Away but not for kids. (Who are you when you have no people, no possessions, no home, and no escape?) I liked Memento but don't recommend it for kids unless you've screened it first. And Harry Potter IV is definitely a part of the Harry Potter scope but really, really wish I didn't have to see the rebirth spell at the end...it was creepy!
   
10. What movie do you most wish to share with your friends? It depends on the friend, and I've struck out often enough that I don't recommend many movies to friends anymore. (Remember Time Bandits? That was a disaster!)

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    Reading Meme

    Ok, ok. I've been seeing this meme everywhere, so I'll do it too. Sheesh.

    1. One book that changed your life: I read a lot of Christian romances in high school, felt guilty about it in college, then restarted once I loosened up enough again to read what I enjoy. I just don't read crap romances anymore (email me to ask which authors I say are 1. overrated and 2. if they can get published why can't I?)...and my tastes have changed. Anyhoo, I digress...the book that changed my life was...I can't narrow it down to one. Suffice it to say that there are many Christian romances out there that are good writing and good for your spiritual life.

       Besides fiction, one nonfic book that I read that changed my life was Desiring God by John Piper.

    
    
    2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Hah! If I don't reread it I didn't like it. One I've come back to over and over...the Narnia Chronicles.
    
    
    3. One book you’d want on a desert island: Tough one. I'll go with Matthew Henry's Commentary. And if that doesn't count, I'll go with ... ack. I cannot choose. Sorry.
    
    
    4. One book that made you laugh:
    Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. I'm a grammar-phile too and just loved this one.
    
    5. One book that made you cry: Little Women. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Abhorsen (but only after I'd read Sabriel and Lirael).
    
    
    6. One book that you wish had been written: God is Sovereign in All Things: He Controls Hurricanes, Earthquakes, That Annoying Neighbor and the Bird that Just Pooped on your Car!
    
    
    7. One book that you wish had never been written: Peruse the Young Adult Fiction section in your local bookstore. Any book that has emoticons, obscenity in the title, or which has too much teen drama (!) fits in this category.
    
    
    8. One book you’re currently reading: Please Understand Me II.
    
    
    9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: Blue Like Jazz.
    
    
    10. Now tag five people: No. If you want to share, I'd love to read, but otherwise don't feel bullied. Please.
    
    

    Posted by The Newest Worker at 06:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

    August 17, 2006

    Post Ideas

    Personality theory and understanding oneself, one's friends, and one's husband.

    What I'm learning about what submission means.

    Jelly making and (hopefully) a new friend.

    Being friends and staying friends with people as they go through big life changes...moving from one stage to the next.

    How others go through stressors and learn to love their spouses better.

    How it encourages me when I learn that others really are human and fallen and struggle with the same stuff I do. (No, it's not rejoicing in evil.)

    Some of the best marriage advice I got over one year ago.

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    August 16, 2006

    Strawberry

    You Are a Strawberry Jelly Bean

    You love yourself for who you are, critics be damned! You know you don't have to take risks to make life more interesting. It's good enough as is.

    What Flavor Jelly Bean Are You?

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    As you wish

    
    
    Which Princess Bride Character are You?
    this quiz was made by mysti
    

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    August 15, 2006

    At the Lake

    Mom made everyone cute flip flops for our time together at the Lake House during the 4th. These are my feet, Mom's feet, and Sister's feet.

    
    

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    Aspens

    I love aspen trees.

    
    

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    August 14, 2006

    The Tree

    The same day. It was so very hot that day in Kansas.

    
    

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    Castle Rock, Kansas

    Here's one of the few landmarks in Western Kansas (besides "that tree" and "The Big Oak"). MotherinLaw, SisterinLaw, The Dude, and I were there just about a month ago.

    
    

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    Berthoud Pass

    It's pronounced Bertha Pass, and it is a mountain pass between Breckenridge and Fairplay. The Dude and I crossed Berthoud Pass on the last day of our honeymoon last year.

    
    

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    Many Photos

    We haven't developed photos for about a year and a half. We finally did 7 rolls at random and it's quite a variety.

    Posted by The Newest Worker at 08:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

    August 12, 2006

    About thirty degrees

    Ok, maybe twenty. That's the temperature difference between my kitchen and this office. The stove has been running all day, and guess (just guess!) what yumminess is proceeding from the kitchen!

    Canned peach pie filling! Woo hoo.

    I took about 20 pounds of peaches, peeled them, sliced them, pitted them, and cooked them in a spicy syrup, then canned them.

    I borrowed my mother-in-law's canner (because they are expensive, people!) when I was in Kansas, hauled it all the way back home, and dedided to go for it today.

    The syrup smelled so yummy, with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in it. I'm getting a little excited for fall to come so I can run the oven again (waiting for the weather to cool down so that I can feel a little less guilty about the heat in the kitchen) and come out with a piping hot peach pie.

    I can't can next weekend because the inlaws are all going to be here...most of them, at least...4 of them. And the next weekend, I'm guessing, peaches won't be in. They'll be all gone. But who knows? I've still got 4 jars to fill and a canner to use. Who knows? Maybe I will.

    Or maybe I'll do some other fruit. Plums? Can you preserve plums? How about apples? pears? berries? It's got to be a high acid food so that I can hot-pack them. I don't have a pressure canner, you know.

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    August 11, 2006

    Colorado Springs Sermon Notes

    When we were in Colorado Springs, we went to Springs Reformed Church and heard a great sermon. Wanna read the notes? Here you go!

    Sunday 16 July 2006
    David Reese
    Springs Reformed Church
    Luke 4:1-15

    Intro
    Christ was tempted in all points just as we were yet was without sin. He is the one we should look to as an example.

    I. The Spirit and Temptation. Luke 4:1

    Jesus has been anointed--ordained into his work of redemption as prophet, priest, and king. He's driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Note that the Lord is not on the defensive but on the offensive. He goes looking for the devil, into the devil's abode, to the wilderness, to take back what is already his.

    A. Power of God

    Jesus underwent his trial in the wilderness. Adam underwent his trial in paradise. Jesus was hungry. Adam lacked nothing. Jesus still succeeds and is victorious! If Jesus was able to defeat Satan when He was at His weakest, how much more will He protec us now that He's glorified? And when we were sinners He guarded us--how much more will He guard us now that we're His beloved!

    B. The Perfection of Faith

    The Holy Spirit may drive us into temptation in order to test our faith so that it will glow all the more brightly.

    C. The Son and Temptations.

    Satan is heinous, vicious, without mercy. He only wants to exploit our weaknesses. Don't forget that Satan hates us as he hated our Savior.

    II. The Temptations

    A. Food...not Faith

    Satan struck at Christ's weak spot. Exploiting human weaknesses...remembering that we are like dust. He says, "If you are the Son of God..." Since when was His Sonship ever in question? Why does the Lords need to do something to prove to Satan that He is who He says He is? That's a moot point, and remember that he's good at manipulating us by saying "if." Remember Eve in the Garden of Eden?

    Satan was trying to play Christ into choosing food over faith, to do things the earthly way rather than His Father's way. We are so often tempted to cut corners and to use less than moral means to fulfill our needs. And how is Satan defeated? By the word of the Lord. "Lean not on your own understanding."

    God sustains us, not bread. We do live on bread, but never by bread alone. God is the author and sustainer of life. He says 'You didn't have it and I will provide!' The passage Jesus quotes to refute Satan here (And Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'") is a quote from Deuteronomy, where Moses is reminding the children of Israel that they'd been freed from slavery in Egypt only to be in the desert, hungry...and the Lord invented a brand new food for the people! He can and does sustain life, even if it means inventing manna for His people. Christ Himself is manna, too, the life giver who came from heaven.

    B. Power...not Purity of Worship

    Satan tries to get Christ to depart from the Lord's long range plan. "Worship me and I'll give you the nations." Hah! It's already His and Satan has no right to offer it.

    We as a church want influence, credibility, etc. So much so that we are willing to corrupt the way we do things, corrupt even worship itself!. We struggle with the same temptation as Christ did--Christ responded by obeying God's commandment. Don't be conforming to worldly ways but do things God's way. The end does not justify the means--don't shortcut or justify means for ends. We already have been seated with Christ at the heavenly places--don't take Satan's offer of what's already ours in faith? What can he really offer? Nothing we do not already have.

    C. Miracles...not Ordinary Means

    Satan tempts Christ: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here (the pinnacle of the temple)." Christ's response: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."

    We should not long for and crave miraculous means at all times in the postaspostolic age. Worship services which emphasize extraordinary means distract us from what God calls us to: daily offering of ourselves as living sacrifices, meeting together regularly, reading and studying the Word of God, participating in the sacraments. This is the way of sanctificiation, the way of daily, mudane discipline.

    Don't tempt God. Don't test God. We don't need to draw Him into unfair testing--spectacular miracles--Gideon's fleece--but we need to have daily, ordinary means of grace. Will we trust Him to care for and provide for and protect us?

    Don't jump off a building if there's an elevator. Use the ordinary means of grace. Don't neglect them and trust God's sovereignty in providing them for us.

    Conclusions
    1. Jesus is our example.
    a. He uses the Word as a shield and sword against the enemy.
    b. When I find myself toe to toe with Satan, don't try to outquote him.
    -- He's a trickster and will use even the Word against me. Note the verse Satan uses to tempt Jesus to jump off the pinnacle of the temple: Psalm 91:11 and 91:12 ("For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.") He makes it sound like it'll be ok if he jumps but leaves out the very next verse, Psalm 91:13: "You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot." Satan leaves out the very next verse because it proves that the serpent (Satan) will be trampled by the Lord's anointed! He's a trickster and will use the Word against me.
    -- He's already defeated and I'm not going to be the one to re-defeat him. Don't get drawn into the trap of debating a truth with Satan. If I know it's true that I'm one with Christ and that Christ is victorious, then I hide in that fact rather than trying to prove it to Satan. Don't get drawn out into a battle with Satan, because I'm not going to win any better and Adam did. Christ has already won the battle.

    2. Jesus is our representative.

    Satan doesn't quote about his own defeat (because he's a trickster and will use Scripture craftily) but don't forget--Chrst tread and trampled the serpent already!

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    August 06, 2006

    Happy Camp V

    A few years ago, Mom planned a get together where all the PA relatives would gather and play lawn games. She made a scoreboard. You got a point for participating and three points for winning. At the end of the weekend, there was an awards ceremony, complete with prizes.

    So now it's Happy Camp V, and let me give you the guest list:

    Grandma and Papa, the host and hostess
    Mom and Dad
    Mom's Brother and his Wife
    Cousin #1, her Husband, and his Daughter, and a Friend of the daughter's
    Cousin #2 and her Husband
    Cousin #2's Parents-in-Law
    Me and the Dude
    Sister and my BrotherinLaw
    the cousins' mother (the ExWife) and her Husband

    whew! 20 people. Thankfully, not everyone stayed at the farm, but it was a ton of people to feed every day. It was well organized and really a lot of fun.

    The games:
    Badminton
    Croquet
    Bocce
    Yolf (yard golf)
    Sitting Duck (a bocce variation)
    Holey Board (a homemade game kind of like a carnival game...throw the washers into the holes)
    Horseshoes
    Walk to Pond
    Scattergories
    Pinochle
    Catch Phrase
    Uno
    Wienie Roast (roast your hot dog over the fire then eat it)
    Shooting the Revolver
    Many more.

    It was a lot of fun! Here's the highlight: what we used for the Shooting Target. First let me say that the theme of Happy Camp is the Happy Face. We decorated using him as the theme. And so we had a little bit of a Happy Face Tablecloth left over, so that was the target. You know what my mom said? "What are you smirking about? Wipe that smile off your face. Take that, Happy Boy!" It was a laugh riot, the irony of ironies, and really funny.

    I didn't win Happy Camp (duh) but I won a croquet game tonight--I even beat Dad!--and got to play more lawn games with my immediate family. That was the best.

    Tomorrow: leaving for home. Amazingly, I miss it. I hate leaving Togetherness, and I am not exactly thrilled about facing The Real World and Responsibility again, but I miss my little home.

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    August 03, 2006

    Before Happy Camp

    It's Center Hill. I've been coming here in the summer for years on end. The Dude and I had quite a few DateWeekends here. I was engaged here. I haven't been here since before I moved from Pennsylvania. And here I am again.

    I love the orchard. I love the apple tree that sits right in the curve of the lane. I love the view, both from the house in the valley and from the top of the lane. The best view is from the top of the orchard. I love this farm dearly.

    It's good to be here and to have time here before Happy Camp starts.

    Monday, Mom, Dad, and The Dude cleaned out the other tree in the front yard. When Mom was 6, her granddad didn't like how their wiffle ball playing tore up the grass, so he went to the woods, got three trees, and planted them in the yard. Now they are 50 years old! One was cut down about 7 years ago (by my parents, Sister, and me. Of course), and now there are two left. They tower over 50 feet. They hadn't been touched for years and Mom finally convinced Grandma to let her clean one tree out--prune off the bottom branches and open up the view a little. And now the third tree is cleaned out, too. We have moved the picnic table to the new Grove and have also moved the patio furniture out there. It's lovely and soothing.

    It's been a good time here. So good to be together. A good last-week of our vacation.

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