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The Art of Subtraction
“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.” Mark 10:6-8 ESV We nod our heads in agreement when we hear the phrase “two shall become one” in reference to marriage. We like the way that sounds. We think we even agree with it, and we think we know what that means. I marry him, he marries me, and we take two lives and bring them together and try to make them work compatibly until death do us part. But…
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Confessions of a Skeptic
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, 1603 By Caravaggio I tend to view people and situations in life through a healthy lens of suspicion and skepticism. Or at least I thought it was healthy. What are you trying to sell me? What’s your pitch? Your hustle? Your angle? What strings are attached? The famous phrase “There is a sucker born every minute” attributed to P. T. Barnum would never be said of me, by Job! I am not sure when this all started, but this has pretty much been the predominant attitude of my adult life. I have prided myself on NOT being an early adopter. I want facts. As much info…
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In the Waiting
I hate waiting. Yet, I find that a good portion of my life is spent waiting. Waiting for appointments. Waiting on children to finish a class. Waiting on my husband to come home from work. Waiting for results to come back. Waiting for answers. Waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. Proverbs 13:12 says that a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. We all want that. But that fulfilled longing can take weeks. Months. Sometimes years. The rest of the verse says that a hope deferred makes the heart sick. Think about that. Our hearts can literally become sick when we are waiting on a promise, hoping for change…
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Throw Me a Bone!
In my previous post, I referenced the rich young ruler and his interaction with Jesus. Today I want to contrast that scenario with another we find in the gospels and one of my personal favorite stories: the faith of the Canaanite woman. But first, a little history. Because I love history. We find this story in two of the four gospels of the New Testament – Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30. Matthew’s account refers to her as the Canaanite woman, and in Mark’s she is called a Syrophonecian. What might seem at first as a conflict between the two stories reveals, with just a little digging, an interesting and astonishingly…
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Let’s Ban #BanBossy
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In, and a bunch of other important people, are on a mission to ban the word “bossy.” They argue that the word is too often used as a negative label describing girls with natural leadership qualities. Really? I thought I was using it to describe someone, male or female, who is kind of a rude jerk. Before I rant about all that is wrong with this campaign, let me just state for the record that the campaign makes many points with which I actually agree. I am all for children, boys and girls, using their words to speak up and be…
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The Art of Subtraction
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And That’s the Truth!
I am passionate about the truth. For as long as I can remember, I have always had an intense interest in searching for, discovering, and communicating truth. As a senior in high school, a teacher presented our English class with an assignment asking us to describe our major life goal. My answer? Well, to seek and find the ultimate truth, OBVIOUSLY! That’s not too lofty for an 18 year-old, is it? In college, I studied political science, thinking I might one day go to law school to become an ardent defender of truth and justice. That was until I learned that’s not what lawyers actually do! I must confess to…
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The Art of Subtraction
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Suffering Better
I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions. Yet, I find myself reflecting on some things as we enter 2010, thus leading me to a couple resolutions conclusions. 2009 was a really good year for the Buckland family in many ways. While it seemed that storms were raging all around us, we remained sheltered in what, at times, felt like a protective bubble. Our kids thrived, our marriage thrived, and our lives were, for the most part, pretty peaceful. During one of the worst economic crises our country has ever seen, Ren’s company also had its most profitable year. Oh, and Zoloft is AWESOME. But I’m sure that has had absolutely…
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Bad Tither
First of all, I have to give credit to the snappy title of this post to its creator, Mr. Wes Whitener. It’s a song of his by his band The Sheeps. You should totally check them out. They rock. I’ve been thinking about that song a lot lately. I hope he’s not going to expect any royalties. Cuz I ain’t got ’em. As you’ll soon realize further into this post. So, a while back, in this post, I mentioned duplicity. Duplicity is basically another word for deceit; having a different intent than what is being professed or projected. Saying one thing but doing another thing entirely; double-mindedness. It is the…
