Do you feel bruised?

a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,

Over a year ago, when we were feeling very bruised by circumstances outside of our control, various losses, inexplicable physical symptoms, and complete uncertainty about the future, God's good providence took us to a certain church on a certain Sunday.

In our months of looking for a new church home, we rarely visited a Sunday School class, but on this fateful providential morning we did. The scholar-pastor teacher was beginning a new series on the Puritans, and introduced us to Richard Sibbes and his book, The Bruised Reed.

Almost before we were home, Jim had downloaded the book from Amazon, and that set the tone for months and months of deep ministry by the Holy Spirit through Richard Sibbes.

An online review I found says:

Richard Sibbes writes and preaches as a man constrained and compelled by the love of Christ. He cannot know enough about Christ. For more than anything else, Christ defines his existence. And he has found Christ to be the source of everything good and needful. The Bruised Reed represents a distillation of this Christocentric world view, and in it Sibbes writes persuasively, with both tenderness and compelling urgency, betraying by his words an intimacy with the ways of God. He counsels as one who knows what it means to be broken and bruised and poor in spirit before God. His words carry with them the wisdom of one who has spent many hours at the feet of his master. He preaches as one whose sins have been forgiven, whose heart has been filled with Good News. And he speaks with the peace of one who knows what the final outcome of the battle will be. 

Read the book online here for free.   Follow along in a 9-part series here.

What books has God used to minister to you when you've passed through deep waters?

Let's talk Bible study

When you open God's Word on your own and read it, what steps do you find helpful in learning from it?  Do you journal what you learn? Do you always ask yourself the same few questions about the text? Do you look up words or use a concordance?

In addition to opening God's Word on your own and reading and learning from it, what are some good Bible studies you can recommend?  My personal favorites of the past year are the Kathleen Nielson inductive studies and Nancy Guthrie's Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament series.

And now, just for curiosity, does your church have any lay people who actually teach the Bible?  Or do lay people only facilitate Bible studies written by others?

I've noticed that DVD-based Bible studies seem to be the most popular.  Have you ever been in a DVD-based study?  What were the benefits for you?

6 months

Today marks 6 months since my surgery.

The first day, first week, and first month went really well.  From the 2.5 month mark to 5 months seemed interminable and was just. plain. HARD.

This past month has been better physically ~ partly (or maybe mostly) because I called the nurse and went in for a follow-up to figure out the root of some pain, which thankfully is mostly gone now (Here's to Metamucil!).  Obviously, in many ways, my body will never be the same. 

The emotional healing process seems harder than the physical healing process.  Thankfully I had already done a lot of grieving before surgery.  But hormones can really throw one for a loop! And being sidelined from normal activities was depressing.  Apparently I don't do waiting well.

"They" say it takes 6 months to heal 80% and a full year to get back to normal.  And a caring lady at church reinforced that to me in no uncertain terms before I had my surgery.  She was firm in warning me not to try to do too much, too.  And I'm grateful for her warnings.

I'm definitely not 100% yet, but I'd guess the 80% figure isn't too far off.  Shortly before the discovery that led to my surgery, I had started the Couch to 5K program.  Pain before surgery halted my progress.  Pain after surgery halted my starting up again.

The nurse practitioner agreed that once I'm healed, I should be able to do any exercise (well, not magically be able to do things I couldn't do before!), and that this period of holding off on strenuous exercise is just par for the course as I heal. 

So, there is much hope for healing, getting back to normal, and resuming life as I once knew it.

If you or anyone you know has to have a hysterectomy, please tell them about the HysterSisters website (it was my sanity in those early weeks post-op).  If you want any other tips about encouraging a friend who has had this surgery, I'm happy to share from my experience. 

Now, how shall I celebrate 6 months?!  :)

Hospitals, Powdered Milk, and Printers

My friend Wendy recently put into words something I experienced my entire time living overseas:

In your own country, you figure out where to buy most things over time, either from advertising, or by looking things up in the Yellow Pages, or just by experience. ... We often rely on word-of-mouth ...

Her words resonated so deeply with me that I started to write a comment on her blog post. My thoughts quickly developed into a post of their own. 


One thing I noticed in my first few months in Japan was that I couldn't identify shops or offices or hospitals by what the building looked like.  (And of course, at the beginning I couldn't read any signs ... and years later, there were still plenty of signs I couldn't read!)  So, in addition to not knowing where to buy a certain item, I couldn't even use context clues to look at the outside of a building and guess what it contained.

Hospitals 
I realized this when I found myself thinking:

They don't have hospitals in Japan. 

No, they must have hospitals in Japan. 

Hmm. I must not know what hospitals look like in Japan. 

Until I actually went to a hospital in Japan (with a friend to visit another friend), I had no idea what they looked like. 

Powdered Milk
Once, as a 2-yr missionary was giving away her pantry items in preparation for leaving Japan, she was declaring the merits of some powdered milk she had available and mentioned, "You can't buy it in Japan."

Oh, but you can!  The size of the package, the location of the package in the grocery store, and the picture on the front of the package (including the brand - and brand logo) were all different, so she never realized that she walked by powdered milk every time she was in the grocery store.

It takes a lot of humility (and patience) to ask someone about every item on your shopping list - is this available? where do you buy it? where is that store? and can you draw me a map? (since most street signs in Japan don't have names).

Printers
It works both ways.  When I came back to the U.S. for a year's assignment in 2004, I was operating on knowledge I'd had in 1999 of what would be available.  I opted not to bring my computer printer with me from Japan to the U.S.  Instead I ordered a mini-printer so that it would be waiting when I arrived.

A few months later I ran into some missionaries also on home assignment and they mentioned their all-in-one printer which could scan! and fax! and copy! as well as print!  Why hadn't anyone told me?!?!  I hadn't known about these newfangled things ... and that they were just a fraction of the cost of my micro-printer.  In fact, I hadn't even known to ask that question.  (And I'm not sure how well it would work to ask, "What do I need to know that I didn't know 4 years ago?")

The reverse happened in Japan.  A missionary had been gone for a year and returned to the same town.  She was there many months before learning that there was a huge new discount store just a few miles away.  "Why didn't anyone tell us?"

Passing on a body of knowledge is harder than it seems.  The teacher often isn't aware of what the student doesn't know.  And the student often doesn't even know what questions to ask.  

July books

A new month means new deals for booklovers!

Wendell Berry's Jayber Crow is the free audiobook of the month at Christian Audio.

Amazon's list of July Kindle deals for $3.99 and less includes:

• How to Read the Bible for all its worth  ($1.99)

• Sacred Marriage ($2.99)

• Bittersweet, by Shauna Niequist ($1.99)

• Blackaby's Experiencing God ($3.99)

• and more!

What are you looking forward to reading in July?

Someone's in the Kitchen with Fannie

Aftermath of banana bread - well worth it!

What we had for breakfast:

When the bag of rotten bananas was ready to become banana bread, I decided to look for a new recipe.  The 1231-page Fannie Farmer paperback cookbook (for which I had parted with 99 cents at a thrift store) beckoned. 

In an attempt to increase whole grains, I substituted the 2 cups flour with 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup wheat germ, and 1 cup white whole wheat flour.

A curious thing about this banana bread is that it includes no oil or butter, which must be a good thing.

Though Fannie Farmer first published her cookbook in 1896, this new edition is updated, even including sushi!

I've become so accustomed to searching online for recipe ideas, but I hope to bring Fannie into my kitchen more often.  She's basic. She explains the processes that may be new.  And she uses ingredients that were around in 1896, i.e. real, unpackaged, unprocessed food.

Have you cooked with Fannie?

I'm intrigued by this children's book:  Fannie in the Kitchen: The Whole Story from Soup to Nuts of How Fannie Farmer Invented Recipes with Precise Measurements and look forward to reading it.

1000 Gifts, Vol.4, #60

611.  time together eating dinners, playing games, celebrating, worshiping, and concert-going

612.  a perfect cool day in mid-summer with bright sunshine & a pleasant breeze

613.  the restfulness of a weekend away

614.  visiting a church we love (on said weekend away)

615.  really meditating on the soul-strengthening words of "Lead On, O King Eternal"

616.  a beautiful 1700-acre oasis in the city

617.  lawn chairs & blankets filled with concert-goers on a grassy knoll

618.  an engaging conductor & energetic music by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

619.  cousins saying "goodbyes"

620.  a new book - found & read, now ready to implement