Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

The Third Generation of British Christian Blogging and Sustainability

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blogging
Image : Paul Wilkinson


Archdruid Eileen writes, “The Third Generation of British Christian blogging might go in two directions – the “professional” blogs, such as Andrew Brown or His Grace, and the more personal ones with a certain amount of theological reflection – such as Sally’s (which has been around a long, long time) or Catriona’s (likewise) or Anita’s. I realise I’ve just listed three women and maybe that makes them less aggressive, less determined to blog relentlessly, and therefore less likely to tire of it.”

Hmm. Interesting. I disagree—theoretically!!– with the assumption that being a woman might make you less aggressive, and less determined to blog relentlessly.  Practically, however, the average woman does have less physical energy than the average man (certainly the case if I take myself and my husband as a representative sample).

 Also, even in households in which childcare and domestic chores are shared at least equally (as is the case in my household), the weight and distraction of them falls unequally on the woman. If the house is messy, the kids go to school without permission slips, in grubby kit, which could have profited from introductions to the washing machine or a needle, no one is going to say, “Bad house-husband,” “Bad dad.” So the weight of domesticity does fall unequally on women—until you reach the stage at which you don’t care what people think. (Am getting there, but not quite there yet.). The quotidian grind of hassle can militate against blogging relentlessly.

And of course, if that prevents burn-out, it is not necessarily a bad thing.
I started blogging in mid-April 2011, and have been surprised at the short life-cycle of many bloggers. How long will mine be? Will I last the course? I would like to.
How does a Christian blogger stay the course?
1)     Make sure it is your calling and vocation.
Of course, it is not necessary for everything one does to be a calling and vocation. I travel a good deal, and garden a good deal. Neither of these are my vocation. (Now I wish I would convince Roy that I had a vocation to travel!!) So, of course, one can blog and enjoy it without it being a calling and vocation.
However, if one does feel it is one’s calling, then continuing becomes non-negotiable.
I do feel blogging is part of my calling to write.
But only a part of it.
2)     If one feels that blogging is part of one’s calling as a writer, how does one sustain it?
Limits and boundaries.  I have over the last 14 months worked out a sustainable schedule. I blog 4-6 days a week, setting the timer on for 30 minutes. If I have a decent post in that time, great. If not, I take another 30 minutes. If it’s still not ready within an hour, I don’t publish that day, but take more time the next day to wrap it up.  So, I never spend more than an hour a day on my posts, and often less.
I spend a dedicated 15 minutes a day reading and commenting on other blogs. (Of course, if posts catch my eye in my Facebook newsfeed, or in my blog roll, I read them, so it’s often more than that.) I keep a balance between reading the posts of my commentators and people on my blogroll (to which I have even-handedly added everyone who’s  added me, and a handful of others besides),  as well as reading edgy Christian blogs which challenge my thinking (Lesley Fellows, Rachel Held Evans, Jamie, the Worst Missionary, The Church of No People, Anne Jackson etc). All these bloggers are younger than I am, and just as I am belatedly trying to get my body more flexible with yoga and body balance classes, I am trying to keep my thinking nimble and agile and not settle into a predictable, atrophied rut of middle-aged thinking. Heaven forbid.
Having a limit for how long you will spend on your blog will help ensure you will continue for the long haul.
3)     Why are you blogging?
A very personal question which it is imperative to answer.
What are the benefits to you of this expenditure of time?
To list some personal benefits to me,
Psychological. It keeps me in touch with the subterranean river of thoughts, emotion and inspiration. The often inchoate is explored and expressed. Hey, it’s cheaper than therapy.
Social and friendships—I have made new friends through my blog, whom I’ve later met in the flesh and liked, and have deepened existing relationships.  Real people write blogs (as I can attest!) and cyber-friendships add interest to my life.
Writing—My books have sold better since I started blogging, and it gave me the confidence to rapidly write and almost finish my third.  
Intellectual—It’s exercise for the mind. Reading other blogs keeps me in touch with the zeitgeist and forces me to formulate my thoughts on issues I had never considered.
               Sharing your thoughts helps you to refine them. My comments often show the embarrassing spectacle of retractions, apologies, belated nuancing, mind-broadening, and general signs of thinking in progress.
4)      Resist blogging on what you are not really interested in. Resist commenting on the controversy du jour unless you feel strongly about it, or your blog will become like everyone else’s. It will first bore you, and then your readers—or vice-versa— in a deadly circle of miserable boredom.
5)      “If poetry does not come as naturally as leaves to a tree, it better not come at all,” Keats wrote. The same with blog posts. Straining to find something to write about is a kiss of death for a blog. Better wait till the inner wells of thought and feeling well up again. Let your blog rest until you have something you feel strongly about that you really want to say. Blogging for the sake of blogging, just for the sake of posting something, is a crime against both yourself and your readers, in my opinion. 
Fortunately, I usually have 5 or 10 ideas I could happily develop. When nothing comes to mind, I scroll my drafts folder for the 100-200 posts  or ideas for posts I have in draft form. Doing that, however, is a sign that there is something, just beneath the surface of consciousness that needs exploring, but which I don’t want to. Hey, exploring one’s inner reservoir of thoughts, motives, fears and emotions can be painful. (Not everything I write lands up on the blog of course; some goes to a journal.)
Just random thoughts. How is one most likely to stay the course and not burn out?
  

Short term Missions (thoughts inspired by Jamie, the Very World Missionary)

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 See this thought-provoking post
And here is the comment I left on her post
Short term missions

Negatives
Churches and individuals spend money that could have gone a loooong way in the third and fourth world on airfare to fly half way across the world to build and paint when local professionals could have done it for a fraction of the cost.A big waste of money!!

Positives
Many career missionaries, whom one hopes are loving and investing in those whom nobody else can or will invest in, start as short-term missionaries.
For children in orphanages, being hugged by a stranger for two weeks is better than not being hugged at all.
I have never been on a short-term mission. If I did, I would like to work with Heidi Baker in Mozambique as much for what I might be able to learn from her as for any benefit her orphans might receive from the love I will undoubtedly lavish on them.

                               ~ ~ ~
There is a certain amount of absurdity to it. 

Middle-class Christians who have invested as much as they can to ensure their kids never have to live as those in Sudan or Chad, let’s say, send their children on mission trips to deprived areas of the world–trips on which they are not willing to accompany them, for the most part–hoping that by seeing poverty they will learn lessons of gratitude which the parents themselves have not learnt.

I have supported short-term missionaries if I have been wowed by their character–as an investment in them–but, on the whole, I believe investing in people who invest in communities for the long haul is far better.



My Week in Facebook Status Updates

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Daisy and Quicker, our new pet ducks.  Pet rabbits in the background.




Roses on our garden wall

Very interesting talk in small group on Chinese religion and culture. Lots I didn’t know. Duty and devotion to parents is one of the strongest held Chinese cultural values, followed by a kind of pragmatism that values things which work, such as success. When you present the Gospel to an ethnic Chinese person, a frequent early question will be, “What can it do for me?” though this might be put in code.


.Zoe has been going from one sleepover to another ever since her GCSEs and wonders if she’s “broken” Hmm…Today,the sweet sounds of Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet are filling the house as both girls have their Trinity Guildhall Speech and Drama exams tomorrow. Can’t wait to see their performances.

A nice, though very warm day. Enjoyed Blenheim Palace Gardens with the girls. Zoe’s back from her Lake District trip with friends, and it’s been the first time since those GCSEs started that we’ve been able to go out and relax as a family. The Secret Garden is Blenheim is looking lovely, though the hostas are a bit slug-eaten. C’est la vie!


750,000 public servants are on strike today in Britain. I love to know who voted for the Tories; there seems to be universal disapprobation of their policies. I supported Brown, but I really, really admire Cameron & Osborne’s attempts to balance the budget. A household whose non-mortgage debt is 80% of its GDP (as Britain’s is) is headed for disaster–and so is a nation. The UK needs to cut its debt before it morphs into Greece.

Irene, “My friend A has inherited a chalet in Switzerland.” Me well, “Oh, who knows, if you work hard & want to, you could buy one.” She, disdainfully, “I don’t want a chalet in Switzerland !” then wistfully, “I would love a laptop, though.” Me, “NO, No, No!” A running battle! She has a desktop to herself in the living room, but yearns for a laptop. But she’s just 12, and given social media today, it’s definitely NO for now. Can’t have a tween disappearing into the internet.

Just last month Irene had a big sleepover in tents in our orchard. Now she wants another. Roy says that sleepovers are one of childhood’s most magical memories–& everyone loves coming to hers with hide & seek in the dark, roasting marshmallows, making candy floss, chocolate fountains etc. Except Roy, I & Zoe don’t sleep much with giggling girls. So tell me, are sleepovers really a magical childhood memory? Should I?

Grrr. What’s wrong with me? I have been fighting off 4 colds this week, extinguishing them just for another one to reappear. Allergies? Change of season? Or…? Okay, fruit, and chicken and onion soup then.

Summer garden joys–Irene bouncing in the sprinkler, in her swimsuit, listening to her iPod, wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap. Will it survive? Let’s see. Realizing how sharp Jake’s olfactory senses are compared to mine. He drops his yellow-green tennis ball amid clumps of plants, and looks at me as if I’m daft when I can’t smell it. Black crumbly compost I’ve made myself. Smells good!

Is someone cursing America (thoughts inspired by Matt Appling)

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Americans celebrating the death of Osama Bin-Laden

 

Matt at The Church of No People has this interesting post
Read it. Matt says that people who forecast gloom, doom andj udgment on nations are viewed by those nations as barking mad.
Mad and bad.
It was ever the way with prophets. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Isaiah were distinctly odd, and most unpopular.
It just so happened that they were right.
And, Matt asks, But is there any reason, other than we think that Pat Robertson is crazy, that he must be wrong?
I think God’s a big fan of“natural consequences,” which is handy, since doing bad things always results in natural consequences, saving God a lot of smiting that He’d have to do otherwise. Even if it’s not by God’s hand, America will be destroyed by our own actions, given enough time, unless we change course, or as the fundies might say, repent.
Several weeks ago, I participated in the “Rally to Restore Unity,” in which the goal was to say farewell to“flippant dismissals” of other Christians. Well, maybe we need to add this to our list of flippant dismissals we’re guilty of, and actually take a hard look at ourselves when some crazy person suggests that God is mad at us.(Except for Fred Phelps. We can flippantly dismiss him all we want…)
** *
I vividly remember a sermon I heard in Williamsburg Community Chapel several years ago. The preacher, a visiting Russian, said a pattern repeated itself throughout Old Testament history. God blesses people,they grow complacent, forget him, sin.
John Wesley talks about this. “Wherever true Christianity spreads, it must cause diligence and frugality, which, in the natural course of things, must beget riches! And riches naturally beget pride, love of the world,and every temper that is destructive of Christianity. Now, if there be no way to prevent this, Christianity is inconsistent with itself and, of consequence,cannot stand, cannot continue long among any people; since, wherever it generally prevails, it saps its own foundation.” From a sermon in Dublin in 1789.
A couple of days before 9-11-2011, Roy and I had a couple ofAmerican Christian friends over to dinner. We were talking about the materialism, the relentless getting and spending, the recreational shopping,the excessive focus on clothes and beauty, the relentless house proudness which brings no peace, snazzy cars one got into debt for considered symbols o fstatus; the immense amount of time and energy and worry squandered on one’s appearance, clothes, furniture, cosmetics, interior decoration. America needs a shock, a wake up call, we said. A couple of days later, she had it.
* * *
There was a time in which America was perhaps the most blessed nation on earth, as we humans understand blessing. Perhaps in fortiesand fifties when her churches were strong, and she gave the world outstanding,exemplary Christian leaders and their institutions like World Vision,Compassion, Operational Mobilization, Mercy Ships, YWAM, you name it.
· * * *
· And now? Where is America in the cycle ofBlessing-Complacency—Sin—Judgement—Repentance—Blessing.
I left this comment on Matt’s blog,
Indebtedness, hedonism, divorce, having other Gods (Gods ofmaterialism, lust, and comfort) disregard for the poor and the alien, lack ofinterest in God: all these things brought God’s judgment on the ancientIsraelites, as recorded in the Old Testament.
I have lived in America for 17 years. After 9-11-2001, Isensed a difference, a dramatic sea-change. There was an atmosphere of fear andsuspicion, and there was a rush to attack Iraq and Afghanistan which history isproving was unjustified.
God has certainly blessed America in the past. However, I nolonger have the sense that America is, any more, a nation particularly under God’sblessing. The events of September 2011 started an inevitable and inexorabledecline, in my opinion.

The Praise of God or Man (Roman, Blog Through the Bible Project)

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 God praises those who are Christians inwardly, whose hearts are circumcised
Circumcision of  the  Heart
Image: holyspiritinteractive.net
The Jews and the Law
 17 Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; 18 if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; 19 if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
25 Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. 26 So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? 27 The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
 28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
Paul’s sardonic inquisition of the Jews could also apply to smug and self-righteous Christians.
He mocks the Jews who are proud of their law, who boast of their special relationship to God, who are convinced that they know his will and approve of what is superior, who are convinced that they are guides to the blind, lights for those who are in darkness, teachers of the foolish because they have in the law and in scripture, the embodiment of knowledge and truth. Yet, they secretly do the very things they excoriate others for doing.
Circumcision does not make a Jew. Ticking the right belief boxes does not make one a Christian.  True Jews have their hearts cleansed and purified by the Spirit. True Christians have their hearts cleansed and purified by the spirit
These true believers may or may not be praised by other people, but God praises them. 
Romans 2:28  Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
The last sentence echoes Jesus’ wry, sad and exasperated comment in John, “How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?”
Accepting praise from one another actually militates against and weakens our faith.  Our sight and world-view become horizontal. We focus on what we can see, on people.
Our choices are no longer governed by what will, so to say, impress God but what will win us praise from people. (There is just a single occasion when Jesus is recorded as being astonished, and that was by the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman.)
And we are the losers, because we dilute our faith, that essential navigational tool to steer us through the thickets of life.
Those, however, whose heart has been purified by the Spirit seek the praise, not of man, but of God.
And what peace there is in that, in seeking praise from the audience of one. 

Being Praised by God

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Romans, Blog Through the Bible Project

Romans 2:28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.
The last sentence echoes Jesus’ wry, sad and exasperated comment in John, “How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?”

Accepting praise from one another actually militates against and weakens our faith.  Our sight and world-view become horizontal. We focus on what we can see, on people.

Our choices are no longer governed by what will, so to say, impress God (Jesus is recorded as being amazed at the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman) but what will win us praise from people.

And we are the losers, because we dilute our faith, that essential navigational tool to steer us through the thickets of life.

Those, however, whose heart has been purified by the Spirit seek the praise, not of man, but of God.

And what peace there is in that, in seeking praise from the audience of one. 

Bees, Permaculture and Blessing

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We are soon to be beekeepers.


We have ordered a queen bee, a nucleus of 5 frames of bees, and a hive and all the accoutrements.

Now, I know nothing about beekeeping I hasten to add–and, having arrived at middle age fully cognizant of my limitations, will not be practically involved in beekeeping. (I have ordered the hat, veil and gloves for myself, but the full head to toe suit for Roy.) 

Roy’s father and maternal grandmother had backyard hives, and so he has absorbed some beekeeping lore from them.

A hive of bees in the backyard apparently “blesses” the entire garden. The flowers pollinated are bigger and brighter. Vegetables pollinated by bees are bigger. Your harvest of fruit increases exponentially, tempting to me since I have a small orchard, though a continually expanding one as I learn more about forest gardening.

Bigger vegetables, brighter flowers, bountiful harvests of fruit. Introducing bees to one’s garden certainly resembles the blessing of God.

Carol Wimber in her amusing book “The Way it Was” writes lyrically of the joyous few months after she and John Wimber became Christians. Joy filled their hearts, the songs flowed, lyrics flowed. “Even our gardens were more brighter, more lush and verdant.” Or something like that.
                                          * * * 

The honey from local bees–and how can one get something more local than from the bottom of the garden?–is meant to protect one from hayfever, which is tempting to me, as I have an odd form of hay-fever that hits in the last week of June/early July. Some people have said that it’s probably an allergy to the grass pollen and mould spores in the garden and orchard. I am currently trying a radically sugar and carbo free diet to see if that helps. I know my allergies are far worse when I have sugar!
                                           * * *

We are also experimenting with permaculture. Our garden/orchard is huge–1.5 acre, and I could like to plant it intensively–fruit, veggies and flowers, but spend no more than 1 an hour a day, and 2 on Sunday in the garden (with Roy spending a bit more than that). 

So I am trying to learn permaculture techniques to minimize labour in the garden. People estimate that one can grow enough fruit and veggies to feed one’s family as well as having a pretty flower-filled garden with no more than a few hours a week in the garden (which I need for the exercise, tranquillity, and the opportunity for clear thinking and praying it affords) if one uses the techniques of permaculture.

These involved minimizing human labour with techniques such as chipping all garden waste to make thick mulches which dramatically decrease the amount of watering and weeding. Roy really enjoys this–turning our unruly hedges, prunings and garden waste into mulches, which will soon become nutritious compost and increase the soil’s fertility for future years

Another permaculture technique we are adopting is focussing on perennial vegetables. We’ve planted 40 asparagus crowns, 
rows of strawberries, perennial onions, and some old English traditional vegetables–lovage, good King Henry etc. 
                                      * * *

A permaculture idea which is interesting me is creating a tight ecosystem in the home and garden in which nothing is wasted. Our ducks eat our table scraps. We eat their eggs. Their waste and the egg shells go into the compost. The rabbits eat the garden waste (well, the things they love, apple branches, hawthorn, willow, all fruit tree branches, twigs), their nitrogen rich droppings go into the compost. All paper and cardboard–and about a third of our household waste–goes into the compost.

Compost itself is magic–all this waste becoming black, rich, nutritious soil.

Our garden is all organic, of course, and we are learning as much as we can of natural methods of pest control, as with the birds in our five feeders, who are, of course, sheer delight!

And I do love gardening–but I go into the garden with my timer on my iPhone set for an hour, so that with the pleasures of being out with the birds–and now the bees!!– I do not entirely lose track of time.
                                         ~ ~ ~

It is my first year, well to be precise, my fourth month of gardening in England, though we gardened intensely and intensively in America for 7 years, so I have much to learn.
Any ideas or tips will be welcome.