The Mini Big Dig

Boston had the real "Big Dig". 42 East is having the mini big dig.

When we moved here 23 years ago the barn had the original carriage house. And in that part of the barn the back wall was totally comprised of large mullioned windows. Baseball, hockey, soccer put those windows in jeopardy and eventually they were removed and a solid wall was installed. However, we kept the windows and as the years passed by I gradually got this notion that I could build a greenhouse/potting shed with those windows and various other windows that we had collected over the years.

Last year we actually started to plan the building out and we realized that with the brick (that had been given to us) and the windows (that we had collected) we would need a foundation so the frost would not heave the building and destoy the structure in the spring. Hence, the backhoe and the big dig. The framing goes up tomorrow and the brick work starts next week. What started out as a little building that we were going to build ourselves has turned into a bigger project than we first conceived. But I think the the end result is going to be really cute!

Provoking to Love

An excerpt from My Utmost For His Highest:

"Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." Hebrews 10:24-25

We are all capable of being spiritual sluggards; we do not want to mix with the rough and tumble of life as it is, our one object is to secure retirement. The note struck in Hebrews 10 is that of provoking one another and of keeping together- both of which require initiative, the initiative of Christ-realization. To live a remote, retired, secluded life is the antipodes of spirituality as Jesus Chrsit taught it.

The test of our spirituality comes when we come up against injustice and meanness and ingratitude and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritual sluggards. We want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of retirement. We utilize God for the sake of getting peace and joy, that is, we do not want to realize Jesus Christ, but only our enjoyment of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things are effects and we try to make them causes.

"I think it meet," said Peter, "...to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." It is a most disturbing thing to be smitten in the ribs by some provoker of God, by someone who is full of spiritual activity. Active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work may be the counterfeit of spiritual activity. The danger of spiritual sluggishness is that we do not wish to be stirred up, all we want to hear about is spiritual retirement. Jesus Christ never encourages the idea of retirement- "Go tell My brethren..."

Oswald Chambers is hard to read sometimes.

I was given this little volume in January 1972 by the teacher of my college and career class, Joan Coffey, at my home church. My career was taking me to Boston to work at Mass General in the ICU. I worked nights and would come home and read My Utmost for His Highest and the Bible, then off to sleep. I resurrected this gem and have begun reading the daily devotions again. I thought this was really good.