Story Warren

Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

The Warren & The World Vol 10, Issue 21

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Exploding glass, new songs, prayer, and more. It’s a fascinating week for you.

Around the Web

“Leaf by Niggle”: Sacrificing Ambition for the Love of a Neighbor

Rebekah Mann explores self-sacrifice in Tolkien’s short story.

  • For nerds like myself who casually insert J.R.R. Tolkien into everyday conversation, his name can often be met with disinterest as listeners write him off as a leader of nerds and the creator of Middle Earth. A fact that often goes undiscussed, however, is Tolkien’s work that exists (as best we can tell) outside of Middle Earth, such as his children’s book Roverandom or (my favorite) his collection entitled Tree and Leaf. In this collection is both a beautiful essay that literature students should really be required to read—“On Fairy-Stories”—and a short story that is increasingly applicable to our modern lives: “Leaf by Niggle.” 
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Breathe: The School of Prayer

Karen Hodge looks at prayer through the lens of breathing.

  • Take a deep breath and exhale; refreshing, right? Breathing is very complex but is primarily a subconscious activity. Did you know an average person breathes in and out around 22,000 times a day? Oxygen is the body’s life-giving gas. It is crucial to help boost our immune system and overall health. Our sensitive brains require lots of oxygen to think. Concentrating can be hard when our oxygen levels dip, and we get lightheaded. We often don’t think about breathing until we can’t catch our breath.
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Rip to the Rescue

Janie at Redeemed Reader reviews a middle-grade novel.

  • Rip to the Rescue is a true-to-life World War II adventure featuring heroic teens and one heroic dog.
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The Return of the Culture War

Trevin Wax has been examining the resurgence of culture wars in a series at TGC. 

  • Here’s something you often hear people say as they get older: “I remember the last time that was popular.” Fashions once considered outdated come back in style. Movements arise and subside, and then surge again. A benefit of age is the wisdom and perspective you bring to the current moment. History doesn’t always repeat itself or move in predictable cyclical patterns, but the more you study it and the longer you live, the more you see how the present and the past rhyme.
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Around the Warren

The Characters That Shape Us

Kathryn Butler looks at the characters who make us who we are.

  • My kids’ rock-climbing instructor gaped, incredulous. Just weeks earlier, my daughter had screamed with terror halfway up the kids’ bouldering wall. Now she clung with a single hand to the topmost hold of an autobelay route, grinning ear to ear. Along with her brother, she belted out a chant unknown to anyone else in the climbing gym, but very familiar to anyone who’s shared our couch:
    My place beside you! My blood for yours! Till the Green Ember rises, or the end of the world!
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Sunrise: Songs for the Morning

Elise Massa introduces songs for the Daily Office.

  • When my husband and I were growing up, our musical formation spanned from Bach and The Beatles to Ray Charles and Michael W. Smith. We carried on this practice when we became parents. In preschool, our son’s favorite artists also included The Beatles, as well as Carole King, Fiona Apple, and the soundtrack to Beasts of the Southern Wild. I’m pretty sure we played Carole King’s album Tapestry on repeat in our car for a solid month.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

There are enough summer crafts on this list to fill an entire year of crafting!

Something to Watch

Destin explores Prince Rupert’s drop by exploding it.

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side. 

–The Story Warren

Carolyn Clare Givens
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