Lent 2022, Day 3


From today’s Bible in One Year (BiOY) commentary: 


We live in a society of instant gratification. Instant meals. Instant messaging. Instant cash. Instant loans. Instant fake tans. Instant fortunes won. There is a great danger of short-termism. The passages for today remind us that God is the ‘everlasting God’ (Isaiah 40:28). God views things through a wide-angled lens: he takes a long view and he wants you to enjoy a lifetime of his favour (Psalm 30:5).


Libby is neither a short-term commitment, nor a short-term project—no quick fixes here. We have to take the long view with her, which has turned out to be a gift—and also a promise. She is safe, we will not abandon her, and we will always, always come back. That’s a good starting point. The manners will come. 


I told Libby all of these things this morning as Ken and I headed out for about a week, to visit our son, see my mom, and celebrate our anniversary. Not sure if Libby understood, but I felt better. She will have a fun time with our energetic and kind young dog-sitter, and I will get to step away from the intensity of all dogs, all the time.  It’ll be good for both of us. We’ve got time. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Concert Mom

The stage lit up in a way I found overwhelming.  The crowd cheered and I listened to the music and was moved but didn’t know why.  Kids sang along, angrily, ecstatically, and I stood in their midst, tears streaming down my middle-aged face.  I found myself once again in the sacred role of witness and testifier. Four years prior, the first concert not-of-my-choosing that I chose to attend with my daughter was some metal band. I don’t remember who but I remember the night vividly.  It was a classic-to-the-point-of-cliché mother-daughter battle:  she was 14 and NEEDED to see this band, would simply die if she did not.  Her Catholic-school friends were supremely uninterested in seeing this band, so her reasonable, modest proposal was that she, at 14, attend a gritty concert in a gritty part of San Francisco, solo.  I was not 14, and I would simply die if she went alone (I might actually have used the words “over my dead body”).  Impasse. We were i...
Read more

Lent 2022, Good Friday

Image
I’m finding it so interesting to learn how different traditions refer to this day, and also why, in my own tradition, this dark day is referred to as “good.” “Good,” in this case of course means “pious” or “holy,” not the more common, lighter meaning of the word. In other traditions, this day is called “Friday of Preparation,” “Mourning Friday,” “Silent Friday,” and “Long Friday.” “Long Friday” certainly resonates with me ... it seems we’ve been waiting for so much, for so long. It makes me think of the famous sermon of African-American pastor and Civil Rights activist, Shadrach Meschach Lockridge, in which he repeats over and over, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!” A link is below. It’s a comforting and moving reminder that there will be resolution of all of this tension and fear. Sunday is coming. I'm going to give Libby a much-needed day off today and bring Feynman into the conversation.  This is a photo that the volunteers at the shelter in Beijing sent me while we were ...
Read more

Lent 2022, Spy Wednesday

Image
Having grown up in a non-litur gical tradition, the various movements of Holy Week are pretty new to me. It makes me sad that I’ve missed out on such depth and rich history. And cool names! Spy Wednesday ... wow. Of course, the “spy” of “Spy Wednesday” is no laughing matter: none other than that great villain of Scripture, Judas Iscariot. The one who betrayed his friend with a kiss. That guy. My friend  @d.a.v.i.d.n.y.c  once taught a class on Judas Iscariot. It was fascinating to learn that the Gospels that were written closer to the actual historical events reported the story of Jesus’ betrayal very matter-of-factly. Only in the later Gospels does Judas start to become the caricature we know and hate. In Mark (written c. AD 66-70) the story of the betrayal is presented in a “just the facts, ma’am” manner. In Matthew (written c. AD 85-90) we get the facts of the story, along with the heart-wrenching moment when Jesus calls Judas his friend, even as he’s being betrayed. In Luk...
Read more