Tag Archives: learning

Eusebius – A Story of Restoration

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Eusebius of Caesarea

Unless you’re among theology wonks, church history isn’t bound to start a stimulating discussion at the coffee klatch.  My teenaged son and I are reading the Great Books as outlined by Veritas Press’ Omnibus II.  The first book we are studying, out of the blocks, is The Church History by Eusebius of Caesarea (c.265 – c.339).  Why? As Christianity spread from the Middle East to areas throughout Europe and beyond it effected the culture, the music, the art, the literature of all those lands.  Studying Western Civ inevitably involves studying the imprint of Christianity on the culture. 

What has surprised me is how much I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far.  Even more, how much my son has enjoyed it.  The dinner table talk usually involves said son recapping the day’s reading and discussion to his dad.  “Did you know…?”  is a common  introduction. 

Eusebius quotes Clement of Alexandria: a wonderful story about the apostle John, sort of a reverse prodigal son, and well worth your time.  My little grandson’s favorite book at our house is The Lost Sheep.  Someday I will read this account of a lost sheep to him. Do you remember another time when John ran as fast as he could? This was the week’s teaching highlight.

Listen to a story that is not a story but a true account of John the apostle preserved in memory. After the tyrant’s death, he returned from the island of Patmos to Ephesus and used to go, when asked, to the neighboring Gentile districts to appoint bishops, reconcile churches, or ordain someone designated by the Spirit.  Arriving at a city near by [Smyrna], he settled disputes among the brethren and then, noticing a spirited youth of superior physique and handsome appearance, commended him to the appointed bishop with the words: “I leave this young man in your keeping, with Christ as my witness.”

When John returned to Ephesus, the churchman brought home the youth entrusted to his care, raised him, and finally baptized him.  After this he relaxed his oversight, having put the seal of the Lord on him as the perfect safeguard.  But some idle and dissolute youths corrupted him with lavish entertainment and then took him with them when they went out at night at night to commit robbery or worse crimes.  Soon he joined them and, like a stallion taking the bit in mouth, he dashed off the straight road and down the precipice.  Renouncing God’s salvation, he went from petty offenses to major crimes and formed the young renegades into a gang of bandits with himself as chief, surpassing them all in violence and bloody cruelty.

Time passed, and John paid another visit.  When he had finished his mission, John said, “Come now, Bishop, return the deposit that Christ and I left in your keeping with the church as witness.” At first the bishop was dumbfounded, thinking that he was being dunned for funds he had never received.  But John said, “I am asking for the young man and his soul.”

“He is dead,” groaned the old man, in tears.

“How did he die?”

“He is dead to God.  He turned out vile and debauched: an outlaw.  Now he is in the mountains, not the church, with an armed gang of men like himself.”

The apostle tore his clothing, beat his head, and groaned, “A fine guardian I left for our brother’s soul! But get me a horse and someone to show me the way.” He rode off from the church, just as he was.  When he arrived at the hideout and was seized by the outlaws’ sentries, he shouted, “This is what I have come for: take me to the leader!” When John approached and the young leader recognized him, he turned and fled in shame.  But John ran after him as hard as he could, forgetting his age, and calling out, “Why are you running away from me, child — from your own father, unarmed and old?  Pity me, child, don’t fear me! I will give account to Christ for you and, if necessary, glady suffer death and give my life for yours as the Lord suffered death for us.  Stop! Believe! Christ sent me.”

The young man stopped, stared at the ground, threw down his weapons, and wept bitterly.  Flinging his arms around the old man, he begged forgiveness, baptized a second time with his own tears but keeping his right hand hidden [as unworthy of forgiveness for all the bloodshed it caused].  John, however, assured him that he had found forgiveness for him from the Savior.  He prayed, knelt down, and kissed that right hand as being cleansed through repentance.  Then he led him back and did not leave him until–through prayer, fasting, and instruction–he had restored him to the church: a great example of true repentance and regeneration, the trophy of a visible resurrection.

What DON’T You Do?

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The 1995 ACCS (Association of Classical and Christian Schools) conference was our initial introduction to classical education; by the final session, “Educating Yourself” both my husband and I had a severe case of “brain bulge.”  A young man in his late twenties hoisted a stack of books on the front table.  He introduced The Question: how can we give our children the kind of education that we never received?  The Answer: educate yourself.  He handed out “Top 100 must read books”. I thrive on reading lists.

I eagerly scanned it and was dismayed to realize that the first book I had read was number 63 on the list! Oy vey.  With weary resignation we listened as the speaker enthusiastically talked about fifth century BC Greece, his current reading, and the motivation to be an autodidact. 

Afterwards, I approached him and asked, “What don’t you do?” 

He gave me a quizzical look. “You have a family, you have a job, you have duties: how do you get it all done?  What do you choose NOT to do?” 

Ah, the lines in his face disappeared and he replied,  “I found out that I can get by with about four or five hours of sleep.” Although I was amazed at his stamina, I needed more.

“What else?” I prompted.

“Let’s see,” he thought, “I don’t read the daily newspaper, I don’t watch TV…”  His voice trailed off.  I think his secret was staying up to 1:00 in the morning and rising at 5:00.  Wow.

                   ~            ~            ~            ~         ~
It’s good to both affirm and deny.  It is good to be deliberate both in what I choose to do and in what I choose not to do.

When it comes to getting things done, efficiency is important, but even more so are the choices to include or exclude an activity.  Mental multi-vitamin (scroll to 8.03.2006) writes about making time and included a list of don’ts.  On her list is answering the phone (she turns the ringer off), mall shopping, reading junk mail, elaborate cooking, and wasting time on doubt. 

Right now I’m working towards balance, searching for order, and pursuing proper priorities.  What stays?  What goes? Where shall I say no? What can I prune from my life in order to say yes to the things I desperately want?  I watch little TV, but will that resolve hold when American Idol starts a new season?  I don’t play Spider Solitaire on the computer because it somehow disappeared a few months ago. That was a huge time waster in my life.  Computer time is another time eater, but I really enjoy and I think I truly benefit from my online reading. 

How do you manage your computer time?

Any ideas out there?  What do you say no to?  I’d love to hear.

 

A Nice Bonus

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Summer Reading Challenge….eeeyeahhh.  I’ve gotten a little sidetracked, but in my mind the other books were always considered addendums not substitutions, and there were certainly good reasons to read them.  This week I got back to my SRC list and started The Tolkien Reader.  I was given a very nice bonus.  A bonus as in an unexpected gift.

[aside for a rant: I work one afternoon/week in a pharmacy as an accountant.  I get sooo annoyed when employees approach me in a buzzard-like way wanting to know exactly when the Christmas bonus will come.  A bonus is not an entitlement.  Really.]

As I read Tolkien’s essay On Fairy-Stories, I realized I should have read this before I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  It was impossible for me to keep characters in their right category because none of categories made sense to me.  I remember asking our Latin class what an elf was.  They all knew.  My youngest son, who was practically a Tolkien scholar by age nine, was very patient with his mom. “Now what is Aragorn, again?  Is he a man or one of those other…things?” 

The first bonus last night was the sense that I was actually doing some very helpful teacher preparation for studying medieval literature this year.  Tolkien made many references to Beowulf, Chaucer, Spenser and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  There are many reasons to read a book (entertainment, education, pleasure, information, curiosity, because someone knows you are a reader and pressed a book in your hand begging you to read it) but when those reasons intersect it is truly a blessing. I didn’t choose The Tolkien Reader because it would help me teach; I chose it because it was an unread book on my bookshelf.

The second bonus:  a question I had 10 years ago was answered.  Readers often come across references that are meaningless on first reading, and just skip over them.  About ten years ago as I was reading through Charlotte Mason’s The Original Home Schooling Series, she mentioned Queen Mab in such a way that assumed the reader would “get it”.  I didn’t — and didn’t have Google at my fingertips.  My set of World Books didn’t help and so the reference was a dangling loose end in my brain.  Tolkien spends half a page explaining why Michael Drayton’s Nymphidia, the story about Queen Mab, isn’t a true fairy-story.  It was a gift to read, recognize and to finally understand.

The third bonus?  A chance to read an excellent writer with an excellent mind. 

A Small Victory

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I just taught myself something new!  Wahoo!!!  Among other frustrations with Xanga, I’ve been unhappy with my sidebar.  My booklog in the “Interests” category has limited space which has required many edits.  I would prefer to include author’s names but space doesn’t allow that. 

I wanted the list to be easier to read – one book per line.  But the text was always wrapping.  When my son was home on spring break I wheedled an book on HTML out of his stack of books to sell on Amazon.  It’s been sitting, collecting dust until this morning.  Scanning the table of contents I found “Creating a Line Break” on page 70.  The code, if you care, is  “<br />”.  I have aspirations of learning HTML – my brother in-law, a software programmer has agreed to teach me on my upcoming visit.

The joy of life is made up of obscure and seemingly mundane victories that give us our own small satisfactions.                  Billy Joel

Any small victories in your life today?

Detoxing the Soul

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This verse (I Peter 1:22) from yesterday’s sermon:

Seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

Here it is again in a paraphrase:

Now you can have real love for everybody because your souls have been cleansed from selfishness and hatred when you trusted Christ to save you; so see to it that you really do love each other warmly, with all your hearts.

                                                       ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

Saturday we had a garage sale at/with Curt’s folks.  There were about 15 sales in one neighborhood.  During a lull Curt and his dad walked around to see what bargains might be found.  Eureka!  Three CD’s for $4 each, all in the original shrinkwrap: Gordon Lightfoot and two YoYo Ma CDs.  Gordon Lightfoot was someone we listened to in the early years of our marriage.  The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a beautiful ballad.  Does anyone remember Gordon Lightfoot?

Google Earth

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One of my son’s favorite college professors taught geography.   “He would come into class with a newspaper, read a short news story, and tell you all the geographical background of that story,” Carson enthused. 

I remember the “aha” moment when the significance of  Hannibal crossing the alps with elephants sunk in.  It sure helps to know his starting point and destination.

Here’s a great teaching (and learning!) tool:  Google Earth.  If you google “Google Earth” in Google you will see the link for a free download.   Then you will  be able to see satellite images of any place on the planet.  Metropolitan areas have sharper pictures that you can zoom in on.  Rural areas tend to be fuzzier. 

When you read a book with geographical references, you could type the town in Google Earth and see a bird’s-eye view of it.  You can see obstacles that confronted someone going from point A to point B. 

I’ve had the most fun with friends looking at the places where they grew up.  We would type in their address and see what it looks like today.  Collin typed in Yankee Stadium just for kicks. Too much fun!

Situations

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I remember driving to baseball games where DS #1 was the all-star catcher.  We would review “situations” on the way: there are runners on first and third, one out, and the guy on first takes off for second.  What do you do? Or, the count is two and two and the hitter likes high and outside: what pitch do you call?

Last night, our new-driver son was driving us home in the dark on a two lane highway.  Ever the coach, my DH started running situations by him: a deer steps into the road, what do you do?  [The answer in our family is always: let up on the throttle, cover the brake, keep your wheel straights, and HIT THE DEER; not because we eat venison, but because too many people have been killed swerving for animals in the road. BTW, we’ve never hit a deer or elk, but have had several close calls.]  Someone has their brights on and you are blinded, what do you do?  [Focus on the white line to the right.]

I’m sitting in the back seat listening, enjoying the interchange. I wondered how a coach would run situations in my life.  Of course, my mind ran to the worst one: a police officer shows up on my doorstep with the news that one of my beloveds is gone.  What do I do?  [The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.]  What are common situations I will run up against?  A friend calls and gossips: how do I respond?  Or, I realize I’m the gossiping friend: now what?  I wake up grumpy and want to be lazy today.  Do I cave in? 

My dear Mma Romatswe ran situations in her dieting: “Next time Mma Potokwane offers me any of that fruit cake of hers, I shall say, ‘No thank you, Mma.’ That is what I shall say.”

Thinking about it,

Carol

Commencement

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The following commencement address was given by  Dr. B. at a recent homeschool graduation ceremony.  He graciously gave me permission to post an excerpt here.  It was such a lovely time looking back at the growth of two very special people and celebrating their completion of high school work.


The direction which you take early in life
makes a huge difference in terms of where you end up.  If you know what your target is, you want
that direction to be as straight and true as possible if you want to hit the
mark.  Once a bullet is out of the barrel
its path can easily be altered. Gravity affects it, the wind, a tree limb, a
fence post, school, a scene in a movie, a bad habit, bad company, a brief and
fleeting moment of passion, or any number of things can change the path of that
little projectile.  You are entering your
formative years, the years during which you will be shaped and molded, and the
decisions you make will have a big affect your path.  You see, the earlier you angle 1 or 2
degrees, the further from the target you will land.  You are about to leave the barrel, and I hope
you have had a barrel of fun. But outside the barrel may not always be
fun.

 

A very wise man (not myself) once penned
words something like this:

 

“My children do not forget my
teaching

Write my words upon your
heart

For length of days and years of
life

And peace they will
impart

 

Trust the Lord with all your
heart

And not the wisdom of the
day

In all your ways acknowledge
Him

And your road will be
straight.

 

Search for wisdom and, my
children,

Pursue her every
day.

The fear of God will start you on your
way.”

 

One of my favorite quotes is, “Don’t let
school get in the way of your education!” 
I believe that school can be very helpful, but you must remember to “keep
your eyes on the prize.”  Often we go to
school to learn skills, and we want you to do that.  We are sending you off to become
leaven in this world; we want you to have an influence on it more
than having it influence you.  Much of
our influence comes from qualities we can’t see on the outside.  It’s stuff below the surface.  Probably 90% of our influence is made up from
our character.  Many people make it
through college and neglect their character. 
Your skill may get you to the top-but it is your character that will keep you
there.

Guide Me

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I remember attending an ACCS (Association of Classical and Christian
Schools) conference eleven years ago. By the last day I had brain bulge
and was overwhelmed with all the information.  The very last session
was “How to Educate Yourself.”  Chris Schlect brought in a huge stack of
books and handed out a reading list.  Until that
point I had considered myself well-read, but I couldn’t put a check
mark next to a book until I’d come to about 63 on the list. 

I learned to teach myself as I taught my kids; I leaned on any
support I could find.  Using the “one chapter ahead” method, I taught
Homer, Virgil, Spenser and Shakespeare to homeschool co-op classes.  But I was not without help.  My
beloved Latin teacher, Bernie, taught me so much more than Latin during our weekly classes. He told the stories behind the translations; he brought in his twice re-bound Greek Homer and whet our appetites.   He was the best tour guide, and only a phone call away. 

When Bernie moved, I relied on books to guide me.  This year we have read through some major texts of ancient civilization.  The books above have helped us understand what we’ve been reading.  These have been great resources.  Our primary guide has been Omnibus I and I can only sing its praises with a loud voice and a thankful heart. I believe that good questions are at the heart of good teaching.  Omnibus is full of good questions.  Peter Leithart is unparalleled for challenging my thinking.  There’s a world full of chiasms that I’ve never seen before reading him. The others have been good books to dip in and read portions.

BUT!!  Next year!!   How is this for the ABCs:  Augustine, Beowulf, Chaucer, Dante and Eusebius.  I’m salivating…  I always find May challenging.  I’d much rather invest my time and thoughts in the year ahead then finish our task at hand.   It’s more fun to check out  catalogs, read reviews, and dream of the ideal school year than to correct papers and corral wandering thoughts.

Last Time!

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Today I drove my youngest son to the DMV to get his driver’s permit.  He passed the knowledge test and came out grinning!  My husband was shocked last night to be told  that I had allowed the two older boys to drive home from the test.  He firmly requested that I drive home and we take our youngest son to get experience driving on some vacant parking lots and deserted country roads before he starts driving around town.

So we dance this polka one more time. The last time.  This is the place where I learn so much about myself.  The calm and patient woman I pretend to be disappears and the fearful worrier/shrieking “Old Yellor”  takes her place.  I pray.  I plead with God for help trusting Him, being careful with my words and tones.  I remember my brother, who took me out driving and never raised his voice as he said, “Uh…, you just cut that driver off.” But then a tiny gasp escapes and the driver/son is irritated wondering what he did wrong.  Part of me would really like to skip forward two years – but I need this don’t I? (grin)