Kyriosity2

Annie Winham

2010-03-09T11:43:00.000-05:00

Sisypha

2010-03-07T08:15:00.003-05:00

Today's mythology lesson, boys and girls, is about the little-known character Sisypha (younger sister of the more popular Sisyphus), whom the gods punished by assigning her the task of perpetual dish washing. She was forced to wash dishes till she was sure she'd done them all...only to walk out of the kitchen and discover a bowl or a plate, a fork or a spoon, sitting forgotten in some other room. And there was always another one there each time she left the kitchen, no matter how carefully she'd checked the last time. Finally, after centuries had passed, everybody stopped believing in the Greek gods, and Sisypha, much to her relief, ceased to have existed.

Ten Years Ago Yesterday

2010-03-07T06:21:00.003-05:00

On March 6, 2000, I was writing a post for the now-defunct Renewing Your Mind discussion forum on "Why I am Not a Calvinist." I was gonna show 'em, I was, why this predestination bizniss was all a bunch of hooey. And by gum, I was even going to open my Bible to prove it! Well, you might imagine what happened next. It's dangerous to play with sharp objects. When I opened my Bible, my argument got its head lopped off.

I found myself in Exodus 33:

Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."

And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

It struck me that God's predestining privilege was tied up in His own proclamation of His glory. I'd been convinced that the notion made God less glorious, but I couldn't explain this one away. "Oh, all right," was my attitude. "I'll swallow the TULIP bulb, but I'm not going to be happy about it!"

A couple weeks earlier, Mark Cary had started teaching through Ephesians on Sunday nights at CCF (Chapelgate's now-defunct singles ministry). I was miserable about it when he started, knowing that the first chapter was all about predestination.

I had signed up to do special music for one night early in that series, when he was still in the first chapter. My crankiness dissipated pretty quickly, because I wrote this song for the occasion. Here's a quick, one-take recording.

If I were writing it today, the tune would be much more upbeat, but at the time it reflected the quietness of a spirit that had finally stopped arguing with its Maker. The first time I posted the lyrics, Jamie Soles asked me if he could write a tune for it. I was a little too attached to it then to let him, but I'd probably say yes now.

Well, I'd better get moving and get ready to go worship the God whose once-despised sovereignty has become a delight to me!

Blog Par-tay at Femina!

2010-03-02T07:45:00.002-05:00

The Femina girls (Nancy, Heather, Bekah and Rachel) are throwing a blog party. So far about 80 readers have posted links to their online homes (or just introduced themselves). Here are a few:

Crystal shares her seamstressing and etsying adventures at Arrayed and Adorned. She's got a couple recent posts on baptismal outfits that are particularly fun.
Teri writes about her family (including her almost-five "paisley-eyed baby," her somewhat older pets, and a post on how to care for curly hair -- a mysterious topic for ol' spaghetti-headed me) at This Is Now.
Linda's psychedelically cheerful blog, Searching for Sunshine, invites readers into the rooms of her home as she shares wisdom gleaned from 22 years of marriage and mothering.

Emergency Planning, Kyriosity Style

2010-02-24T19:57:00.003-05:00

If you are planning to get your vehicle stuck in the snow, and then, when you've almost managed to get it out of the snow, to get it stuck quite inextricably in the mud, Kyriosity recommends that you take the following measures:

1. Have a AAA membership.
2. And a cell phone.
3a. Visit the ladies room last thing before you leave the office...
3b. ...or forget to drink water all day.
4. On the preceding day, decide you are tired with the radio station you've been listening to, and grab your iPod on the way out the door.
5. Have it loaded with a nice audio version of Pride and Prejudice.
6. Have your crocheting basket in the car.

You may imagine how smug I felt last Friday evening when I had followed my own sage counsel in these matters. The only point on which I do not reflect with complete satisfaction is that I chose option 3b, which is somewhat inferior to 3a. But, on the whole, I think I did remarkably well. AAA's initial 90-minute prediction turned into a wait nearer two and a half hours, but being so well provisioned, I hardly minded. The car was warm enough, and I was deliciously occupied with good listening and busy hands, and the time flew by with little cause for impatience. Ain't I a clever girl?

Don't Gimme No Lip!

2010-01-20T20:50:00.001-05:00

Dear cake stand manufacturers,

Putting a lip on a cake stand makes it difficult to cut and serve the cake. Knock it off.

Regards,

~Valerie

Who Would Do Such a Thing?

2010-01-08T21:22:00.002-05:00

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-03T22:23:00.003-05:00

Besides using the prayer guide (mentioned below), I have two other resolutions this year:

No complaining in my Facebook status. All status updates must express gratitude, blessedness, joy, and the like. This little discipline addresses two birds with one stone: ingratitude and unedifying speech.
Curtail my use of exclamation points and emoticons. Again, an attempt at monolithic biavicide: bad writing and undisciplined emotionalism.

Help Me Arrange My Wall

2010-01-01T23:23:00.002-05:00

Which arrangement do you like best? Or do you hate them all and think I should either start from scratch or not try to cram so many pieces into such a small space?

(Click for larger image.)

Bedspread in Situ

2010-01-01T10:06:00.003-05:00

Here's the completed bedspread on mom's bed. (Click on photo to view larger.) I also made the afghan at the foot of the bed about 20 years ago (well...started it 20 years ago and finished it probably 10 years ago).

I was a little disappointed in the size. I went by the pattern, but I should have actually measured a bedspread and adjusted for reality. I'd have liked it to be one row of squares wider and one row longer. But no, I won't be going back to fix it!

At Thanksgiving Mom asked my cousin's husband, Herb, who has been a volunteer firefighter for decades, if he would tell her how to use a fire extinguisher if the need arose. Herb replied, "Here's how: First, grab the fire extinguisher...and then get the hell out of the house, because this place would go up like a tinderbox." (It's an all-wood farmhouse dating to the 18th century.) I insisted that she had to grab the bedspread, too, and we all agreed that she should also grab all the money she has stuffed under the mattress.* The bedspread would, of course, be a convenient way to carry it.

*Note to would-be thieves: My mother is poor as a church mouse, and hasn't really got a cent stashed under the mattress or anyplace else.

Prayer Guide

2010-01-01T01:35:00.002-05:00

This time last year I was intending to settling into the habit of using a personal prayer guide I'd constructed out of selections from Scripture, the Book of Common Prayer, other sources, and my own head. I wrote about it here. The basic format is a selection of prayers for each day based on the acronym ARTIST:

Adoration (praising God for who He is)
Repentance (confessing my sin and receiving His forgiveness)
Thanksgiving (acknowledging what God has done)
Intercession (requests for others)
Supplication (requests for myself)
Trust (confidently committing my prayers to God)

Some sections are different each day, and others I've repeated. It just didn't work out for me to use the guide in 2009 because my mental approach to it made it too cumbersome, but I think I can turn down the cerebral noise enough to give it another whack in 2010.

In case the resource might be of use to anyone else, I've created a version that you can download and personalize for your own use. My copy's prettier, but you probably don't have my font selection, so you'll have to settle for Times New Roman. Or switch to another font of your liking if you're pretty confident with formatting in Word (there's tricky stuff like column breaks and character spacing tweakage you'll need to look out for). I left a blank bulleted list in the Intercession section of each day for you to fill in the names of family members, friends, church members, missionaries, ministries, etc. And you'll probably want to adjust the Supplication section to your own needs, as it's is pretty personalized to mine. I just wanted to give mine as an example.

Feedback would be welcome from anyone who uses or just peruses the prayer guide. I'm sure it's not perfect, and I'm sure I'll continue to work on improving it.

Heroes

2009-12-19T22:45:00.002-05:00

I watched the first couple episodes of "Heroes" tonight. I suppose it's a common wish of people to have some special power that could somehow save the world. Well, in Christ, we do. In Christ we have the power to resist sin. Every sin is like that pebble in the water, sending out a ripple effect of destructiveness. The effect may be invisible, something we're never even aware of. Or it may be dramatically clear, like the results of Achan's sin. Every resistance of sin averts disaster and strikes a blow for peace, justice, and the kingdom's way. Be a hero: obey God.

Why I Can't Bring Myself to Charge My Friends for Editing

2009-11-14T21:12:00.003-05:00

I have been blessed with the privilege and pleasure of editing a friend's doctoral project. As I just noted in a sidebar comment, "This is the price of my editing -- you have to put up with my occasional editorializing!" A few paragraphs later, I corrected a usage issue and gave the following explanation for the change:

Rule of thumb: Whenever you use the word "comprise," make sure the word "envelop" would fit in the same context (even though it wouldn't be the right word). You would never say that something "is enveloped of" several other things. Just so, you shouldn't say something "is comprised of" several other things. "Comprised" is not a synonym for "composed." That said, you can probably find any number of modern usage references that allow such a construction, but they are all descriptivist, postmodern tools of the devil, so just trust me, instead. ;-)

How stinkin' much fun can one editrix possibly have, I ask you?

Three-Armed Pete

2009-11-08T06:28:00.002-05:00

Many, many moons ago, my mother and Miss Gloria got matching paint-by-number Last Supper kits and completed them together. The paintings hung in their dining rooms for decades. Somewhere along the way, I noticed that the numberer of this particular kit had made a mistake. St. Peter is fourth from the left, the one with the long knife (remember his missing Jesus' point about swords and lopping off the servant's ear). I don't know which Apostle is third from the left, but I know that one of his sleeves is blue -- the same color as Peter's robe -- when it ought to be dark green to match his own robe. I decided that it made Peter look as if he had three arms. Miss Gloria's copy had the same mistake, and here it is preserved at the Paint by Numbers Museum in someone else's execution of the kit. We finally put the painting in a yard sale. I hope someone else is now enjoying the kitsch and Three-Armed Pete!

What a Day!

2009-11-01T22:32:00.002-05:00

I'm enjoying the last few sips of another glorious Sabbath. Not that I couldn't be guzzling, my cup has been overflowing like a fire hydrant all day, but I am sated with blessings.

First, that wonderful extra hour at the end of DST. Could we arrange to get an extra hour every Sunday morning? You can be sure I did not squander that time on frivolities. A significant portion of it was spent giving my eyebrows a long-overdue plucking.

Second, five new households -- a total of 19 individuals -- joined our congregation this morning. Pastor Knecht always chooses a verse with which to bless each one, so we got 19 verses and 19 prayers. I was blubbering.

Third, one of those households had six kids that all got baptized. I was blubbering.

Fourth, we had a wonderful (if somewhat curtailed...I think he was worried about how much time receiving the new members had taken) sermon on being welcoming people. I've been preparing to lead a study on chapter 2 of Steve Wilkins' Face to Face, "Characteristics of a True Friend," and the message this morning was a wonderful supplement to my thinking on the topic.

Fifth, we've recently started singing during communion, but no way was I going to glue my eyes to a hymnal page. I was craning my neck to watch those newly baptized kids get the supper for the first time. I was blubbering. (Do we sense a theme here?)

Sixth, although the Reformation Day party rain date was also rained out, the Ts still had a few folks over -- a family that had come from out of state, a couple families from other churches who hadn't gotten the cancellation message, and some chick who thinks she lives there on Sundays. ;-) Food was abundant and delicious, and fellowship was delightful. Of course the weather cleared up enough to be outside, but there was no way of knowing that would happen, so they made the best call they could. Ken lit the bonfire...and there was a rather dramatic explosion. Boys just never grow out of that pyromaniac stage, do they? I got my singing-around-the-campfire fix -- always one of my favorite things to do, and always extra fun when the "Von Lort Family Singers" are present.

Seventh, I LOVE the new baby afghan I started. I think just about everything I've made since I started crocheting again has been a solid color (or variegated thread, but that sorta counts as a solid since it's all one thread). This one is striped, and I had to keep stopping my work to just look at it and enjoy the emerging pattern.

Well, since seven is the number of completion, I'll stop there. Thank You, kind heavenly Father, for the bountiful and good gifts you pour out on your children!

Poem for a Rainy Saturday

2009-10-24T17:50:00.005-04:00

Once upon a weekend dreary
I determined to be cheery:
Opened up the curtains wide
To let the tepid light inside,
On the iPod played some tunes,
And scrubbed away the afternoon.
First the dishes got a washing,
Counter messes got kiboshing,
And anyone who cares to hark'll
See the floor now has a sparkle.
And as my kitchen got its shine,
Though skies did weep, I did not whine!

From the Department of It's Nice to Be Appreciated

2009-10-23T12:08:00.004-04:00

Angie's younger son produced the following for a school assignment on Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy:

A Favorite from Lewis

2009-10-14T17:44:00.004-04:00

Nancy Wilson posted this today. It was on my mind when I wrote the poem I posted this morning:

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat -- the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

Repost from 2003

2009-10-14T11:00:00.002-04:00

I've been cleaning up my archives over the past week or so, and reading through many of the nearly 2,000 posts on my blog. This one from 2003 was a happy memory -- a post with which I was then and still am particularly pleased. It's been on my mind all morning, so I figured I'd go ahead and post it so it'll stop distracting me:

A Little Ditty
I wrote this a few days ago when I was thinking about somebody or other (can't now recall who) that's a little flaky and pondering that such things didn't really matter in the long run and should be borne with much more patience and grace than I usually manage...especially since I'm flaky enough to keep Kellogg's in business for the forseeable future.
We're all a little broken,
We're all a little odd,
But the foolishest among us
May be blest and used by God,
So be patient with each brother,
with each foible, with each flaw --
If you could see what he's becoming
You would look at him with awe.
Believe in the beauty of the bride --
Though it may not seem so now,
She will soon be glorified.

Blessed Are the Hungry

2009-10-12T16:34:00.007-04:00

"A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, But to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet" (Proverbs 27:7).

The self-sufficient disdain even the sweetest blessings. But those who know their desperate need of God and trust in His kindness and wisdom to supply that need are free to receive hard providences as sweet gifts. In doing so, they do not have to pretend that wormwood is a Snickers bar -- they are free to suffer pains and grieve losses -- but they have a "second sight," or perhaps "second taste" would be more accurate, to perceive a greater, more intense pleasure beyond the bitter circumstance.

Milk and Honey Communion Bread

2009-09-21T09:17:00.004-04:00

Reposted at the request of Eleanor and Linda. I last posted this in March, and have managed not to tweak the ingredients again since then, but I've refined the directions a bit.

1 c warm milk
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 c honey
4 1/2 c bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer. (I wouldn't recommend doing this by hand -- too much honey makes it too sticky.)
Run the dough cycle.
Let rise in machine ~60 minutes.
Remove dough to a floured pizza stone (or well-floured flat pan, or silicone baking mat on a flat pan), gently shape into a round, cover, and let rise ~20-30 minutes.
Score a cross on the top (use a really sharp, non-serrated knife and let the knife do the work -- don't hack at it).
Uncover and bake at 375 degrees ~20 minutes.
Remove from oven, brush with additional 1 T butter, and leave to cool on pan (helps ensure that it's completely done).

Oh. I Suppose I Should Get Around to Mentioning....

2009-09-19T13:23:00.003-04:00

Growing

2009-09-15T19:30:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to looking up the context of one of my favorite Luther quotes:

This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road; all does not yet gleam with glory, but all is being purified.

It's from "An Argument -- In Defense of All the Articles of Dr. Martin Luther Wrongly Condemned in the Roman Bull Jesus" (The Second Article)

I've treasured that one for about two decades, and have just now bothered to ask what the "therefore" is there for.

Luther doesn't mention it, but I often connect that quote in my mind with 2 Peter 1:3-8 (one of my favorite passages, here in NIV):

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's the "in increasing measure" of the NIV that I like and have clung to lo these many years. God's not demanding that I arrive, just that I keep moving.

Funny Movie Line

2009-09-11T23:20:00.002-04:00

From "For Roseanna":

A doctor is pleading his case with a patient, complaining that no one ever pays him. The man tells him to leave the back way and take a couple of eggs.

Doctor: You owe me ten thousand eggs!
Man: Then take the chicken and bring it back when we're even!

I haven't finished watching the film, so I don't know whether it's recommendable or not, but the first eight minutes are good so far.

Lord, Give Me Patience, and I Want It Right Now!

2009-09-11T14:38:00.001-04:00

"Waiting is one of God's most powerful tools of grace. God doesn't just give us grace of for the wait. The wait itself is a gift of grace. You see, waiting is not only about what you will receive at the end of the wait. Waiting is about what you will become as you wait."

--Broken-Down House, Paul David Tripp, p. 117

(HT Mike L.)