Some pictures from the last couple days

Thursday:

Outside the rehab center in Sloboda

Friday:

A walk in Kaharlyk's park

married couples group

Saturday:

a frosty morning

Eight years seems like a long time, but they went by quickly

Today's lesson

Married couples group, week two.

Last night was week two in our six week series for married couples. The topic was "principles of communication".

Serving God by working well

Today my RSS reader brought me these paragraphs from an essay by Dorothy Sayers (via Justin Taylor's blog):

From Dorothy Sayers’s essay, “Why Work?” in Creed or Chaos (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1949):

The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.

. . . Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside of it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meant they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meant for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word.

The official Church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work—by which she means ecclesiastical work. The only Christian work is good work well done. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery or sewage-farming.

The whole essay is a fascinating look at production, consumption, and work. Read the whole essay here. I've been thinking about these ideas for a few years now and I'd be interested to hear anybody's thoughts. My thoughts will probably come later.

First round of Ukraine's presidential elections

Yesterday, Ukraine voted for a new president. Five years ago Ukraine was tired of corruption, voter fraud, and the inability of the government to change and the people stood up and called the presidential elections a fraud and forced a new vote. They called it "The Orange Revolution" and hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Kiev and other cities to rally and protest united under the orange banner of Victor Yuschenko and Yulia Tymoshenko. Victor Yuschenko was proclaimed the winner of a run-off election and Victor Yanukovich the loser.

Two years later after bitter infighting Yulia Tymoshenko started her own political party and nearly won a majority of the seats in Parliament. Victor Yanukovich's party was close behind. Tymoshenko managed to form a coalition government and became Prime Minister of Ukraine, but only with the help of some of Yanukovich's party.

Yesterday Victor Yanukovich won more than 35% of the popular vote and Yuschenko, only 6%. Yulia Tymoshenko came away with more than 25%. This means that there will now be a run-off vote between Tymoshenko and Yanukovich and it is likely that the man who was defeated by the Orange Revolution five years ago will become president and have a party with a large portion of Parliament.

Ukraine has become disillusioned with Yuschenko and his government's seeming inability to change the country, fight corruption, or even run the government. Unfortunately the man who is profiting from this disillusionment is the very man that the nation stood against and didn't want as president.

An acquaintance of mine,Vladimir Shemiakin, wrote on facebook today:

"Страна и народ заслуживает такое правительство, которое будет соответсвовать ему же. Украинцы дают взятки, врут, ленивы, зависливы и алчны к власти... мы заслуживаем нашего новго президента!

(my rough translation) A country and a people deserve a government of like kind. Ukrainians give bribes, lie, are lazy, are envious and greedy of power...we deserve our new president."

The problems in Ukraine with corruption permeate every layer of life in Ukraine. A better government with reduced lying, stealing, and cheating will only be found in a radical change of heart in the people of Ukraine. Only Jesus Christ can bring about and sustain this change and thus Christ is the only hope of Ukraine. Many will be disappointed if Yanukovich is elected president in the run-off election, but a president cannot change people as Yuschenko's time in power has shown. Only God can change people and only God can change the corrupt systems in Ukraine.

Sometimes a verse means more depending on your life situation

Yesterday at church a lady told me she was encouraged by Romans 8:18:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

She was recently diagnosed with cancer and this week her husband had a 4 hour surgery to save his leg that was nearly dead from no blood circulation.

"hey, its us!"

That's what Liese said to me while reading Anna Karenina:

They respected each other, but were in complete and hopeless disagreement upon almost every subject, not because they belonged to opposite parties, but precisely because they were of the same party (their enemies refused to see any distinction between their views); but, in that party, each had his own special shade of opinion. And since no difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions, they never agreed in any opinion, and had long, indeed, been accustomed to jeer without anger, at each others incorrigible aberrations.

When I'm not blogging

Since I haven't been here blogging very much I thought I'd link up a few blogs that I've been reading instead of thinking up stuff to blog about.

Since designing the last four In Lumine books I've realized that I need good design inspiration so I subscribed to a few design blogs.

Swissmiss is pretty awesome. Liese found it, and it is just as much about cool gadgets and furniture as design but I still like it. (swissmiss also designed my new favorite to do site TeuxDeux)

The Book Cover Archive is an amazing wealth of great book covers. Some great designs, easy to search, and updated pretty regularly.

I Love Typography is a great blog about type but is only updated about once a week or less. Still, it is great...if you think type is great.

D. A. Carson's daily bible readying study guide devotional (ok, it's just a devotional, but not your average devotional) For the Love of God is being posted each day at The Gospel Coalition, which is pretty much awesome. I wanted to buy it but now I can read it for free. Also the ESV bible is being offered as a podcast each day and the readings coincide with For the Love of God. I can't find the link. Search for it in iTunes. [UPDATE: the audio of the ESV doesn't quite follow For the Love of God. It just sort of did for the first few days.]

How to Write Badly Well makes me laugh and hope my writing isn't that bad.

So those are some of the blogs I've started reading lately. Also reading Biblical Eldership by Strauch, and How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler which is making me take reading much more seriously.