Goals

* to increase my vocabulary
* to learn biblical Greek and Hebrew fluently
* learn to knit and crochet
* improve my photography and editing; start a photo side business
* write, write, write - books, magazine articles etc.
* increase cooking repertoire

"Severe Mercy" by Sheldon Vanauken

I am at the beginnings of a book called "Severe Mercy" by Sheldon Vanauken. I first heard about this book during department devotions on the topic of idolatry, and the concepts of the book intrigued me. The couple in it first meet and married before they become Christians, and had a deep love. When they are converted, it is hard for them to reconcile putting God before their love. From my understanding, in the end, God must take one of them away in order for their love to last (hence the title). (edit addition from 5/26: I am not quite done with the book yet, but I think my previous explanation is not quite right or rather the description I had heard is not quite right nor did it justice to the characters but more shall I explain later)

Here is a quote from near the beginning (page 35):

"What is it that draws two people into closeness and love? Of course there's the mystery of physical attraction, but beyond that it's the things they share. We both love strawberries and ships and collies and poems and beauty, and all those things bind us together. Those sharings just happened to be; but what we must do now is share everything. Everything! If one of us likes anything, there must be something to like in it - and the other one must find it. Every single thing that either of us likes. That way we shall create a thousand strands, great and small, that will link us together. Then we shall be so close that it would be impossible - unthinkable- for either of us to suppose that we could ever recreate such closeness with anyone else. And our trust in each other will not only be based on love and loyalty but on the fact of a thousand sharings - a thousand strands twisted into something unbreakable."