Hannah at Intellectuelle writes on Donne’s Holy Sonnet 13 here. So I have a plea for all talented musicians out there. Could you please set some of Donne’s holy sonnets to music so that we could sing them as hymns in corporate worship?
(Those of you who may think this a great idea but aren’t musically inclined yourself, please pass this plea on to those who are, Cheers).
Yep, folks, that’s me.
I can’t find my engagement ring. Beautiful sparkly diamond and platinum that Bryce started saving for when he was 16…
I feel the lowest I’ve ever felt.
I’ve done all I can for now. Called the police, and all the places I was in yesterday, torn up the flat and gone through the trash. No ring. Yesterday I was an anxious mess. Today I’m just sad and depressed but hopeful and I do still know God knows what He’s doing in all this. I just wish he’d let me in on the secret.
I’d appreciate your prayers and recommendations for odd places to search (as well as that I could still do my own work).
UPDATE: Still no ring after one week. Please continue to pray it shows up!
An interesting excerpt from an article called, ‘The Evangelical Mind Revisted’:
Wheaton, Baylor, and Calvin are all institutions featured in “The Opening of the Evangelical Mind,” a 2001 cover story I wrote for The Atlantic Monthly. In that essay, I tried to show that many liberal stereotypes about faith-based colleges were wildly out of date. Fed a steady diet of Elmer Gantry and Inherit the Wind, cosmopolitan inhabitants of places such as New York and Boston are likely to treat evangelicals as hopelessly backward clingers to creationism and scriptural literalism. They believe that if conservative Christians go to college at all, the institutions they attend are little better than degree mills flavored with faith—places where dogma and revealed truth replace logic and open-minded discussion.
Such stereotypes might once have been true, I argued, but conservative Christians today are not like they were yesterday. No longer confined to the rural regions of the country, evangelicals attend megachurches in exurban America, work as mid-level professionals in large corporations, and have upwardly mobile aspirations for their children. For them, college is an opportunity to be welcomed rather than an iniquity to be denounced. The published faculty at Calvin and Wheaton are as distinguished as the prospective students who clamor to get in; the SAT scores among Wheaton’s entering classes rival those at some of America’s most prestigious secular institutions. You do not attend Calvin or Wheaton—or, for that matter, other first-rate schools such as Westmont in California, Gordon in Massachusetts, or Seattle Pacific University—to imbibe intelligent design or to read the Bible rather than Emily Dickinson. I contend that the protests at Calvin and the refusal to condemn once frowned-upon behavior at Baylor and Wheaton as sinful suggest just how far these institutions have moved away from fundamentalist pieties.
Will conservative Christian colleges and universities continue to move toward the mainstream of American life? Should they? And what will happen to their institutions of higher learning if they do? Colleges exist as the pivotal point between youth and adulthood. Given how many believers there are in this country, the ways conservative Christian colleges respond to the world around them will tell us a great deal about the kind of country America is likely to be 30 or even 20 years from now.
The full text of the article can be found here. Anyone know how to get a copy of his 2001 Atlantic Montly article he mentions?
…strikes again. Here, I thought that since we got a great full night’s sleep our first night back, we’d be set to go on Day 2. But no. Not at all. I fell asleep at 1 am and awoke at 3; meanwhile Bryce hadn’t fallen asleep at all. After some wandering around the flat and warm milk (for me), we both went to bed around 5.30 when the birds started chirping. Now it’s nearly noon and I’m finally out of bed and Bryce is on his way out too. Guess it’s sleeping pills for tonight!
Bryce always makes me write the re-cap posts. So here I go:
Our first few days are accounted for below, but most of these I was reading the chapter on research in The College Writer, a great textbook co-written by one of my profs from Westmont, in preparation for the class I taught at Providence Christian College as a part of the interview process.
On Sunday night, we took part in a Bible study of a group considering starting a church plant in Ontario. It was great to be so warmly welcomed and to meet believers excited about the gospel. We had a lovely supper with them all as well. Monday we spent the day with my aunt and cousin and I found a fabulous pair of heels to wear to my interview for just $12.57! We met Bryce and my dad for dinner that night (after stopping for girlie makeovers) at the Yard House and then Bryce and I drove to Ontario to meet with the church plant folks. Here we found out more about their vision for the group and for several reasons, we are thinking that we need some more experience first and are more called to urban ministry. So we spent the rest of the week dreaming about possibilities in downtown LA. (This included meeting our friends Ken and G and discussing the benefits of free trade, starting a coffee shop or pub downtown, and being a part of the revitalisation process that’s going on downtown).
Tuesday I was able to have a coffee date with a good girlfriend, Katie (and her 10-month-old son), which was a lot of fun, minus the cappuccino on the stove boiling over twice. After prepping for interviews all day on Tuesday and planning my class, we drove up to Ontario early Wednesday morning for my first round of interviews. I attended chapel, met with the Dean, had lunch with faculty members, interviews with faculty members and taught a sample class. The students were surprisingly responsive and seemed attentive during the class. It was actually quite fun although tiring of course! Bryce joined me in the afternoon and had the chance to spend the morning with our pastor in Pasadena and discussed church planting and ministry options. After my interviews, we headed over to Pasadena and had a quick pizza supper with Ken and Gillian and drove back to OC.
Thursday I had a theological interview that wasn’t as rough as I thought it might be — although I did get grilled on an exception I’d taken to the College’s list of stipulations (that in itself is not truly a big deal to me…) — then we met our friends from chuch for dinner at their house. We enjoyed being with their kids (one of whom hadn’t been born when we left for Scotland) and had a great time catching up and hearing about their vision for Uganda. I then had yet another hour-long interview with the Academic Affairs Committee (profs, staff, board members, etc etc) that went well, although I kept wondering if I was making any sense after talking so much. Bryce was great, driving me all around, and sitting on the couch in the admin building reading while waiting for me. When finished, they chatted about me for a bit while I waited with Bryce. I was then told that they’d recommended me for a full-time position as an English professor there for this fall pending funding. I should know in a few weeks’ time how that is going to end up on their end and we’ll take it from there.
The rest of the week we spent with family; Bryce’s sister and family drove down from Santa Barbara to be with us. We spent Friday at Bryce’s parents’ and spent the night there. Saturday everyone came on over to my parents’ for a taco fiesta and family games that were fun from all in attendance, age 7 to 90! Sunday we were back in Pasadena to go to Christ Church and be with friends there: we went out to lunch with an elder and his wife and had coffee in downtown LA with Ken and G. Monday we relished sleeping in in our big bed and I did some work while my mom stocked us up on bad-for-you American food.
So that’s the short story! If you want the longer one, just let us know. 
Details coming soon…
Announcing the birth of Stella Catherine Hays born to our friends, Sarah and Jonathan on Sunday 12 March in Edinburgh. The long labour was rewarded with a beautiful girl weighing in at 8 lbs 12 oz and measuring 20 inches.
We’re sad to be separated by an ocean and a country from them, but will be back soon to meet little Stella!
After being advised to only take “Night Nurse” at night and without any other paracetemol products, we hopped on the plane and promptly took some Night Nurse for double duty: help with our colds and to help us get some sleep on the plane. Success at least on the last account as we slept for about half the time on our 10+ hour flight from London to LA. I saw two movies, “Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang” (which although crude is hysterical) and “The Family Stone” (which I’d missed at Christmas and wanted to see). We flew BA, our favourite airline, and I had a killer chicken curry in flight and I even scored 2 new pairs of navy airplane socks.
We were warmly greeted by our mothers at LAX and enjoyed the sunshine rather than the rain greeting us. We made it until about 8 pm last night before crashing (although we were awoken at midnight by a terrific crash of thunder) and waking up 11 hours later. I still feel tired, though and my sinuses are still clogged. We had a lovely soak in my parents’ jacuzzi and went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Tonight we’ll be visiting Bryce’s folks and watching “Walk the Line”. Meanwhile I’m doing some work preparing for the class I’m teaching this week and Bryce is working on some design work for the church back in Scotland. To friends here in CA, we’ll hopefully see you amidst our busy schedule and those back in Scotland: we’ll be back soon!
I think it’s about time I break my pseudo-silence. As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted anything significant here in a long time. I shall now tell you why. You may already know some of what I’m going to say, but probably no body other than Ashley knows it all. If you want the executive summary, here it is: our life (particularly the not-so-distant-future) is up in the air, and I can’t think about anything else. Let me explain…
(more…)
Bryce: I’m going to close my eyeballs for a bit.
Ashley: You can’t close your eyeballs, just your eyelids.
B: I’m going to close all of them.
A: You can’t close your eyeballs.
B: Is it against the law?
A: It’s against nature; it’s impossible to close your eyeballs.
B: So it’s against the law of nature?
A: I guess.
B: If nature writes you a ticket, is it on recycled paper?