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!