I am starting to sound like Tim Allen -UNH! shows that not only males inhabit caves in their love affair with duct tape. What?! Never mind…. listen, I have gotten some lovely feedback that meant alot to me from Rick Pearcey. It was short and very sweet:
I think you are absolutely right about the centrality of Edith to L’Abri.
The two sides of the coin — the intellectual answers across the whole of life, plus the observable demonstration in the midst of life — need to be present simultaneously to reflect the richness of a Biblical model of ministry.
Had there been no Edith, there would have been no L’Abri.
The reason this meant so much is the fact that in this short message is large meaning for those women who oil the gears of ministry… the ones who make a home and provide the place a body can lay its head ( call up all your metaphorical Bible verses for this).
the ones who get battered by the feminist rhetoric, the ones who are “left behind” when the flattering tongues and the award ceremonies parade across the Church platform.
Edith Schaeffer is a wonderful example of a woman in ministry- who impacted her world in a most extraordinary way, and yet in the things that we most often call ordinary; that we are given to imagine are mundane and lacking meaning in their dailyness.
It is a wonderful case in point that God is God of All, in the small things of life and in the large. we need examples of both. Now more than ever.
Thank you Edith Schaeffer, thank you Rick Pearcey, for taking time for the small things that mean so much: an encouraging note, a vase of flowers on the table, a healthy and lovingly cooked meal, a few minutes from your day ….. these things add up in the message of life and meaning.
Such things give definition to the term, civility. We seek to strike a balance between macro and micro, desiring truth and honesty, yet gentleness and caring as well. I don’t think this is a blance with tension, it is an ebb and flow with cohesion between each part.
I loved reading Edith’s “The Hidden Art of Homemaking” as a young bride!
… there are so many that have no idea how to ‘make a home’… it is so much more than Martha Stewart Living- although I admit to being a fan of that publication.