"This is about whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated."

"Immigration can be a controversial topic. We all want safe, secure borders and a dynamic economy, and people of goodwill can have legitimate disagreements about how to fix our immigration system so that everybody plays by the rules.


But that’s not what the action that the White House took today is about. This is about young people who grew up in America – kids who study in our schools, young adults who are starting careers, patriots who pledge allegiance to our flag. These Dreamers are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper. They were brought to this country by their parents, sometimes even as infants. They may not know a country besides ours. They may not even know a language besides English. They often have no idea they’re undocumented until they apply for a job, or college, or a driver’s license.


Over the years, politicians of both parties have worked together to write legislation that would have told these young people – our young people – that if your parents brought you here as a child, if you’ve been here a certain number of years, and if you’re willing to go to college or serve in our military, then you’ll get a chance to stay and earn your citizenship. And for years while I was President, I asked Congress to send me such a bill.


That bill never came. And because it made no sense to expel talented, driven, patriotic young people from the only country they know solely because of the actions of their parents, my administration acted to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people, so that they could continue to contribute to our communities and our country. We did so based on the well-established legal principle of prosecutorial discretion, deployed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike, because our immigration enforcement agencies have limited resources, and it makes sense to focus those resources on those who come illegally to this country to do us harm. Deportations of criminals went up. Some 800,000 young people stepped forward, met rigorous requirements, and went through background checks. And America grew stronger as a result.


But today, that shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again. To target these young people is wrong – because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating – because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel. What if our kid’s science teacher, or our friendly neighbor turns out to be a Dreamer? Where are we supposed to send her? To a country she doesn’t know or remember, with a language she may not even speak?


Let’s be clear: the action taken today isn’t required legally. It’s a political decision, and a moral question. Whatever concerns or complaints Americans may have about immigration in general, we shouldn’t threaten the future of this group of young people who are here through no fault of their own, who pose no threat, who are not taking away anything from the rest of us. They are that pitcher on our kid’s softball team, that first responder who helps out his community after a disaster, that cadet in ROTC who wants nothing more than to wear the uniform of the country that gave him a chance. Kicking them out won’t lower the unemployment rate, or lighten anyone’s taxes, or raise anybody’s wages.


It is precisely because this action is contrary to our spirit, and to common sense, that business leaders, faith leaders, economists, and Americans of all political stripes called on the administration not to do what it did today. And now that the White House has shifted its responsibility for these young people to Congress, it’s up to Members of Congress to protect these young people and our future. I’m heartened by those who’ve suggested that they should. And I join my voice with the majority of Americans who hope they step up and do it with a sense of moral urgency that matches the urgency these young people feel.


Ultimately, this is about basic decency. This is about whether we are a people who kick hopeful young strivers out of America, or whether we treat them the way we’d want our own kids to be treated. It’s about who we are as a people – and who we want to be.


What makes us American is not a question of what we look like, or where our names come from, or the way we pray. What makes us American is our fidelity to a set of ideals – that all of us are created equal; that all of us deserve the chance to make of our lives what we will; that all of us share an obligation to stand up, speak out, and secure our most cherished values for the next generation. That’s how America has traveled this far. That’s how, if we keep at it, we will ultimately reach that more perfect union."






-Barack Obama

Words.

These are the words we had read at our wedding. I love them.

I love that they were part of the day we started our marriage; I'm continually surprised by how often they come to mind and help shape the life we are creating together.

********

“When over the years someone has seen you at your worst,

and knows you with all your strengths and flaws, yet commits him- or herself to you wholly,

it is a consummate experience.

To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.

To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.

But to be fully known and truly loved is a lot like being loved by God.

It is what we need more than anything.

It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness,

and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

-from The Meaning of Marriage, by Timothy Keller

********

“I might seem to be comparing something great and holy

with a minor and ordinary thing,

that is, love of God with mortal love.

But I just don’t see them as separate things at all.

If we can be divinely fed with a morsel and divinely blessed with a touch,

then the terrible pleasure we find in a particular face

can certainly instruct us in the nature of the very grandest love.

I devoutly believe this to be true.

I remember in those days loving God for the very existence of love

and being grateful to God for the existence of gratitude…

 I realized many things I am at a loss to express.

There is no justice in love, no proportion in it, and there need not be,

because in any specific instance it is only a glimpse or parable

of an embracing, incomprehensible reality.

It makes no sense at all,

because it is the eternal breaking in on the temporal.

So how could it subordinate itself to cause or consequence?” 

from Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

********

“...Watching him and watching myself in my memory now,

I know again what I knew before, but now I know more than that.

Now I know what we were trying to stand for, and what I believe we did stand for:

the possibility that among the world’s wars and sufferings

two people could love each other for a long time,

until death and beyond,

and could make a place for each other that would be a part of their love,

as their love for each other would be a way of loving their place.

This love would be one of the acts of the greater love that holds and cherishes all the world.

...And so I had put myself in [his] hands,

mindful also that he had put himself in mine.

We were each other's welcomer and each other's guest.

And so we had come to our place."

-from Hannah Coulter, by Wendell Berry

********

"I thank my God every time I remember you,

always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all...

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you

will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound still more and more

in knowledge and depth of insight,

to the glory and praise of God.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility consider others more important than yourselves.

Each of you should look not only to your own interest but also to the interest of others.

In your relationships with one another,

let your attitude be the same as Christ Jesus, 

who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.

Always be full of joy in the Lord.

Let your gentle spirit be evident to all.

The Lord is near."

-excerpts from Philippians

********

I miss this space! Maybe I will try to use it regularly again.

If you are interested: these days, for whatever reason, glimpses of my life are more often found here.

Three life-giving posts I've seen on the Internet recently.

So many articles and posts and news stories about the most disheartening, sad things.

Sometimes even the responses: beautifully-written reflections, or calls for action,

reflecting truth and justice,

leave me just feeling more overwhelmed by how much bad there is.

(Rock on to those who feel called to seek good through writing them! But:)

My little blog isn't going to say anything new or helpful about those sad things.

Yet leaving lament unsaid feels wrong, too.

As a form of lament, for me, I'm keeping a list of when the Internet shows me something that resonates with me as truly good.
Things I think have comparable

power and poignancy in their goodness

as is found in the stories of cruelty and suffering.

The good stories don't negate the bad ones.

They just exist, also.

For now:

I hope my actions in my daily life grow in mercy-love and justice-doing.

On the social media/Internet front:

Here are

three things I saw online that I found truly, deeply, resonantly good.

(1)

They might actually be very close to a CURE for childhood cancer.

Like a real one. Like maybe IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS.

Like, finding out your kid has cancer could be a bummer, going to need a few weeks of treatment and then they are FINE. Like a cold.

Can you imagine?!

A trial was completed this year with 22 children who all had cancer which was progressing despite every common form of treatment. Like kids whose parents were told "there's nothing more we can do."

AND TWENTY OF THEM ARE NOW FINE.

More info on the treatment here.

How amazing is that?!!!

(2)

The physicist who came up with cosmological inflation theory was proven right;

a worker on the team who finalized the discovery showed up on his doorstep to tell him.

I just LOVE this video (here's another article about it).

I love the expressions on Andrei Linde and his wife's face- I love how the shocks sinks in for her first and she spontaneously gives the guy telling them a hug, while Andrei is still going "What? What? What did you say?!". I love that he found out without any warning that his life's work had been successful. I love imagining how that must have felt. I love that the team member had the idea to go show up and randomly tell him as soon as they found out. I just love it.

Also, the little bit I could comprehend about the theory itself is amazing.

"[Andrei Linde] proposed that our universe is one of a vast – and perhaps infinite – number of inflationary universes that sprout off an eternal cosmic tree, without beginning and without end..."

Um. What. That just....

is so insanely big.

That makes me worship God so much.

(3)

When a teenage girl refused an order to leave a scene,

a cop challenged her to a dance-off.

"..Aaliyah Taylor, a 17-year-old senior at Ballou High School, walked up to the officer

and started playing “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” on her phone.

Then she did the Nae Nae dance..

.

The officer, according to Taylor, laughed

and said she had far better dance moves than that."

"...For Taylor, she said the dance-off marked her first positive interaction with police officers in her neighborhood.

She has six sisters and one brother and, according to Taylor, all have been arrested or detained for non-violent offenses like breaking curfew.

Taylor, who said she’s never been arrested, recalls her siblings saying that the officers acted unnecessarily rude and rough during their arrests.

Those experiences, Taylor said, had shaped her perception of police officers.

“I thought all cops were cruel because that’s how I saw them,” Taylor said.

“I’ve now seen there are good cops out there.”

In a different article, Aaliyah Taylor was quoted as saying:

“Instead of us fighting,

she tried to turn it around and make it something fun,”

The cop was reached but refused to be named because she didn't want to make the story about her;

her boss simply said she is someone "known as a hard worker and committed to policing."

Not only is this just, lovely and wonderful,

it also is a perfect example of one of my favorite attachment principles:

playfulness builds relational bonds AND lowers the stress hormones that impede learning.

There are some really good things happening.

This happiness.

"I don't want to lose a single thread

from the intricate brocade of this happiness."

-Mary Oliver

When happiness and wonder meet.

"Gratitude

is

happiness

doubled by

wonder."

-G.K. Chesterton

to wonder...

to be filled with amazement, awe, or astonishment,

as at something surprising or extraordinary.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. By this recipe for gratitude, then I am the most grateful person ever,

because I've never been happier,

and I still can not believe it...

I'm in love with the kindest and best person I know, and he's in love with me,

and we're getting married and going to make a home and a family together.

Forgive the sappiness. It is written in full sincerity.

Right now is a very, very lovely and joyful time for me,

and I don't want to forget for one minute to be grateful for the wonder and happiness of this season.

Our mouths were filled with laughter,

our tongues with shouts of joy.

Then it was said among the nations,

"The Lord has done great things for them."

The Lord has done great things for us,

and we are filled with joy.

-psalm 126.

This momentary gift.

"Let it be heralded with joy:...

Marriage is not mainly about prospering economically;

it is mainly about displaying the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church.

Knowing Christ is more important than making a living.

Treasuring Christ is more important than bearing children.

Being united to Christ by faith is a greater source of marital success than perfect sex and double-income prosperity.

...Life is precarious, and even if it is long by human standards, it is short.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Prov. 27:1).

So it is with marriage.
It is a momentary gift.

It may last a lifetime, or it may be snatched away on the honeymoon.

Either way, it is short.

It may have many bright days, or it may be covered with clouds...

But if we set our face to make of marriage mainly what God designed it to be,

no sorrows and no calamities can stand in our way.

Every one of them will be, not an obstacle to success, but a way to succeed.

The beauty of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church shines brightest when nothing but Christ can sustain it.

Very soon the shadow will give way to Reality.

The partial will pass into the Perfect.

The foretaste will lead to the Banquet.

The troubled path will end in Paradise.

A hundred candle-lit evenings will come to their consummation in the marriage supper of the Lamb. And this momentary marriage will be swallowed up by Life.

Christ will be all and in all. And the purpose of marriage will be complete.

To that end may God give us eyes to see what matters most in this life...

And may that Treasure so satisfy our souls...
that the marriage-watching world be captivated by
the covenant-keeping love of Christ."

-John Piper, This Momentary Marriage

Advent is for waiting.

"Waiting is essential to the spiritual life.

But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting.

It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts

that makes already present what we wait for.

We are always waiting,

but we are waiting in the conviction

that we have already seen God's footsteps.

Waiting for God is an active, alert-

yes, joyful!-

waiting.

When we wait in expectation,

our whole beings are open to be surprised by joy.

It is this joyful expectation of God's coming

that offers vitality to our lives."

-Henri Nouwen

This joyful expectation.

So much joy in these days.

(*just begun and so not fully developed; imperfectly formed.)

"...The surgeon is... a grim man,

impatient with unlabeled brands of inchoate* faith.

In his view, a man should know his craft,

so that a smith should know his forge,

a farmer his plow, and a chaplain his creed.

He has made plain his disregard for me and my ministry.

The first time I preached to the company,

he observed that in his view a sermon that did not dwell on damnation

was scant service to men daily facing death,

and that if he wanted to hear a love poem

he would apply to his wife."

-from March, by Geraldine Brooks;

a book based on the unknown life at war of the father character from my beloved Little Women.

I found this description(-through-counterexample, I suppose)

of faith

provocative and resonant.

Inchoate faith...

faith that is not fully developed, still imperfectly formed.

Doesn't sound so terrible to me.

Lots of room for mystery and grace?

.perhaps we know a dozen, maybe two.

"God does ten thousand things

in every deed.

Perhaps we know a dozen,

maybe two.

But not enough to judge before He's through."

-John Piper

i have mixed feelings about John Piper,

but ever since i first heard this quote,

i've loved it and seen the truth in it.

lately it has been echoing in my head and heart more true every day;

all the crazy ways things have been woven

that i never could have imagined,

making me laugh and marvel and repent and give thanks.

"Aslan," said Lucy, "You're bigger."

"That is because you are, little one," answered He.

"Not because you are?"

"I am not.

But every year you grow, you will find Me bigger."

-Prince Caspian

***********

I love that reading aloud to each other has been a part of Ben's and my relationship since our very first date, the one neither of us was sure was a date. We're working our way through The Chronicles of Narnia, which to my shame I had never read past The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I can't get enough- I love every one more than the one before.

***********

I have no idea why I haven't written much in months. It's been a rich season, for sure (see above), but I don't think that's why I haven't. I miss it, and the deeper reflecting writing can lead me to. I hope to do more this fall.

***********

This is a way late update, but: Matt and Mitch got married. It was the best.

...loving Smitten Kitchen's pumpkin muffins (three times this fall so far);
I double the pumpkin pie spice and put in a full 15 oz can of pumpkin instead of just one cup. Especially amazing with a simple maple-cream cheese frosting.



my quote wall makes me happy.

what happens when you leave your car door unlocked in a small town:
you get back to find someone left you $20.





Saturday morning six-year-old soccer games.

She had a surprise for us. It was... her pink toothbrush!!

 

 

***********

He is looking bigger to me, this year.

Set down here precisely.

all quotes from this.

"I praise each day splintered down,

splintered down and wrapped in time like a husk,

a husk of many colors spreading,

at dawn fast over the mountains split."

"If the Greeks had looked at Mount Baker all day,

their large and honest art would have broken,

and they would have gone fishing,

as these people do."

"'Teach me Thy ways, O Lord'

is, like all prayers,

a rash one..."

"All day long I feel created.

I can see the blown dust on the skin on the back of my hand,

the tiny trapezoids of chipped clay, moistened and breathed alive.

There are some created sheep in the pasture below me,

sheep set down here precisely,

just touching their blue shadows hoof to hoof on the grass.

Created gulls pock the air, rip great curved seams in the settled air;

I greet my created meal, amazed."

"Had she been new, or old?

Had she mated and laid her eggs,

had she done her work?"

"Of itself it is nothing,

but the view,

as they say,

is good."

"Is this the only final beauty:

the color of any skin in any light

and living, human eyes?"

"You spill your breath.

Nothing holds;

the whole show rolls."

"...all the landscape's occasions,

to all its weathers, colors and lights."