Good, True, Beautiful: Week 11

To Read: Articles

When You Make Your Bed In Hell // Andrea G Burke // “…when I had followed the path that gave me the most earthly freedom and joy and I realized it was all dust in my mouth and moths in my heart, He was still there. In fact, when I made my bed in hell, He was there.”

The Words We Speak But Never Say // Carter Moore // “The images are somewhat of a documentary experience detailing the events following his passing, a reflection on suicide, and how words affect us, whether spoken or unspoken.”

My Hope as a Parent Is Something I Share with My Birth Mother // Michael Wear // “As Daphne observes in Lydia Kiesling’s novel The Golden State, “to have a child is to court loss.” In relationships, we often extract promises, seeking assurances in spite of the known human propensity for falling short. But what joy there can be in hope fulfilled, a promise kept.”

Twelve Rules For The Bookish Life // Doug Sikkema // “Books should never be a fire exit from the slow burn of a humdrum existence. Rather, they should provide a “momentary stay against confusion,” helping you return to the real world empowered to reimagine your particular place there”

Sarah And The Boys // Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3 // Sarah, her husband, and sons are friends, part of our same church family, and hosts of our weekly group from church. We’ve been sharing meals and laughs and times of studying and praying togerther, at their home, for a while. These posts are centered around their travel experiences. They are rich with life and wisdom, just like their family.

To Read: Books

Madeleine L’Engle — Two-Part Intervention // It’s taken me over a year and a half to read three of the four memoir-style Crosswicks Journals.

This most recent one made it feel even more as though like Madeleine a friend. This is due to her stripped-down yet vivid documentation of stories, thoughts, and events throughout life (here, centering her marriage with Hugh Franklin.)

She is revealed to be a determined, imaginative, hardworking, hilarious, gracious, and fiercely loyal woman. Her marriage is revealed to be one oozing with life. By the time she chronicles her husband’s death at the end, my emotions were right there with her.

To Watch

Anatomy Of A Scene — How ‘Apollo 11’ Gives the Moon Landing New Life // What a fascinating and wild concept for a film. Wishing we could have had an IMAX showing available in Missouri.

Date Night // Next in the series of Rom-Coms-Jakob-Is-Introducing-To-Haley, we have Date Night. I will never have enough of Steve Carell.

To Listen: Music

(WOW, was there some beautiful magic I put on repeat this week.)

Josh Gauton — O, Peace 

Awakening (single) — Amanda Lindsey Cook

Heath McNease — Be Clean Again

Jetty Rae — Stardust

To Listen: Audio

Anthony Bradley — Christian Personalism // This video was seared into me after first listening to it over a year ago. It deserves periodic, recurring listens.

To Make

Roasted Garlic-Herb Vegetables

Tuna + Avocado (With Carrots Sticks Or Tortilla Chips)

Spring Seedling Magic

To Cultivate

Family Love For (Camaraderie With) Local Churches // After a couple snow days cancelling our church gathering, we finally had D’Markus Thomas-Brown guest preach for our black history month series. What a good thing to lock arms, and invite over, and pray with other churches in the same city.

Hope and Expectation — Of New Life, Of Resurrection // This comes with discipline, oddly enough. It does not come organically.

This first Sunday during Lent, it was glaringly bright — and warm (in the crisp, post-winter sense). I listened through all of the music listed above, and enjoyed a sense of spring newness coming. Seeds and soil were bought. A stack of pots were found. The scooping and filling, the scattering and watering were completed. Sunshine and dirt were felt. Planting instructions were kinda followed. (Thanks to my sister for the gardening kit she got us for a wedding gift. It lay dormant for a while, and yet I was thrilled to use it after all these frigid months.)

A thrill of hope for new sprouts. A sense of expectation for lively beauty.

It’s a gift that we are also in the season historically set aside by Christians to practice the disciplines of fasting, prayer, and generosity in a time of preparation. We prepare our hearts and tastebuds in the darkness of Lent for the newness, the feasting, the unfathomable joys of Easter resurrection.

*Read this simple and helpful guide along with me? I’m learning how to best make ready my heart and tastebuds, as well. This book has been a perfect primer so far.

Kindness Toward Strangers // This question garnered so many breathtaking responses. Let’s get creative and generous with our kindness, folks. — What’s the kindest thing a stranger has done or said to you?