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Around the Network
July 2010
I love writers who force us to rethink things we thought we knew and encourage us to see things in new ways. In particular I love it when I read things that cause me to examine the motives behind my behavior, even though that is sometimes not fun to do. Several of the blogs I want to feature this month did those things for me.
The first blog I'd like to recommend to you is from outside of our High Calling Network. Kelvin Wright is the Anglican Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand. I've been reading his blog for some time now. This week he wrote a piece about forgiveness, in particular about the strange practice of forcing people to offer apologies. In Kelvin's opinion, those who demand apologies don't really want them, and those who give forced apologies don't really mean them. In any case, says Kelvin, apologies have little to do with real forgiveness.
Work Blogs
Another blog post that caused me to rethink things was Monica Sharman's post offering a theory on workaholism. Many people think of workaholics as people who just want to get a lot done - kind of super achievers. Maybe we even think of them as somewhat virtuous. Wrong, says Monica. Because lurking below their obsessive need to work are things like grandiosity and an obsessive need to please others.
Responding to our group writing project about bosses, Glynn Young has written a harrowing account of a terrible situation where his boss came unraveled. It's a hard story to read, and it reminds me that sometimes, when people make bad choices, there is nothing you can do to set things right.
Family Blogs
Here is one you MUST read. Risaroo of "These Three Remain" is trying to help two babies with Down Syndrome in an orphanage in Eastern Europe get to the States where there is a wonderful family who wants to adopt them. She is offering raffle prizes for donations to help make this happen. Go right now and read this post!
I'm a veteran of many summers with kids at home. Once summer begins, it is only a few days before we hear that familiar cry - "I'm bored." Our solution to boredom has been extra chores. That certainly will stop the cries, but Dena Dyer has some suggestions for fighting summer boredom that are a little more creative and get at the source of the problem.
Ann Kroeker tells a sad story of a day in church when she was forgotten. Other seniors were presented with a Bible for graduation. She had not been attending regularly and was left out. I heard the story remembering what a struggle it can be for pastors to remember the people who are not in church very often. But we should remember them because often they are the ones who need our love and acceptance the most.
Faith Blogs
As a former Baptist pastor, I can tell you that we Baptists are big on baptisms, both the doing of them and the methods involved. (Immersion only and believers, not infants.) An Episcopal friend of mine once said, "If you guys are so determined to be literal with this stuff, why...why...WHY is it you won't drink actual wine at communion?
I have to admit he made a good point. If you have some interest in these matters, you might enjoy checking out Thom Turner's articles in which he provides arguments for adult and infant baptism.
Culture Blogs
Cassandra Frear gives us some good blogging tips. I've been blogging since 2002, and I'm a BIG proponent of forgetting about how many people are reading your work and remembering to write out of your passion. Cassandra agrees.
Here is a nice poem for you. It's a wonderful idea: reverse engineering God's presence and existence from creation.
That's it for this month. For all of you out there writing your so hard and so faithfully, remember what Cassandra tells us. Be true to your heart and your passions. The rest will take care of itself.
Gordon Atkinson
Thanks to Monica Sharman for her suggestions.
The image used with this post was from a royalty free collection and edited in Photoshop by Gordon Atkinson
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