Savvy Thinker » Prayer http://savvythinker.com thinking about life, playing with makeup Tue, 22 May 2012 15:37:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Review Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F Winner http://savvythinker.com/review-mudhouse-sabbath-by-lauren-f-winner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-mudhouse-sabbath-by-lauren-f-winner/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 14:01:07 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8416

The subtitle of the book is: an invitation to a life of spiritual discipline.

I got this book from the library, because I read a review of another of her books, so I found her as an author. I generally enjoy reading other people's faith stories. Winner's is interesting because she went from Judaism to Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, but she still feels an affinity for much of what is Judaism.

This book is a short read and fast, that incorporates some ideas about how an understanding of the spiritual practices and richness of Judaism and its traditions are valuable to the practices, prayers, and beliefs of a Christian.

Some of the things she discusses are attentive eating, supporting a marriage, marking the stages of grieving, how one looks at one's body, aging, and more. She missed some of the rhythms of Jewish life that follow the year, much like Christian liturgy does, and wanted to incorporate it into her faith life -- and share it with us. She is now an ordained in the Episcopalian church.

I especially liked her explanation of Sabbath.

Have you read any of her books? She is quite a prolific writer.
Do you have a favorite?

I rate this book 3.5 star out of 5.

Parts of it were meaty for me; others parts were not. Theologically we are not necessarily at the same place all of the time. I get a bit tired of her writing style. That hasn't stopped me from looking at one article of hers referenced and available online or from reading two other of her books these past couple of weeks, reviews to follow.

It is also available for Kindle:

Karin
www.savvythinker.com



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]]> http://savvythinker.com/review-mudhouse-sabbath-by-lauren-f-winner/feed/ 0 Review girl meets GOD a memoir by Lauren F. Winner http://savvythinker.com/review-girl-meets-god-a-memoir-by-lauren-f-winner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-girl-meets-god-a-memoir-by-lauren-f-winner/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 17:55:00 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8430
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    • ]]>

    girl meets GOD is the third book I've read by Lauren F. Winner, though it is the first that she wrote. I got it from the library.

    She organizes the book mostly around the Christian calendar -- Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide, Pentecost, Advent -- and ties it to the Jewish calendar when it applies. The first chapter is Sukkot.

    Winner is a seeker after God. She collects an impressive library of Jewish works by the time she is in her teens, then gives them away when she becomes a Christian, then re-buys many of them to re-build her library. She is earnest. It is obvious that she wants to be her best at what she believes, from her converting to Orthodox Judaism (her father was a Reform Jew)(her mother a lapsed Baptist) to her driving a couple of hours away for an Episcopal priest to hear her confessions, even though she has confessed them to God and made an effort to leave them behind.

    She is not a virgin, and she writes frankly of trying to reconcile that to church teachings (and her confessions.) Additionally, she has written an online article about sexuality (which I read) and a book (which I have no interest in reading.) Her online article was not well received by some Christians. She feels it is unlikely that people will remain celibate into their 30's, if they postpone marrying until that time.

    Because I read all three books over a relatively short time, with a lot of interruptions by life, the books have run on together in my thoughts. The one easiest to read was Mudhouse Sabbath (see my review here.) That one ties together the two elements of her religious life, Judaism and Christianity. It shows how having a deep understanding of Judaism permeates and enriches her Christian faith. (It did many of the early converts to Christianity also, though she doesn't mention this.)

    What drew her to Christianity?
    The long and short of it: she read extensively, to the point that her Jewish friends commented on it, that it didn't make sense to them. She had a dream. She fell in love with Jesus. I think she was drawn to the ideas of atonement, forgiveness and heaven.

    Also, the farther she drifted from Judaism, none of her Jewish friends pulled her back or encouraged her in her faith walk of Judaism.

    What happens when she converts to Christianity?
    She loses friendships in the Orthodox Jewish community. It deeply disturbs her father. Later, both her father and her mother (who are divorced) are drawn more into their own faith traditions. Her father becomes active in the synagogue, and her mother becomes active in the Episcopalian church.

    In some ways she wrote this book as an apology to her Jewish friends, and with the hope that Christians might learn something about Judaism.

    My take:
    I give it 2 stars out of 4.

    I got tired of this book, perhaps because I know what follows in her later books. It got tedious. She has been called self-indulgent. In some ways, following along with her is an emotional roller-coaster. She deals with her jealousy of a friend's marriage and pregnancy -- and more.

    As I said, she is earnest, but it's as if, to me, she is trying so hard, because she isn't exactly sure what would happen if she didn't. There comes a point at which one rests in one's faith, while not being complacent. It is who one is, not so much the outward symbols of what one does, though how one acts is definitely important.

    Have you read it?
    What did you think?

    You can find my reviews of Still: notes on a mid-faith crisis here.

    It is available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com


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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-girl-meets-god-a-memoir-by-lauren-f-winner/feed/ 0     Review STILL: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren F Winner http://savvythinker.com/review-still-notes-on-a-mid-faith-crisis-by-lauren-f-winner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-still-notes-on-a-mid-faith-crisis-by-lauren-f-winner/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 15:47:52 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8421
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    This is the book that started me reading books by Lauren F. Winner, when I read a review of the book. It sounded interesting.

    It was, and it wasn't, at least for me. Dark nights of the soul are not uncommon to those in or out of religion. It's likely proverbial that each person's dark night is dark to them, and it's not a contest to see whose is darker or what problems or grief precipitate the crisis. And there really is no satisfactory answer, in the throes of a crisis, why one is in it.

    In Mudhouse Sabbath (see my review here) Winner is looking forward to her marriage and complimentary of her husband-to-be. This book chronicles her crisis of faith when she is miserably unhappy in her marriage and decides after much prayer and unhappiness to divorce him after six years.

    She says very little about their marriage, but you can read between the lines. I had a couple of pretty good ideas.

    She does not write anything negative about her husband, but she wends her way through her own crisis. It doesn't help her, some of the things that are said to her (for example, that it is a sin for her to divorce.) Her ex-husband is well thought of and seems not to show any signs of the crisis, at least in this book.

    Her mother dies shortly before her marriage, after a long struggle with illness, and that doesn't help the beginning of her marriage.

    Her faith path
    In her short life, she has gone through moderate interest in Judaism (her father was Jewish, her mother was not), to Orthodox Judaism, to Christianity, falling in love with Jesus. Even her friends wonder if she will move past Christianity. So far, she has not. She is ordained in the Episcopal church, since this book came out. She also teaches at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina.

    It is both interesting and profound, as well as sad, that in one of her books, she chronicles one of the reasons why she left Judaism -- for one thing, no one went after her to shepherd her back, to ask her why she had stopped going to shul, or where she was physically or mentally. In this book she feels that when she couldn't pray for herself or even go to church, she felt she had friends who were praying for her.

    Additionally she says that while she converted to Orthodox Judaism (because one is considered a Jew if one's mother is, regardless of whether one's father is) in many ways it did not count -- and her then-boyfriend's mother did not accept her -- and neither fully did he, because he hoped to have large family (both sides) gatherings at the various important days of Judaism when he married. Ironically, he later seriously dates a girl who is not Jewish at all, so much for all that. We all wonder what his mother would think then.

    These are salient points to think about for the expression of our own faith traditions -- do we pay attention if someone disappears? do we fully accept them if they weren't born into it? do we continue to show love? what if our children are dating or marry someone not of our faith?

    What do we say to someone deep in a crisis -- and do we even care what they are going through? (Perhaps our own life is in tatters.) Caring will cover over many a mis-statement, but saying the wrong thing without love is a sure turn-off.

    In an interview with Kim Shippey, after he read the book, she told him

    that the spiritual life can be summarized as a process of meeting God again and again. “I will say that there was a season of alienation between God and me—a standoff, perhaps. Still chronicles the tail end of the standoff and the beginning of a reacquaintance. . . . I encounter God in sermon-writing. In my fear. Sometimes in silence. I know God to be present in my conversations with friends, in my classroom. In my failures. In my merrymaking and in my sorrow.” Christian Science Sentinel p 20 4-9-2012

    As she says in this book:

    “I am not a saint. I am, however, beginning to learn that I am a small character in a story that is always fundamentally about God.”


    Have you read it?     What did you think?
    Do you have a favorite of her books or articles?

    My take
    I give this book 2 stars out of 5, only because faith stories and faith crisis are an interest of mine, and having gone through some deep waters myself, I read other people's stories to see how they come out the other side. But this book seems to me to wallow more than a bit and also to whine. It doesn't help that those she goes to for spiritual comfort and advice do not give it. (Similar to many stories, actually.)

    My advice is to read the chapter at the end of the book with questions and answers, then skim through the rest of the book. That chapter gives an overview of what she learned -- the book is almost a moment by moment diary.

    It is also available for Kindle:

    You can read my review of Girl Meets God here.

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com


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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-still-notes-on-a-mid-faith-crisis-by-lauren-f-winner/feed/ 0     Review Man Seeks God by Eric Weiner http://savvythinker.com/review-man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:33:03 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8390
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    I've been on a roll lately, reading, and finding books to read at the library that lead me to other books, and I've not been good about keeping up with mentioning them on my blog, so I will make a beginning.

    I thoroughly enjoyed this book -- a sort of male version of Eat, Pray, Love, minus the love affair. I liked it so well, I asked the library to get me his first book, The Geography of Bliss (review to follow.) And I took quite a few notes so I would remember what were to me some of the more salient points.

    Since I was reading Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner at the same time, it made me wonder if this title shares some similarities. If I hadn't been reading them at the same time, I doubt I would have seen it.

    Weiner's voice is funny, ironic, self-depreciating -- and I laughed my way through a lot of it. He is a whole lot easier to read than Winner.

    He investigates: Sufism, Buddhism, the Franciscans, Raelism (in Las Vegas), Taoism, Wicca, Shamanism, and Kabahlah.

    The book starts out with a personal experience that begins when he thinks he is dying, but it is only a severe attack of gas. The nurse asks him: what is God to you? In the course of the book, he tells us that he suffers from hypochondria; he loves books, he loves to underline in his books; he suffers always from low-grade depression; and he likes to watch life and religion from a safe distance, not really as a participant. His back story is that he was raised in Judaism, but he isn't involved in it. He is more of a secular Jew. He is married with a wife and daughter, adopted from Kazakhstan. He credits his wife a lot.

    If you ever wanted an interesting overview of the particular religions he investigates, easy to read, with lot of interesting sidelines and people, this book is for you. As I said, I liked it a lot.

    I give it 4 stars out of 5.

    Have you read it, or anything else by Weiner?

    It is also available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/feed/ 0     Mean girls http://savvythinker.com/mean-girls/ http://savvythinker.com/mean-girls/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:48:55 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/2007/03/09/mean-girls/
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    Written in 2007:
    One of my girls got in the car crying yesterday. Mean girls. Mean girls. Don't know if she contributed some or not, but she is sweetly sensitive which sometimes makes you a target.

    She went off to school this morning hoping there wouldn't be a repeat.

    I told her about college girl's forays into mean girl territory when she was in high school and junior high. I told her some of what I had faced. I told her about books that have been written about this phenomena.

    And college girl came home last night for spring break so she talked to her too.

    And I asked her if there was anything she wanted me to do. Did she want me to talk to the teacher, etc?

    Meantime we had one of her friends over for play and dinner, which helped a lot. I encouraged her not to say too much as it sometimes comes back to haunt you. But this other friend said that mean girl had been really nice until she got with a couple of other girls.

    Well, you know how you don't think of things to say in the moment, but maybe years later.

    I got to laughing with college girl and her, and I said, laughing, you should have asked her if she had a kleenex.

    Why? said younger girl.

    I said, because then you could say because she was being a snot!

    My bad.

    So far as I know, this is original to me. When telling a friend and her 20ish daughter, her daughter thought it was funny and clever.

    I also told my girl not to really say this, but if she thought it in her mind, it might help her laugh about it some.

    She mentioned that to me in the car this morning.

    Two movies my girls love are Mean Girls and 13 Going On 30 . We talked about them too.

    They know the concept of mean girls, but it's different bearing the brunt of it.

    Have you had successes with overcoming mean girl syndrome?

    Written in 2012:
    The ultimate mean girls-grown-up show on TV now is GCB, based on the book Good Christian Bitches, which we are thoroughly enjoying. It is both funny and touching -- and over the top and a spoof in many ways. Amanda was the ultimate mean girl in high school, but she has now changed and is back in Dallas, but the three women who still are in Dallas don't realize it. Each actor and actress are skilled comedic players, with perfect timing.

    Carleen is played by Kristin Chenowith. Amanda's mother, Gigi, is played by Annie Potts. (This is especially funny to me, because that is what my grandkids call me -- name chosen by my son and daughter-in-law.) I love Cricket and Blake. What I've found is that all the characters have love for each other -- you have to wait until the last 5 minutes of every show, because there is usually a surprise. And there's always some singing, usually in the church choir.

    Here's Annie Potts on the View:

    Karin

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    Originally posted 2007-03-09 12:19:49.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/mean-girls/feed/ 2     Beading: Grace Notes of Happiness http://savvythinker.com/beading-grace-notes-of-happiness/ http://savvythinker.com/beading-grace-notes-of-happiness/#comments Sun, 01 Apr 2012 18:45:10 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/2007/04/20/beading-again/
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    I haven't done any beading in a month or so. Life just gets in the way and moreso over the last few weeks than usually.

    But I came across a quote that I felt I wanted front and center right now:

    ...grace notes of happiness. Alexandra Stoddard

    So after an appointment yesterday that took me into the neck of the woods of one of our beading stores, I dropped in and picked up small sterling silver block letters. Between the words I put Capri blue Swarovski crystals nestled between the little square shaped pave on all four sides crystals, and at the back to make it fit, a few more of the blue and a larger square not quite citrine looking AB crystal. They are strung on elastic, very easy to slip on, and voila! I have the words before me. And the blue makes me happy.

    I think it's important when life gets in the way to recognize those grace notes of happiness that occur in all of our lives, if we keep our eyes and heart open to see them. They truly are grace notes.

    Photobucket

    Karin

    Originally posted 2007-04-20 09:25:06.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/beading-grace-notes-of-happiness/feed/ 0     Trust in the Slow Work of God, prayer by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin http://savvythinker.com/trust-in-the-slow-work-of-god-prayer-by-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin/ http://savvythinker.com/trust-in-the-slow-work-of-god-prayer-by-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin/#comments Sun, 25 Mar 2012 03:49:14 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/2007/03/07/trust-in-the-slow-work-of-god-prayer-by-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin/
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    Above All,
    Trust in the Slow Work of God

    Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
    We are quite naturally impatient in everything
    to reach the end without delay.
    We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
    We are impatient of being on the way
    to something unknown,
    something new.
    Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
    by passing through some stages of instability
    and that may take a very long time.

    And so I think it is with you.
    Your ideas mature gradually. Let them grow.
    Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
    Do not try to force them on
    as though you could be today what time
    -- that is to say, grace --
    and circumstances
    acting on your own good will
    will make you tomorrow.
    Only God could say what this new Spirit
    gradually forming in you will be.

    Give our Lord the benefit of believing
    that his hand is leading you,
    and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
    in suspense and incomplete.
    Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
    our loving vine-dresser.

    Amen.

    Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist, and philosopher. 1881-1955

    Originally posted 2007-03-07 07:59:42.

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    This is one of my all-time favorite written pieces. Someone has put it on youtube.

    Enjoy! (And please leave me a comment.)

    Bless everyone you meet and everyone and every thing you come in contact with.

    Karin

    Originally posted 2010-08-16 14:34:35.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/the-gentle-art-of-blessing-by-pierre-pradervand/feed/ 0     Baby selling in China http://savvythinker.com/baby-selling-in-china/ http://savvythinker.com/baby-selling-in-china/#comments Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:18:36 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=2049
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    What a tragedy for all the babies and their birth families. While I was aware of baby selling in parts of the world when I adopted from China, 10 and 12 years ago, I didn't believe it happened in China at the time I adopted. Who knows how much of it went on in those days.

    Where there is money to be made illicitly, there always seems to be some degree of greed/need. But there is no thought given to the innocents in this, to the babies. Will they reunite them with their families? will any families come forward?

    Tragic that families feel the need to sell their children or are swindled into doing so.

    Every child deserves a loving family, but in this world it doesn't always happen. Let us work and pray for a more equitable world, for the safety and health of children everywhere, so that no child is separated from their family, from necessity or neglect or scandal, and can grow into their selfhood unencumbered and in joy. So let it be.

    Karin

    Henan police break up alleged baby-trafficking ring

    By Chen Qian | 2009-1-8 | ONLINE EDITION

    HENAN Province railway police caught 11 suspects of an alleged baby-trafficking ring after finding seven infants less than one month old taken onto a train.

    The seven infants were girls. They were saved by police at Zhengzhou Railway Station in Henan. The girls are now at a social welfare home in the city, Xinhua news agency reported today. Two more suspects are still at large, police said.

    Police were suspicious of eight women with infants at the railway station on October 21, Xinhua said. Police couldn't understand their dialect so they stopped them for questioning.

    They soon confessed the infants were not their babies and they were taking them to Shandong Province for sale. Four of the suspects are Guizhou Province natives and four are from Yunnan Province, the report said.

    The alleged leader Long Fang confessed to police that she asked her in-law Liu Yongqiong to buy babies in October. Liu later contacted a man surnamed Huang and three other suspects to purchase infants in Yunnan.

    Liu and Huang remain at large.

    Long purchased five infants for 14,600 yuan (US$2,147) in mid October and organized five women to transport them to Shandong, where her accomplice Zhang Li was waiting for the babies, the report said.

    Six suspects took a train from Guiyang in Guizhou Province and met two other accomplices half way. The pair had two babies they purchased for 8,000 yuan in Guizhou. They arrived at Zhengzhou Railway Station on October 21 and planned to take a bus to Shandong with the others, the report said.

    After catching eight women in Zhengzhou, police caught five more suspects in Shandong, Yunnan and Guizhou in the following three weeks. Among them, 11 have been detained and two are still being investigated, according to the report.

    Originally posted 2009-03-20 19:11:15.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/baby-selling-in-china/feed/ 0     Making our lives a prayer http://savvythinker.com/making-your-life-a-prayer/ http://savvythinker.com/making-your-life-a-prayer/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:14:58 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/2007/10/24/making-your-life-a-prayer/
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    Norris Burkes had another thought provoking column this week.

    Andi Bowsher, author of Praying the Pattern ...says , "Paul [when he said to pray without ceasing] was suggesting making life into prayer rather than making prayer into a life."...I can spend all week praying for fresh inspiration and still get nothing but a frustrated editor muttering some pretty unspiritual words about my column being past deadline. But when I seek to make my life a prayer, when I seek to serve and to become the answer to the prayers prayed by others, I get real inspiration...I pray to become the prayer... Norris Burkes (to see the full article go to his website.

    I keep coming back to the idea that our lives are really the answer to someone else's prayer when we live our life as a prayer or are conscious of it. I think I've been aware of that on occasion, but not as a guiding principle. (Elsewhere in the article Burkes talks of 'living the principle that Bowsher describes.')

    Can you think of a time when you were the answer to someone's prayer? Perhaps you didn't recognize it at the time.

    Karin

    Originally posted 2007-10-24 07:35:12.

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