The term “charitable giving” is something of a misnomer in America, because it includes every dollar donated to every nonprofit institution. I don’t think it really counts as charity to give to institutions — whether your own church or a foundation enriching your child’s secular private school — that provide services to you in return for the “gift.”
Scott and I work at the same places. We live in the same house and wear (sad to say) many of the same clothes. Lots of things have happened around us since 2003 but a remarkable number have stayed the same. Except boys: they grew an alarming number of inches and shoe sizes and turned from funny, smart, adorable little boys into funnier, smarter, handsome young men.
Advent, despite all earnestness, is a time of refuge because it has received a message. Oh, if people know nothing about the message and the promises anymore, if they only experience the four walls and the prison windows of their gray days, and no longer perceive the quiet footsteps of the announcing angels,
“Generally, their systems have been seen as precursors to the theoretical flowering of Greek mathematics, out of which our own mathematical approaches have grown.”
“One is left wondering what, exactly, their game is and why they should adopt these tactics at this stage.”
Those who preach the white-hot hatred of God aren’t ultimately going to let a little schedule conflict get in their way.
Good to see video of genuinely enjoyable music linked to this time of year through George Frideric Handel and his read of the prophets. Not content to be stabled in a church, the good news has spread itself to indisputable houses of cultural worship – malls and big department stores.
Here are some Advent-length resources that have come into view the past few days. Add your own or investigate what’s already there and add your thoughts.
So much for filling the starving with good things, casting down the mighty from their thrones, or sending the rich away empty.
Turner’s writing was characterized by personal modesty, steady focus, and an amazingly approachable prose style marked by clarity and anchoring his subjects in their broader place in English or European history. All this was laced with a riotous sense of humor, sometimes in one-line comments, sometimes in passing on a howler quote from the good and the great that had come his way.