In Gennesaret

A friend of mine recently put her own birthdate on her son’s passport application by accident. A small, understandable error in the midst of the craziness that is a sudden, stressful, quickly organized move of a family of five to another country. But it had the potential of really messing up their plans, and she was, as you might imagine, quite distraught by it. During my daughter’s recent visit here, she had a car accident. She’s a good driver (she’s probably a better driver than I am). This was actually her first accident after nine years of driving. There were extenuating circumstances: it was pouring down rain, she was in a new car where she wasn’t yet familiar with the feel of the brakes, PLUS she was suffering a migraine. But the real kicker? We had yet to get her insurance adjusted for the new car, so the accident wasn’t covered. A brief period of our not being completely on top of things led to a misstep that has been an unfortunate pain in the butt for all of us. Small mi...

Just call me Team Shmuel. I mean, Lord bless that boy. He’s a fictional character created by The Chosen to represent the Pharisaic opposition to Jesus. And as the series has progressed, I’m coming to the opinion that this character is one of the most brilliant things about the show. Yes, he’s a Pharisee. He is passionate about the law. He really frustrates us at the beginning of the story because he seems to be the stereotypical Pharisee we all have in our minds when we read the gospels. The antagonist, always in Jesus’ face and bashing him behind his back. He’s black and white with no grays, and he’s trying to bring our man down. But people, give him credit for being sincere . As the story progresses and he moves up to Jerusalem to join the Sanhedrin, he is increasingly dismayed by the politics going on there. That’s not what this man is about. Shmuel loves the Lord! Shmuel loves God’s law! Shmuel loves his people and wants to bring them back where they should be in their cove...

I’m old, people. At least I feel old some days. You know when I feel most old? When moving is hard. Moving. Not moving from one home to another. Just moving . Moving my old, stiff body. Newton codified the principle in the law of inertia: “An object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion – unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” I’m a teacher on summer vacation, and the bulk of my body in any given moment is NOT in motion. And to make it move is more of a trial than it should be. But I have made a discovery. Starting to move is hard. But that’s the hardest part. Once I’m up and going, it’s just not that bad. Yes, that’s old news. That’s Newton’s law again – once in motion, it’s easier to stay in motion. The thing is, this is something we all need to be reminded of sometimes, don’t we? After my father passed away, my uncle told me a story about him. My dad was the first in his family to go to college, and my uncle was the second. About a ...

See this picture? I’m seriously considering posting it in my classroom this fall. That’s weird on a lot of levels – one being that I am not one to do much of anything visual or decorative in my room. I'm not artistic in that way, and I simply don’t have the time or energy to mess with it. My first year of teaching, I spent a good deal of my summer making a cute little bulletin board display that I don’t remember anything about at all other than the fact that I know it wasn’t nearly as cute or meaningful as I thought it was and it took way too much of my time to create. But I’ll admit that the idea of putting up this picture in my classroom is also weird because . . . well, just because it’s weird to display a big picture of an outdated farm implement. Like, what?? Here’s how I got to this place. I wrote a post here a couple weeks ago about rest – and that I had come to the tentative conclusion that rest is the laying down of burdens. (You can read  that brilliance here.) H...

“It’s the future coming to meet us in the present.” That’s the gospel, according to N.T. Wright in the last chapter of Surprised by Hope . Sounds a bit sci-fi-ish, yes? And not at all what most of us think of as the gospel. Let’s be honest: for many of us, Christianity is primarily about where we go after we die. Getting into heaven . . . as opposed to suffering an eternity in hell. But in this challenging but rewarding tome, Wright tells me that Christianity (that is, the gospel, the Good News) is not just about the someday. It’s about things being different right now. It’s about us being different right now . That’s what the gospel promises us. Do we really believe that? But maybe here’s the more important question: do we really  want that? I dare say a lot of us don’t. Yeah, we’d love for God to fix all the problems around us, so we don't have to suffer from the sins other people commit. But boy, we love our own sins. We embrace our selfishness. Not so sure we really ...

Last week was my first week off of school. Yes, I know that’s really early compared to most of the rest of you. Don’t hate me because I have a sweet job. Last week was also the first week in several months that I did NOT drug myself to sleep any night. I decided that, now that I had no place I had to be by a certain time every day, I could afford to risk some sleepless nights in the process of detoxing my body of antidepressants and sleep medication. All to say that REST was a significant theme for my week. And all the more significant after listening (twice) to a podcast my daughter did on the topic. (The “You’re Cool With Me” podcast from FeatherTree Arts. Click here to watch that episode, or check it out wherever YOU listen to podcasts!) So, the question of the day is, what exactly qualifies as “Rest”? I think we would all agree that we require it on a regular basis, but how exactly do we define this thing that we know we need? Is it sleep? Is it merely physical inactivity? Is...

I texted a picture to some friends and asked if they knew what these little white flowers are in my yard. I got a shrug emoji from one. “Weeds?” responded another. And yes, I suppose they qualify as a weed. But then how do we define “weed”? Basically, a weed is a plant growing in our space that we don’t want, right? And I decided I want this one. I sent the picture to the mother of the boy mowing my lawn (he’s too young for a phone, bless him) and said, “This may be weird . . . but I really like these. Can Javie not mow them down this week?” And he honored my request. So, I have a few patches of these little white flowers around the periphery of my backyard – along the fence and by the house. While I was sitting outside reading (which I have more time to do now that school is out and it isn’t raining every day), I realized that they were bringing me joy. So, no, they are no longer a weed in my book. But I still didn’t know what to call them. I am NOT into plants. I mean, I lo...