A few moments of panic

So, on our second time getting a temporary pass, on our second trip trip here, the staff at the gate tells us for the first time that, because our rental agreement indicates that we have declined the car rental company's insurance, we can't be allowed access to the post without proof of our own insurance. I could have shown them the documentation they insisted on via my phone had I just been able to remember the damned password. My passworded password file, however, was on my computer, which was already on the post due to their previously and consistently lax enforcement of their proof-of-insurance requirement.

A civilian member of the staff proceeded to lecture us at length about how foolish it is to *ever* decline the rental car company's insurance, primarily based on the threat of an unscrupulous agency charging our credit card for damage that was already done to the vehicle. Then he provided the pass we needed.

Since I don't have any way of printing here, I now have my insurance account info on my smart phone. The first time I try to use it I'm sure to be highly anxious that this won't be good enough.

Ready for this vacation to start!

This has been the hardest vacation ever for me to get ready for. In addition to the lack of sleep this week, we didn't plan things very well in advance, which left us scrambling for last-minute arrangements for our side trip to the big island. There has been too much to do and too little time to do it. The limited number of people who are available for us to visit in the time we have in Washington is a little disappointing, but a drive down to Oregon to visit my cousins just isn't doable.

But there's a big upside to that last part: we get to start our vacation by relaxing!  What a concept!!

Honest-intentioned advertising - but not in effect

On the way back from not casting an early ballot at lunch time today - because it turns out that there isn't a special election for my precinct next week while we're gone - I drove through the Oregon Historic District. Two long-standing storefronts on its "main drag," directly across the street from each other and I believe owned and run together, are a pair of "adult-oriented" businesses; from the outside one seems to focus on movies and the other on "toys."

The marquee on one of them brazenly beckons with the enticement of PURE JOY FOR ALL.

I'm sure that's what they're trying to offer. Unlike a true charlatan, they may even believe it's what they're delivering. I think a more accurate description of what they're peddling would be: IMPURE PASSING PLEASURE FOR THE ENSLAVED.  The marquee has plenty of room to display the truth.

Oh, that I had no clue of what I speak.

Tuesday night's scripture reading

Following praise and worship at each prayer meeting, we have a period in which we listen quietly for word gifts. Our group has several prophets through whom the Lord speaks messages of encouragement to us, and I will usually get a scripture reading - often before the first prophetic word is spoken - which usually turns out to underscore or complement the messages given. I generally look for this reading before the words are spoken, but don't share it until after; in this way, neither the passage to which I am led nor others' speaking influence each other; this tends to keep us from doubting whether the unity of these messages is merely due to suggestibility on our part.

The reading to which I was led on Tuesday supported strongly the encouraging, prophetic words that were spoken concerning who we are in Christ and how that identity calls us to live:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. - Rom 8, 15-18

In my struggles, especially in my darkest moments, it can be hard for me to remember this, and my reality can feel far removed from this one. Yet in his patience God reminds me of the truth - often, for I am slow to learn.

Today's words

berceuse \bair-SOOZ\ - 1. a musical composition usually in 6/8 time that resembles a lullaby  2. lullaby

Cool.  A new music-related word!

phillumenist \fi-LOO-muh-nist\ - one who collects matchbooks or matchbox labels

The "lumen" in the middle helped me get this one right in today's Dictionary Devil puzzle.

honeycreeper \HUH-nee-'kree-per\ - 1. any of numerous small bright-colored oscine birds (especially genera Cyanerpes and Chlorophanes of the family Coerebidae) of tropical America  2. any of a family (Drepanididae) of often colorful oscine birds found only in Hawaii

Also from today's DD. Hmm.  I might have to be on the lookout for these next week!

oscine \AH-syne\ - of or relating to a large suborder (Oscines) of passerine birds (as larks, shrikes, finches, orioles, and crows) characterized by a vocal apparatus highly specialized for singing

It has been a long time since one new definition has led me to another new word . . .

passerine \PASS-er-'ryne\ - of or relating to the largest order (Passeriformes) of birds which includes over half of all living birds and consists chiefly of altricial songbirds of perching habits — compare oscine

 . . . and yet another, which also led me to back to a word I knew before, thought I had posted on previously but can't find on my blog, and still had to remind myself of:

altricial \al-TRIH-shuhl\ - being hatched or born or having young that are hatched or born in a very immature and helpless condition so as to require care for some time  — compare precocial

I swear I remember looking this one up before, along with recognizing the contrasting "precocial," which is at least a close enough relative of "precocious" that I was finally able to stop this chain of lookups. Ah, what the heck:

precocial \prih-KO-shuhl\ - capable of a high degree of independent activity from birth — compare altricial

(Phew.  Probably a personal record for words in one vocab post.)

More on darkness and light

This morning I find myself thinking about how challenging it is to remember how awesome God is, to soak in the remarkable truth that he has made me his son, and to trust that he will provide for everything my family and I need, when I am dealing with the consuming circumstances of my life in this world. I completely forget that my true citizenship is not of this world, and having any sense of God's presence and the joy of the Spirit is utterly beyond me. Yet when I cannot reach God (all the time, really; none of us can ever reach God by our efforts), as soon as I just bring myself to cry to him he reaches me, grants me the grace of his presence to survive the moment, reminds me that he is always with me in whatever I am going through. Soon I am again in touch with the joy of being his.

But it seems that, too often, I must reach a point of desperation before I'll utter that cry. Until then I am too determined to just manage it. Our societal insistence on independence is so ingrained in me - or maybe it's just my Adam-like insistence on having a good reason (or excuse) to make my own way - that I often fail to seek God's presence until my pain makes it impossible to deny that I must. This can lead me to dark and very sad places.

Thank you, God, for bringing me back to your light and joy.

St. Augustine and the Charisms

Hmmm.  Maybe that should be the name of my next band.

It was another example of the sort of timing that I have come to recognize as God's direction and work in my life. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit resource I'm reading has been the sort of thing that I read until I find my mind drifting away from it somewhat, then carefully mark my place and pick up in that same spot. Unlike Death on a Friday Afternoon, which invariably always inspires me to write within every couple of pages, this book has been thoroughly validating many of the spiritual experiences of my adulthood. The section I've most recently completed dealt with the charisms as documented in the patristic period of the Church, following the section on their scriptural references.

So in that most recently completed section, the very first paragraph where I left off reading last week addresses the change of heart which St. Augustine had with regard to the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a result of miraculous events that occurred during his ministry at Hippo. The providential timing comes from my having just seen Restless Heart, bringing me a closer sense of kinship with this great Doctor of the Church whom I have long held in such high esteem. I realize I don't really know Augustine any better than I ever did before, but reading his own wondering eyewitness account of what happened in his church, reading his accurate description of the same phenomena which I have experienced, make me feel more as if I am being gently affirmed by someone in whom I have a deep sense of trust.

This isn't the only way God's Spirit has worked to affirm me, nor the most powerful. I am convinced that the affirmation of my friends whose spiritual judgment and maturity I have come to recognize and respect is likewise a gift of God to buttress me in my weakest moments.