by Roseanna White | Aug 11, 2016 | Thoughtful Thursdays
As a writer, I know all about picking the interesting times to write about–we leave out the boring stuff, right? Or the unimportant stuff. We certainly don’t spend pages describing something that will never come up again.
It’s something I’ve noticed in biblical narratives as well. When the ancient writers are telling us a story–like in Esther or Daniel–they don’t tell us all. They tell us the parts that are relevant to the particular idea they’re trying to get across, or to the particular events they’ll really be expounding on. I noticed this quite a lot back in the day when I was writing Jewel of Persia. It was the first I’d really noticed the huge gap of years between when Xerxes had the queen removed from the throne and when he started looking for a new queen. This wasn’t a next-day or next-year thing. It was literal ages later.
We’ve been reading Daniel in our Bible study the last month or two, and the same thing is apparent there. Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years. We know it was near the beginning of his reign when Daniel and compatriots were brought to Babylon. And we see his story all the way to the end of his reign. But it’s easy to read it as if it all happened within the course of a couple years.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a statue.
Nebuchadnezzar built a statue–surely they were linked, right? The nerve!
Nebuchadnezzar admits to the greatness of God.
Nebuchadnezzar thinks only of his own greatness–what a short memory he has!
I said several times in our study at church, and keep thinking now . . . it’s not that his memory is short. It’s that our narrative is truncated. And then I ask–how would our life stories sound if we only hit the major ups and downs?
What if our story were written, and included, say, the first time we admitted that God was up in Heaven watching us . . . and then skipped to the first time we questioned Him? What would our story sound like if the next tale written were of our conversion . . . then it was directly followed by that time someone died suddenly, and we railed at God?
To a reader, it would look like our memory was short. Like we forgot how great God is. To a reader, we might seem to go from praising God for taking us out of Egypt to crying out against Him in the wilderness in a couple seconds. A reader might not understand that our children are dying of thirst, so of course we cry out. Right? A reader might not understand that it’s been a decade since that high point, and the world has been pressing in, and it seems like God has forgotten us . . . so we question whether He’s what we first thought.
In this world of commentaries and footnotes in our Bibles, it’s sometimes easy to take the quick, simply explanation–and in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, most all the notes I read on him were pretty harsh, dude. But I think the man deserves a lot of credit. His chapters in the book of Daniel are the only chapters written by a so-called pagan. Ever wonder why? I think it’s because of the ending of his story.
Yeah, he had his ups and downs with God. He didn’t quite believe fully at first–it didn’t square with everything he’d been taught since he was a kid, you know? In his world, admitting to the power of one god didn’t negate the others. He had to go on a journey to understanding the true nature of the one who is God over all. It involved some fits and starts. Some battles with pride. Some days where he forgot what Israel’s Lord was all about.
But it ended with him declaring our God supreme. It ended with a declaration of faith. Think of that–a Babylonian king, declaring his faith in the God of Israel. That is why his story is worth writing about–and why Daniel took such care to show us the rocky road that led him there.
Our own roads not be rocky to the same degree. But they all have their peaks and valleys. And if those were all anyone knew of us . . . what would our footnotes say?
by Roseanna White | Aug 8, 2016 | Word of the Week
We have one more week left of summer vacation. One more little week, then back to the homeschool grind we go. Needless to say, that has inspired a few sighs and a whimper or two (okay, perhaps that was more from me than the kids, LOL).
With the end of days of freedom and fun (or in my case, work-work-work), a little crankiness is to be expected. And so, today I thought I’d look at the history of the word. =)
Cranky has its roots, obviously, in crank–a word which is as old as English itself, taken from the Proto-Germanic krank: a handle for turning a revolving axis. We obviously still use this meaning of the word as well, though both German and Dutch have apparently leaned away from the literal ancient meaning and instead gone toward a figurative “sick, weakly” meaning.
This is where our cranky comes in. Around 1803, cranky appeared in English texts, meaning “sickly or ailing.” By 1825, crank itself was listed in dictionaries as having a secondary meaning of “hard, difficult.” (Like a crank job.) Crank meaning “an irritable person” came along in 1833–a back-formation from cranky.
Though to give my kids credit where it’s due, they’re less cranky about school starting than I thought they’d be–in part at the promise of going to Staples and stocking up on pens and paper. (They are so my children, LOL. Fresh writing supplies make everything better.)
Happy Monday, everyone!
by Roseanna White | Aug 4, 2016 | Thoughtful Thursdays
I just got back from a couple days at a church conference, and the director said something in one of his presentations that resonated with something my husband and I had been discussing too. And that is this:
One of the greatest perceived failings of the modern church is that we put more thought into what we’re against than what we’re for. As in, in a survey of modern America, this was listed as one of the top 5 reasons that people stopped going to church. All they ever heard was the negative. The don’t-do. The can’t-have. The stay-away-from.
The negatives are important. They are. God’s pretty clear on what we shouldn’t do.
But . . . but. If we carve out those places, what are we then filling them with?
I kinda look at it like this. A successful diet isn’t one that just says “Eliminate these foods.” Right? Because if you just cut out the chips and dessert and saturated fats or whatever and don’t fill your meals with anything else in their place, what happens?
You get hungry.
A successful diet is one that says, “Eat this. Instead of a banana muffin, have a banana. Instead of chips, have some hummus.”
Not that I’m an experienced dieter, LOL, but I have definitely noticed that when I’m focused on getting my five servings of fruits and veggies in a day, I don’t have room for the junk food. If I make conscious decisions to eat something healthy first, then I rarely get around to the unhealthy stuff.
This is true of spiritual health too. Yes, we definitely, 100% need to avoid things. But if all you preach and teach is a system of DON’T, you leave your people empty . . . and that makes the way for apostasy and legalism.
When it comes to faith, we need to be careful to focus on how to fill ourselves with Him. That is the #1 most important thing. Because if we’re filled up with His Spirit, there’s no room left for the sins. If we’re full of His love, there’s no room for hate. If we’re dwelling in Him and He in us, that old man will fade away and we won’t still desire the same old junk. If we’re basking in His grace, we won’t even notice the “lack” we now have of those things of the world–we’ll only notice the fruit of His presence.
I don’t want to be known as “the person who doesn’t . . .” even if that “doesn’t” is an important distinction. Yes, I am absolutely the person who doesn’t murder, doesn’t steal, doesn’t commit perjury. But that doesn’t tell you a thing about who I am. What I do.
This holds true in a church as well. We can’t just be known for the sins we don’t embrace–we have to be known for the spiritual fruit we do produce. Let us be known for our kindness and goodness and self-control. For our giving and serving and need-meeting. Let us be known for being Jesus’s hands and feet in a hurting world. Not for just shaking a finger at that world and judging.
Let’s not just be against things . . . let’s stand for things as well.
by Roseanna White | Aug 1, 2016 | Word of the Week
Class. It seems like a simple word. One that has surely been around forever, right? Well, I looked it up last week because I wanted to make sure that classy was in use for a story. And instead I learned that the whole word was rather surprising.
Class comes from the Latin classis, which is the word for how Servius Tullius divided the Roman people for purposes of taxation. This also had something to do with how the people were called to arms, which is the original meaning (and spelling) carried into English first. It wasn’t until around 1600 that it was shortened to class . . . at which point it meant a group of students.
In the 1650s, class was expanded from the group of students to mean a course or lecture students might take in school–based on the idea that it required reaching a certain academic level.
In 1705, the word became a verb–“to divide into classes.” In 1753, scientists began talking about classes of plants and animals.
But it wasn’t until 1772 that class began to mean “divisions of society according to status.” I was really surprised it was that late! And so, the notion of class being “high quality” was unheard of until the 1840s. My classy, therefore, didn’t come around until the 1890s.
by Roseanna White | Jul 27, 2016 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
It was nearly five years ago that Carrie Pagels made mention of “brick tea.” I don’t even remember now how it came up, but I believe she’d purchased some from a local plantation home and was offering it to one of us here at CQ as thanks for helping with a project. Now, I had no idea what in the world she was talking about. And so far as I could tell in my search, she’s never talked to us about it on the blog. So I decided to resurrect the post I’d done 5 years ago that talked about this fun tea and what I learned about it after this arrived in the mail:
The moment I withdrew this brick from its bag, the scent of tea wafted up to me. My daughter, who runs to the kitchen the moment she senses a package being opened, rushed out just then, saw the brown-paper-wrapped block, and said, “What’s that?”
My answer was to hold it out and say, “Smell.”
You should have seen her eyes light up with delight and disbelief as she squealed, “Tea?!”
Tea has been a staple of many societies for centuries. But loose leaf tea is hard to transport, so back in the days of the silk road in Asia, the Chinese discovered that if they use forms to press the tea into standard sized bricks, they can transport them with ease, and the tea lasts through the journey.
This became such a standard that tea bricks could be used as currency, and this was the way most tea was transported for hundreds of years, all the way into the 19th century. So the tea tossed into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party? That was bricks.
Naturally, when something is used so long, for so many purposes, there comes to be a rhyme and reason to each part of it.
I don’t know if you can read the label on this, but if you do, you’ll find its “translation”–what each part of it means.
The front of this particular brick has details that let buyers know that this tea comes from a company managed by more than one person, and is manufactured by Enterprise Company Tea and the Chinese Lee family.
The back of the brick is separated into squares that can be used as currency. One square, for instance, might equal the price of a chicken.
In addition to being brewed, the tea traditionally pressed into bricks can also be eaten. I don’t intend to try that, gotta say.
I thought for sure, five years ago, that I would immediately start breaking bits off and using them. But I didn’t. Because it was so pretty and interesting, my Brick Tea still occupies a place of honor on my hutch. Occasionally I pick it up and smell it. And tell myself that maybe someday I’ll brew myself a cup with some real history.
But mostly, I just love looking at it and knowing what it represents.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. Having successfully launched two homeschool grads, she now spends her time writing fiction, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years, as well as a fantasy series and contemporary mysteries and romances. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.