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Final Notes: It's No End to Healthy
BY: Margie Haack |
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It's No End Healthy
Florence Allshorn, founder of St. Julian’s community in England wrote in the early 1900’s:
Don’t worry your head about theological problems. Read books with only half-a-dozen lines on a page, mostly sloppy. It will do you a world of good. Also, don’t think about yourselves at all, I mean your moral self. Just be a pagan, loving the sky, and the sun, and the smell of things, and let yourself expand that way a bit. It’s no end healthy... You’ll be twice as effective and clear- sighted when you come home. Do you know I think one of the best things you can do on holiday is to ask nothing, want nothing, but just praise God for everything. Always be praising Him – for the little sticky leaves, the rich somber greenness of the trees, all the kindness you get on a holiday. Just one long praise of little, beautiful things and forget that great, big, striving, blundering self of yours. Then come back to us clean and fresh and contagious, and let us, too, get a sight of the glory of God.
Most of us sorely need this admonishment. The frenetic pace of daily life can make the race for the Triple Crown look like a vacation. Contrary to my intuition which is – let me just do one more thing before I sit – many important things are not accomplished by the one who checks off every item on the to-do list. Relationships, rest, love-making are just a few of the things that require a much quieter, gentler pace. This summer I pray you enjoy some rest – intentional, contemplative rest. It’s Biblical. It’s commanded.
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Margie Haack
Margie Haack with her husband, Denis, are co-directors of Ransom Fellowship, a ministry helping Christians engage postmodern culture in ways that are both authentic to the Christian faith and winsome in its expression. Margie is the author of The Exact Place, blogs at toadsdrinkcoffee.blogspot.com, and is editor of a quarterly newsletter, Notes From Toad Hall, where she writes about being faithful in the ordinary and the everyday. She is also a columnist for Comment Magazine, a grandmother, a lazy gardener, and a chocolate freak.
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This year spring came late to southern Minnesota, and when it arrived it brought chilly temperatures, cloudy skies, and lots of rain. Whether it is because of these factors or something entirely different I don't know, but 2013 has turned out to be The Year of the Morel. If you have never sampled these delicious mushrooms, you are in for a treat. We've found them on more than one walk in the woods, and so feel we have had a special opportunity to experience one of the wonders of creation.
Morels, goldfinches, a well crafted film, an iris bursting into bloom, a chance for an unhurried conversation in a safe place--such glimmers of hope help us flourish as persons in this broken world. These are the sort of things we are concerned with at Ransom. Thanks for visiting.
Denis & Margie Haack
Anita Gorder
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