The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!
Around the Web
Where Feet May Fail
- I felt like God was nudging me to find a new location for work that day. Perhaps he wanted me to spend some leisurely time outdoors, enjoying beauty and gathering strength before I sat down to write. It was something I’d tried before. Attempting to let the Holy Spirit lead me as I work can mean several different things. Some days it’s as simple as folding laundry, making pasta, or taking a nap, before my mind is still enough to hear the beat of my own heart, to see the visions of my past and the paths I need to follow to pave this memoir trail. But the words had been coming more and more easily the past few days and I had a goal to reach before that final summer bell rang. I felt so good about everything I’d accomplished, but staying inside for the rest of the day was not an option anymore. It was time to pull back from the canvas and imagine a new color.
Boy leaves stuffed tiger at Tampa International Airport
- A frantic call to the Tampa International Airport’s Lost and Found department came in on a Saturday morning. A 6-year-old boy named Owen, traveling to Houston with his parents, had left behind his favorite stuffed tiger, Hobbes. He was distraught, his mother said. Could the airport please help? The call set into motion a dispatch to various employees throughout the airport, including a janitorial services crew that found Hobbes near the children’s play area at Airside C and rushed it back to the Airport Operations Center.
No Disappointment in Jesus?
The world lost a spiritual giant with the death of Elisabeth Elliot earlier this week. Christianity Today reposted an article she first published in that magazine in 1970 in which Elliot wrestles with disappointment in Jesus.
- woman who had come to my house for lunch one summer day went away with the determination to read some of my books. She started, unfortunately, with a novel (the only novel I’ve written), and later wrote me a very nice note thanking me for the lunch and saying she had read the book but would like to have more “added on” to it. She thought it should end, she said, with a “deeper understanding, and no disappointment in Jesus.”
I know exactly how she feels. A lot of us would like to have “more added on.” We would love to be able to rise up in the congregation of the righteous and say, “I have never known any disappointment in Jesus.”
Twenty Years
The inimitable Russ Ramsey pens an essay at the twenty year mark of his marriage. It’s an ode to his wife, but also an ode to the beauty of that mysterious, lovely relationship.
- Our marriage created an empty library, and we were two containers of books out at the curb, waiting to be brought in, cataloged, and shelved. In would come the stories we had been told, the books we had read, and the faith we had been given. In would come her history and in would come mine, along with her comedy and my drama and all of the mysteries that lie between a man and a woman.When we had brought in all we had, only a fraction of the shelves were filled. Those empty shelves were waiting for what was yet to be written. Slowly but surely, volumes of lamentation, praise, art, humor, geography, vocation, finance, education, home improvement, medicine, Biblical studies, theology, grief, parenting, gardening, and inspiration would find their place among the stacks.
Around the Warren
Press Your Love Deep
Guest Jake Nuckolls’ poem reminds us of the wonder of life, love, and relationships with our Creator and His creatures.
- Consider for a moment dying, often
Consider finding a treasure, invaluable, beautiful, and giving it away
Consider your 8 to 5 job, your 10 to 7 sleep, laugh
And choose to work always and sleep during your breaks
Consider cold coffee, cold food, warm milk
“An hour spent reading…”
Words from Thomas Wharton. Art from Paul Boekell.
Call it Courage
Liz Cottrill recommends adding Call it Courage to your summer reading list.
- As I laze on my front porch in the sweltering humidity of a summer’s day in Virginia, I find myself wishing for the frigid waters of Lake Michigan where I spent most of my life. Then, in that meandering way thoughts have of wandering through, I find myself smiling over memories of my children’s lake experiences. Some were naturally cautious and took some coaxing to get comfortable in the water. One of my children was so fearful, I despaired that he would ever put his face in, let alone learn to swim. I suppose fear of water is natural, but other fears children have are curiously inexplicable.Fears, in general, are common to us all. In fact, the most common command of Christ is, “Fear not.” He knew our weakness to harbor both valid and irrational fears.
The Given
Hannah Hubin shared a delightful story with us last summer and has followed it up this year with “The Given,” a tale of a tale of a ridge and a father and a son.
Something to Do with Your Kids
Math has never been my favorite thing. Once we passed counting beans and blocks in first grade, it was a mystery to me. Maybe, though, if I’d played calculator hopscotch, I would have enjoyed it a bit more! Learn how to play at Parents.com.
And Something to Watch
I saw a video this week about a puffer fish who carves crop circles in the ocean floor to attract a mate. It reminded me of the bowerbird of the South Pacific, who decorates his nest and does a dance in front of it to attract a mate (I learned about him from Son of Laughter):
Thank you for reading. We’re on your side.
You can find her at carolyncgivens.com or on Facebook or Instagram at @carolyncgivens.
- The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 30 - September 16, 2023
- The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 29 - September 2, 2023
- The Warren & The World Vol 11, Issue 28 - August 19, 2023
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