Forgiveness is God's Habit

Last spring a friend of ours came a bit unglued for awhile. He wrote again yesterday to say that he's feeling pretty low right now. I thought of him when I read the chapter on hope last night. I wanted to tell him "Go ahead and cry for mercy - forgiveness is God's habit! "

Help, GOD - the bottom has fallen out of my life!

Master, hear my cry for help!

Listen hard! Open your ears!

Listen to my cries for mercy.

If you, GOD, kept records on wrongdoings,

who would stand a chance?

As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit,

and that's why you're worshiped.

I pray to GOD - my life a prayer -

and wait for what he'll say and do.

My life's on the line before God, my Lord,

waiting and watching till morning,

waiting and watching till morning.

Oh Israel, wait and watch for GOD -

with GOD's arrival comes generous redemption.

No doubt about it - he'll redeem Israel,

buy back Israel from captivity and sin.

PSALM 130

The Redemption, not the Suffering, is Ultimate.

When we suffer we attract counselors as money attracts thieves. Everybody has an idea of what we did wrong to get ourselves into such trouble and a prescription for what we can do to get out of it. We are flooded first with sympathy and then with advice, and when we don't come around quickly we are abandoned as a hopeless case. But none of that is what we need. We need hope. We need to know that we are in relation to God. We need t o know that suffering is part of what it means to be human and not something alien. We need to know where we are and where God is.

Ajigasawa Church - we're pretty happy people -

but its been a hard year for some!

..For the person who suffers, has suffered or will suffer, Psalm 130 is essential equipment, for it convinces us that the big difference is not in what people suffer but in the way they suffer. ...We see that whatever or whoever got us in trouble cannot separate us from God, for "forgiveness is Your habit." We are persuaded that God's way with us is redemption and that the redemption, not the suffering, is ultimate.

- p. 145. Peterson's "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Here are the rest of the photos from Sarah's early birthday party... (someone else took them.)

Turkey Dinner - Sarah really wanted to be here for Thanksgiving

Sarah, Mel, Mary, Karl, me, John, Kris

Sisters together!

Sarah with her "Little Boy" Tuktankhamen, and Mary

Mary, Kris and Mel

Karl with Intrepid (we have 4 cats)

Everyone played Cranium with Sarah...

Except for us - Mel and I stayed in the kitchen and washed dishes!

Until dessert!

Sarah usually makes her own (chiffon) birthday cake. But this year she had a paper due so we decorated a box of ice cream - Sarah's other favorite "cake".

And now my "baby" is of age - Sarah turned 21 on November 22nd. Ever weird... I don't feel old at all! I think I shall still be young when I am 92.

True joy doesn't need a jester

Angela phoned tonight and we had a long and lovely chat.

Somewhere in the middle she said she missed watching videos with us. She misses the reflection and discussion... and then she went on to talk about the viewing patterns of her friends and neighbors. It brought to mind this quotation (from Peterson again) that I've had in draft all week.

We try to get [joy] through entertainment. We pay someone to make jokes, tell stories, perform dramatic actions, sing songs. We buy the vitality of another's imagination to divert and enliven our own lives. The enormous entertainment industry in America is a sign of the depletion of joy in our culture. Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution.

- Peterson, "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction"

I miss Angela's contributions to our discussions. She often comes at a thing from such a different angle than I, but she knows where joy is from: its not in the entertainment!

Creating Our Own Entertainment - Angela's Birthday Tea

And she's perhaps the best prayer partner I've ever had.

And now, God, do it again!

We laughed, we sang,
we couldn't believe our good fortune.
We were the talk of the nations -
"God was wonderful to them!"
God was wonderful to us;
we are one happy people.
And now, GOD, do it again -

- Psalm 126

We fill our minds with the stories of God's acts. Joy has a history. Joy is the verified, repeated experience of those involved in what God is doing. It is as real as a date in history, as solid as a stratum of rock in Palestine. Joy is nurtured by living in such a history, building on such a foundation.

- Peterson's "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction"

No Dourness Here!

I have read that during the process of canonization the Catholic Church demands proof of joy in the candidate, and although I have not been able to track down chapter and verse I like the suggestion that dourness is not a sacred attribute.

- Phyllis McGinley

as quoted in "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

I'm really not expecting to be canonized as a saint, but I want it on record: even when I am tired or hassled, I still am a very happy person. I feel truly blessed!

Sarah's Early Birthday

This photo reminds me of so many of my blessings!

We have a lot of fun in our house, a fact perhaps illustrated better by another photo, but I wanted this one because it shows the sisters together.

We laugh a lot around this table. In fact, I can't imagine our lives without a good belly laugh every day.

Everyone Loves a Baby!

Sarah (Daughter # 4) is home from Canada for a week and a half in order to renew her visa. So Ruth Anna (Daughter # 1) brought her little baby down from Sapporo for a visit. My sister's family came for dinner to see them all on Monday. And then, the next day, Anna, Erin, Sarah and I drove up to see (Gaijin for Life) Luke's family in Kazamaura.

やっぱり、everybody loves a baby!

Especially this guy!

Erin Watanabe with her "Jiji"

See the Dinner with Ghents Album for a few more photos. (15)

Living in the country - why we are a 3 car family

Where we live, 3 car families are rather normal... and this is why:

Last weekend Mary went up to Hakodate. She drove her car to the Ferry terminal and left it in position ready to pack her sister and baby into it in time for a mad dash to catch the fellowship hour at Hirosaki on Sunday night. (Except, of course, Mary never makes mad dashes anywhere!)


I got up VERY EARLY on Saturday morning I picked up a car load of students and drove down to Morioka for a KGK Seminar. I got back late Saturday night and felt so rotten that I skipped Messiah practice on Sunday so my husband and I were actually able to share a vehicle on Sunday!

Meanwhile my husband went into Hirosaki just before noon on Saturday for a Bible study and then back to Aji to continue his other work. (I forget what that was since I wasn't here.)

Some KGK Students

Its actually pretty usual for there to be as many cars as there are drivers out here in the country - sometimes more!

But most of my colleagues live in apartments in big cities - often they don't even have to buy fuel! - and they use public transportation. Sometimes I'm not sure they understand my Jehovah Jireh dilemma. Sigh... At times like this I'm glad for a few Ebenezer stones.

JEHOVAH JIREH, My Provider

I don't have any "hard questions" about the gospel tonight, but I am thinking very hard about Philippians 4:19...

Ebenezer - Jehoveh JIREH!

Put it Under the Searchlight of Your Disbelief

"The reason many of us do not ardently believe the gospel is that we have never given it a rigorous testing, thrown our hard questions at it."

- from Eugene Peterson's
A LONG OBEDIENCE IN THE SAME DIRECTION

Chrysanthemum Festival - Again

Last Monday, on the last day of the Chrysanthemum Festival, we made another foray into Hirosaki Park ... and missed the Chrysanthemums again! I'm afraid I didn't cry. The park was too beautiful - and, while chrysanthemums are also very beautiful, I rather prefer them "au naturel" as opposed to tied to mannequins.

We met at the "A to Z Dog"

Why is this dog called the "A to Z Dog"? And why is it there anyway?!

Later that evening I realized I didn't have my phone anymore. I assumed it must be here at the dog and thought I just couldn't find it because of the dark. Unfortunately, it was actually in the grass at the side of the parking lot where we eventually left our cars before venturing into the Park!

We meandered through the park...

...enjoying the colors...

...the castle...

...the moat...

... and the falling leaves.

I wanted to "taste" the local goods.

Actually, what I really like is talking to the tradesmen/women about anything and everything. But by the time we got in it was pretty empty. Still, we chatted... and dawdled... and got to the inner sanctuary just as it closed for the season!

NO ENTRANCE!

Lost Calendars... and Cell Phones

A few weeks ago I lost my little calendar book/day planner. I was pulling into Tokyo on a bus by the time I noticed this little detail and I mistakenly assumed the calendar was at home on the floor next to the closet where I had packed (and repacked) my bags. It wasn't! (My prayer partners will remember the saga connected to that loss.) In fact, I still haven't located it.

My father wrote in response to my email about it all:

I fondly remember Pastor Collins and Viola singing an old hymn, "Are You Living Where God Answers Prayer"! Now, with tears in my eyes I remember sitting down on the floor in the house on Bridge St. (as I was working late in the evening putting up sheet rock) and praying "Lord, it may seem like a petty thing, but please tell me where I left the framing square. I really need to finish this now and I promise I shall then go to bed." I would just sit quietly compose my heart in expectancy and very frequently I sensed God moving me to get up and go over and move something or look at a certain area and He would deliver me. Of course there were a few times when I sensed He was saying, "No Lowell, I told you to go to bed an hour ago." Actually I think I got that message on Saturday nights...

The Lowell Mannhardt Family when I was small

I thought of my father's story when I lost my cell phone in Hirosaki last Monday.

Mary found it when she went in on Tuesday.

The bad news: it suffered water damage from the dew. The good news: I didn't lose any data! (At least not yet - I still have to put it in to be fixed!) I am SO HAPPY - that is a lot of important data.

Shouldn't a moment have value in itself?

I turned off my own computer and was on my way to bed when I read this paragraph ...and I can't resist! (So I'm writing from my husband's computer downstairs in the study.)

There is something morally repulsive about modern activist theories which deny contemplation and recognize nothing but struggle. For them not a single moment has value in itself, but is only a means for what follows.

-Nicolas Berdyaev

I suspect that Berdyaev was addressing the Bolshevik problem - the Communists with their incessant thesis and antithesis ... but I can't help feeling that this applies more generally to (Christian) life nowadays.

Computer 101

I like that camera feature on the cell phones nowadays. Unfortunately, mine doesn't seem to work except out of doors in broad daylight!

But Anna, Daughter # 1, has a more competent model and makes good use of it to send me photos for my little collection of "Grandmother's Brag Photos".

Erin with Daddy Jun at the computer

Guess why I like this photo?!

Fires in the Fall

I saw fires in the rice fields a few nights ago. It brought back memories of the days (before the anti-pollution laws) when the fall air was so thick with the smoke from the rice fields that you could hardly see - or breathe!

Somehow I rather miss those fires!

They remind me of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem:

AUTUMN FIRES

In other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes
The gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of season!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

On the page where I've written Stevenson's poem there's a haiku written in the margin that brings back more memories - very old (and bittersweet)...

It is deep autumn
My neighbor --
How does he live, I wonder.
- Basho

Treasure Island - Gothic Novel?

We finished "Mansfield Park" a few nights ago, and having recently re-watched "Muppet Treasure Island" we decided to dig out the the Robert Louis Stevenson anthology that Luke gave us for the Family Reading Hour.

The story certainly moves right along! We just started two nights ago and we're almost done! But there so many interesting phrases to roll about on one's tongue and, perhaps with the exception of Long John Silver, there isn't much study in character.

Mary says she thinks its a gothic novel. I think she might be right.