Carols by candlelight
The only photo we took!
We didn't get any photos of the cellist, or the trio of cello, violin, and organ that predominated the program. For once my husband actually remembered the camera! But in the end, I didn't want to ruin it all with a flash, flash, flash.
Passing through Hachimantai - and still thinking...
This year 5 of us from Ajigasawa sang. And we talked three of our Hirosaki friends into joining us. (It wasn't very hard!)
Mr. Kumaki - our Conductor
I sometimes think we have the best conductor in the world. He lives and breathes Handel's "Messiah" and he makes it come alive for us.
Mary
Yesterday when we (Mary & I) turned in our money and tickets to Ako Sensei, we talked for a long time about the power of music. The pain we get in our chest and the tears that fill our eyes when the beauty is almost too much...
Ako Sensei is singing St. John's Passion (Bach) in Morioka next month. I wish I could go!
...and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. 'O comply!' it said. 'Think of his misery; think of his danger - look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair - soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?'
Still indomitable was the reply - 'I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God, sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad - as I am now. Laws and principles, etc.... '
“Laws and principles are not for times when there is no temptation: they are for moments such as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth – so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe now, it is because I am insane – quite insane, with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count the throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations are all I have at this hour to stand by; there I plant my foot.”
- From Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre
My 3 eyed daughter
Daughter #4 was feeling jaded this morning - someone told her she was struggling with identity issues - and said that we were like people with 3 eyes. "Its okay to ask people with 3 eyes personal questions. You know, 'So what does if feel like to have three eyes?' And its okay if people with three eyes know your secrets."
Sigh....
I've had identity issues ever since I can remember. I seem to have been born out of time, out of place. I was born during the baby boom but I never was really a boomer. I grew up during the generation gap but my parents were my best friends. I didn't fit at school because I was a Christian but we weren't exactly like everyone else at church because my father had a beard, my mother was into health food and we sometimes brought our goats to church... This could be a very long list. But usually I'm really not all that bothered with not "fitting".
I think it has something to do with not having a t.v.
My moral framework came from novels.
"First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – "
"Sir?"
" – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
- From Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Grace with Aunt Mary last weekend
I guess my first impression of Japan was not of Oriental reticence because my language teachers seemed to think their job included a license to ask questions of a personal nature (all day every day.) So I reciprocated. And got answers!
My first days in Ajigasawa did nothing but forward this impression. Even though I was scared to go out the first few weeks, people came to me. I think I hadn't been in Aji a week before I knew that alcohol was a BIG problem out here in the country. At least three woman had volunteered (unsolicited) stories of their husband's alcoholism...
And I still remember people asking me how much rent I paid. I considered that question off-limits! And the shock I got when one woman met my evasive reply with the sum - she already knew! - and the admonition that it was "too much". Afterall, I could live in town housing (welfare) for just 4000 yen.
20 kids from the A Capela Circle
Narinari advertising the birth of the Mandolin Club
And Harada back representing the Guitar Club
We ended (much later than planned) with a good message from Pastor Ogawa and lots of fellowship.
On the way home my German colleague said, "I spoke to that girl you pray with in Aomori. I think she's not a typical Japanese. She's more open." Japanese aren't open?!
I'd just been thinking about how much more open Daughter #3 is in Japanese. I had watched her earlier chatting animatedly with the various young men in turn. And she just looked like all the other (Japanese) girls chatting freely with everyone. But with Westerners... I wonder if I have EVER seen her chat that openly and animatedly with a young man?!
I've been thinking about this subject for several hours now. The young lady in question is loud. And she smiles a lot. But then I think that Aomori women can be a little loud... that is until I hear foreign men talking. Maybe my colleague meant the young lady is loud?
Sarah caught me on line tonight and we talked about all that's happening at her end of the world. As we were signing off she read me this poem by Robert Service - she's crazy about Robert Service:
THE RECKONING
It's fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant,
With terrapin and canvas-back and all the wine you want;
To enjoy the flowers and music, watch the pretty women pass,
Smoke a choice cigar, and sip the wealthy water in your glass.
It's bully in a high-toned joint to eat and drink your fill,
But it's quite another matter when you
Pay the bill.
It's great to go out every night on fun or pleasure bent;
To wear your glad rags always and to never save a cent;
To drift along regardless, have a good time every trip;
To hit the high spots sometimes, and to let your chances slip;
To know you're acting foolish, yet to go on fooling still,
Till Nature calls a show-down, and you
Pay the bill.
Time has got a little bill -- get wise while yet you may,
For the debit side's increasing in a most alarming way;
The things you had no right to do, the things you should have done,
They're all put down; it's up to you to pay for every one.
So eat, drink and be merry, have a good time if you will,
But God help you when the time comes, and you
Foot the bill.
The view from the bridge
Rachel and Mary had fun decorating with origami
Joy with her Mahogany Cake
But "Love Story" had it all wrong. Love does NOT mean "never having to say you're sorry."
Perhaps a little bit of heaven...
The snow is a big attraction for a lot of folk from warmer climes
- they'll get tired of it soon!
Shino wanted to take photos of the snow on our way down to Morioka for a seminar the other day - and it was beautiful. But there was A LOT of it and by the time we took the wrong road and got turned back at the mountains an hour out of Morioka I'm afraid my nerves were like rubber bands. But it was a good time of fellowship - there's nothing like a long car ride for camaraderie.
Winding down but unwilling to go home.
Family Christmas with Ghents
On January 11, 1908—decades before Bill O'Reilly was born—Chesterton turned his attention to the idea floating around that the celebration of Christmas would not survive.
He wrote: "The Christmas celebrations will certainly remain, and will certainly survive any attempt by modern artists, idealists, or neo-pagans to substitute anything else for them. For the truth is that there is an alliance between religion and real fun, of which the modern thinkers have never got the key, and which they are quite unable to criticize or to destroy. All Socialist Utopias, all new Pagan Paradises promised in this age to mankind have all one horrible fault. They are all dignified… . But being undignified is the essence of all real happiness, whether before God or man. Hilarity involves humility; nay, it involves humiliation… . This is why religion always insists on special days like Christmas, while philosophy always tends to despise them. Religion is interested not in whether a man is happy, but whether he is alive, whether he can still react in a normal way to new things, whether he blinks in a blinding light or laughs when he is tickled."Mark Gauvreau Judge
Ex Post Facto
The Brits have never bought into the American separation of reporting and opinion. They assume that an intelligent person, paid to learn about some subject, will naturally develop views about it. And they consider it more truthful to express those views than to suppress them in the name of objectivity."
This is the direction that could make more people buy the Post— because the way it is now, we know exactly what is going to be in the paper before we crack it open; that is, if we crack it open. Kinsley's observation reminds me of Robert Blatchford and the great Christian writer G.K. Chesterton. Blatchford was a British reformer who was active from 1890 to 1920; he had converted to socialism after witnessing the misery in the slums of Manchester, and started his own paper, the Clarion, in 1891. Yet Blatchford was not what we would consider a typical newspaper editor. After he vigorously attacked Christianity, he did something extraordinary: he invited the opposition to mount a defense in the pages of his own paper. We're not talking about the modern liberal concept of newspaper debate, which entails trashing conservatives and then allowing them a paragraph to respond two weeks later in the Letters section. This fracas was going to be detailed, allow for several responses and responses to responses, and go on for weeks. It provided the kind of intellectual fireworks that people, no matter what side they are on, will pay to see.
In 1904, a bright young journalist named G.K. Chesterton took up Blatchford's challenge. (Much of what Chesterton wrote for the occasion would wind up in the book Heretics). Blatchford even went to the incredible step of appointing a Christian, George Haw, to choose the defenders who would contribute to the Clarion. The writers wrote repeatedly and at length, and the controversy didn't merely go on for weeks—it lasted for over a year. To Blatchford—and Chesterton—religion wasn't something to be stuck on the last page of the Saturday paper. It was central to people's lives, and as such deserved to be both challenged and praised at length, in depth, and with absolute freedom.
Indeed, the kind of freedom once allocated to journalists is stunning in retrospect. I recently purchased the full run of the weekly column Chesterton wrote for The Illustrated London News for the first three decades of the 20th century. Simply reading down the list of column titles is enough to make one anxious to read the pieces themselves: "Joan of Arc and Modern Materialism," "The Ethics of Fairy-Tales," "Moral Education in a Secular World," "Truth in the Newspapers," and many, many debunkings of bolshevism when it was new......
Imagine the Post running that today. Imagine an ongoing debate in Outlook between Robert George or Richard John Neuhaus and Nan Aaron over abortion. You might even find people opening the paper with the anticipation I felt once upon a time.
Mark Gauvreau Judge
Ex Post Facto (You should really read the whole article!)
Willie, our eternally hopeful dog!
Edith Schaeffer was right when she said, "There is never a neat little portion of time labelled: "Time for exclusive care of upheaval... The end of life just comes up and hits you when you're not looking! "
While Joy helped John drywall the wall
and then he put the shelves back up.
I took a few minutes after making the last meal
to view the fall foliage above the fish pond.
And now, back into the fray!
How will I ever get this back on the shelves in order again?!
Last night after prayer meeting John and Joy put in the rest of the ceiling and this morning started on the walls!
Finishing the last board on the ceiling.
Only one corner of normalcy...
"Today many assume that spiritual maturity is measured by the amount of biblical information and doctrine you know. While knowledge is one measurement of maturity, it isn't the whole story. The Christian life is far more than creeds and convictions; it includes conduct and character. Our deeds must be consistent with our creeds, and our beliefs must be backed up with Christlike behaviour." - PDL
Later that evening in our Bible Study we touched on 1 Peter 1:5 - 7, one of the Biblical expressions of what I actually believe about the relationship of faith, knowledge and behaviour :
For this very reason,
make every effort to add to your faith goodness;
and to goodness, knowledge;
and to knowledge, self-control;
and to self-control, perseverance;
and to perseverance, godliness;
and to godliness, brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness, love.
I think I've put my finger on it. I don't want to go to church to learn about what the Bible "says to me," whether "me" is [just me] or the ... congregation as a whole. I want to go to learn about what the Bible says to everyone over all time. The part that concerns unchaining truth for every one. I do think that both are important, but I get the one in my devoes and talks and interactions with others. I just feel such a lack of authority and conviction in my church that the Bible holds the latter kind of truth.
Grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone, Christ alone,
To the glory of God alone.
I wish I could send the writer of that email to this church:
I visited Capitol Hill Baptist in January. The church kicked off with Sunday school, which really should have been called Sunday seminary. Class options included a survey of the New Testament, spiritual disciplines, and a systematic theology lesson on theories of the Atonement.
Such rigor can be expected from a church led by Dever, who earned a Ph.D. from Cambridge studying the Puritans. He embodies the pastoral theologians who are leading young people toward Reformed theology. He has cultivated a church community in the Puritan mold—unquestionably demanding and disciplined. And the church attracts a very young crowd. Its 525 members average 29 years old. Dever mockingly rejected my suggestion that they aim to attract an under-30 crowd. "Yes, that's why we sing those hymns and have a [55-minute] sermon." Dever smiled. "We're seriously calibrated for the 18th century."
"Comfort each other. Provide a refuge and sanctuary for each other from the chill winds of the world. Your marriage is a hearth from whence come the peace, harmony, and warmth of soul and spirit. "
Unfinished business - the third wall, the ceiling
& then we have to hang up all the pictures again.
Grace with her adoring Grandfather
I've had more than 50 years to practice my articulation but, although I don't squeal much any more, sometimes I feel I'm not very far ahead of Grace in getting my point across!
This comment of Schaeffer's points out exactly what was needed in tonight's long discussion around the table - definition:
As Christians, we must understand that there is no word so meaningless as the word god until it is defined. No word has been used to teach absolutely opposite concepts as much as the word god. Consequently, let us not be confused. There is much "spirituality" about us today that relates itself to the word god or to the idea god; but this is not what we are talking about. Biblical truth and spirituality is not a relationship to the word god, or to the idea god. It is a relationship to the One who is there. This is an entirely different concept.
Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There
No rot here!
Ajigasawa Town Office offers (financial) assistance in changing over to a wood burning stove. So my husband - after a year's contemplation - decided to go for it. But that meant removing the straw mats from that corner, so he thought he'd take time to check under the floor and re-enforce it, which meant fixing the walls, which then led to a new ceiling - and so, after 11 years, he's drywalling the living room at last! Yes!
Of course, that means weekends like the last one - when 5 different groups were crowded into the church and parsonage all cooking their particular ethnic food for our town's international night; and this one - we have two couples (with kids) coming to stay - are a bit of a trick.
What it looked like last weekend!
There is never a neat little portion of time labelled: "Time for exclusive care of upheaval, all other obligations have ceased." Food had to be prepared, dishes washed, clothes washed, teeth brushed! And though the search for "truth" and "meaning" is something many people mean to take time for "some day", there is no neat little portion of time that will drop into your lap labelled: "Full stop ahead for contemplation and search for meaning in the universe." The end of life just comes up and hits you when you're not looking!
- Edith Schaeffer, L'Abri
We're getting there!
When Paul was asked whether Jesus was raised from the dead, he gave a completely nonreligious answer, in the twentieth-century sense. He said: "There are almost 500 living witnesses; go and ask them!" This is the faith that involves the whole man, including his reason; it does not ask for a belief into the void. As the twentieth-century mentality would understand the concept of religion, the Bible is a non-religious book. - Francis Schaeffer, The God Who is There
I'm finally reading "The Complete Works" in its entirety
- of course, I'm still on Volume 1!
But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realize what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else - something it never entered your head to conceive - comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not.
