Seen and heard around town

Present at the annual inspection of the local police force was a pair of priests who blessed the squad cars with holy water to "protect" them from accidents...

(See the original here at metronews.ru)

Meddling

"Dear God, please meddle in our affairs."

Maybe it would have a good outcome, but doesn't it sound a little negative, asking God to do that? Yet I kept hearing my Russian friends voice a similar prayer.

You see, I had been acquainted with the verb when it was used in the context of "Don't meddle in other people's affairs."

It also sounds like the verb for "mix" or "bother." I imagined God getting in there with a big spoon and stirring things up.

read more/-

Of course I knew there had to be another translation, and sure enough, the alternatives "intervene" or "intercede" would make much more sense in this context!

Here's an example from Proverbs with the Russian verb that was confusing me:

Сердце знает горе души своей, и в радость его не вмешается чужой.

In the KJV it says this:

"The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." -Proverbs 14:10

BUT the NIV is a bit different:

"Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy."

You can see how there could be variation.

From Strong's Concordance:

`arab aw-rab'

a primitive root; to braid, i.e. intermix;
technically, to traffic (as if by barter); also
or give to be security (as a kind of
exchange):--engage, (inter-)meddle
(with), mingle (self), mortgage, occupy,
give pledges, be(-come, put in) surety,
undertake.

 Of course we wouldn't want to ask God to "meddle" in our affairs, or in other people's! But thinking of Him engaging in our struggles as an active participant, sharing pain and joy with us, interceding on our behalf...now that is an encouraging concept.

Alone or together?

"Let him who cannot be alone beware of community...let him who is not in community beware of being alone." -Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p.77

I find this to be an interesting pair of statements because we often group people into introverts and extroverts by saying that there are those who like to be around people more, and those who prefer alone time (this is actually not the correct definition, but is commonly believed). They are naturally happy and thrive when in their preferred social zones.

So it is interesting to think that a person who prefers being with people would actually be a hindrance to the community, or that a person who loves solitude would actually be harmed by it.

But I think that Bonhoeffer was not talking about personality here. read more/-

He continues,

"...only as we are within the fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship." (77)

"One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair." (78)

My thoughts:

Fellowship fruitless without solitude
-One part of this (and one that Bonhoeffer emphasizes) is that our fellowship will be richer when we have spent time alone with God.
-Another part is that God sometimes wants us to be alone for a time so that we may receive a certain lesson before going back to fellowship. He wants us to be isolated for a reason.

Solitude fruitless without fellowship
-If we run to solitude out of anger, disillusionment, fear, etc, we are only running away from the problem. A problem with our brother is a problem that we solve together, not sitting at home in our prayer closet..we have to come out.
-We may find it hard to enter back into fellowship if we stay away too long.
-Being in the fellowship gives us nourishment for when we are to be alone.
-What else could Bonhoeffer mean by this?

Upside down and backwards

Here's a fun fact about Russia.

Take a look at these books. What do you observe (other than a Josh McDowell title that used to be seized by border guards)?

Exhibit A:

Okay, obviously the Cyrillic on the Russian book stands out. But if you will also notice, the title is going the opposite way...from bottom to top, as opposed to top to bottom. This isn't always the case, but it happens often enough that I sometimes mistakenly open Russian books upside down...


It would be interesting enough to leave it at that. But to be fair, I decided to take a wider sample and check out a few Spanish books I have in my collection... continue/-

Exhibit B:

One title goes the "Russian" way, two go the "American" way! Now I don't know what to conclude! Funny, though!