Sky Gaze Fam

                                        These are some quotes I snatched: These 2 from Old Man and the Sea It is better to be lucky, but I would rather be exact. Then, when you are lucky you are ready. Exacting if less exact. This from Wendell Berry's Men and Women in Search of Common Ground The danger in the phrase "common ground" is that it is likely to be meant as no more than a metaphor... if we use the term only as a metaphor, then our thinking will not be robustly circumstantial and historical, as it needs to be, but only a weak, clear broth of ideas and feelings. https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/060-08-12.pdf

Went to sleep last night in silence with Jess. Went to sleep feeling hurt... again. But if I am reflective I can observe how my sensitivities combined with my approach make for a defensive or aggressive posture on the part of others. Adding in that she has a general inability to communicate in a "soft word", it makes for the perfect recipe of dis-ease. I'm really enjoying the Wendell Berry book that Jamin lent me. I pulled 3 passages from the  Two Economies essay: A similar purpose was served by the institution of the Sabbath, when, by not working, the Israelites were meant to see the limited efficacy of their work and thus to understand their dependence. This above hit me, because I often think about Sabbath and rest in terms of restoration, but not in terms of our finitude. As limited beings, we need to "plug into" the Source. That is, if we are ever to arrive at our true capabilities, our capacity (which in Christ is pretty far out there!) He is pre...

Yesterday Jess and I talked about our church. She told me that in the next few weeks she was going to visit Memphis Tabernacle down the road. The part she needed our church to be, in sermons, in actuality, was just a small slice of what it actually was. I reminded her of the friendships she had at the church, to which she responded, "not enough". There was a moment during the sermon where I understood what my wife was talking about. At the end. To finish and send us off, the pastor asked us, "do you have a God who is big enough to be with you in the prison seasons?" And that's where he left it. I thought an emphatic "YES!" would have made all of the difference. Right now I'm listening to Tony Dungy's Mentor Leadership and I'm nearing the end in Methods, for which he has 7 E's to describe. Dungy is most emphatic that encouragement is a non-negotiable for the mentor leader. I really like the quote he uses to open up the section as w...

Yesterday I was irritable at times, conflicted. I wanted to spend less time on the road, more time hanging out with friends. I wanted to Jess to come home so that I didn't have to watch Sadie alone. I wanted to go in and watch Disney shorts with Jess and Sadie, but instead I worked. With each venture, there was pressure from something else pushing on the thing that I was doing at the time. Friend time was pushing in on driving time, Jess not being home was pushing in on family time, work was pushing in on family time. Here's the thing. Jess got to go to Arlington to check about a muraling job. We got to spend time with our worship team friends and eat amazing food with Sadie in attendance. Jess got to get a haircut, and I got to spend some one-on-one time with Sadie, where I learned that some of the things that we do in one-on-one time she remembers, and likes to do with just daddy. I got a chance to complete some work so that it's not put off and overwhelming the next ...

There is a modern tendency to seek out just "why are we special?" We have to know that we are, that we are unique and better at  something than everyone else. Life becomes unbearable if we are not at least a hidden talent, an undiscovered jewel. It's the way of the world, the way idol of influencers. We seek guides so that our hearts can worship and despise them. We love their masterfulness, we hate that it is not us. If we are not tamed, if we do not come to grips with who we are, if humility does not rule us, we become overruled by the way of the world, unruly. Whatever seems best wins, which becomes the thing most useful to us. In 2 Cor, Paul drops on the Corinthian church a little gem. Of course, I feel like the churches in American cities very much are the Corinthian church, so this gem is one that I want to polish and look at a little more clearly. Or maybe I should rather prefer to leave the dirty bits on the gem, then I might understand the message better: ...