Emily Cook's Blog, page 41

sad and beautiful

It's Holy Week, and I have the same problem I always have. My body doesn't like to be still, and my vocation rarely allows it to be still anyway. Yes, I try to sit and listen or read. I know that it is good and important. But sitting often leads to... well, falling asleep.
But behold! There is a way to be fed on the move!  I call it scarfing, and I'm trying to do lots of it this week in honor of Holy Week.
I just finished listening to this podcast on the following hymn and I had to pass it on to you. What a rich and sad and beautiful hymn- what a rich and sad and beautiful and gracious Savior we have.
Listen to the podcast here
You may also want to visit the Issues, Etc archives for more great Holy Week topics.Listen live here every day.

photo credit

 "Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted" by Thomas Kelly, 1769-1854                                       
        1. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,        See Him dying on the tree!        'Tis the Christ by man rejected;        Yes, my soul, 'tis He! 'tis He!        'Tis the long-expected Prophet,        David's Son, yet David's Lord;        Proofs I see sufficient of it:        'Tis the true and faithful Word.
        2. Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,        Was there ever grief like His?        Friends through fear His cause disowning,        Foes insulting His distress;        Many hands were raised to wound Him,        None would interpose to save;        But the deepest stroke that pierced Him        Was the stroke that Justice gave.
        3. Ye who think of sin but lightly        Nor suppose the evil great        Here may view its nature rightly,        Here its guilt may estimate.        Mark the Sacrifice appointed,        See who bears the awful load;        'Tis the WORD, the LORD'S ANOINTED,        Son of Man and Son of God.
        4. Here we have a firm foundation;        Here the refuge of the lost;        Christ's the Rock of our salvation,        His the name of which we boast.        Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,        Sacrifice to cancel guilt!        None shall ever be confounded        Who on Him their hope have built.
lyrics copied with permission from here

Sermon, recommended

Listen to this Passion Sunday Sermon by Pastor Cwirla.

Listen Here

Why is the cross so offensive?

Weekly Challenge: Put Your Body in its Place

I notice in myself a tendency to worry too much about the things of the body.  Health is important, but it’s doesn't deserve first place in my heart or my mind.
Whether I am on or off the wagon, dealing with health or any other issue, my tendency is to focus on myself,on what I should do or not do. It’s about my work, my standards, my awesomeness (or lack thereof.)
I keep a steady pace on the treadmill of my own efforts.  Yet my body, my life, are connected to my spirit and my Church, and this week, they are to be swept up in Holy Week.  This week, we remember the events that changed everything.
The things of the body, they are not the most important things. 
Join me, this week, as we fix our eyes on Jesus. Read this excellent Holy Week Letter.
Weekly Challenge Put your body in its place.
Father, thank you for the gift of my body. Thank you for legs that run and a mouth that is learning to enjoy healthy food. Father, forgive me for obsessing too much about these things.  Forgive me when I allow the things of this world to crowd out the Important Things. You. Your Word.Father, this week, draw me, body and soul, deeper into Your care. Open my ears to hear Your Word. Teach my eyes to look to You, to read Your Word, to study and to grow.  Turn my heart from sin and teach it to love what is good.  As my body struggles through this dying world, may my heart take courage as I consider His body, His blood, shed for me.Amen
Don't forget to read Pastor Esget's Holy Week Letter.

If you knew...

Remember the story in the Imitation, how the Christ on the crucifix suddenly spoke to the monk who was so anxious about his salvation and said “If you knew that all was well, what would you, today, do, or stop doing?”
When you have found the answer, do it or stop doing it. You see, one must always get back to the practical and definite. What the devil loves is that vague cloud of unspecified guilt feeling or unspecified virtue by which he lures us into despair or presumption.(From CS Lewis, Letters to an American Lady, July 21st, 1958)
If you knew that all was well, what would you, today, do, or stop doing?

A Lovely Note

Lovely and Loved.
Thank you, my lovely daughter.

All of your strength.

 The story is told of a dad who asked his young son to lift a very heavy object, a weight far beyond the little boy’s capacity. The object would not budge. “Try again, son.” The boy tried again with no success. “Son, you are not using all your strength.” The boy tried again, but still the object would not move. “Son, you’re still not using all your strength!”“Oh, Daddy, Daddy, I’m trying,” grunted the boy as he strained at the immovable object. “I’m using all my strength.”“No, you’re not, son,” replied the father. “You haven’t asked me to help!”
(Robert D. Jones, as quoted in Mahaney, Feminine Appeal, p. 119)
His strength is our strength.
Do you understand that? His strength is (by grace!) our strength.
His strength is my strength.There for the taking. And he invites me to ask for it.
Lifting the rock of my sinful nature is utterly impossible, unless I use all my strength, my strength as a child of God, my strength in Him. His strength. My strength.
We would be foolish children of God, to tackle our sins and our problems, without using all of our strength.
Father,Forgive my forgetfulness, and my pride that tackles my problems with my puny earthly resources. Because of Christ, I am your child. By your grace, I am your child.  And You are a God eager to bless and to help. How quickly I forget this! Christ’s inheritance is mine. His riches are mine. His  holiness, self-control, and love are mine. His strength is mine. Help me to see, know, and live this today, by Your grace, and because of His blood shed for me, Amen.

photo credit balyarrweekgme2010

Rich, Healthy Chocolate Pudding

Avocado pudding recipe
OK it's really avocado pudding, but as the title on the post says, it tastes nothing like avocado.
It is rich, chocolatey heaven.

I made this, and after I tasted it, I literally danced around my kitchen with joy.
I gave some to my neighbor, and she shouted, then rejoiced with songs of praise to God. (well, almost.)

I have be honest, here, and tell you it didn't go like I thought it would with the family. Hubby said it was too tangy.Half the kids loved it, the other half didn't.  Oh well, more for me!

An aside- this does contain honey. When I tried this I had been sugar-free for a week and at that time was free of sugar cravings as well. Did the honey set of my addiction and the craving cycle?  It did not.

Hallelujah, praise Jesus!
(Kitchen dancing commenced.)

Maybe you have to be going through sugar detox to love, love, love this, but the bottom line is, I love it.
Get the recipe here.


For those of you with kids-
I recommend not letting them see you prepare this.  Green in a dessert? (Complain, complain.)


Optional variation: Use less honey and add a frozen banana.  I haven't tried this but it sounds wonderful!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Photo credit and recipe here

Weekly Challenge: Stop Holding Your Breath

I used to think dieting was a lot like holding my breath.


I could do it for a little bit, with great effort, but eventually, with a great gasp, I would give up what seemed impossible, and inhale air and food again as if my life depended on it.
Then, I read this:
A diet based on quantity rather than quality 
has ushered in a new creature on to the world stage: 

the human being who manages
to be both overfed and undernourished (Pollan, In Defense of Food, p 122)
Overfed and undernourished.
Oh my goodness, this is me.
My body received plenty of calories throughout the day, and yet was hungry, so hungry, all the time. Craving and eating and craving some more. And occasionally I tried to get it under control, to resist those cravings out of sheer willpower, but I just could not seem to last long this way. And that hunger, that constant hunger, was the enemy. I saw it in myself, and I hated it. 

It is selfish, it is my flesh, it is temptation. Isn't it?But what if Pollan and others are right?
Overfed and undernourished.
Perhaps the hunger is not the enemy (or, not the only enemy).
Perhaps the hunger is just my body, working the way it is supposed to work, telling me it needs, needs things I am not giving it. Perhaps the processed foods and refined carbs I had been living on are not helping things, but making matters progressively worse.
Am I overfed but undernourished?How would I know?
Well, I could try nourishing my body for once, and see if that helps.
So I did it. For one week, I went without sugar and refined grains. I ate tons of fruits and veggies (which was easy because my husband bought me a juicer.)
And my body thanked me.

Not a diet

Dieting, the kind that is like breath-holding, is all about what a person can’t have. This new way of living and eating is much more about what I can have. I can have things that are good for my body.  
Giving my body plenty of what it needs is nothing like breath-holding. It’s more like finally breathing in fresh air, after I had been living life suffocating under a pillow. I breathe deeply, drink deeply, and I find myself satisfied, not gasping and craving but satisfied .
Are you overfed and/or undernourished?
This week, try giving your body something it needs, and cutting out something it doesn’t.Pay attention to how you feel, whether or not your cravings change.
Not sure what changes to make?
Read up on Real Food Basics
Learn more about Basic Nutrition
Learn more about being Overfed and Undernourished

80 / 20 in Marriage

A wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to perhaps eighty percent of her expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it by very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy.
(Elizabeth Elliot, as quoted in Feminine Appeal, Mahoney, p 41)




photo credit http://bharathin.blogspot.com

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