Whispers of Truth

Everyone knows that all really fantastical happily-ever-after stories begin with “Once upon a time in a far away land,” and they end with a fair maiden getting swept away by a handsome prince (don’t forget the kiss), but, y’all, sometimes the story begins in a coffee shop.   My second-favorite novel by Jane Austen is Emma, and while no movie attempting to modernize and bring it into a generation that has little familiarity with its context and intent and will never read it can do it justice, many of you might at least be familiar with its basic concept through a recent movie by the same name. Let me tell you that that Emma is nothing like the Emma of this story except maybe in their similarities of age. The Emma this story is a hard-working college student employed at Restoration 49 in Tallassee, Alabama, while living in a modest one-room apartment above it. She isn’t opposed to marriage or its constraints like Austen’s Emma but finds herself surprised by love when she gets to know

  A popular song by the popular rock group Queen, “I Want It All,” was used recently in a commercial for a  popular food delivery company. If you haven’t seen it and aren’t familiar with this song that harkens back to 1989, take a minute to watch the commercial here . Caution: it easily gets stuck in a warped loop in your head once you hear it. I thought of this today when my Bible reading and my personal reading collided as it usually does, requiring me to act. I saw God’s description of Himself in Number’s 14:18 (slow to anger, lovingkind, forgiving of wickedness . . . but not a God who will overlook sin or clear the guilty; rather He reminds of the long-lasting and far-reaching consequences of sin). In my personal reading I have been digesting (I say that because it is a slow process for me) The Quest for Meekness and Quietness of Spirit by Matthew Henry. It isn’t my normal read, and I’m not sure what compelled me to buy it other than I love Henry’s commentaries and prayers and