Parting the Waters

Texas author Jeanne Damoff has just released Parting the Waters. Watch the video first. I'll wait...

Now we'll get a glimpse into Jeanne's heart in writing:

Where did you get the idea for the book?

Parting the Waters is a true story. Several years after Jacob’s accident in 1996, I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to write what I was seeing God do. I didn’t want to, and for the next few years I kept giving God excuses for why I didn’t have time. Without going into detail, let’s just say He essentially removed my excuses, and I went home and wrote the first draft in two weeks.

What are the major themes in Parting the Waters?

Beauty from brokenness. God’s goodness and sovereign purposes in suffering. The body of Christ. The power of community when it works as it should.

What insight did you gain from writing about such a difficult experience?

Reliving our experience on the page was excruciating at times, but also very cathartic. I believe it’s good for all Christians to look back on our most difficult times and see how God carried and led us when we felt like we were wandering over jagged shards in a fog. Probably the biggest insight I gained was a deeper assurance that God is in control and I can trust His loving purposes, even when it hurts to breathe.

How and what is Jacob doing now?

Jacob is a precious, happy 27 year old who lives abundantly in spite of his brain injury. Though he wasn’t expected to ever awaken from coma, he walks, talks, laughs, and loves intensely. He spends his weekdays with his long-time aide, Rusty Mauldin, working with his cattle and in his garden, then comes home on the weekends. Jacob worships the Lord with the passion of a lover who is not hindered by self-consciousness. Watching him is like glimpsing eternity.

What do you hope readers will take away from your book?

I hope they will realize more deeply that God loves them and is working out His plans in their lives with perfect faithfulness. Sure we suffer consequences when we make stupid choices, but many of the trials and sorrows we experience have nothing to do with punishment or a lack of faith. They are part of God’s goodness—conforming us to the image of His Son. I hope readers will meet God on the pages of our story and walk away changed by grace.

To order, type "Parting the Waters" in the permanent little Amazon box on the right side of this blog. Any time you use this box to make an Amazon purchase, a portion of the profits go to benefit our Kenya ministry.

For more from Jeanne:
Jeanne Damoff’s Website
Jeanne Damoff’s Blog
Jeanne Damoff’s Facebook Profile
Follow Jeanne Damoff on Twitter
For more about this on other blogs

The 40-Second Book Review

My friend Heather Goodman and her husband Chris now operate Solomon Summaries, the Cliffs-Notes-for-Christian-Books service. So I sent Heather this week’s religion bestseller list and suggested she run summaries of these books. I received this reply:

1. The Shack -- I killed my father. My daughter died. God sent me a letter. Told me to go to the place where my daughter was killed. I went. I saw. (I learned Jesus wasn't actually abandoned by the Father at his death; no, the Father was there all along.) I forgave. William P. Young.

2. 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life -- I died. I saw heaven. Cue ethereal music (there may have been harps). God sent me back to tell you fools you wanna be there. (I went. I saw. I told you so.) Don Piper with Cecil Murphey.

3. The Love Dare -- Love is not some squishy emotion. Love is patient (check here when you've completed that: __ ). Love is kind (check here when you've completed that: __ ). Etc., etc. Forty days and forty nights. Congrats! You are now the perfect lover. Here's your certificate. Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick.

4. The Five Love Languages -- Everyone loves and is loved differently. Figure out how to love your loved one best. (We suggest picking up a copy of The Five Love Languages of Your Spouse, The Five Love Languages of Your Eldest Child, The Five Love Languages of Your Middle Child, The Five Love Languages of Your Youngest Child, The Five Love Languages of Your Siblings, The Five Love Languages of Your Father, The Five Love Languages of Your Mother, The Five Love Languages of Your Coworkers or one of our other editions to help you in the process.) Give gifts! Affirm with words! Touch lots! Spend lots of time together (make sure it's quality, of course)! Do acts of service! Live happily ever after. Gary Chapman.

5. The Purpose-Driven Life -- Everybody's got a purpose. You were created to glorify God. God gave you specific gifts to do so. Walk with me for 40 days (because that's the biblical and therefore magical number; see The Love Dare above) and you'll figure yours out. Maybe someday you, too, can pray at the inauguration. Rick Warren.

6. Every Now and Then -- Guy was hurt. Guy fights fires. Guy will save the world from terrorists who start fires, but can Guy save himself without getting burned by love again? (Hint, it's a happily ever after.) Karen Kingsbury.

7. Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul -- Dear Woman, You are tired and in distress. I will rescue you. Love, God John and Stasi Eldredge.

8. Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential -- No need for hope in a stinkin' restored earth. No! You, too, can have your best life now! Why? Because you're worthy. You've just underestimated your self-worth. Follow these 7 steps (while others have chosen the longer "40" path, I can reshape you with the shorter biblical number, "7"!): things like believing God wants more for you, raising your expectations of your success as a person and what you should have, escape the nagging past, understand how valuable you are, think prosperously ("I think I can, I think I can," rinse, repeat). And you'll be happy and rich. Joel Osteen.

9. The Wednesday Letters -- Dad liked to write letters, but only on Wednesdays. He died. Here are your stack of letters. Troubled marriage? Single mother? Prodigal son? We've got it all. Read your letter. Love, forgive, and live. The end. Jason F. Wright.

10. The God Delusion -- You believe in God. Only idiots believe in God. You must be an idiot. Anyone remember Marx? Come on, now. Do I seriously have to write this again? Richard Dawkins.

Thinking about Jonah

Or not. I wrote a reflective post today, but then my computer wiped it out. And now I'm out of time to rewrite it. Let's hear it for technology!

Wordless Wednesday

Expanding Our View on Sanctity of Life

Yesterday was Sanctity of Life Sunday. In the Christian community when we think of sanctity of life, we often limit our discourse to abortion. Yet we need to expand that conversation to include the taking of any innocent life:

Abortion
Active euthanasia
Nuclear bombs
Darfur
Embryonic stem cell research
Eugenics
Unlimited in vitro fertilization
The disposability of girls in China
Widows expected to commit suicide upon the deaths of their husbands

Moving beyond sanctity of life we also need to consider that "human dignity" is also grounded in Genesis 1. That has ramifications for...

Sex trafficking
Refusal of hydrating tubes
Slavery
POW standards
Immigration policy
Homelessness
Hunger
Poverty

I think politicians in both parties have taken too a high a view of humans at times. Unsupervised commerce fails to check greed, leading to economic disaster. And assuming that "a woman and her doctor" will interpret "the life of the mother" as applying only to life-and-death situations...?

Learning from Politicians

When the Clinton administration left the Old Executive Office Building, staff members removed the "W" key from many of the keyboards. In contrast the Bush ("43") administration set a new standard for exiting with grace. Message: Leave with class.

Bill Clinton and "Bush 41" set aside their differences enough to travel raising funds to help people devastated by a hurricane. In the process they reportedly became good friends. Message: You don't have to agree to get along.

When Joe Biden joked about how Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts muffed the swearing-in lines, Barak Obama, demonstrating his unwillingness to be petty, reached over and stopped his vice president with a gentle touch. Message: Reprimands don't always have to be verbal.



(Update January 28: Biden apologizes to Roberts)

Happy Chinese New Year

It's the year of the ox.

Congratulate a Chinese friend. If you don't have a Chinese friend, make one.

36 Years Later

When I was about five or six and living in Oregon, my mom helped me write a letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., thanking him for his work against racism. I enclosed my pennies.

In 1969 (those tumultuous sixties) when I was ten years old, my family moved to Arlington, Virginia, two miles outside of Washington, D.C. What a shock to suddenly find myself in a school where racial tensions ran high. Still, I had both black and white friends.

I considered myself unprejudiced. Yet when we visited what was my favorite of all the East Coast historical sites, Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, I bought into the argument that Mr. Jefferson had slaves only because he was a product of his times. I laughed at racial jokes, and asked one of my black friends to tell me "white" jokes. But he said, "I can't. They're too nasty."

Fast forward to about five years ago when I revisited Monticello. I was outraged! And most of my anger was directed at myself. How could I have heard the stories and read about slave families split up after Mr. Jefferson's death without at least grieving, if not becoming irate? Who was I kidding to think I was unprejudiced if I could know those facts and not connect the dots? And how self-deceived does one have to be to tell jokes without pangs of guilt while calling one's self unbiased?

When I read McCullough's John Adams, I learned that our second president refused to own slaves because it was wrong. So Mr. Jefferson was not, indeed, a product of his times. If one of his colleagues took such a principled stand, Jefferson surely knew the arguments and chose to buy slaves anyway.

My niece and nephew, who joined our family through the miracle of adoption, are African-American. And when we visited the Lincoln Memorial together several winters ago, I was moved as on one side of me stood my daughter and on the other stood my niece. I considered that in one generation we'd surpassed the dream of children playing together and embraced each other as family.

I sat glued to the TV on Inauguration Day this week, and I wept. My mom called me, and as we talked about all this, she told me she attended an integrated high school, quite progressive for the late 1940s. And when we moved to Washington, D.C., she was stunned at the level of racial tension. Her own parents taught her to embrace racial diversity and she tried to instill the same values in us.

What a joy to see 1.8 million people on that same Washington grass that held demonstrators 45 years ago. How moving to hear the stories of those who prayed for justice to roll down like waters.

Now then...today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a decision handed down in the courts of my own city. Thirty-six years later, I sit torn between the joy of progress on the race question and the reality of an American's right to have a partial-birth abortion. I feel conflicted because the same principles that make me rejoice to see this day from a racial perspective are the principles that twist me up inside at the thought of murdering an unborn child: All humans are created in the image of God and are therefore endowed, from the moment they become human, with dignity and the full rights of personhood.

Let us not stop, however, at supporting legislation that stops the practice of abortion. Nor at criticizing politicians who support such practices. Together we can address causes: Go after dads refusing to pay child support. Establish practices that lead women out of poverty. Provide the kind of support that keeps women in unplanned pregnancies from feeling their lives are over if they carry to term. And (what Uncle Sam can't say but his citizens can) pray and provide spiritual direction so people see and repent of the utter bankruptcy of soul that excuses using abortion as a means of "contraception."

Volunteer. Give. Do something. Sometimes grand reversals happen. Case in point: January 20, 2009. Yes we can!

History Repeats Itself

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)." --George Washington

5/5 of a Person

In twenty minutes Barak Obama will place his hand on the Bible and swear to uphold a Constitution that originally defined an Africa-American man as 3/5 of a person.

My brother-in-law and niece at the last minute obtained tickets to the standing-room-only area. My father-in-law, who works in Silver Spring, Maryland, didn't go to the office out of concern that it might take him ten hours to get home. So it's all the more remarkable that, having been in Washington for previous Inaugurations, I've seen no picketers. No abortion signs. No pro- or anti-war plackards. No radical feminists. None of that. Today is about so much more than the complex issues facing our country, difficult as they are.

We have not yet overcome, but we've come a long, long way.

We Will Not Forget

Inaugural Events

Here's a listing of the main inaugural events. Times are Central Standard. I hope you'll make the prayer service on Wednesday an especially high priority in your schedule. Our nation needs our prayers, and we need to join as a national community to humble ourselves before God and ask for help.

MONDAY
Kids' Inaugural: We Are The Future
Verizon Center 6:00 PM A children's concert honoring military families, hosted by Michelle Obama. Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers are among the entertainers.

TUESDAY
The Swearing-In Ceremony
United States Capitol, West Front 10:30 AM Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. are sworn in as the 44th President and Vice President of the United States.

Inaugural Parade
Pennsylvania Avenue 1:30 PM The majority of the parade route will be free and open to the public for standing room access. Viewing spots along the parade route are available on a first come, first serve basis. A limited number of bleacher seats were available for sale but have sold out.

WEDNESDAY
National Prayer Service
Washington National Cathedral 7:30 AM National Prayer Service with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and members of their families will be held at the National Cathedral.

The Inauguration I Witnessed

Yesterday I mentioned that Ronald Reagan's Inauguration was one of the most memorable days of my life. Today I'll tell you why...

One of my friends on Facebook tagged me to tell 25 random things, and in my post answering that request, I said this:

1. I was present for Ronald Reagan's Inauguration.
2. I cheered that day when the Iran hostages got released.
3. I saw a lot of pro-ERA signs that day.
4. I was there with fellow college students, including my new groom, celebrating and also passing out tracts.
5. Three of us shared a box of them, and we got tired of carrying it, so we set it down in the park across from the White House and each canvassed the area taking what we could hold.
6. I was the first to return for more.
7. I found the area roped off.
8. Two SWAT teams were gearing up.
9. I thought "uh-oh."
10. I'm smart like that.
11. Back in the Dark Ages of 1981, we didn't think much about terrorism.
12. After I said the box was ours, I realized that was a dumb admission.
13. Suddenly I had many people standing around me. They all had on uniforms.
14. About that time, Gary arrived and asked what was happening.
15. They had the metal detectors going on the box by that time.
16. The metal detectors revealed no metal.
17. I thought "duh."
18. But a nice uniformed man explained that even if I didn't put a bomb in that box, someone else could have come along and done so.
19. The crowd wanted our "radioactive literature."
20. The hippies, thinking we were rebels, requested whatever it was we were sharing from the box.
21. The VIPs in a roped-off area sent a rep to get them some, too.
21. The people in minks, wanting to be cool, asked for copies.
22. We ran out in minutes.
23. Somewhere the FBI may have a file on me.
24. And my husband.
25. I doubt anybody carrying a box will get near the White House this year.

Oops. He asked for random. Too late.

Inauguration--Or Not?

Attending Ronald Reagan's Inauguration was one of the most memorable days of my life (and not only because I nearly got myself arrested for momentarily leaving a box near the White House). The peaceful transference of government is one of the most remarkable occurrences in the world. People all over envy us this phenomenon.

This inauguration, whatever you may think of Barak Obama's politics, is a momentous day for our country and for the world. We have both the amazement of democracy at work and a milestone in conquering racism.

When I was young, I wrote a letter to Martin Luther King Jr. --before someone gunned him down--thanking him and encouraging him to press on. I remember well the Civil Rights Movement. We're not that far removed from it all. I stand amazed and thrilled at what this means.

We've spent two years electing this president. And as parents, my husband and I have talked with our girl about what we value and why we vote. When we were in Washington last month, we helped her learn the three branches of government and photographed her in front of the White House, Supreme Court, and U.S. Capitol. We saw the streets being prepared for the biggest event Washington has ever had.

Her cousins have the day off school. Her uncle plans to go the Mall in Washington, even if only to watch it all on huge screens amongst the throngs.

So imagine my surprise when I learned my girl may not get to see it. When I inquired of her school, I learned that the decision is left up to the individual teacher--in this case Spanish and science. And here's the killer: If I keep her home to watch it, her absence will not be excused.

What is wrong with this picture?

Be-Verb Killer

Some of my writing students have called me the Be-Verb Czar (shouldn't that be Czarina?) because I deduct a half-grade for each overuse of any form of the verb "to be." One of my clever students wrote a blog post, "Glahn's Law," about it--and in the process did a better job than I of explaining my rule. If you like to write, you need to read this.

Wordless Wednesday

Four Months Till M-Day

It's my turn to post over on the bible.org women's blog today. Today's rant, um, entry is titled "Infertility: People Say the Dumbest Things". Feel free to forward it to people who need it.

Need a Laugh?

My agent's favorite quote: "Some things just take time. It takes nine months to have a baby--you can't put nine women on it and get it done in a month."

I Wanta Meet You

The following events in which I'm speaking are open to the public. If I'm near you, why not join me?

January 17, "The Gift God Still Wants," Women's brunch, Woodbridge Golf Club, Waterbrook Church, Wylie, Texas.

February 2, 6:30 p.m. or February 3, 9:30 a.m. "Engage!" Irving Bible Church, Irving, Texas. Here's how IBC describes this event: Enjoy challenging conversation with a panel of women leaders and apologists about the Jesus of the Bible. Together, we will consider questions like: Is Jesus the only way? How can we be sure His words were true? What about those who have never heard? Panelists include: Jonalyn Grace Fincher, Carolyn Custis James, and Sandra Glahn.For recommended reading and a study guide to prepare you for the discussion, go to www.a-movement-of-women.org

March 6-8, Track leader, Writing Workshops, Synergy Conference sponsored by the Whitby Forum, Orlando, Florida. Includes Lauren Winner on memoir writing.

March 20, Panel on Men and Women in Ministry, Christian Book Expo, Dallas, Texas. (This one's with my good friends Kelley Mathews, Sue Edwards and Henry Rogers.)

October 5, "Infertility in the Christian Community: offering comfort and hope to infertile couples," Sacred Sexuality: Casting a Vision for the Sexually Healthy Church Conference, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas.

Tut, Tut, It Looks Like Gold

This is King Tut weekend in our household. Months ago we reserved tickets for the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art, and today was the day.

Am I ever glad I'm a member of the DMA (students and teachers get membership discounts), because the free parking and the fast pass really helped us cut through insane crowds (not to mention get a store discount). The audio guide also helped, as we could listen for the info, catch a glimpse of the featured artifact, and pull back out of the masses without feeling we'd missed info. If you live in the D/FW area, find a weekday and go soon. (The last weekend will be mayhem.)

Trivia: Notice in the center of Tut's forehead you see a cobra and a vulture. One was the symbol for southern Egypt and the other for the north part. Tut reigned over a united kingdom, which is why he wears both.

Last night in preparation for our visit we watched King Tut's Final Secrets, a National Geographic presentation that looks at theories of how the boy king died. We three Glahns agreed that it helped us both save time and have a better handle on what we saw.

In the gift shop afterward we found an Egyptian headdress for four bucks, complete with cobra. For anyone who's friends with my husband over on Facebook, expect to see him sporting it soon in his profile picture. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

We also got our names written in hieroglyphics for a buck each. If you want to see your own name in hieroglyphics (that is, your cartouche), go here.

From the Archives

Wordless Wednesday

A Trend to Celebrate

Carolyn Custis James reflects on the number of women seeking theological training. I love her observation that if it's "not good for man to be alone," even in seminary men and women need each other.

It Takes Both

My friend Dorian sent me a link to this excellent Times piece by an atheist who sees the need for Christianity in Africa, and not just the humanitarian part.

Happy New Year!