Valley of Vision

 Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,

Thou has brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;

Let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty
Thy glory in my valley.

Fear the Lord and Serve Him Faithfully

Be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

1 Samuel 12:24

I saw this over on Pinterest and I like it because, let's face it, I'd be tempted to make content on how to style your hair. This is a helpful reminder that I'm called to model Christ, and modeling hard and holy things is far more important.
 

True Contentment

Contentment is possible only as we cultivate and maintain the attitude of accepting everything which enters our lives as coming from the hand of him who is too wise to err, and too loving to cause one of his children a needless tear.

～A.W. Pink

Eve’s Sin Looks Like Our Sin

Eve's response [to Satan] ... is to doubt God's word, to doubt that his threat of judgment would come true, to doubt God's goodness toward her, and to believe God is indeed trying to prevent her from achieving her full glory and potential.

As we look into our own hearts, we need to acknowledge that these are very powerful temptations, temptations with which every one of us constantly struggles. 

Through His Eyes: God's Perspective on Women in the Bible, Jerram Barrs, pgs. 28–29

To Write or Not To Write

Today is day one of my journey to break into copy writing. Of course, instead of actually doing the aforementioned thing (i.e., creating a Fiverr profile, researching how to write a blog post, getting out there and getting my first gig), I'm here writing a non-monetized blog post that no one will ever read. But it's ok. I hope to document my process and the results, and who knows, maybe one day, I, too, will publish an e-book on the subject.

So, where will I start?

I downloaded this e-book from amber-baker.com. I think it's helpful, but do wish for a bit a more. (I'm a complete child when it comes to these things and want someone to hold my hand throughout the whole process.) My first impression is that I'm thankful for Amber and her website and I'm 100% satisfied with my e-book purchase. She's just one person that God will use on this journey of getting me into writing ... and it was her Instagram account that gave me the kick in my pants that brought me here today. 

Next: I'm now downloading this e-book. Let's see if it gives me the hand-holding that I desire. I'm not a throw-myself-into-the-deep-end kind of girl. My tendency is that I'll endlessly research and never get started. Or I'll procrastinate, which is what I'm doing here with this blog post.

Here's to writing! (Hopefully.) I'll let you know how it goes...

Soulless Beauty

One glance ... revealed a woman who had once been beautiful, as the sons of God once found the daughters of men; nay, the wreck of her was still beautiful, but it was the soulless beauty whose appeal is to that which is least worthy in any man.

~A Private Chivalry by Francis Lynde, pp. 6–7

I've been proofreading books for Distributed Proofreaders, an organization that digitizes books in the public domain through the work of volunteers. As you proofread the pages, they tend to skip around, but sometimes you get lucky (if you're the only person working on it at the time), and you can proofread a whole chapter straight through so that you get to catch a bit of the story. I just started proofreading this book so I have no clue of who the characters are. It's categorized as "English — General Fiction." I liked the quote — I think we all know this soulless beauty the author writes of. 

On Remaining Silent in the Face of Lies

Many Christians will see through... lies today but will choose not to speak up. Their silence will not save them and will instead corrode them, according to Czesław Miłosz.

    In his writing about communism's insidiousness, Miłosz referenced a 1932 novel, Insatiability. In it, Polish writer Stanisław Witkiewicz wrote of a near-future dystopia in which the people were culturally exhausted and had fallen into decadence. A Mongol army from the East threatened to overrun them.

    As part of the plan to tale over the nation, people began turning up in the streets selling "the pill of Murty-Bing," named after a Mongolian philosopher who found a way to embody his "don't worry, be happy" philosophy in a tablet. Those who toll the Pill of Murti-Bing quit worrying about life, even though things were falling apart around them. When the Eastern army arrived, it surrendered happily, its soldiers relieved to have found deliverance from their internal tension and struggles.

    Only the peace didn't last. "But since they could not rid themselves completely of their former personalities," writes Czesław Miłosz, "they became schizophrenic."

~ Live Not By Lives, Rod Dreher, pgs. 15–16.

    I'm currently reading Live Not By Lies. I've been eager to get my hands on it since it came out. I'm not a fan of reading things electronically, so I had to wait until I came to the US to get a hardback copy. One of the things I wonder about is whether I should keep reading the things that I read — the things that get me riled up — or whether I should just stick my head in the sand like so many others around me and imbibe on a diet of Netflix and cat videos. Those who do the latter somehow seem happier, but they also seem to be absolutely clueless to what's going on around them. I think I have no choice but to choose the former course of action.

    Dreher continues:

    What do you do when the Pill of Murti-Bing stops working and your find yourself living under a dictatorship of official lies in which anyone who contradicts the party line goes to jail?

    You become an actor, says Miłosz. You learn the practice of ketman. This is the Persian word for the practice of maintaining an outward appearance of Islamic orthodoxy while inwardly dissenting. Ketman was the strategy everyone who wasn't a true believer in communism had to adopt to stay out of trouble. It is a form of mental self-defense.

    What is the difference between ketman and plain old hypocrisy? As Miłosz explains, having to be "on" all the time inevitably changes a person. An actor who inhabits his role around the clock eventually becomes the character he plays. Ketman is worse than hypocrisy, because living by it all the time corrupts your character and ultimately everything in society. 

    Miłosz identified eight different types of ketman under communism. For example, "professional ketman" is when you convince yourself that it's okay to live a lie in the workplace, because that's what you have to do to have the freedom to do good work. "Metaphysical ketman" is the deepest form of the strategy, a defense against "total degradation." It consists of convincing yourself that it really is possible for you to be a loyal opponent of the new regime while working with it. Christians who collaborated with communist regimes were guilty of metaphysocal ketman. In fact, says Miłosz, it represents the ultimate victory of the Big Lie over the individual's soul.

    Under the emerging tyrany of workeness, conservatives, including conservative Christians, learn to practive one or more forms of ketman. The ones who are most deeply deceived are those who convince themselves that they can live honestly within woke systems by outwardly comforming and learning how to adapt their convictions to the new order. Miłosz had their number: "They swindle the devil who think he is swindling them. But the devil knows what they think and is satisfied."