Welch: the night before

Have you noticed that when you are actually overtaken by your fear, it is rarely as bad as anticipated?

...When you are actually in the battle you aren’t thinking about fear.  The hard part is the night before....Anxiety about the future event is usually worse than the event itself. 

Running Scared, p50

Welch: fear says something

There is no dawdling in the face of fear. When we perceive it creeping up on us we want to keep moving. To slow down and listen to what it might be saying is counter-intuitive...Listen and you hear: “I am not in control”...Here is where fear is a door to spiritual reality.  It suggests that authentic humanness was never intended to be autonomous and self-reliant.  Humans are needy by design...

Will we abandon the myth of independence and seek God? Fear, control, God – they are all linked together.  Since independence only works during the really good times, the obvious answer would be to seek God. 

Running Scared, pp37, 40, 41

Welch: fear and anger and the connection

Fear and anger can be the same words spoken with a different attitude.

Running Scared p34

Quick Review: Running Scared -

Fear, Worry and the God of Rest - by Edward T Welch

Well, I don't often say these words, but here goes: this is one of the best Christian books I have ever read.  In fact it's one of the best books I have read, period.

It's a quick review so I won't flood the page with gushing comments.  But I ought to say:

Nothing is a quick, simple cure for anxiety and fear, not in this fallen world, not without direct intervention from God.  But on the long road to severing its power, this book could be one of the most useful, powerful helps you can get.  In fact although it is a book about worry, it is essentially a book about life as a Christian in the Kingdom of God.  It is comforting, but it is not soft - prepare to have some surprising areas of your life confronted.  Very well written, honest, resolutely Biblical, deeply understanding of the condition(s), with suggested practical responses, from a highly qualified professional in the field....it's one of the handful of books I would put on the list headed "Books I wish I had read when a young Christian which could have saved me a lot of bother".

(and thanks to Dickie Mint for inadvertently causing me to buy it)

Quick Review: A Room with a View

by EM Forster

Generally I find that books called "Modern Classics" leave me befuddled as to what gives them this status.  It's no different with this one.  I don't mean, as I might with some modern classics that, actually, they're rubbish.  I just mean: what is it that makes it classic?  Maybe I'll never know.  Maybe I just don't have that intellectual component.  Maybe, sometimes, maybe...they are some Emperor's new clothes involved.  But maybe not.

Anyway, I found this book a pleasant read with some very finely written passages.  I got the impression from the introduction that at the time of it's composure, it was literary suicide to write a book where boy meets girl, and no one dies in misery at the end (though many years later Forster wrote a little piece to bring the story up to date, which effectively solved that problem).

If anyone can tell me why it's a classic I'd be much obliged.

Fishing from a smaller marriage pond

Instead of pre-marital religious commitment, Riley considers age at first marriage as a leading factor. "It is the most religious people who marry young," she explains, while the likelihood of entering an interfaith marriage increases notably with the increasing age at marriage. As one gets older, the pool of suitable marriage partners shrinks, such that even those with a strong faith commitment can feel tempted to go fishing in other faith ponds. "Church-going women in their late twenties and beyond complain that they don't find many eligible bachelors at church," Riley writes. "And so they end up leaving that environment in order to find a husband.

CT, quoting Naomi Shaefer Riley