"God Is Always With Me (Psalm 139)" (kids' book review)

Book cover for "God is Always with Me"

I got this board book for my little daughter: God Is Always with Me: Psalm 139, by Dandi Daley Mackall. Here's my review of it.

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Overview

This book is based on Psalm 139, where the psalmist talks about how God is with him wherever he goes, how God knows him completely, and God loves and protects him. This book is NOT just the text of the psalm- it's more like, the same theme as the psalm, but with examples that kids will be able to relate to. And it rhymes.

For example:

If I climb, climb, climb up the tallest tree,

Even way up high, God is watching me.

If I swim down, down in the ocean blue,

Deep as I can go, God is down there too.

The book mentions things kids might be worried bout, like a thunderstorm, or falling off their bike, or going to a new school, and says God is with them through all of it.

Also, it's a board book, which is great for my daughter because she is a clever little thing and she tears books. This one, she has not managed to tear it.

Also, this book uses he/him pronouns for God. 

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I love this

So, my overall opinion on this book is, it's great. I love Psalm 139, and I want to share it with my kids. I'm really into the concept of incarnation- God is with us. Incarnation feels real and powerful to me, and it's one of the most important aspects of the Christianity I believe in.

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But also, I have some concerns about how this is presented to kids

There's one thing I'm not quite comfortable about... People tell kids "don't worry, God is with you" in the context of normal childhood fears and anxieties that don't actually pose any danger. Your kid is afraid of monsters under the bed, your kid is nervous about going to a new school, that sort of thing. There's no actual danger, it's just a matter of managing your feelings. Normal emotional development phases.

Is this a problem, though? We're saying "God is with you" and we actually mean "get over it, you're fine." Or, if I wanted to be a little more cynical, an imaginary protector for an imaginary problem.

What if there's an actual danger, that a kid is facing? They've been told "God is with you" as if it means "don't worry, God won't let anything bad happen to you," but that's just not true.

And I'm autistic, and there were many times, as a child, when I was scared or nervous about something, and adults didn't see the problem and thought I needed to just get over it, maybe even told me "God is with you" as a way of telling me to get over it- but actually I *was* having an actual problem. Sensory pain that truly is unbearable. And later, as an adult, anxiety and depression which required therapy and possibly drugs. Mental health is a real thing- you don't fix those problems just by saying "God is with you."

Here's how I put it in my post Perfect Number Watches VeggieTales "Where's God When I'm Scared?" (1993), "As I said, being a kid w undiagnosed autism, having my very reasonable reactions to overwhelming sensory stimuli being read as 'fear', & being told 'don't be afraid' like that would fix it"

As I said, I'm really into the concept of incarnation, and I'm really into the belief that God is with us. But I don't think God actually takes actions in this world. (Maybe occasionally, rarely. But the vast majority of the time, no, They don't. When I say "rarely" I mean not even once in a lifetime.) They don't protect us. They don't stop bad things from happening to us. The idea of incarnation is very meaningful to me because They feel what we feel, all of it- but at the same time, I can see how it might come across as really weak and useless- what's the point, if God doesn't actually *do* anything to help us?

So what do I want my kids to get from this book? Part of me is like "well the book is fine if they don't take it that seriously- taking it too seriously would give them the message 'God won't let bad things happen to you' and 'just trust God instead of stepping up and solving your problems yourself'," and then part of me is like "this is the Incarnation we're talking about here, this is one of the most profound and exciting aspects of Christianity, why on earth would I want them to 'not take it too seriously'???"

Do I want to tell them "God is always with you, yay, God understands you and feels what you feel, BUT ALSO They're not gonna do anything to help if you have a problem"? That seems, uh, not very reassuring?

But now I'm the one "taking it too seriously"- like, I just want to introduce my kids to the concept of incarnation, that's all, we don't have to get into all these details, right?

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Anyway, yeah, overall I think this book is great for my kids. I have a lot of thoughts on it myself- and maybe I'll discuss this more in-depth with my kids, when my daughter is old enough to stop tearing books and speculate about the nature of God instead.

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Related:

God Is With Us (a post about autism) 

I Don't Want My Baby To Be "Brave"

Reviews of Christian Children's Books 

Honest Lent: "Seek First God's Kingdom" Doesn't Work If You Have Autism

Blogaround

1. Epiphanies (January 6) "If the person and the life of Jesus Christ taught us humans everything we need to know about God, that life also taught God what it is like to be one of us."

Also from the Slacktivist: Lost in the flood (January 7) "It’s darkly ironic that the rejection of that fact — the refusal to accept that the Bible is often bigger, stranger, more complicated and polyvalent — is referred to as 'a high view of scripture.'"

And: But in Canada, they have waiting lists (January 9) "This whole time, again, my wife is dealing — every day — with a condition that’s painful and inconvenient and disabling and that risks her long-term health."

2. Meta says it will end fact checking as Silicon Valley prepares for Trump (January 7) "The move comes as Meta and other tech companies are working to smooth what has been a rocky relationship with Trump." Oh this sounds bad.

3. Shigatse Earthquake: Over 120 Dead as Rescuers Battle Cold and Rubble (January 8) "A day after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern China’s Xizang Autonomous Region, the toll has climbed to at least 126 dead, 188 injured, and over 3,600 homes reduced to rubble."

4. Stripe Tales of the Ace and Aro flags (January 8) "I think using colors to represent specific groups raises too many questions about what groups are included or not included, and who 'deserves' to be on the flag."

5. Melchizedek: How a Literary Phantom Became an Eternal Priest and Savior of Israel (September 21) "Jews who interpreted Psalm 110 as a historical poem about Abraham would have discovered that it contained four surplus details about Abraham that were not originally explained in Genesis 14. Granarød believes that the Melchizedek character was invented on the basis of Psalm 110:4 and added to Genesis 14 to fill in those gaps."

6. This New Immigration Bill That’s About to Pass Is a Horrifying Trojan Horse (January 10) "In short, under the guise of punishing a small number of lawbreaking undocumented immigrants, the act would curtail legal immigration and subject law-abiding immigrants to detention and deportation. It is baffling that so many Democrats would sign on to such a cruel and constitutionally dubious scheme."

7. Anita Bryant, a popular singer who became known for opposition to gay rights, dead at age 84 (January 11)

8. Mantracks: a True Story of Fake Fossils (January 11) 1-hour-25-minute video from Dan Olson about the young-earth-creationist claim that human and dinosaur footprints have been discovered together. 

Wow! This video is very well-done. When I was a young-earth creationist, I mostly followed Answers in Genesis, and their position is that these human footprints are fake. Dan Olson talks about this in his video- how some creationists are just shameless grifters, and some are trying to look like real scientists, but they all share this ideology which is incompatible with how science actually works. Real science is about realizing you were wrong, changing your ideas when new evidence comes out- but from a creationist perspective, this is seen as a fundamental weakness. We already know the right answers from the bible, supposedly. Scientists are wrong and you can see that because they have to keep making changes to their theories, whereas we don't have to do that because we're already right.

9. Atheist group faces backlash after publishing, then removing, anti-trans article (December 29, via) "The whole piece is nothing more than anti-trans bigotry wrapped up in a cloak of science."

Blogaround

1. My Latest Book! On “The Many Lives of Psalm 91” (December 8) I am a huge bible nerd, so I am really interested in this book.

2. And it leaves me reeling (March 14) Another very good post from the Slacktivist about revival. Referring to the revival that almost maybe started in 2015, he says, "But whatever revival might have begun there was quickly squelched as InterVarsity began furiously backpedaling, insisting that none of the repentance and renewal pledged by thousands of young people at that event would be allowed to become meaningful or lasting."

3. Why the Effort to Make the Texas Abortion Bans More Humane Is Doomed (March 14) "From the time of previous eras’ abortion bans, exceptions were tailored more to prevent free access to the procedure than to address real problems in pregnancy, and state abortion laws today are no exception."

4. Oscars 2023: Everything Everywhere All At Once cleans up with seven awards (March 13) Yes!

5. Handsome Dancer - Coincidance (2015) Okay I'm sure I must have posted this video before, but this is so ridiculous and funny and everyone needs to watch it.

Blogaround

A fluffy puppy. Image source.

1. I'm Starting to Wonder If My Membership In This Fraternity Will Hamper My Future SCOTUS Prospects (posted September 24) [content note: sexual assault, but it's written as an over-the-top parody] "I mean, a young man can technically do all these things without any consequences, but thirty years later he may possibly have to worry that he won’t get to be a Supreme Court justice. It’s just not right."

2. Seattle judges throw out 15 years of marijuana convictions (posted September 25) Good news~

3. Christian Azusa Pacific University lifts, reinstates ban on LGBTQ relationships on campus (posted September 28) "'They said we could put our trust in them, and we did that,' Green said. 'And this is how they treat us, an already marginalized community — push us back down into the fringes.'"

4. A Rewriting of Psalm 10 (posted September 29) "Where the fuck are you, God, hiding yourself in these days?"

5. Transgender youths who use their chosen name are 65 percent less likely to attempt suicide, research reveals (posted April 2)

6. Promises, False and Discovered (posted September 22) "In college, I became aware that why yes, our god did indeed allow people to have problems that were too big for them."

7. Hurricane Maria was a manmade disaster. Hundreds of families told us what really happened (posted September 14)

8. When Gomer Looks More Like God (posted September 24) [content note: misogyny in the bible] "So I’ve been preaching about women called whores and the men, prophets, and God who use that language for some time now."

9. Urban Church Planting Plantations (posted 2014) "One older African-American pastor said he’s heard chilling reports of meetings, in which representatives from many of the suburban churches have gathered around a map of the city and marked each church’s “territory,” as if Buffalo was theirs to divvy up."

10. Tearing the Robe Twice: Christian Parenting and the Rape of Tamar (posted 2016) [content note: rape]

11. I Know Why Evangelical Women Support Brett Kavanaugh. I Was Raised To Do The Same. (posted October 3) "When I was 18, in college, a guy at my Christian school lectured my friend and me for stretching in the student union. He said it caused him to picture us in the positions we could maintain in bed and that we should work harder to protect his thoughts. We acquiesced. After all, we wanted to be women of God, worthy of our future husbands."

Blogaround

Fiona the baby hippo. Image source.

1. Aladdin Makes No Sense (posted September 28) "Also if the cave says 'only one can enter' but then clearly allows two, maybe it just means that the rules don't apply to Abu. But then how come they all of a sudden apply to Abu when he touches the giant ruby?"

2. omg are you following Fiona the baby hippo (from the Cincinnati Zoo)? She is the cutest thing ever! Here watch this video and see how cute she is. She was born premature and it's really amazing how hard people worked to help her survive.

3. Honest Trailers - Star Trek: The Next Generation (posted September 26) lololol

4. Every Member of Congress Who Took Money From the NRA and Tweeted 'Thoughts and Prayers' to Las Vegas (posted October 2) Vote them all out.

5. A Few Remarks on the Problem of Psalm 22:16 (posted 2015) "There is widespread agreement among critical scholars (including all those surveyed here) that Psalm 22 is not a depiction of crucifixion, and that the Septuagint’s translation of “dig” is incorrect."

Honest Lent: Introduction

Artwork showing someone getting ashes on their forehead. Image source.

Last December I did a series called Honest Advent, and I liked it so much that I'm going to do the same thing for Lent. The basic idea is that a few times per week, I'll read a bible passage and then blog about my opinions on it. No pressure to agree with it, no pressure to understand every part or answer all the questions that come up, no pressure to do it every single day.

For real, no pressure. Ash Wednesday was 3 days ago and I totally did not see it coming, not til I got home from work that evening and saw people talking about it on twitter. So the first 3 days of Lent I didn't do ANYTHING Lent-y, and guess what, I do not feel one bit bad about that. And for "Honest Lent," I'm [most likely] not going to read the bible every day. I'm going to do it only when I want to. I don't even see that as an ideal, as if it's obviously better to read the bible every day during Lent than to read the bible on some days. No, the ideal amount to read the bible is the amount I want to, however much I feel like doing it over the next month.

I'm making such a big deal about this "I'm not doing it every day and I don't feel bad about that" because in the evangelical culture I come from, everyone knew that the most godly Christians need to take time every day and read the bible. In college, I used to wake up early and spend 40 minutes to an hour every day reading the bible, praying, and journaling. And in that culture, people are required to act guilty if they don't live up to that standard; they "confess" that they "struggle" and aren't "making God a priority." They are socially required to talk about how they're such bad Christians for not reading the bible enough.

But I don't believe that anymore. Nowadays, I very rarely read the bible, and I don't feel one bit bad about that. (And maybe if you want me to feel bad, you need to ask yourself some hard questions about why you follow a religion which doesn't value mental health and would rather people have depression than not read the bible.) The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.

ANYWAY. So. Here's the bible reading plan I chose (link is a pdf). So the first one is Luke 4:1-13. Go read it and we'll talk about it.

Here are the things I noticed:

1. Jesus ate nothing for 40 days? Really? Is that possible? All right, I googled and found some information about hunger strikes, and it seems like generally people can survive 30-40 days with no food, but not too much beyond that. And only if they're still drinking water. You really need water.

All right so it's possible, but is this a good idea? It's supposed to be super-spiritual, but ... why? This could have very bad long-term effects on a person's health.

And hey, can we talk about fasting a little bit? Growing up evangelical, I never heard about anyone I knew who was fasting. I guess there are some types of Christianity that are more into it? My church was not. Then when I was in a Christian group in college, I heard people talking about fasting- as in, an actual real-life thing that they did- and I did it a few times. (There were even times that a group of us decided to all fast on the same day.) But nobody ever taught me how exactly to do it. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to drink water or not. (After the first time fasting, I found out that people said you should still drink water- but how could I have known that? My body told me I needed to eat, and I was ignoring that need, so how could I have known that my body's need to drink water was a VERY IMPORTANT thing that could be medically dangerous to ignore?)

There was even one time when I was praying at night, and suddenly I knew that God was telling me to fast the next day. So I did. As I recall, nothing out of the ordinary happened that day- nothing to explain why "God" had "told me" to fast that particular day. But that's the relationship I had with God back then- I didn't have the right to make my own decisions, he could order me to do anything, and I would have to do it even if it made no sense. Yeah, I'm glad I'm not in that relationship anymore.

It's a really bizarre concept- denying a very real, urgent physical need because apparently that's what God wants you to do. A really dangerous concept, in my opinion.

(Readers: I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with fasting/ whether you were taught anything about fasting in church.)

[content note for the next paragraph: gun violence]

2. Satan says, "If you are the Son of God..." Now that's interesting because evangelicals like to tell a lot of stories where someone "stood up for God" by doing just what a bad person told them they should do if they are true followers of God. Probably the most common example of this trope is the shooter who asks his victims "Do you believe in God?" and presumably would choose not to kill them if they answered "no." The thing that has always bothered me about these stories that the bad guy defines what devotion to God looks like in that situation, and then the hero acts according to the bad guy's definition. Like, let's be real, if somebody's trying to kill you, you don't have to stand around and answer their questions honestly- you do whatever the hell you can to get out of there. (Even lying is okay.)

So when satan says, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread," shouldn't Jesus "stand up for God" by, you know, telling the stones to become bread? Otherwise, isn't he denying that he's the Son of God? NO. Because satan doesn't get to make the rules. Just because satan claims that the Son of God would do this or that doesn't mean it's true. He's just making it up. Don't play by his rules.

3. Every time Jesus answers, he quotes a bible verse. Now, when I learned about this story in Sunday school as a little kid, the teachers made a big deal about "this is why it's really really important to study the bible, so you'll know what to say when you face temptation." But I don't see it that way anymore. Because that's almost like "you have to have a bible verse backing you up when you refuse to do something- 'I don't want to' isn't a good enough reason." Which totally flies in the face of the entire concept of consent.

I believed that I didn't have the right to make my own choices based on my own desires. Instead, I had to figure out what was the "right" thing to do and what was the "wrong" thing to do. That's why we were supposed to study the bible so much- so that we would be really sure about the "right" things and the "wrong" things.

In this way of thinking, when satan tells Jesus "tell these stones to become bread," Jesus would have to then figure out if telling the stones to become bread was a sin or not, in some absolute sense. If it is a sin, he should refuse to do it. If he feels like it's a bad idea, he doesn't want to, he's not comfortable with it, but he can't pinpoint the exact reason why and back it up with a "logical"* argument, then it's much more difficult for him to refuse. He can try to give some polite excuses, but if satan keeps pushing, well, Jesus feels he doesn't actually have a "good reason" and he'll give in.

(*I put "logical" in scare quotes because I very much believe that "I am uncomfortable with this" IS a perfectly logical and valid reason, even though it is purely based in emotion. People often talk as if a thing can only be "logical" if it's completely unrelated to emotion, but I disagree with that.)

No. When you make personal decisions that don't harm anyone else, you're not required to present your reasons to a jury of your peers and wait for their approval. No. "I want to do this" and "I don't want to do this" are good enough reasons. Period.

Purity-culture girls and ex-purity-culture girls seem to have an especially hard time with this. They often feel that they need to say yes if a good Christian guy asks them on a date- they need to "give him a chance" even if they're not interested. They can only say no if they can frame their refusal as "God told me" rather than "I don't want to." And when we're no longer in purity culture, we don't know how to make decisions based on our own desires- we have no experience in that, nobody ever taught us how. For example, maybe your partner wants to come to your home, but you're not comfortable with that, but you can't really explain why. All you can think is "well I don't believe it's a sin anymore, so... I guess I have to say yes?" It's very difficult to make that transition from asking "Is this right or wrong?" to asking "What do I want?"

4. "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world." Wait, really? "In an instant"? How have I never noticed that phrase? (I guess I generally read Matthew's version, which doesn't say "in an instant.") Wtf? Where are you going to go where you can see all the kingdoms of the world? Even if the writer thought the earth was flat (...did they?), how high would you even have to be to see them all? Did they believe there actually was a mountain that high? How long would it take Jesus and satan to hike up there? (Are they old buddies who go on mountain-climbing trips together?) And if your field of view was wide enough to include "all the kingdoms", wouldn't they be so far away that you couldn't really see any details? Like, they wouldn't look very tempting from that distance, right?

Or perhaps satan did a miracle and somehow showed Jesus "all the kingdoms" without any mountain-climbing involved? (Or maybe he showed a powerpoint? Or a flipchart? Flannelgraph? Or maybe this entire thing happened in a dream? A vision? Or Jesus was hallucinating because he was starving?)

I'm suddenly realizing this story isn't that realistic and maybe, maybe maybe maybe... should not be taken literally.

Hmm.

Well this gets into the question of what I believe about what the bible actually is, and honestly I don't have a good answer for that. I guess my position is that I think the stories about Jesus literally happened- but wow, the devil "showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world"? Really? I don't think so.

5. I just realized that throughout this entire blog post, I've been using the name "satan", but the passage itself only says "the devil." In the Christian culture I come from, there's an assumption that those are 100% interchangeable, but now I'm wondering if maybe the writers of the bible didn't understand them that way. Hmm. I should probably do more research on that.

6. The devil quotes Scripture too. People say that in church- "The devil quotes Scripture too." They meant it's not enough to read the bible- you have to know the "correct" interpretation too. There were frequent warnings about people who "twist Scripture." But now that all my beliefs have changed, I find that the things I believe now are the things that those supposed "false teachers" who "twist Scripture" believe. So the whole "twisting Scripture" thing is really a way to say "my interpretation is OBVIOUSLY the correct interpretation, and anyone who disagrees is automatically wrong."

Let me give you an example. I no longer believe it's a sin to have unmarried sex. So, good evangelicals are all like "the bible is clear, premarital sex is a sin"- but it's actually not "clear" at all. Over and over and over, the bible says that "sexual immorality" is a sin. But there's nothing immoral about consenting adults choosing to have sex and not hurting anybody. Yes, I believe "sexual immorality" is a sin (well, I believe any kind of immorality is a sin...) but it's totally possible to have unmarried sex without being immoral about it.

Clearly, I am "twisting Scripture."

At it's core, the "twisting Scripture" accusation is "well, you're wrong, because OBVIOUSLY that's not what they meant." That's literally all it is. Supposedly there's one "obvious", "clear" interpretation of the bible, and everyone knows it, but then some people try to "twist Scripture" to make it say things it OBVIOUSLY doesn't say.

So when Christians read this passage in Luke 4 with the mindset of "satan is twisting Scripture," ehhh no I don't like that. The reason Jesus shouldn't jump off the highest point of the temple is because THAT'S A TERRIBLE IDEA. Not because "that's not what the author of Psalm 91 really meant."

All right that's all I have to say about this passage. Readers, what are your thoughts? And are you doing anything special for Lent?

Honest Advent: When the World's "Justice System" Sucks

Courtroom. Image source.

For Honest Advent, let's take a look at Psalm 43:

Vindicate me, my God,
and plead my cause
against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are
deceitful and wicked.
You are God my stronghold.
Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?
Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

The first verse was what stood out to me. "Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation." Sounds like the writer is looking for justice, because society isn't giving him any. Maybe someone has done something very immoral and/or illegal to him, and they got away with it, and the people in power don't care.

(Please note that I'm not saying this is "my interpretation" of the passage, or "the right interpretaton", or "what this passage means." I have no idea what the situation was that the writer was writing about. But reading this prompted these opinions about justice, which I will now share.)

Okay first we need to clarify what "justice" means. The evangelical church taught me that "justice" means "everyone goes to hell." I'm not kidding. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not extrapolating or following their teachings to their unexpected logical conclusion. No, this was explicitly taught. Christian leaders said, "People always say they want justice. Nope, you don't want justice. Because you're a sinner too- you think 'justice' means God's going to punish someone you don't like, and you'll be just fine? No, what we want is mercy. Thank God for mercy. We're not getting the punishment we deserve (which is hell)."

That's what I believed. Fortunately, I don't believe that anymore; I now believe in the biblical definition of justice, which is "God has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble, God has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty." "Justice" means lifting up and helping those who suffer, and bringing down and punishing the powerful people who cause that suffering.

Okay so we're all clear on what definition of "justice" I'm using. Now let's actually talk about the concept of calling to God for help when the world's "justice system" screws you over. Feminism talks about this a lot. Oppression is built into every part of our society, so there are many examples where the biases of those in power allow people to do very evil things and get away with it. The Black Lives Matter movement exists because the US has a real problem with murderers whose victims are black never being brought to justice. And then there's the horrible reality of rape culture: Only a small percentage of rapes are reported to police, and of those, only a small percentage of the rapists are actually punished by the law. Instead, rape victims are re-victimized by the "justice system", and there are judges who decide not to punish a rapist very harshly because that would just be too sad for the rapist.

And there are all kinds of other shady things that people get away with. Companies that mistreat their low-wage employees, and even though it's illegal, there's not really much the employees can do about it. Churches that cover up child abuse. And so on. People do these bad things, and there's just no way for the victims to get justice. The powers-that-be just aren't going to do it.

It just sucks.

So maybe, in that kind of situation, people ask God to bring justice. Unfortunately, I don't believe that's the kind of thing God does. Because think about it- if God was the kind of God who intervened to help people and bring justice, wouldn't God have stopped the bad thing from happening in the first place? If you're a God who's not going to stop a murder but you'll make sure the murderer goes to jail, well you're kind of useless. Like, you're the God of bad time management or something.

But I get how it can be helpful, psychologically, to pray for God to bring justice. To believe there's a God there who cares and can help you. And I believe that in the future there will be resurrection and justice, so, yeah, eventually God will do it.

The "justice system" can suck sometimes. That's not the way it should be. That's not the way it will be in the kingdom of God.

Blogaround

#AllLivesMatter in biblical times. Images shows Jesus preaching "Blessed are you who are poor..." and someone interrupts with "Blessed are we all, Jesus!" Image source.

1. More Second-Trimester Abortions Occurred Under Texas Law: Exclusive (posted July 6) "Texas passed its 2013 omnibus abortion bill in the name of protecting women's health — a rationale roundly rejected by the Supreme Court last month. Now, newly released data shows the law may have actually had the opposite effect, putting women at greater risk by increasing the number of later abortions."

2. What is Asexuality? This is a massive list of links for information about asexuality. My favorite are the "An Asexual's Guide To ..." posts because they actually like, explained SO MUCH about what sex is, instead of assuming we're all supposed to just naturally understand it. And those posts are so incredibly affirming of bodily autonomy- they talk about sex and masturbation like "here's how to do it, but you don't have to do it that way, some people like other ways, and if you don't like it at all then there's no reason you 'have to' do it."

3. thy word is a lamp unto my feet (posted July 6) "I still don’t know what other Christians experience when they say they hear God’s voice."

4. Dallas police used a robot to kill a gunman, a new tactic that raises ethical questions (posted July 8) I work in robotics, and yeah, there are ethical questions.

5. The Bahamas Just Issued A Travel Advisory For The U.S., Citing Police Violence (posted July 9)

6. The inspiring way hundreds of Asian Americans are teaching their families about Black Lives Matter (posted July 8) "It was a letter explaining why black lives mattered, too — drawing Asians to the side of another racial group whose decades-long struggle for rights and recognition has directly benefited people of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese descent, along with many other ethnicities." Wow, this is amazing. English (US) version here. Chinese version here.

7. The Legacy of Diamond Reynolds’ Video (posted July 8) "What is new is that a story that might once have been easily ignored is now forcefully pushed onto the front page by the democratic power of video—and, in particular, live video."

8. Former Evangelical Pastor Rethinks His Approach To Courtship (posted July 10) Joshua Harris on NPR.

9. Scenes from Ark Encounter’s Opening Day (Inside the Ark) (posted July 7) Answers in Genesis has built a full-size ark. The Friendly Atheist blog takes you inside.

10. Why do people believe myths about the Confederacy? Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong. (posted 2015)

11. The Psalms and the word of God (posted July 11) "Or, rather, it would be a beautiful, moving, heartfelt hymn of praise if it hadn’t been the product of “plenary verbal inspiration.” But if we read that assuming that every word of it was chosen and determined by God — by the very same God who is the apparent subject of all that praise and adoration — then it just becomes something weird and kind of creepy."

12. Holocaust Museum to visitors: Please stop catching Pokemon here (posted July 12)

13. Log Cabin Republicans: Party passes ‘most anti-LGBT platform’ in GOP history (posted July 12) "Opposition to marriage equality, nonsense about bathrooms, an endorsement of the debunked psychological practice of “pray the gay away” — it’s all in there."

14. what does it take to be a Christian? (posted July 13) "To my childhood self– and to many others– the above paragraph is heresy. I’d toss it out, and the rest of this blog, wholesale on that paragraph alone."

15. What the Ark Encounter Reveals about Science, the Bible, and Entertainment (posted July 12) "In some sense, Ham approaches the pre-flood society with a sort of science fiction perspective—anything could have existed, and in some sense, everything did (think dinosaurs)."

Blogaround

A tiger swimming. Image source.

1. 8 Exonerated Prisoners on Their First Week Out (posted September 10) "Then I got up to leave, and every step that I took, nobody stopped me."

2. The Dad Who Wrote a Check Using “Common Core” Math Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About (posted September 21) "That’s what great math students learn how to do, too. They see a problem and they just know how to manipulate the information at their disposal. They knew how to step away from the algorithms. They didn’t need a “recipe” because they understood how to mess around with the numbers to get the answer they wanted."

3. #MasculinitySoFragile Hashtag Highlights Toxic Masculinity’s Weak Points (posted September 23) "#MasculinitySoFragile Guys have to say "no homo" when showing affection to another guy, which is like saying "no Oedipus" when u hug ur mom."

4. Evangelical Conference on Transgender “Confusion” Has Zero Transgender Speakers (posted September 23) "This isn’t a conference; this is the active plotting of maltreatment that could have deadly consequences."

5. The Real Theological Challenge of Evolution (posted September 16) "What do we make of the notion that God created a world so well-equipped for extinction that 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct? Or that God created a world with parameters in which biological strategies such as predation and parasitism are so rewarding that they are virtually inevitable?"

6. [trigger warning- child sexual abuse] Jamie Wight, Maranatha, & Sexual Predation Unrecognized (posted September 23) "Fathers are taught to expect to be approached by godly young men hoping to wed their daughters. In this context, Stan and the Greenfields likely saw Matthew and Jamin as earnest and well qualified young men who had simply jumped the gun by a few years."

7. Stat check: No, women couldn’t just “go somewhere else” if Planned Parenthood closed (posted September 24) "State data shows that without Planned Parenthood in the network, the public program provided care to about 9 percent fewer women than it did in 2011. In the West Texas region, women served by that program declined by 40 percent between 2011 and 2013 — the same year that Planned Parenthood closed two clinics in that area of the state."

8. Chinese President 习近平 Xi Jinping visited the US and it is all over the news here (I'm in China).

Here are some articles from the English side of the internet:
Obama and Xi Jinping of China Agree to Steps on Cybertheft
FACT SHEET: President Xi Jinping’s State Visit to the United States
Mark Zuckerberg Met With Xi Jinping and Spoke Only in Chinese  Good for him! I want to see a video though.
XI Jinping of China visits Washington D.C. (21 images)

And from the Chinese side of the internet:
习近平访美中方成果清单发布  [Results of Xi Jinping's visit to the US] This one includes an 8-minute video of Xi's arrival at the White House, with a ceremony and everything.
彭丽媛和米歇尔为赴美大熊猫幼崽命名 [Peng Liyuan and Michelle name the American panda cub] 10 photos here. Also this one has a video of the name reveal and Peng Liyuan saying some stuff (in Chinese) about pandas and cooperation between China and the US.
习近平访问西雅图林肯高中 获赠1号球衣 [Xi Jinping visits Lincoln High School in Seattle and receives a #1 football jersey] 12 photos here.

9. Ben Carson’s claim that ‘taqiyya’ encourages Muslims ‘to lie to achieve your goals’ (posted September 22) This is hilarious to me because Christians lie ALL THE TIME if they think it's in service to Jesus. They lie about abortion, birth control, and sex. They use scare tactics and portray LGBT people as monsters who want to destroy society. They find deceptive ways to force people to listen to a "gospel presentation." How about removing the plank in your own eye before giving your uninformed opinion of Muslims?

10. Ahab and Jezebel in Psalm 45 (posted September 26) Is Psalm 45 the wedding song for Ahab and Jezebel?

So It Didn't Really Happen. So What's The Point?

Image source.

Let's say you go to church and hear a sermon about God bringing the people out of Egypt and parting the Red Sea. What kind of application to your life would the pastor pull out of that? Probably something about God being all-powerful, and how we can trust God, and God saves his people.

Like for example, maybe you go to the ocean and one of your kids is swimming and they swam out too far and they need help- well God might just come in and part the ocean, ya know? God saves his people, yeah?

No. Nobody thinks that's how the passage applies to our lives now. It's too literal. Too physical. Too big and miraculous. Instead, we see the biblical story as having a meaning which affects us in a spiritual or psychological way- but definitely a real way, if you ask any "good Christian."

So, let's recap: According to good evangelical Christians, the stories in the bible are real. They are true. They happened. (I don't like using the word "literal" because in my mind, it means the same thing as "true." Maybe because I'm a math person or I see things in black-and-white or something.) But the lessons we learn from them and the practical application to our lives in the present are not like the stories. Instead, we pull out some spiritual truths and they affect us on a psychological level, or we imagine we see God working "behind the scenes" to cause things in a much more indirect way than what happened in the bible.

Why the discrepancy?

Well in the past I always would have answered the question by saying large-scale miracles are super-rare. Like, that's why the biblical authors wrote them down. And look, the bible was written over thousands of years, right? And it only has, what, a couple hundred miracles, maybe? Even in the bible, some periods of time had many miracles and some had nothin'. So we probably have the same thing going on today.

But we can still learn about God's character from the biblical miracles, and those truths would always be applicable.

Image source.

Let's move in a slightly different direction now. Lately I've read some blog posts about history and the bible and how actually that stuff didn't happen.

Like this one, about Matthew's genealogy. It says Matthew put Rehab in there because, well, he wanted to put Rehab in there. Because WOULDN'T THAT BE COOL? or something. And that Matthew just made stuff up for the last bunch of 14 or so names. He chose names of well-known priests to symbolize Jesus being a priest. What the heck?

If this is true, then it sounds to me like it's not really a genealogy at all. Instead, it's the sort of family line that Matthew thinks Jesus would fit with, based on Matthew's view of who Jesus is.

So it's only useful to us if we have any faith in Matthew's ideas about who Jesus is. Uh, okay.

And this one, about David and Goliath. The writer points out some inconsistencies in the story from 1 Samuel 16-18, and explains it as two stories being combined together by the author of 1 Samuel. And I think that's ridiculously interesting and really makes a lot of sense, based on what I've heard about stories being passed along orally in ancient times or whatever, but like... I've never thought about the bible that way.

No, the bible was always a logic problem. We know everything in the bible is true. So let's say we find statement A in the bible, but also statements B and C, which seem incompatible with A. This is where we gotta get creative! Come up with some kind of scenario where all 3 are true.

For example, Matthew 27:5 says Judas hanged himself. Acts 1:18 says he fell and his intestines burst out. (Oh that's nice.) Well, clearly, he hanged himself and then after being dead for a while he fell down and his body burst open. See, I've solved the puzzle! And that's what apologetics is.

I never even considered the idea that perhaps some things the bible says are wrong. They just did not happen (and that's the source of the discrepancy). And, ya know, the explanation about Judas, I think that's pretty believable. But some bible "contradictions" require really convoluted explanations.

And back to that blog post about David and Goliath (and also Elhanan, who also killed Goliath, but in apologetics land it's clearly a different guy who just happens to be named Goliath or perhaps it's the brother of Goliath if you want to believe an English translation instead of the Hebrew). It's pointed out that David was apparently already playing music for Saul, and then he kills Goliath and Saul has to ask someone who David even is- what's with that? I always thought, well Saul forgot, or maybe it had been a while and David looked different. No contradiction there. MOVE ALONG PEOPLE.

Kind of interesting how I just completely ignored it- contradictions aren't allowed to exist- and the author of that other blog post found it very meaningful and used details like that to piece together 2 original stories. It's almost as if accepting the bible for what it actually is and appreciating the history and culture that it came from is way better than just treating it as a series of true statements that fell from heaven.

(See also this "aha moments" blog series- how studying the bible led pastors/scholars to reject the idea that all that stuff actually literally happened.)

Image source.

So, some stuff didn't really happen. Well, that's terrifying.

No no, hold up. It didn't actually happen, but the stories are still meaningful. We just have to understand why the authors wrote them and what they meant to the original audience.

And maybe the stories do communicate truths about God. Not big literal miraculous ones, but spiritual ones. Just like the sermons you hear at church, when we take outrageous stories we claim to believe literally happened and draw conclusions no stronger than "you can trust God."

Are the spiritual truths still true if God didn't part the Red Sea? Man, how can they be true? If God didn't part the Red Sea, then any ideas we got from that story are baseless.

If it's not based on something that actually happened, if someone just made it up and wrote it down and everyone thought it was a great meaningful story, well SO WHAT?

(Again, I need to learn more about the original writers' intentions.)

Image source.

And then there are some parts of the bible that I just don't buy at all. Like when God said to kill everyone in those cities.

In cases like that, it definitely makes more sense to say the bible isn't absolute truth about God- instead, it's how the Israelites related to God throughout history. And they got some stuff wrong. They, at one point, believed in the kind of God who would tell you to go kill all your enemies/people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Okay, so, they were wrong. We're all wrong about some things.

But wait. If the bible is a record of what some people believed about God and how they interacted with God throughout history, well, isn't that true of all religious books? What makes the bible any more special or "right" or "true" than a holy book from another religion?

What's the point?

Ai ya. Image source.

You know, I really miss believing the bible. I miss just relaxing and opening it up in anticipation of learning some interesting truth. I miss relying on it as the source of all the answers.

This week I went to church feeling lost, and I thought, maybe the sermon can help me. But then I remembered that I no longer believe things just because a pastor says them or just because they come from the bible. I could listen to the sermon and maybe it would be good, but I'd have to do the work of deciding what I agreed with and what I didn't.

And how am I supposed to know? It's too tiring not being able to trust anyone else's opinion.

(And as a side note, I think it's really really good for me that I'm going to church in Chinese because you know how an idea can seem new when you hear it in a way that's phrased differently than you're used to? Yep.)

And when I read the bible, now it just feels like something a bunch of ancient people wrote. Like, who cares? It used to feel so special and close to me.

So what is the bible, and what's the point?

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 106- which recalls a bunch of biblical events which may or may not have happened. To read other people's posts, click here: Understanding The Story.

Jesus was a freakin' person and that means so much

复活在我，生命也在我。 I am the resurrection and the life. Image source.

Jesus is the best, you guys.

Sometimes I wonder if I should even be a Christian, because of all the times I disagree with something in the bible or something someone said at church. But man, start talking about Jesus and I'm totally on board. The writer of Psalm 105 remembers what God did in the past- I want to remember too.

God came to this earth to BE a PERSON, you guys. God didn't just sit in heaven going "dang, that place is messed up, I'm so glad I'm not there." God loves the world, you guys. Like, really really loves the world. So much that God did something about it. Actually came to be part of our world, actually live with us as a real human person, experiencing pain and happiness and love and affection and sadness and desperation.

Part of your world. God was just like Ariel. Or something. Image source.

That convinces me that God loves us.

I always want to know why the hell bad things happen. Why doesn't God do something? Doesn't God care? Dude, God is in this with us. God's not above it all, insulated from the pain. Man. Jesus lived it all.

He was a freakin' person, you guys.

We want to know why God doesn't save us, well Jesus wanted to know that too. We don't know why bad things happen, but we just have to live with it. Jesus had to live with it too.

And I believe God feels all the pain of the world even now. When something hurts us, it hurts God too. It matters. God is with us.

God also bears the consequences of God's lack of intervention.

God is with us.

We know because God actually came to our world, on our world's terms.

Jesus showed us what love is, and what resurrection is.

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 105. To read other people's posts, click here: Calling on the Name of the Lord. 

Praising God in General

God made a world the contains baby deer and kittens. God is the best! Image source.

The writer of Psalm 104 has a lot of praise for God, and for once it's praise I can actually agree with. Because it's very general.

God "set the earth on its foundations."

God "makes springs pour water into the ravines."

"He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate."

"All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time."

Baby flamingo, you guys. Image source.

You guys, the world is beautiful and awesome, and God made it that way. He gave us this fantastic earth, with rivers and mountains and animals and cities full of people and all the awesome, rich diversity that is humanity.

Most of the time, life is great.

And I can agree with this psalm because everything is so general. God made the world. Stuff in the world is pretty awesome.

Just don't go crediting God with specific happenings. God helped you find a job? God healed you when you had a cold? God made the bus come on time so you wouldn't be late for work? I don't know about that. If God has a hand in micromanaging every little event, then he'd better explain why so many awful things happen in the world every day. He can help you find your keys, but he can't be bothered to keep children safe from violence and war?

In the past, I think I prayed too much. I prayed about EVERYTHING. Because the more you pray, the better, right? Every little thing, every tiny problem I had, I prayed about. I remember once, after coming back home from the grocery store, I realized I forgot to buy ice cream. It didn't make sense- if God is with me, if he is so close and he can speak to me all the time, why wouldn't he remind me about the ice cream?

And I remember the first time I came to China, it was a mission trip, and there were a few things that didn't go as planned, resulting in about a week of what felt like wasted time. Didn't God care that I had gotten friends and family to pay thousands of dollars to send me all the way across the world, in his name? How could this happen? I know the laws of nature don't care who gets inconvenienced, but man, doesn't God care? Shouldn't he make it less likely for that stuff to happen to me, because I/donors had spent so much money on that trip- and in his name?

I don't believe he intervenes like that anymore. Yes, sometimes, but generally no. So I don't feel like I can pray and ask him to do stuff, or thank him for things that happened. (Even though the bible has a ton of examples of people doing just that.)

But back to Psalm 104. He made the world, and it's great- in general.

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 104. To read other people's posts, click here: Fleeing the Headlines and Finding My Faith.

Being Wrong When You Pray

Image source.

At first, Psalm 103 seemed to have no connection to reality.

"Forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases," seriously? Everyone knows God doesn't do that. And aren't we all tired of cliches that say he does?

Then there's a bit about "The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed." Yeah! Now that part I can get behind. Because I believe in resurrection.

But then the rest is punctuated with terms like "for those who fear him." So, God's blessings are just for the followers of the "correct" religion. Yeah, I don't buy that either.

So I read this psalm like, eh, I can't relate to much any of this.

But wait, don't the psalms teach us that you can tell God exactly how you feel, you don't have to censor anything? Well that's what the psalmist did. This is what he honestly felt, this is what he believed. That doesn't mean it has God's stamp of approval. Because the psalmist is wrong about some things.

And that bit about "healing all your diseases"- well maybe the psalmist had just gotten better from some disease and he was feeling really happy about it. So it's just an exaggeration. It's not really true, but that's how he honestly felt.

So let's talk about being wrong when you pray.

That's why I don't pray much nowadays. Because, I have some beliefs about God, some of which are very strong, but I'm definitely not confident enough to start monologuing at God with the assumption that he agrees with me.

I remember back when I was a teenager and I read bullshit about how teh gays were totally trying to destroy America, and so I prayed that God would stop gay marriage. I don't want to pray for stuff like that again. Stuff that's "us vs them" and I pray as if OBVIOUSLY God agrees with me.

Far far far too much of my life has been spent believing anyone who said "this is God's way." They acted as if "God agrees with me." They took his name in vain.

I so don't want to do that. I don't want to be wrong when I pray- it will only reinforce those wrong beliefs by making me feel like they have God's approval.

There's so much danger in assuming "God agrees with me." But I wonder if there's also danger in not praying because I never want to get that wrong.

I'll only assume a few things when I talk to God: that he's always with us, that he loves us, that he feels our pain, and that he created this world good and he will restore it all someday.

Everything else, I don't know. I don't know if a person can "have a relationship with God." I don't know if it makes sense to pray for this or that to happen. I don't know if God has an opinion about decisions I make in my life. I don't know if there are more answers out there or if this is all the faith I'm ever gonna have.

All I can do when I pray is tell God this is how I feel or this is what I want. But I don't know what role, if any, God has in my getting what I want. I don't know what the point of praying is anyway.

Ai ya. ("Ai ya [哎呀]" is an incredibly versatile Chinese interjection, for those of you wondering.) I don't wanna act like I know God when I really don't. I don't want to talk to God and have her sitting there like "what the heck are you talking about? Man I don't even know what to do with this prayer."

Is it okay to be wrong when I pray? On one hand, I know God will accept me. God loves me. God wants me to talk to her, just honestly say what I feel.

But if- when- I'm wrong, I don't want to be able to just pray it like everyone's cool with it.

And I don't want to be the kind of person who's so certain God agrees with me.

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 103. To read other people's posts, click here: How can we bless God?

Bread, Rice, and Bible Translation

Image source.

So I'm reading Psalm 102, and verse 4 says, "My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread."

But my bible has both English (ESV with British spellings) and Chinese (Chinese Union Version, simplified characters) side by side. The Chinese version ends verse 4 with "我忘记吃饭", which, hold up, means I forgot to eat rice.

Or, not exactly. See in Chinese, "吃饭 [chī fàn]" means eat a meal. But the "饭 [fàn]" part comes from the word for rice, because, you know, if you're eating a meal but there's no rice... what are you doing?

You're confusing this baby, that's what you're doing. Image source.

(That's not entirely true. Noodles are a common substitute for rice. And I can think of a few other common Chinese meals that normally wouldn't include rice.)

But my point is, in modern Chinese, "吃饭 [chī fàn]" means eat a meal, which may or may not include rice, though the origin of this term assumes that you're eating rice.

So why does the ESV say "I forget to eat my bread"?

Well let's have a look at some other English translations. Here, I found a whole list. Some say "bread," some say "food," and there's even one that says "I have lost my appetite."

So I'm thinking, the original text in Hebrew probably said "bread" (yep, confirmed), but some translations changed it to "food" because they want to get across the idea that this is a staple food that is not being eaten, and in modern Western culture maybe bread is not as staple-y as it was for the psalmist.

And in Chinese culture, nope bread is not a staple at all. Rice is your staple. Bread is kind of like a dessert.

But my stomach needs bread every day or I don't feel full, so I'm always making sandwiches for myself (it is HARD to find decent sliced bread here!) or going to bakeries to get little bread-type pastry things (though if you're coming from an American/western perspective, whatever you just imagined when you read "bread-type pastry things" is definitely NOT what they have in the Chinese bakeries).

And I get Chinese colleagues asking me all the time, "How can you eat so much bread???!!!" and "You need to eat other things too!" No, seriously guys, Americans eat bread every day. Chinese people eat rice every day. It's the same idea.

But anyway. If the Chinese translation of the bible said bread here, that would totally miss the point of the verse. (It would be like if the English one said "I forget to eat my rice." Us Americans would read that and go "so? I mean we eat rice sometimes but no big deal, you don't like need to eat it.") In that case, "吃饭 [chī fàn]" is a good translation.

But hey, let's check out some other Chinese translations!

Chinese New Version: "我連飯也忘了吃。" "I even forgot to eat." This one again uses that word "饭 [fàn]" which means meals in general but people will assume you're talking about rice with a side of something.

Chinese Contemporary Bible: "我茶饭不思。" Hey this is a fun one! Apparently "茶饭不思" is a 成语 [chéng yǔ], a four-character Chinese idiom! "茶 [chá]" means tea, "饭 [fàn]" means, well, we talked about that, and "不思 [bù sī]" means not thinking about something. So together, it's an idiom that means you totally lost your appetite. Kind of a fun modern translation there, I guess.

In summary, translation is hard. But also really interesting. Maybe the more literal the translation is, the more culture you need to know to actually get the meaning.

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 102. To read other people's posts, click here: Do people of faith struggle with pain?

Psalm 101 and How I Changed My Mind About Abortion

Image source.

Psalm 101 kind of scares me, you guys.

"I hate what faithless people do;
    I will have no part in it.
The perverse of heart shall be far from me;
    I will have nothing to do with what is evil."

"Every morning I will put to silence
    all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
    from the city of the Lord."

Ohhhhhhhhhh dear.

So the psalmist is totally totally going to have NOTHING to do with those he labels as "faithless" and "perverse", but he's also going to "silence" and "cut [them] off."

That's pretty much exactly how you hurt people because you don't understand them. That outlook leads to judging those who are different from you, and fighting against them, making no attempt to see their humanity and understand their point of view.

You already know they're "wicked" and must be stopped. There's no point in listening.

Psalm 101 is basically the conflict in "Pocahontas." Image source.

So. About abortion.

Well my whole life, I always believed that abortion was very very evil and we need to fight it and make it illegal and do everything we can to stop people from getting abortions, and SAVE THE BABIES.

Because, you know, that's what Christians believe.

I never ever heard anything from the pro-choice point of view. All I could think was "why would anyone ever think it was okay to kill their baby?"

Until one day in college, when I was hanging out with some friends, and one of them mentioned how totally unreasonable it was that there was a new law banning abortion after 6 weeks or 8 weeks or whatever it was. Because, you probably won't even realize you're pregnant til like 4 weeks in, and then you won't even have time to schedule an appointment to have an abortion.

And, wow.

I had never thought of it that way before- in terms of how somebody I know could actually BE in that situation, and how in the world she would navigate the logistics of it.

Before, it was just evil faceless women/monsters out there, who for some unknowable and OBVIOUSLY VERY WRONG reason wanted to KILL THEIR BABY, and we have to do everything we can to stop them. And if we can't overturn Roe vs Wade, well let's make a ton of other laws so it's logistically impossible to get an abortion anyway.

I'd never heard the other side.

And to make a long story short, since then I've read a lot more about it, a lot of stories about the reasons people get abortions and how the laws passed by people like me who just want to "silence all the wicked of the land" end up being a bunch of bureaucracy that gets in the way of REAL PEOPLE'S health.

And now, I think abortion is a hard moral question. In some cases, there is clear right and wrong, but sometimes maybe not. And you know what- I think the person who best understands the situation and what is right and what is wrong is the person who is pregnant.

I'm pro-choice.

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This post is part of a link-up on the topic of Psalm 101. To read other people's posts, click here: Commitment: Thoughts on Psalm 101.