All Things Supercinski

The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from their fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!

He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, not withstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers, and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, sinners.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Quite simply, our deep gratitude to Jesus Christ is manifested neither in being chaste, honest, sober and respectable, nor in church-going, Bible-toting, and Psalm singing, but in our deep and delicate respect for one another.

Brennan Manning

The way we are with each other is the truest test of our faith. How I treat a brother or sister from day to day, how I react to the sin-scarred wino on the street, how I respond to interruptions from people I dislike, how I deal with normal people in their normal confusion on a normal day may be a better indication of my reverence for life than the anti-abortion sticker on the bumper of my car.

(I lost the attribution on this one, but I think it comes from the The Ragamuffin Gospel by Manning above.

These are some links for June 25th through June 28th. Enjoy!

• The Fraud of the Great Moderation - Like a lot of other activities in American life these days, agribusiness is unreformable along its current lines. It will take a convulsion to change it, and in that convulsion it will be dragged kicking-and-screaming into a new reality. As that occurs, the U.S. public will have to contend with more than just higher taco chip prices.
• US checks if tomatoes caused Salmonella outbreak - Yahoo! News - Those with gardens most likely have an abundance of fresh and safe tomatoes. How about you?
• Life on the fringes of U.S. suburbia becomes untenable with rising gas costs - International Herald Tribune -
• Edith Macefield, 1921-2008: Ballard woman held her ground as change closed in around her - “I don’t want to move. I don’t need the money. Money doesn’t mean anything,” she told the Seattle P-I in October.

I’m thinking that He just might. Both of our kids have been born with them, a hairstyle of choice perhaps? Or maybe this is what I get for all the mullet-spotting Bethany and I did in college.

Josiah about a month old:

Annalise about a month old:

It’s amazing how little “free” time you have with a newborn who needs to be held most of the time! Here are some pictures from the past week, enjoy!

Annalise is a very alert baby when she is awake. She is awake for 45 minutes to an hour at a time, then must be bounced/rocked/swayed to sleep or she screams. Her favorite things are swaddling, nursing, being held and bouncing.

Josiah loves his sister. It’s precious to see how excited he is when she flails around and touches him or holds his hand. He is a great helper by getting pacifiers and burp cloths.

Happy Family

Josiah is keeping himself busy during nursing and bouncing sessions. Glue is his favorite this week, thanks to Grandma Mary’s gift of buttons and shiny stars.

One of Annalise’s favorite places

These are some links for June 8th through June 18th. Enjoy!

• The Deliberate Agrarian: Industrial Providers: Understanding the Oligopoly -
• Suicidal Spending - [perotcharts.com] - Get some hard facts on the real challenges facing our government.
• Don Carson Talks About Culture - Reformation21 -
• Story Time by Andrew Klavan, City Journal Spring 2008 - Where is the frontline of the so-called ‘Culture War’?

Two weeks ago, I went for a walk and thought that I would probably go into labor today, June 10th. Little did I know that sweet little Annalise would make her arrival the next day. We were definitely surprised and had many things left to do before her arrival, but I can’t imagine not having her around these past two weeks. She is such a sweet little baby.

Being a sweet little baby, she sleeps a lot, nurses a lot and always poops right after she’s fallen asleep. She has had quite a few visitors, and we have been so blessed by all of the meals and girl clothes we’ve been given and loaned.

And I must say that I have the absolute sweetest bunch of friends I could ever have! I missed my baby shower by one day, which I lamented about during labor. Our little playgroup moms have gotten together and done a small shower for each of the new moms. They surprised me today with a double stroller as a big gift. Can you believe it? I cried I was so touched. Long story, but I had made a “baby wishlist” page here on the site and had listed a double stroller in case anyone in our family was feeling generous and wanted to give us a big gift. I totally didn’t expect those sweet gals to give us one - ladies, thank you so much! Okay, back to Annalise stuff…

She looks a lot like Josiah did as a newborn, but his hair was darker. A comparison shot of Josiah, but about 3 weeks old:

Speaking of Josiah, he sure loves his sister and tells everyone, “Our baby came out!” He is adjusting to our new normal, and detoxing from all the added attention he received the past two weeks.

He also loves the birthing pool, almost as much as I did when I was in labor. It’s been a big treat for him almost every afternoon.

Lastly, I feel great! I can’t believe how quickly I recovered this time. The day after she was born, I felt better than I did before I gave birth. No tears, no soreness, nothing. The postpartum care I’ve received from my midwife is also one of the best parts of homebirthing.

Increasingly, I find my views aligning with so-called agrarians, who are predominately agrarians with (and predominately) because of their Christian faith.

I hope you will take the time to read these items and be challenged to rethink the modern mindset we all so easily and comfortably fit into.

Here are a few items and essays I’ve found recently. The most eloquent is Wendell Berry, a prominent writer, poet, and agrarian.

Farming and the Global Economy

Choice quotes:

The people who benefit from this state of affairs have been at pains to convince us that the agricultural practices and policies that have almost annihilated the farming population have greatly benefited the population of food consumers. But more and more consumers are now becoming aware that our supposed abundance of cheap and healthful food is to a considerable extent illusory. They are beginning to see that the social, ecological, and even the economic costs of such “cheap food” are, in fact, great. They are beginning to see that a system of food production that is dependent on massive applications of drugs and chemicals cannot, by definition, produce “pure food.” And they are beginning to see that a kind of agriculture that involves unprecedented erosion and depletion of soil, unprecedented waste of water, and unprecedented destruction of the farm population cannot by any accommodation of sense or fantasy be called “sustainable.”

If a safe, sustainable local food economy appeals to some of us as a goal that we would like to work for, then we must be careful to recognize not only the great power of the interests arrayed against us but also our own weakness. The hope for such a food economy as we desire is represented by no political party and is spoken for by no national public officials of any consequence. Our national political leaders do not know what we are talking about, and they are without the local affections and allegiances that would permit them to learn what we are talking about.

Marching Away From Babylon