Whew!  It has been a crazy week!  My sister is getting married in less than four weeks, so the whole family has been in something of a tizzy attempting to prepare.  (Various circumstances have interfered with preparations up to this point, so we’re really just now getting started; it’s been nuts!)  Between that and first-trimester ickies (I haven’t been really sick, but I haven’t felt quite up to par, either.), please forgive me if I remain a little scarce for the next several weeks.  (Bekah’s wedding and the end of my first trimester coincide, to the day, so hopefully things will ease up a bit after that. )

In the meantime, I had a post planned ’specially for last Friday, and I completely forgot to post it because I was at Bekah’s helping get invitations ready to go out.

I have recently been reading a book called The Mindful Way Through Depression.  (It’s one of those I expected to have to do quite a bit of “seed-spitting” through – you know, keeping the good stuff and spitting out the seeds.)  One of the early sections was talking about mindfulness in general – that is, being really aware of where we are, what we’re doing, what our surroundings are, etc.  Or, to put it another way, being truly present in whatever we’re doing.  In order to illustrate how little we tend to do this, the authors described an experiment that was done to measure people’s distractibility.  On some college campus (I forget which one), the researchers had someone ask a student walking across campus for directions.  During the course of their encounter, it was arranged for two people to walk between the questioner and the individual giving directions, carrying a door.  While the door was between the two conversants, the questioner was replaced – by someone of a completely different size, with different clothing, and a different voice.  If I remember the numbers correctly, the first time they did this experiment, only 44% of the people noticed.  The second time, only 33% noticed!  (Those numbers are at least very close, if not precisely correct.)

As my husband and I discussed the experiment, we each arrived at the same conclusion – that the reason for the lack of observation here was probably not the level of distractibility of the participants; rather, it probably reflects how much – or how little – we tend to pay attention to the people we are talking to, even when we’re willing to help them.

So let me challenge you (as I was challenged, on reading this!) to really see those you come into contact with.  Asking the cashier at the grocery store how she is, and really caring about the answer, or asking that garage sale hostess how her day has gone, can really mean a lot, because people are used to other people not paying attention.

Filed under: Spiritual Journal by Rachel
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I think this might be the first time I’ve had difficulty writing  a review because the book was too good!  lol  Really.

If you’re anything like me, you often find yourself torn between the admonition to “let go and let God” and the “take responsibility for yourself“ camps, knowing that surely there must be a balance but unable to quite find it.  The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness steps in to answer just that question: how do we balance God’s grace with our own responsibility?

The reason I have a hard time with this review is that there is so much here.  The book is simply jam-packed with teaching, to the point that I really haven’t been able to assimilate it all yet and will have to read it again – at least once.

One of the early points Bridges makes, and a critical, underlying truth throughout the book, is that “your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” This is such a simple concept, and yet it’s such an essential one to get a really solid grasp on.  Although we recognize that we are saved by grace, we often think as though we live by works, either falling into pride because we’re doing well or condemning ourselves mercilessly because we fall short.  Instead, we need to recognize, by faith, that we live every day by grace.  It is grace that equips us to do well and grace that catches us when we fall.

This essential need for God’s grace every day, and for continual reminders of the gospel that allows us to live by this grace, are the subject of the first half of the book.  This might leave the reader thinking, “what about the disciplines?  When are we going to talk about my role?” But this foundation is a necessary one.

The second half of the book talks about our responsibility in the pursuit of holiness, with one chapter devoted to each discipline, and all continually pointing back to the foundation of grace.  The primary disciplines the author addresses are probably not the ones that first come to your mind when you think of “Christian disciplines,” although those disciplines are included within some of these final chapters.  The discipline of commitment, the discipline of convictions, the discipline of choices, the discipline of watching, and the discipline of adversity are all covered.

As with Dr. Bridges’ other books, this one is biblically solid, meaty, convicting, and helpful on a practical level.

Definitely recommended!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Filed under: Book Reviews - Other, Spiritual Journal by Rachel
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Thank you all for your sweet, encouraging comments yesterday.  This morning I read something in The Discipline of Grace that I found encouraging in the context of yesterday’s post.  The author was writing about Scripture memorization, in particular, but I think it applies to homemaking, as well.

The truth is, however, all forms of discipline require work and are often discouraging.  But the person who perseveres in any discipline, despite the hard work and discouraging times, reaps the reward the discipline is intended to produce.

I never really thought of homemaking as a “discipline” before, but isn’t it?  Doing what you know to be right, on an ongoing basis, even when it requires a concerted effort, is discipline, is it not?  And disciplines eventually produce fruit, even though they, themselves, are not the fruit.

Filed under: Family and Femininity, Spiritual Journal by Rachel
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Hypocrisy in the church is so frustrating.  It makes the whole church look bad to unbelievers, tainting the name of Christ.  And it makes it much harder for those who are really trying, to live Christlike.  (Our greatest persecution has always come from those who claim the name of Christ.)

This frustrated Jesus, too.  He called the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs.”  Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t see a whole lot of whitewashed anything anymore.  Whitewash is just not something we use a lot nowadays.  So how ’bout this example, for the purpose of modernization: being a hypocrite is kind of like using some kind of acne treatment – like Phisoderm or something – while you’re continually consuming a cruddy diet and not drinking any water to keep your system cleaned out.  The acne wash can only do so much.  It may clear up the outer layers of skin, and make you look good – on the outside.  That’s not a bad thing!  But it isn’t enough.  Because the inside is still full of junk, the moment you stop using the acne treatment, you’re going to be right back to where you started.  You have to clean the inside first.  Then, slowly but surely, the outside will follow.  And anything you do to clean up the outside will be far more effective.  I think I’d far rather have living water flowing through the inside than some spiritual Phisoderm on the outside!

Filed under: Spiritual Journal, The Church by Rachel
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from The Discipline of Grace, by Jerry Bridges:

“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.  And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”

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