Yesterday our ship came in. Well, it actually came in to Antwerp a few weeks ago. But our stuff that was on the ship made it across Europe to arrive at our door yesterday morning. All of it was unloaded from the truck within a few hours. We are continuing to unbox today and to try to find places for everything – which is not as easy as it sounds. Still, even with the mess you see in the picture below, it’s beginning to feel more like home.
We spent the weekend in the Czech Republic with our dear friends from the English camp that Paula and I taught at in the summers of 2005 and 2006. I’ll tell you about our reunion in another post. For now I just wanted to make you jealous: our friends Petr and Petra took us for lunch to Litomyšl, which is a UNESCO Czech Heritage Site and the birthplace of Smetana (one of my favorite composers). After lunch we strolled through the charming town, and played catch with an American football in from of the monastery.
By the way, the goulash was delicious.
We’ve been reading Francis Schaeffer’s True Spirituality in our family devotions since arriving in Trnava. In one of the early chapters he writes about the centrality of death in the Christian life. He notes that Christ’s death is the topic of the conversation among Moses, Elijah, and Jesus at the transfiguration, and that it was the topic of the prophets of the Old Testament. He notes that the pattern for Jesus – the necessity for Jesus – was that he be rejected, slain, and only then raised. And he pointed out that Jesus said that no one could be his disciple unless he took up his cross and died daily.
So, he says,
In the Christian life, is it just as central, and should it not provoke continuing thought, continuing consideration and conversation, and contining prayer on our part? So I must ask, very gently: How much thought does the necessity of death by choice provoke, how much conversation? How much prayer does this provoke for ourselves and for those we love? Is it not true that our thoughts, our prayers for ourselves and for those we love, and our conversations, are almost entirely aimed at getting rid of the negative at any cost – rather than praying that the negatives might be faced in the proper attitude? How much prayer do we make for our children and those we love that they may indeed be willing to walk, by the grace of God, through the steps of rejection and being slain? We are infiltrated by the world with its attitudes, rather than the attitudes of the perspective of the kingdom of God.
Schaeffer explains that he is talking about death to our desires for things and self, to our desire to be the center of the universe. This is the way the fallen world thinks, and as disciples we must seek the grace to die to this way of thinking.
I’m writing about this because he caught my attention with his call to talk about dying. I don’t recall too many conversations with other believers about dying. It isn’t a comfortable subject. But, if we are to encourage each other and help each other along the way, we need to talk often about death.
The meeting with the director of the school went well. The boys will begin auditing classes at 8:00 Tuesday morninig. They need to have some “slippers” to wear in school. I think they will keep their street shoes in a locker. They probably didn’t want me to put that on the Internet….
They will also begin working with their Slovak tutor after classes each morning, probably four days a week.
Paula and I begin working with our Slovak tutor on Monday. We will meet twice a week. And we need the gift of tongues….