Shawna R. B. Atteberry

I have been thinking this whole week that it is Book in a Week, and it’s not. It’s next week: the first full week of February. Now I don’t feel so guilty for doing more reading through what I wrote and outlining to get my head back in my novel. I’ve only written a few pages because it’s been so long since I worked on it. Now I can review and outline all I want, and next week I might actually be in a place where I can crank out 20 pages a day.

When was the last time you were reminded of your humanity (and it doesn’t have to be a mistake or goof up)?

The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci is where I found the drawing, and the site has a lot of da Vinci’s drawings available for download.

This week I will be taking part in Book in a Week in order to finish my novel. My goal is to write 20 pages a day for a total of 100 pages by the end of the week. If that doesn’t get the novel finished, it should be close. But the goal is to have the first draft done by the end of this week. All of that to say that I will probably not be posting as much this week. My goal is to write three posts this week.

Sally introduced me to a new artist: Farid De La Ossa. Here are my two favorite paintings he has done along with his inspiration for painting them.

The Eucharist, represented by the Host held by the male and female hands that appears in the middle, is a way of solidarity with the poor. Justice that they seek is represented by the scales that appear within the host. The painting depicts a way of action to achieve justice for the oppressed and those wronged in the past (right-hand side) This is represented by the people wearing garments from the Earliest Christianity gathering for worship within the catacombs. The present and future generations (wearing contemporary clothes) are represented on the left side of the picture while the whole artwork, made with color pencils, color pastels, water paint and black ink, is represented by the Mandala of hope which the Eucharist, daily prayer, the cycles of time (represented by the plants and the sky), and the range of Sacramental Life can bring.

All these elements are gathered in the central circle, which is illuminated by the light (yellow color) in spite of darkness and opposition (black color) that confronts the whole Earth (brown color).

Jesus is on the Cross but will resurrect through the power of God’s light. Jesus’ body is presented as a compound of triangles (symbols of the Trinity). The Cross is connected to the Earth, the Universe and to Nature itself, showing the inter-connection that there is between the cross and all Creation. These elements are included in the main circle of this mandala held by a hand of a person which symbolizing the Eucharist which is given to the people. The host is eradiating grace (represented as light rays) to all Creation – a symbol of God’s presence in the Eucharistic Consecration.

In my office the other day, two church members asked about the boat on my table. I told them it was a gift from a seminary classmate, a reminder of the work and teaching of our professor, Kirk Jones, author of Rest in the Storm: Self-Care Strategies for Clergy and other Caregivers. He always reminded us that Jesus went to the back of the boat and took a nap.

Not surprisingly, I could not find an image of Jesus resting. Preaching from the boat, yes. Calming the storm, yes. Walking on water? Oh, my, yes! But no one seems to want to picture Jesus taking his rest.

In this week that looks unlikely to hold a complete day off, I am pondering renewal. List four ways you like to relax or give yourself a break. Then name a fifth, something you’ve never been able to do, a self-care dream.

1. Take a long, hot bath with bath salts.

2. Read a novel.

3. A retreat at a Benedictine monastary. Benedictine nuns are so cool!

4. Cook or crochet.

5. Go to a spa and be pampered the entire day.

Scsours had this incredible list of the next 50 bestsellers up on her blog, and I had to copy it and post it here. It is so good and so funny!

If you’ve always wanted to write a bestseller for the Christian Inspiration market, but don’t know where to start, maybe these titles will inspire you.

1. Your Best Life Now Book of Martyrs
2. I’m Totally Depraved, You’re Totally Depraved
3. 40 or so Days more-or-less of Purpose
4. Bowel Thou Art Loosed – A Christian Guide to Regularity
5. Good Morning Holy Mackerel – Spirit Filled Sport Fishing With Benny Hinn
6. Baldness, True Humility – The Saga of C.J. Mahaney’s Failed Hair Transplant
7. Prayer of Jabez Guide to Bankruptcy
8. The Ergun Caner Coffee Table Book of Ergun Caner
9. The Power of a Praying Mantis
10. Steal This Book- Then Repent, Bring it Back, and Confess
11. Desiring Gold – Meditations on Things I Would Buy if I were Rich
12. Pretty Good People in the Hands of an Ambivalent God
13. Y3K – Countdown to Armageddon
14. The Tax Code – Secret Messages from God Hidden in Your 1040 Long Form
15. Wicked at Heart – Discovering the Not-So-Secret Secret of Everyone’s Soul
16. Raptured By Mistake – Book I of the I Should Have Been Left Behind series
17. James White’s Guide to Weasel Hunting on the Campus of Liberty University
18. The Maker’s Diet II- What God Ate and How It Kept Him Healthy and Feeling Good Forever.
19. Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Holy Cow – Harry Carey’s Secret Membership in Opus Dei
20. The Canadian Prophecies : Ancient Scriptures Reveal Our Neighbor to the North’s Future
21. 90 Minutes in Hell – A True Story of Death and How Hell was Really Scary and How I Wanted to Get Out of There
22. Purple Like Barney – Non-Religious Thoughts on Obnoxious PBS Children’s Programming
23. 12 Extraordinary Little Women – An Inspirational Look at 12 Godly Midgets’ Lives
24. Velour Pelagius – Repainting the Emerging Faith
25. The Sixth Love Language – When Heartfelt Commitment Isn’t Enough, Christian Techniques to Get You Out of the Dog House
26. Boise Countdown – How The Capitol of Idaho Will Play A Pivotal Roll in the Unfolding of the Millennium
27. Battlefield of the Lower Intestine – Claim Victory Over Satan and His Relentless Attacks on Your Digestive System
28. Discernment and How to Know A Good Book on it When You See One – Tim Challies
29. Veggie Tales Systematic Theology
30. For Men and Women Only – A Straightforward Guide to Stuff You Already Know
31. I Kissed Bundling Goodbye
32. The Message: Shaken-not-Stirred
33. Total Truth II: Electric Boogaloo
34. Found Again – The Baxter family reunites to extract more dollars from the Christian book-buying public
35. Noing God: Tales from the Bible on How to Refuse God and Live to Tell About it
36. Outhouse – Vacationing couples are pursued by a maniac killer who lures them to a vacant outhouse which won’t let them leave. The outhouse mirrors their own heart and souls and they must defeat the evil within
37. What’s So Amazing About Grace Kelly?
38. If You Want to Walk on Water Then You Have to Be Jesus? or maybe that David Blaine guy
39. What on Earth Am I Here For and Why On Earth Do I Keep Asking Myself These Questions?
40. Having a Mary Heart in a Paul Body
41. It’s Not About Me Too – Further Self-Reflections Not About Me.
42. More Secret Power Within: Chuck Norri’s Guide To Kickin’ the Crap out of Badguys for Christ
43. Misquoting Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed Misquoting Jesus and Why
44. The Openness of God: How 5 Theologians Go to Heaven only to find it “Closed for the Season”
45. Reimagining Jesus Until I Like What I See
46. A Generous Orthodontics – Why I Think My Fillings Will Be in Heaven
47. Even Newer Strong’s Exhausting Concordance – Heavier than Ever
48. Where Would Jesus Eat and How Much Did He Tip?
49. The Way Down Diet – Lose Weight and Your Salvation
50. Capitulating: Unveiling the Mystery of Keeping Your Wife from Getting Mad at You When You Want to Run Around and Do Wild at Heart Kind of Guy Stuff

Here’s my addition: The Celebration of Laziness: How to do as little as possible and still call yourself a Christian.

What are your additions?

Chuck Warner of Confessions of a Small Town Pastor had this wonderful quote from The Great Giveaway.

I imagine our congregations becoming smaller, not bigger, yet teeming with the life of his body. And I hope there are more of them, so many of them in fact, that they become the alternative to the Starbucks of our day. I hope our churches become known for servanthood in the neighborhoods and warm hospitality that invites strangers into our homes. I pray that the home of every evangelical person becomes an incubator of evangelism, inviting strangers to the gospel out of their lostness and into the love and grace of life in our Lord Jesus Christ. I imagine real fellowship in our congregations, the kind that shares joys and suffering and potluck meals. I pray our leaders take on the form of humble servants who sit, listen, and suffer with real people through many years of leading them through this life in Jesus Christ. I hope we leave behind the CEO models of leadership. I look for our worship services to become liturgical places that form our people into faithful participants in the life of God.

The line about small churches becoming an alternative to Starbucks reminded me of a really good article that Leadership Journal has too: Coffeehouse Connections. In this article a pastor decides to be a barista one night a week at the coffeehouse where his wife works. This article is what the coffeehouse is teaching him about pastoring and doing church. Here’s one of his observations:

One night while working a couple months ago, I introduced one of our regulars to a friend from church. For the next two hours these new friends, one a twenty-something artist and the other a single mom of two college-age kids, sat at a table listening to each other’s stories.

Where else do soccer moms mingle with Goth kids dressed for the Friday night show? Or young, upwardly mobile commuters interact with a homeless man? Or a local pastor (me) interact regularly with anyone outside the church?

And I think: isn’t this what the church is supposed to look like?

They have been in Iraq for 2,000 years. At the turn of the 20th century they made up 20 percent of the population. In 2000 their numbers had sunk to two percent. For the past three years they have been leaving in droves because of violent persecution from Muslims. They are Iraqi Christians, and it is estimated that 200-300,000 Christians have fled from Iraq since the war began. According to Radio Free Europe:

When Saddam Hussein was still in power, the country’s estimated 1.2 million Christians lived peacefully side by side with Sunnis and Shi’ites, but after Hussein was arrested, they became a target of violence. In some quarters, they are associated with the majority Christian armies of the United States and Britain, who many Muslims believe are waging a modern-day crusade against Islam.

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