Good Read: Forgiveness in Betrayal

Through my involvement with a Burundian refugee family, I have come to know Febbie, a native of Rwanda who translates for us. Febbie loves books, and we have exchanged many books over the past few months. She recently gave me a copy of Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza. The subtitle is "Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust." I read it last week on a six-hour bus ride to Cincinnati.

It was a painful, exhilarating read. Fear, betrayal, hiding from death, piles of rotting corpses in the streets, friends and neighbors turned incomprehensibly to enemies--and yet God. Hypocrisy, mistrust, loneliness, mind-numbing isolation, starvation, lice, bottomless and heart-rending grief--and yet God. And yet God.

This is a book about reality. It touches on the essence of what it means to be human in this broken world and to meet God.

Read it, if you have a chance.

Prayer: Being Led

This morning, at the end of the worship service, I went to the front of the sanctuary (I like that word) to stand with a friend and offer prayer for anyone who needed or wanted it. Because there is another presence there as well—God—it is often a soul-satisfying or enriching experience for all of us who are praying. But relying on the Spirit’s direction in prayer means that at times we move into uncharted waters. It can be like stepping into a river together and swimming across through sometimes turbulent water. At the end of the prayer, we all emerge, dripping, on the other side.

The act of such prayer itself is a mystery. After the person describes his or her need in a few sentences, we take each other’s hands and plunge in. Sometimes I ask a few questions for clarification, so as not to pray for the wrong thing entirely. But I always enter prayer with the awareness that my knowledge is partial. And that even the knowledge of the person asking for prayer is partial. Who can know the deep places of the heart? So it is not always clear at the outset what we should be asking God for.

This morning a woman asked for prayer regarding a matter that she wished to keep personal. She gave just a few words of description as to her need, but these were very general--yet she was bringing to prayer a very specific struggle, a specific event in her life that she felt needed healing and straightening.

Then we began to pray. Into my mind came specific things to say, specific things to ask. They arose out of my own heart and experience but also, seemingly, out of another place. As I was praying, part of me was saying, "Whoa! don't you think she'll be a little offended by this?" Another part said, "Keep going. Have courage. Have faith."

Afterward she expressed surprise that she had received insight during the prayer into things that she did not understand before. We talked about how in the very act of praying, we feel moved to ask for things we don't understand or comprehend.

As I write this, a passage from Romans 8 comes to mind:

The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

It happens now that I trust the Spirit's voice, trust the push and pull of the current as we pray together. I trust the heart of God that groans for us, deeper than words. Walking with someone into the river of prayer is an exceptional privilege. It gets close to the meaning of life.

Good Recipe: Leftover Rice

We eat a lot of rice in our home, hosting Arab and Asian students as we do. Costco has provided a boost by offering big sacks of organic short-grain brown rice at an amazing price. Our students are a little wary of the brown rice thing, but I have learned to cook it a day or so ahead, cool it in the refrigerator so that the grains are separate and not sticky, then reheat it just before dinner--to rave reviews. I believe this recipe originated in the Philippines. I use organic brown rice, but you can use any kind, as long as it's not sticky or gooey (thus the need for cooling and using the next day, when the grains dry out a bit). You can use any amount, a little or a lot. Very quick, very fragrant.

Recipe:

1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1-4 cups leftover rice
1-3 cloves of garlic, crushed

Heat oil in heavy-bottomed skillet or pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the rice and stir for 1-2 minutes until rice is heated through. Clear out a space in the middle of the pan and add one more Tbsp of oil, then quickly add the crushed garlic and stir it in the oil until it's fragrant, about 5-10 seconds. Stir the garlic into the rice, mixing well. Serve hot.

Good Read: Old Words

Writers like words. I want to know where words come from, how they got their birth, where they might have died or gotten lost. Archaic words are mysteries and puzzles, and hint at times lost far back in the mist of history. Take, for example, the word kissing-crust, which specifies the part of a loaf's crust that gets stuck to the loaf next to it as it bakes in the oven. Most children today have never seen a kissing-crust.

If you share this interest in words, try to get your hands on a copy of A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, F.R.S. (printed in London by John Russell Smith in 1847, and recently reprinted by Gale Research Company of Detroit). Not easy to find, but try the site at bookfinder.com and see what you come up with.

You will discover lost words such as these:

scleezy (said of cloth, when the threads are irregular and uneven)
poddy (round and stout in the belly)
mercify (to pity)
quilkin (a frog)
panniers (to fill a woman's panniers, i.e. to get her with child)
widdles (very young ducks)
whantle (to fondle)

Have fun!

Prayer, Contemplation, and Action

I believe that in every age Christians need to look to the desert fathers and mothers of their day, to learn from those who have made contemplation the bedrock of their life. These contemplatives are able to offer a profound simplicity and truth to those of us whose lives are too busy, too cluttered. The early monastics spoke to their day and to us; but we have our own mystics today, and it is important to hear them as well.

Again I am drawn to Mother Teresa, a woman who suffered much and who had an astonishing simplicity of belief in Jesus. Her writings continue to challenge and deepen the way that I live out my faith in Jesus.

Here are two of her comments regarding prayer and contemplation:

Often a deep fervent look at Christ may make the most fervent prayer. "I look at Him and He looks at me" is the most perfect prayer....

Through a life of contemplation we come to realize God's constant presence and His tender love for us in the least little things of life: to be constantly available to Him, loving Him with our whole heart, whole mind, whole soul and whole strength, no matter in what form He may come to us. Jesus comes in the bodies of our poor. They are there for the finding. Jesus comes to you and me and, very often, we pass Him by.

Her first devotion was to contemplation of the Jesus who loved her. Her second was to loving Jesus in his "distressing disguise" of the poor and sick. For her, any action of ministry or service flowed out of contemplation and prayer. Prayer and contemplation were essential. She writes,

By contemplation the soul draws directly from the heart of God the graces which the active life must distribute.

She wrote this prayer for the Missionaries of Charity to pray daily before beginning their work among Calcutta's slums:

Dear Jesus,
Help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your Spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us
and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us
but only Jesus.
Stay with us
and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching
not by words, but by our example,
by the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.

Recipe: Succulent Grilled Arab Chicken

We have welcomed many Muslim students from Saudi Arabia (and other countries) into our home and enjoy getting to know more about that very insulated culture. One of the students' biggest challenges is adapting to unfamiliar food, and I work hard to find recipes that give them a "taste of home" while not completely alienating my Dutch-American husband, who loves roast beef and mashed potatoes. And hamburgers (which he now calls "beefburgers" in deference to our students). No fancy-schmancy spices or exotic cuisine for him! But everyone loves this chicken. My husband even requested it for his birthday dinner.

It has a kick and zing to it that makes an otherwise bland chicken breast very tasty. The marinade also keeps the meat from drying out. Succulent and savory--my mouth is watering right now at the thought of it! And it's extremely easy. The hardest thing is remembering to take the chicken breast out of the freezer to thaw in time.

Ingredients:

2-3 chicken breasts
Juice of 1 lemon (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (more or less, depending on "kick" desired)

Cut chicken breasts into strips about 1 1/2 inches thick. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl. Add chicken and let marinate several hours. (You can skip the lengthy marinating time, but the chicken will not be as tender and juicy.) Grill over medium heat until chicken is done and lightly browned, about 15 minutes, turning at least once. Serve hot with rice, roasted potatoes, or hot bread and a large salad.

I also use this recipe for grilled chicken kabobs. I simply cut the chicken into smaller chunks (about 1" size) and marinate as above, then thread onto skewers with green pepper chunks, onions, or any other vegetable you enjoy. Then I baste the skewers with leftover marinade and broil in the oven or cook on the grill for 10 minutes or so. Serve with rice. Yum!

Good Read: George Herbert

I own a dilapidated copy of a once-lovely Victorian edition of the works of George Herbert, an English country parson and poet. Born into a noble family of ten children in 1593, Herbert was a noted scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. He took orders in the church and eventually served the parish at Bemerton for several years, beloved for his preaching and his devotion to the people in his parish. Close friend of John Donne and contemporary of Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare, he was versed in theology, philosophy, and poetry. His own poetry records with surprising honesty the struggles he had with faith and with a life of service in the church. One of the metaphysical poets, he explores truth through imagery, juxtaposition, and paradox. Many of his lines--and some entire poems--are brilliant.

Herbert died in 1632. He wrote his faith in poems to the end, mindful of his role as poet:

Of all the creatures both in sea and land,
Onely to man thou hast made known thy wayes,
And put the penne alone into his hand,
And made him Secretarie of thy praise.

The following poem, which is really about prayer, is appropriate at Advent:

The Bag

Away despair; my gracious Lord doth heare,
Though windes and waves assault my keel.
He doth preserve it; he doth steer,
Ev'n when the boat seems most to reel.
Storms are the triumph of his art:
Well may he close his eyes, but not his heart.

Hast thou not heard, that my Lord Jesus di'd?
Then let me tell thee a strange storie.
The God of power, as he did ride
In his majestick robes of glorie,
Resolv'd to light; and so one day
He did descend, undressing all the way.

The starres his tire of light and rings obtain'd,
The cloud his bowe, the fire his spear,
The sky his azure mantle gain'd.
And when they ask'd, what he would wear;
He smil'd, and said as he did go,
He had new clothes a making here below.

When he was come as travellers are wont,
He did repair unto an inne.
Both then, and after, many a brunt
He did endure to cancell sinne:
And having giv'n the rest before,
Here he gave up his life to pay our score.

But as he was returning, there came one
That ran upon him with a spear.
He, who came hither all alone,
Bringing nor man, nor arms, nor fear,
Receiv'd the blow upon his side,
And straight he turned, and to his brethren cry'd,

If ye have any thing to send or write
(I have no bag, but here is room)
Unto my father's hands and sight
(Beleeve me) it shall safely come.
That I shall minde, what you impart;
Look, you may put it very neare my heart.

Or if hereafter any of my friends
Will use me in this kind, the doore,
Shall still be open; what he sends
I will present, and somewhat more,
Not to his hurt. Sighs will convey
Anything to me. Heark despair, away.