• work
    Work

    How to Get Out of Work

    A blog post can only deal with this topic about work on a surface level. An exhaustive study of this subject would surely take many volumes and I have a great many reasons why attempting one is not possible for me at this moment. However, I can rat out the lazier of our brethren by pointing out their diverse strategies for dropping the ball at a moment’s notice. My credentials for this weighty task include the raising of six + children, working as an English professor for over two decades and having been a teenager for the usual eight years. Also, I am married. I am performing this public service…

  • Relationship with God,  Renewing the Mind,  Spiritual Disciplines,  Spiritual Growth

    How to Have an Easy Yoke

    Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ake my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 Consider how subversive the idea that Jesus offers us an easy yoke. Certainly, this is the first time that such a thing is even suggested, even in the Bible. The Levitical laws don’t strike me as a burden that is light, after all. And religion is filled with duties and obligations that weigh heavy on us. Then came Jesus proclaiming…

  • Mary and Martha
    Mary and Martha

    Mary and Martha: What We Misunderstand as Women

    The Mary and Martha paradigm precipitated a landslide of books that subtly or not so subtly shamed women who worry about everything they need to get done. I don’t know about you, but I know that whenever I think of Martha, I get the impression Jesus disapproved. I can’t help but identify with Martha sometimes because, well, I get busy. Even my prayer times consist of lists. And part of me wants to tell Mary to get off her tush and help Martha out. Then my 21st-century mentality rises to the surface and thinks, Why aren’t the men helping out? My basic issue with the current Mary and Martha paradigm…