Category Archives: Blogging

“It Happened in Italy” by Elizabeth Bettina

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_200_350_book54coverTo say the Holocaust was a dark moment in human history would be a understatement.  Not only did millions of Jews suffer in the hands of the Nazi’s, they were also betrayed by their countries, neighbors and friends.  In “It Happened in Italy” author Elizabeth Bettina leads readers on a journey of uncovering a different story; one of people who valued life above religion and ethnicity.  While the book is about the stories of Jews that survived the Holocaust because of the Italian people, the main story is of a series of what seems to be coincidental events that leads Bettina (an Italian-American) to discover that her own family is directly connected to these survivors.

I’m a huge fan of all things Italian (I was born in Italy) and I also tend to prefer non-fiction over fiction (truth is indeed stranger than fiction), so I was naturally drawn to this book as soon as I read the title.  If English is your only language, the author’s regular use of Italian may slow you down, but the added sense of culture is well worth the delay.  If you’re looking for a fact-book on the Holocaust, this is not the book for you.  If you appreciate culture, history and stories of how kindness and generosity can defy even the darkest of evil, you will enjoy “It Happened in Italy”.

Housekeeping

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I’ve made a few minor changes to my blog, so I thought I’d be a good host and update everyone on the changes. First, my last blog post about Kellie Shehan continues to generate a number of hits from Google from all over the country, so I thought I’d give that post a more permanent home as a page. You can read it here or find in on the on the right under “Pages”.

Second change, I decided to axe the Runner’s World running log (no, not because I haven’t been running…) because it’s slow (so am I) and it causes problems with my blog. If they decide to improve to code, I may give it another shot. Maybe I’ll cook up something to replace it… maybe.

That’s all the changes. Anything you’d like to see? Your comments and suggestions are warmly encouraged.

Because it takes so much time…

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I figured out the reason I haven’t been blogging as much (and why I don’t write e-mail messages to my friends very often) — because it take so much time.  Not that I don’t have a lot of extra time, and not that you all are not worth my time, but it’s exhausting for me.  Most of it is brought on by myself; my fear of writing something I didn’t mean or of exposing any heretical beliefs causes me to check, and re-check and then doubt and then check again.  The doubt that I have any idea about what I’m talking about continues until you reply to my e-mail or leave a comment.  You can only imagine the fear that runs through my mind when nobody comments or when an e-mail is not replied to.  Because of all that fear, I spend over an hour writing a blog post and some e-mail messages — especially if I’m talking about spiritual things.  I even have my computer read my post or e-mail out loud to me before I publish or send it, just to be sure it’s right.  Some of that fear is healthy I guess (helps reduce typos) but a lot of it probably isn’t (it’s called “fear of man” — fearing what others think to an extent that alters motives and actions.  The opposite of this is the “fear of God”, fyi).  Anyway, just thought I’d share where I’m coming from.  This post took me 30 minutes to write…  if you don’t comment, I’ll go a little crazy, but I’ll just assume you are trying to help me work through my fears ;-)

No Shame in a Repost…

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Afterall, I wrote it.  At Dayspring UMC we started a new staff blog.  Mondays are my day to post something and here was my first post.

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This week in the youth GRACE groups we started a lesson and discussion on salvation, starting with an in-depth look at atonement.  In Leviticus 16, God lays out explicit instructions on how Aaron (and subsequent priests) were to approach him each year so Israel could be cleansed of their sins. This involved a number of animals and rules that were so important the priest would be killed if he didn’t follow it exactly.  This was required once a year to pay for the sins of the nation of Israel.

If you get a chance, read Leviticus 16.  If you have a little more time, read through the book of Hebrews too. The author of Hebrews says, unlike other high priests, that were numerous because they were limited by death(Heb 7:23), Jesus holds his priesthood forever (Heb 7:24). He is one who sympathizes with our weaknesses (Heb 4:15) and made one sacrifice that accomplished what no other sacrifice could ever do — take away the sins of his people (Heb 10:11-14). Matthew 1:21 tells us “he will save his people from their sins.” We are a people that have been cleansed of our sins, not by our own efforts, but by the atoning work of Jesus Christ; we can add nothing to it.

What does this mean for us today? That we can and should approach God with confidence when we fall short (Heb 4:16), not with an attitude of guilt or shame because our debt has already been paid. Praise God!

Will you choose to walk in God’s abundant love, grace and mercy this week?