the Gospel and Suffering

Recently I listened to a sermon by Tim Keller on Suffering.  It was so good that I wanted to share parts of it with you.

From One Amateur to Another: Photography Tips and Terms

I'm branching out a little from my usual topics to talk a little about one of my hobbies: photography.  So many of us love to take pictures; there is something of wonder in the ability to capture a moment - an expression, a beautiful scene, whatever it is that captivates us.  If you are already a photographer I suggest you skip this post and read one of my others. This post is about the basics, and a few rules of thumb.

Places

Do you have those places?  Those places that are somehow more important than others? Perhaps you had that extraordinary feeling of discovery when you happened on it.  Maybe you were wandering, looking for a place, or maybe you weren't, but now you know you will come back to it.  Perhaps it is a place you knew about all along, but it has become special because of what you thought about or what you did while you were there.  Maybe it is a place comforting in its familiarity, or a place that is familiar only in its sense of difference and the refreshment it brings to you.

I think most of us have these places.  I certainly do.  Sometimes these places are far away, and they have become over time a place in my memory that is probably different from the actual place.  I wonder how it will be if I return?

I long to share these places, to show someone how the hill curves this way or the shadows fall that way or the birds always sing that tune.  Do you feel this way?  I know I rarely 'have the time' to let others show me where they have explored, and of course, who would take the time to follow me around and let me show them my places?  Yet that would make an interesting life, don't you think?  It strikes me that we neglect to see not just literal places, but about many things that others care about.  How would we all be different if we really learned to listen and to see, to take the time to penetrate part of the loneliness we all feel and really listen?

that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life

The summer has come to an end, and so has (hopefully) my vacation from posting to this blog. This has been the longest period of no posting since I started this blog two and a half years ago, and it is high time I began again!  I welcome your continued reading and commenting!