Where I am rock let fountains pour,
Refreshing streams, reviving roar
Of life-renewing water.
Where I am flood, all-drowning seethe,
Let firm ground rise, and part the seas
Within my soul, your daughter.

Where branches rattle, fruitless, dry,
Let grow abundance, nourishing and fine.
Where I have fruit, ripe though small,
Take, squeeze, distill into pure wine.
Prune what so needs, let grow what bears;
Harvest the grain and burn the tares.
Turn revelry to repentant tears;
Exchange life's endless sorrows for long joyous years.

The last is first, the highest low.
The mighty falls; lift up the low.
The strong is wrong, and blessed is the weak;
The victory comes with the turning of the cheek.
Mountains level, valleys rise,
And crooked road is straightened where it lies.
Awake, my soul, and see this wondrous thing:
All the world is changed when the Servant is the King.

- HJ, March 20, 2011

I am; therefore I think.
I think; therefore I read,
Sometimes because I think
But sometimes because I don't want to.

I remember strange words that were spoken,
"Do you like poetry?" when we met at a bookstore.
"Yes," I answered, "do you?" with a smile.
"No," and as her head shook, my jaw dropped,
For this was my friend who sang hymns!
I know personally two people
Who have said that they do not like trees!
Then also my jaw dropped.

But I walk often among trees and my spirits are lifted.
And I read and I read, and so come home to myself again.

After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters by N.T. Wright

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is one of my continuing self-education efforts, a textbook in my ongoing interest-driven Theology course. It takes a little more mental and intellectual effort than some of the enjoyable fiction choices I make, but it has a correspondingly greater increase in benefit. I find reading well-thought-out theology, or apologetics, can help me to re-affirm my belief, and lead me to more easily make unselfish (and therefore worshipful) decisions, and do things for others.
Page 108, "a glad and unworried trust in the creator God" leads to "a glad and generous heart toward others."



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