IntenseDebate - eskenosen

8 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +28 points

EARRRRR FLUFFFFFFF

8 years ago @ The Toast - Cocktail Hour: Open Th... · 0 replies · +3 points

I love coffee and tea and usually opt for coffee in the morning, but my FAVORITE is sitting down with lovely tea ware and a somewhat elaborate tea steeping method, it is the most calming thing I do for myself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtWVkv_dw_c for an example).

Ripe puer tea is great for coffee lovers, and sometimes tastes like chocolate to me. A really good Chinese black tea is also wonderful brewed this way, nice and toasty. Whispering Pines tea has lovely blends, though they're kind of expensive.

8 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +1 points

Plus there's prayer out loud in church all the time, of course, which is more often how someone gets to be known as "good" at praying.

8 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +2 points

Haha, I grew up in a family of preachers, so every gathering ended with prayer. I don't do that much in my life outside of church, but I pray for people in their presence all the time in my chaplaincy work. I don't offer to do it (for the reasons you cite, and because people feel obligated to say yes when you offer to pray for them), but when requested I do, and people request it a lot.

8 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 0 replies · +11 points

(also some of it is just being good at putting words together, which Smedes was, too. But it can't be just that)

8 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 18 replies · +31 points

I don't how one becomes *known* for it, but I think the people who are great at praying are the ones who are great at deep listening, who pay attention to what others are saying and pray out of a genuine desire for the other's good, and not just what the person praying thinks the other *ought* to want or need. I hate being prayed for when the person praying is asking for something I never mentioned, or completely misunderstands what my pain is about. But when someone's prayer makes it clear that I've been heard, and that the person joins me in my own prayer, or even better, makes clearer to me what my prayer is, I remember that for a long time. It's pretty rare.

8 years ago @ The Toast - Link Roundup! · 1 reply · +24 points

If the point of religion is rewarding good behavior, then sure, that's the total point. For me, though, the total point of Christianity is that forgiveness and the assurance that God will "catch" us after we die enables a life here and now that is more completely engaged with creation, with other human beings, and with justice. Repentance is recognizing where we're missing the mark, so to speak, and attempting to bring the self and community back in line with what God asks of us. At least that's my (slightly heretical, since I'm of the opinion nobody's predestined for hell) Calvinist opinion.

The Bible has a TON more to say about how we are to live in the here and now than it does about the afterlife.

8 years ago @ The Toast - This Is Your "Fourth" ... · 1 reply · +4 points

Literati is my absolute most favorite bookstore ever, and it has a very nice coffee place upstairs. Their poetry section is one of their bestselling sections!! Ravens or The Last Word for cocktails, yessss precioussss, and the Arb is lovely this time of year.

8 years ago @ The Toast - This Is Your "Fourth" ... · 1 reply · +8 points

!! Tell me everything. How many cats. Do you sit down and then they are friendly and sit on your lap. Do they cuddle with each other. Is there one of those giant cat-path-and-shelf constructions so they can climb the walls and ceilings are there cats in the ceiling. How does anyone get anything done. Is it like visiting your one weird aunt where you can't keep track of all the cats while you eat stale carrot cake. I want to go to there.

9 years ago @ The Toast - The Resurrection of th... · 1 reply · +6 points

I don't think even the best theologians can tell us what life after death might look like; I have my ideas and my hopes, but I think what I meant when I was writing this was that whatever we might hope for in the afterlife, whatever it might actually be, we can't cling so hard to the hope that our suffering will be erased after we die that we neglect to find a way to flourish in *this* life. And once we've found a way to flourish even with our wounds, I wouldn't want God to forget that--it's more a sign of grace than anything else in our lives. But I do hold out hope that the wounds themselves will be drained of suffering in the presence of God. Just not erased.

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