and now for something completely different....

I have started reading a sci-fi novel. The closest I've been to this genre in the past has been reading Douglas Adams and watching the odd episode of Red Dwarf, neither of which really count as serious sci-fi.

What has brought this on? My husband Andrew suggested I read it. I figured that:

• it will be good to experience something he enjoys - though I doubt I'm going to apply that to the other genre he reads even more frequently in his spare time, namely military history.
• reading it will broaden my literary horizons.
  

I'm now a few chapters into Enders' Game by Orson Scott Card. Here are my initial impressions:

• this is a book written, if I am allowed to indulge in stereotyping again, for blokes. The psychology of the characters is explored, but it is, with only the occasional exception, put in terms of strategy and power struggles rather than love and connection. It also seems to be following the "lone hero saves the world" storyline - though I'm hoping for a twist or two.
  
• for a book written in the 1970s some aspects of it are accurately futuristic. Much of what is described has now been achieved with computers, particularly online gaming.
  
• the storyline is engaging, but I'm unlikely to queue up to read more of this author's work after I finish - there just isn't enough relational interest and/or light relief

Andrew has now offered to read a book that I suggest, so I'm wondering which one to suggest? Jane Austen would probably be cruel, given that he cannot sit in front of an Austen TV adaptation for more than a few minutes. I'm considering Alexander McCall Smith - an author who cannot write books fast enough for me to read them - or possibly something a bit more intense like Anne Tyler. Any suggestions?

brilliant idea

We've recently been to the new Women's Hospital. I've noted, with some happiness, that one of the shops there is "The Chocolate Box". A person can purchase chocolate penguins there, among other sugar and fat laden delights. From a nutritional point of view this is not much better than McDonalds at the Children's Hospital, however the mental health benefits are unquestionable.

peace reigns in the bunny hutch

Koko Black is grooming Honey Bunny. There was no rabbit argy-bargy today.

Jesus is the best, chuck out the rest!

Today I met with some Bible study leaders to take a look at the book of Hebrews from the Bible. I asked them to come up with a summary sentence for the book, and one stand out from many helpful summaries was:

Jesus is the best, chuck out the rest!

I thought it was quite apt, though it's worth noting that the writer to the Hebrews isn't necesssarily saying that everything apart from Jesus is rubbish that should be chucked out, but rather...

Jesus is the best, you don't need the rest, because He is the best.

Angels, Moses, high priests, the tabernacle and the law all had their role to play in the story of God's people, but in the end they can't fully represent God to us, nor can they save us from God's anger over our wrongdoing, like Jesus does.

I'll be writing more about Hebrews in coming days and weeks, so if you're keen to read along with me and give feedback and ideas, I'd love to hear from you. You can find a version online here.

eww!

Yesterday I cleaned out my study. I do this periodically, usually when the pile of papers on my desk has reached about one foot high and have then spread themselves onto the floor. My husband, who likes things neat, rarely sets foot inside. It's a great hiding place for yet to be given presents.

Anyway, I was a little over zealous with the cleaning and discovered within about ten minutes of my recycling box being emptied into the large yellow bin outside that a somewhat crucial piece of paper had disappeared, presumably into the bin. It was cold and dark, so I waited til this morning, put some gloves on and dug through the bin. Thankfully it didn't take too long to find and the smell was only mildly disgusting.

All in all I think this is a sign that I ought to clean less.

penguin pause

I'm off to a conference with work tomorrow and won't be posting for little over a week. Back soon...

Mexican standoff in the bunny hutch

Food has always been a bit of a divider for our bunnies.

Every meal time they hear one of us approach with their pellets and are stirred into a frenzy of anxiety. Will there be a sufficient supply for both? For a while they simply growled at one other and acted a bit agro until the pellets arrived, at which point both would go heads down, tails up into their bowl.

Now, however, bunny paranoia has reached a new level. The attitude runs something like this:

If there are to be enough bunny pellets for me, then I need to keep you away from them, so that I can have them for myself. However, keeping you away from the pellets involves vigilance on my part, therefore I cannot enjoy the pellets either.

I have never claimed that they are intelligent creatures!

Until a human intervenes, or the hunger pangs get too strong, no bunny gets to eat. The pellets disappear far more slowly over the day, rather than vanishing within an hour or two of first being put out as they used to.

(Lest anyone mistake us for cruel people who underfeed our bunnies, it is worth pointing out that they always have plenty of hay, and usually also grass and vegies supplementary to their pellets. Both bunnies are amply proportioned.)

I was tempted to call this post "bunnies are just like people - 3rd installment", but I restrained myself. While I did take a small portion of potato from my husband's plate yesterday, I didn't growl at him as I did so, nor did we both go hungry while protecting our meals from one another!

However, there is a fundamental lack of bunny trust in us as their carers and protectors which I find disheartening. In many ways this is very similar to how we treat God - He gives us everything and promises to provide all we need, yet most of the time we act as if there isn't enough to go around, and assume that we ought to get whatever we need on our own terms, even if it means hurting someone else. (Rom 1:18-32)

Even just this afternoon I have been reminded of my need to keep on trusting God in prayer for everything I need. May I act toward Him and my fellow humans far better than the bunnies treat their owners and one another!

What would you do?

A few weeks ago I was leaving the local shopping centre, with a nice hot take-away meal in a bag in my hand, when a woman with a pram approached me. She'd run out of money, she told me, wasn't getting paid until the next day, and needed infant formula. Could I give her some money so she could buy it?

I wasn't totally convinced, but I wasn't totally unconvinced either. She looked reasonably healthy- she didn't seem to have a drug problem. Then again, how would I really know?

I knew that the best thing to do would be to walk down to the supermarket with her and buy the infant formula, but my dinner was hot, I was tired, and just wanted a good sit down on the couch at home. So I just gave her the money and said "I'm trusting you to spend it on formula".

Afterwards it occurred to me that perhaps I should have looked in the pram for the baby - it had been well covered. I was pretty sure that I'd been duped.

Jesus tells us to give to those who ask for money (Matt 5:42), but I assume that he wouldn't be wanting us to encourage another person's dishonesty or drug habit. Any thoughts about how to handle these kinds of situations? What would you have done?

contentment - how much is enough?

A number of posts ago, Cathy made an astute comment on the danger of being a contented, well educated, westerner. Namely that we can often choose where we place the bar for how much we earn and own. So it is easy for us to slack off and over-consume, all the while telling ourselves that we're very content with all that we have.

This got me wondering: where does the Bible set the bar for material contentedness, assuming that God sets the bar anywhere at all?

I discovered that the bar is very low

"... if we have food and clothing" writes the apostle Paul, "we will be content with that." (1 Tim 6:8)

So I have ample grounds for contentment already. Not only do I have enough food and clothing, I also have money in the bank that can buy me more clothing and food as I need them. Not only so, but I can pick and choose what kind of food and clothing I wear. I may not be able to afford designer labels or organic farm produce all the time, but there is still an inordinate amount of choice in how much I spend and consume.

This is not to mention that I own plenty of things above and beyond food and clothing. A car, musical instruments, we own part of our house (the bank owns the rest), and on the list goes.

So, should I give all these things up and be content with just food and clothing? Well, it's certainly true that I must be prepared as a Christian to give up anything for the sake of Christ. However, I think that what Paul is getting at in the broader context of 1 Tim 6 is that a lack of contentedness drives sin. That is, the more we want material blessings above and beyond food and clothing, the more danger we are in of compromise in our faith in Christ and moral purity.

What might this look like for me?

At the moment, the thought of giving up paid work to have a child is a bit scary. (Yes, I will be taking a break from paid work for a while.) Will we have enough money in the bank? What will it be like to further rein in our spending? Will I compromise caring for our child and being ministry-minded so that we can rake in some more cash? Will I spend too much money on "must have" baby items that aren't necessary, thereby withholding money from other more worthwhile expenditures?

In all of this it will be important for me to trust God to provide what we actually need, and to pray for contentedness with what we actually have. I know I will have to pray for it, because past experience tells me it doesn't come naturally. Just ask my husband sometime how much money I would have spent on our bunnies if it weren't for his moderating influence!

boy, girl, or just one that's healthy?

Since going public with our news I've had a few conversations that go along these lines...

Do you want a boy or a girl?
We'll take whoever we're given.
Yes, so long as it's healthy...
We'll take whoever we're given.

It's one of those things that people just say, usually without thinking through the implications of what they're saying. We'd like to have a healthy baby, and I can think of a few potential pros and cons of having a boy or a girl, but in the end the baby we have will be the baby that God intends us to have. Our job will be to accept, love and raise whoever God gives us as best we can.

Thankfully God doesn't expect us to justify our space on the planet by being healthy. He loves us just because He loves us. We're all valuable because we're made by Him, and for those of us who are Christians, we know how much He loves us because He sent Christ to save us. (Some good passages to follow up are Gen 9:5-6, Deut 7:7-8, 1 Cor 1:26–31, 1 John 4:9-10.)