The Beloved Charter

by Roseanna | Mar 9, 2023 | Thoughtful Thursdays

I hope everyone has enjoyed the other Spiritual Formation exercises I’ve shared, courtesy of Laura Heagy and her insightful direction. The most recent exercise she’s shared with the Patrons & Peers group is called “Drafting a ‘Beloved Charter.'” She sent us a great adaptation from the book Discovering our Spiritual Identity by Trevor Hudson, and I shall further adapt it here for you guys. 😉

The Beloved Charter is a more detailed take on something I’ve heard people speaking of for years: take Scripture and make it speak directly to you by changing a few pronouns or inserting your name. Have you ever heard of that? For instance, take John 3:16 and rewrite it to say, “God so loved Roseanna/Karen/Jennifer that He gave His only begotten Son…” I’ve heard of other verses were we’re encouraged to do the same thing, to try to help us realize that God and His Word are personal. They’re meant for us. He loves us, and He speaks directly to us as He spoke to other people.

Well, let’s take it even further. Let’s pull together some of the verses about promises that really resonate with our spirits. And then let’s put them into our words, in a letter written directly to each of us, from God, based on God’s Word.

The point of this is to help us all to learn to see ourselves–and then each other–as God sees us. We are His beloved children. He loves us SO MUCH. But put the emphasis, for a moment, on yourself. He loves you. He speaks to you. You are going to resonate with things that I don’t, and I will resonate with things that don’t strike you at all. That’s part of the beauty of how He creates us. So different, and yet all bound by this common something that makes us human, that makes us Christian.

Would you like to do this exercise? If so, here’s how you do it. Read through the Scriptures in this PDF (I recommend printing it out if you can). Highlight whichever ones (or parts of ones) strike you especially.

Download PDF of Beloved Scriptures

Once you have your verses marked, pull out a piece of paper or a word processing doc or however you want to work. Date the page. And then start it like a letter, written from God to you.

Dear ___________,

Or even just your name.

Then start writing. Use the verses you marked as inspiration, but write them in words like YOU would use on a daily basis, written from the perspective of God to you. Use terms of endearment like you would if you were writing to your kids or best friend. Combine a few of the verses into one paragraph, or start a fresh paragraph for each one, whatever works best for you.

At the bottom, make note of which verses you pulled from.

Here’s mine, as an example:

Roseanna,

Come here, my daughter. Draw near to my throne. You have a right to be here as my child. Sit right there beside your brother, Jesus–He brought you here, raised you when He raised Himself from death.

I know sometimes you feel weak, but don’t worry. The weaker you feel, the stronger I Am. I can do my best work in you and through you when you have only weakness to boast of.

I am your Author. I have written every day of your life in my book. You know how your fictional character live in your heart and mind? How much more, my daughter, do you live in mine! Abide here with me, in our story. I will live it with you.

Search your heart for anything that would keep you from me. Confess it with your lips. I’ll forgive you, heal you, restore you. Then I will truly rejoice over you, always. I can pour out far more blessings than you can even imagine.

Heb 4:16; Eph 2:4-9; 2 Cor 12:9; Psa 139:16; John 15:4; I John 1:9; Zeph 3:17; Eph 3:20

Once you’ve written yours, take a few minutes each day and read over it, imagining that Jesus is there beside you. Then, as you go through your day, view the people around you in the same way–as beloved children of our Almighty Father. Pause to wonder what words He is speaking to them. Are they words that those people need you to speak aloud to them?

I found writing this to be a beautiful exercise…and then living it to be even more so. Nearly a week after I wrote it, I’d just gone through a situation that left me feeling so inadequate. I wanted to help my daughter with something (school related), and I just didn’t know how. I felt like a failure. I felt like I wasn’t able to give what she needed.

Then I sat down with my charter again for the first time, and I read that paragraph about weakness, and tears flooded my eyes.

I felt so weak. But He is so strong.
I love my daughter. He loves her more.
I want the best for her. He died for her.

I can entrust my daughter to my Father. More, I can trust that He’ll make me the mom she needs. He will equip me to give, and He’ll equip her to walk the path He has prepared for her.

What promises is God speaking to your heart today?

The Codebreakers of Room 40

by Roseanna | Mar 7, 2023 | British Intelligence, The Great War, Yesterday's Tides Articles

The Room 40 Codebreakers

In 1914, war was declared between England and Germany…a war that would soon cover the world. But this war was unlike any of the wars before it. Technology had advanced far and quickly in the decade prior, and the nations soon found that new methods of warfare were available to them–and not just on the battlefield. Changes had come that would change the landscape of intelligence-gathering forever too.

Bletchley,,United,Kingdom,-15,May,2016-,View,Of,Bletchley,Park,

A New Intelligence in the Great War

One of the first actions of the Great War was to cut the Trans-Atlantic cable that had been connecting Europe to North America. England knew that if they cut the cable, it would greatly hinder Germany from communicating with and recruiting aid across the sea. Of course, telegrams now had wireless technology available to them…and a curious thing was soon discovered.

New technology in England allowed them to snatch those wireless communications right out of the air.

The discovery was accidental–but the implications were HUGE. It was reported to the Navy, and soon they’d scrabbled together a team to investigate and to put this windfall to use. They were quite literally able to intercept every…single…telegram coming from the Continent, because England was the relay point. That meant ALL German communications. But of course, the Germans weren’t just sending out plain text. They were sending their telegrams in code.

Enter the Codebreakers.

An initial team of gentlemen were brought in who had a knack with breaking codes. Dilly Knox, his brother Alfred, William Montgomery, Nigel de Grey…some of them were mathematicians. Some were linguists. Some where history professors. Bankers. Music critics. They were reruited because they had a “something.” A knack. A skill. But what to do with them?

The British Admiralty didn’t know, at first. They knew they could be useful, but they had no place for such an unprecedented team. They assigned them, first, a closet connected to the director’s office. But their very existence was top secret, so every time a visitor came in, they had to scramble to hide.

Seriously.

Soon the Admiralty granted they needed a room of their own, so they assigned them an office. Old Building, Room 40. It was often referred to as OB40 or Room 40.

How Did They Crack the Codes?

The Germans and their allies were employing many different kinds of codes and cyphers, and the Codebreakers had to determine which ones were being used in each message intercepted, and then sort out how to crack them.

Most of their work was accomplished very logically: they captured the codebooks from downed aircraft and sunken U-boats. Once the books were in hand, it was a simple but laborious process of applying the code to each message…before the next day’s variant was employed. A new variant was set at midnight each night, and the codebreakers on the night shift would be expected to work out the new key by the time the day shift arrived or face unending teasing.

But sometimes they weren’t codes–they were cyphers. These didn’t have a handy key that would help if they could get their hands on the book, they required actual cracking. The Codebreakers of Room 40 had to crack cyphers many times over the course of the war as well.

What Happened with the Information?

But though the Room 40 codebreakers were soon churning out decrypted communications daily…what then? The Admiralty, quite frankly, didn’t trust the information at first. It was outside their experience, and the civilian codebreakers had no idea about military protocol, to put the information into terms that would make sense to the military. For quite a while, they were constantly butting heads and frustrating each other. Eventually, a new director was named–Reginald “Blinker” Hall–and he soon assigned a liaison to take the raw data the codebreakers provided and turn it into information that the military knew what to do with.

Even so, they soon discovered a new conundrum: they couldn’t act on much of the information without revealing their hand. If Germany knew they were intercepting communications, they would take actions to stop them, and then they’d lose it all. So before anything could be used, they first had to find another excuse for how they came by the information.

Did Room 40 Grow?

By the end of the war, Room 40 had grown to occupy an entire floor of the Old Building. They had dozens of codebreakers on staff and scores of secretaries–but no “tea girls,” like the rest of the Admiralty, because secrecy was still their byword. Every single person employed in the division was directly recruited by an existing member, so that absolutely everyone was trusted. They had parties, wrote bad poetry about themselves, sang songs, and became a family in many ways.

What’s more, by the end of the war, the Admiralty not only recognized their superb work as having been critical to the war effort, they were in fact largely responsible for the end of the war; they “leaked” a doctored photograph to Germany that showed the Navy in mutiny, which so disheartened the German troops that they insisted upon an armistice.

What Happened Afterward?

After the Great War, most of the employees of Room 40 went back to their ordinary lives…but not all. Quite a few were recruited for a new endeavor: a school dedicated to training up the next generation of cryptographers.

Roseanna’s Books that Feature the Room 40 Codebreakers

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Yesterday’s Tides

Word of the Week – Quintessential

by Roseanna | Mar 6, 2023 | Word of the Week

When we use the word quintessential today, we use it to mean “something is typical or representative of a particular kind.” So to an American, apple pie is the quintessential pie, perhaps. (Let’s not start a heated debate here, now, you cherry lovers! It’s just an example, LOL.)

But let’s look at the word, going back to the root word, quintessence, for a minute. Quint, we know, is Latin for “five.” And essence is, well, essence. 😉 Something’s very being. So when we put that together we get “fifth essence.” Which, hmm. What does that mean?

It starts clicking into place when you replace essence with a synonym in meaning here, element. The ancient world understood all matter as being composed of four main elements in various combinations: fire, water, earth, and air. The fifth element or essence, then, was thought to be something heavenly, something pure that imbued all things. The pure being that is in all of us and everything around us.

This fifth essence was thought to be incorruptible, pure, bright. It was of course nullified in most things by the other elements, but if you get at it…if you could get to the heart of a thing, to its being, to that purest of essence…well, that was the quintessence, or the quintessential part.

The word itself has been around since the Middle Ages, entering English in the early 1400s. In Medieval alchemy, in fact, the attempts to do things like turn lead into gold was all about finding the quintessence and bringing it out. And so too today, in our metaphorical meaning, something that typifies a kind will represent it purely.

The Poor in Spirit

by Roseanna | Mar 2, 2023 | Thoughtful Thursdays

I’ve always found the Beatitudes–the Sermon on the Mount beginning in Matthew 5–to be a beautiful redefinition of what life should be about. What we should be striving for. There are so many lines in it that make me pause and reflect and ask myself, “Am I doing that? Is that how I’m living my life?”

Yet it starts off with a line that’s had me puzzled for years.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?

For many years, I assumed it meant something like “sad.” Like, you know, “poor in health” is sick, so a sickness of the spirit would be depression or sadness or something like that. Except that Jesus addresses “mourning” in the next couplet…and why would He want us to seek sadness? Yeah, my initial interpretation leaves something to be desired, LOL.

In some other reading I’ve done over the last few years, I came across ideas of it meaning one’s spiritual poverty–which is to say, our need for God. That struck me as true…er. But again, is that the state we’re supposed to live in? A perpetual state of spiritual poverty? Doesn’t He, when we recognize our need for Him, fill us up and make us spiritually rich? Hmm.

I recently heard a sermon that touched on it and made a light bulb go off.

Let’s look at these lines together. The poor in spirit have–own, possess–the kingdom of heaven. Okay. Well, these verses are all about the contrast to the traditional wisdom, right? So what’s the opposite of these worlds? “The wealthy in spirit” and “the kingdom of the world.”

Ah. That’s beginning to make sense. Because who “owns” the world? The rich. The wealthy. They are the ones with power, political might, sway, all the possessions, and so on. What’s more, striving after that is the natural, worldly, “given” thing to do. Even if we aren’t rich, we want to be. We work harder, seek higher paying jobs, vie for the promotion, the raise. We invest our money and try, always, to increase it. We long for the nicer this or that. We spend, spend, spend on our own pleasures and luxuries whenever we can afford to. This is a “spirit of wealth” whether we actually have much of it or not. This is yearning for wealth.

What is the opposite, then? It isn’t necessarily yearning for poverty, per se. But it’s yearning for something beyond worldly wealth. It’s holding everything we own out to God and saying, “This isn’t mine. It’s yours.”

It’s recognizing that we own nothing. NOTHING. It’s all His. Which means He can ask us, as His stewards, to do something “else” with our possessions at any moment, and we willingly obey. Maybe that means selling it all and following Christ into a mission field. Maybe it just means putting something extra into the offering plate. Maybe it means leaving a crazy tip for that down-on-her-luck waitress. Maybe it means giving sacrificially to someone in need, even when you can’t really spare it. Maybe it means turning down the better job to stay where you know God put you. Maybe it means simply listening, waiting, being ready to give up any one thing or all things.

A spirit that is poor holds nothing tightly. Holds all things loosely. Is ready to give, at any moment, because nothing is truly his.

An image I’ve been falling back on a lot lately is that of holding things only in open, cupped palms. God can pour in…and I’ll pour it right back out, onto whomever He wills. This is how I’ve been working to view my writing. God pours stories into me, He gives me glimpses of His truths to share. I write them, I do the best I can on them, and then I send them out into the world. What happens from there…that’s not the important question. Oh, I’ll do everything I can to make them succeed–investing the talents He left in my care, knowing He sows where He doesn’t reap, like the parable says. I’ll be the best servant I can be. But I’ll do all that knowing it isn’t for me. It’s for Him. He is the one who reaps the benefits. He is the one who gives the increase. He is the one who controls the markets.

When we view the world that way, it keeps us nimble–ready to pivot in whichever direction we see Him moving, to whatever need He draws our attention to. It keeps us unattached to material things, worldly pleasures, and focused on exactly what the Beatitude promises us: the kingdom of heaven.

And it should make us pause, every day. It should make us wonder, which kingdom are we striving for, yearning for, working for? Are we concerned more with the earthly things that the world’s spirit of wealth tells us we should want…or are we striving, yearning, and working for the invisible things that God promises?

What do we need to hold out in open palms today?

Creamy Chicken and Dumplings

by Roseanna | Feb 28, 2023 | Dinner, Recipes, Yesterday's Tides Recipes

Creamy Chicken and Dumplings

Egg noodle drop dumplings take center stage in a thick and creamy sauce.

Printable Version

Servings

6-8

Prep time:

10 min

Total Time:

40 minutes

Good For:

Dinner

Inroduction

About this Recipe

One of my favorite meals has long been Chicken and Dumplings, made from a recipe that appeared in my church cookbook when I was a kid. I’ve tried many other recipes over the years, but I always go back to these dense egg noodle dumplings in this hearty, creamy sauce.

Now, I admit it. My favorite version of the sauce is the one made from canned Cream of Chicken soup and evaporated milk. But if you’re a clean-eating, no-canned-soup kind of family, the from-scratch sauce recipe is just as tasty and only takes a few minutes longer.

Ingredients

Instructions

For the Dumplings

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk

Easy-Peasy Sauce (Option 1)

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cans cream of chicken soup
5 oz evaporated milk
1 can water
1 can milk

From Scratch Sauce (Option 2)

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cube chicken bouillon OR 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon
1 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

For Chicken

- 1 pound chicken, cooked

Make the dumplings. Fill large pot about halfway full with water and put on to boil. While the water heats, mix together your dumpling ingredients. The dough should be wet and sticky. Once all the ingredients are incorporated, drop by spoonful into the boiling water. (They come off the spoon most easily if you put the spoon into the water and give it a shake). Cook for 20 minutes.
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Cook your chicken. If you’re using boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut them into cubes and brown in a chicken fryer, salting and peppering to taste. You can also use shredded chicken if you have some leftover from a roast or rotisserie. Just as good! Once chicken is cooked, remove from pan.
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Make the sauce. Using the same pan in which you’d cooked the chicken, melt the butter and then add the flour, whisking to create a thick paste. Add in your liquid ingredients and whisk until smooth. If you’re making your sauce from scratch, add the spices once it’s smooth.
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Drain the dumplings and combine. Once the dumplings are cooked, drain them in a colander. Add dumplings and your chicken to the sauce and stir.

Printable Version

From the Books

Chicken and Dumplings may not be mentioned in Yesterday’s Tides, but you can bet their Southern table would feature it now and again! Given the popular duck hunting on the islands at the time, the ladies probably would have substituted the water fowl for the chicken when they had fresh meat too.

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