Peace and Purpose

Reading: Ezekiel 1 Have you ever tried explaining something complicated and that you are excited about to someone who wasn’t at all interested? This is especially difficult when the person you are attempting to share with is close to you. Really, they make their best effort, but it just takes too much energy for them to keep all the intricacies of what you are talking about straight, and frankly, in spite of their love for you, they just don’t care about what you’re talking about as much as you do. This is something I often encounter when trying to discuss the internal politics of the Jedi Council with those close to me (notable exception: my sister, Martha): the groans, the glazed over eyes. Masses of detail are overwhelming, even when you want to grasp them. I can attest to this as a person who has attempted to cram a reading of the Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien’s hefty history of Middle Earth, into one weekend in order to finish a book report. The first chapter of Ezekiel, de...

Reading: Luke 8:4-15 We are beginning to see results in our garden at the Ryden house. I say “our garden” but my only real participation will be consuming the vegetables that come out of it. This is largely Brittany’s passion project and I just get to reap the benefits. But I will help out occasionally, and so it is nice to see that there are plants coming up. We have arranged our garden, which is a single raised bed, according to a pretty meticulous method called “the square foot garden” which is from a book by Mel Bartholomew. As the name suggests, this method involves literally splitting your garden into a grid and evenly spacing plants within that grid. It is very planned out and is a good way, in our experience, to make efficient use of the limited space we have.   You will notice that the sower in the parable in Luke 8 has a slightly different take on sowing seed. Much less concerned about space, the sower spreads the seed everywhere: the road, on rocky ground, among ...

Reading: Luke 5:1-11 We’re all experts in something. Whether it is related to our life experience, our education, or our training, we all gravitate toward somewhere between one and a few things that have been a particular area of interest and success for us. What is the thing that you do where people come to you about that thing for consultation? That is a good indication that you are, or at least considered to be, an expert in something. There are of course official designations for expertise through education or training, and these are important markers, especially when we are relying on others for our well-being. But whether it is biology or crossword puzzles officially documented or not, we all have our areas of expertise.   Fishing was Peter’s domain. He knew his tools, he owned his own boat, he worked with others whom he trusted. He knew the sights, sounds, and smells of fishing. He knew when to fish, as well as where to fish. He had presumably been doing this for a ...