Glittering Vice # 4 — Avarice

What do Ebenezer Scrooge, King Ahab, Lot, and King Midas all have in common? They all give us a clear picture of the vice of avarice. They put themselves first. Did Scrooge even see Tiny Tim? Did Ahab understand why Naboth said ‘no deal’? Why didn’t Lot insist that Abram have first choice on the land? Why didn’t Midas appreciate what he had? What causes this unquenchable desire for more, more, more? Horace’s pithy quote packs a punch,

“The one who is greedy is always in want.”

Sadly, greed corrodes the virtue of generosity and also leads us to shun the claims of justice. “Our greedy tendency to trust in wealth for happiness and security undercuts our trust in God.”

In Glittering Vices, Rebecca DeYoung puts it in a nutshell, “Those with well-entrenched avarice are willing to use people to serve their love of money, rather than using money to serve their love for people.”

Our attachment needs to be to God, the great provider and we should NOT seek to take over God’s role. When we give to others we are offering the world a picture of God’s heart.

“Detaching from material goods means using them as a means to a great end which is attachment to God and to fellow human beings.”

Please join us as we try to flesh out a strong desire of the flesh…by knowing our own weaknesses we can struggle to be free from the grip of this vice.

Good-bye greed, Hello trust!

Letters From Rifka by Karen Hesse is told entirely in letter format, so here we go:

Dear Reader,

The year is 1919 in the month of September when Rifka (age 12) and her family make their escape from Russia. Sadly, the trip to America was eventful. In Poland, Rifka and her family got typhus except for her ornery brother Saul. After the family recovered their journey continued. Rifka befriends a Russian peasant on the train by fixing her hair. The vivid description of the peasant’s scalp by the author is graphic so when Rifka is diagnosed with ringworm, there is no doubt where she caught it. Her long golden curls fall out. But there is something worse than losing her curls, losing her family. Her family must continue the journey to America where jobs await them. What will become of Rifka, astute readers ask? How does she survive? Fortunately, the country of Belgium opens its arms to immigrants. “That is what you are when you are wandering between two worlds.” Rifka is left with mama’s locket and papa’s prayer shawl.

A kind Sister treats her ringworm everyday. She receives hospitality from a generous couple who share their home with her for about a year until her condition is completely healed.

Finally, she is on to America! After waiting for a year, imagine her dismay when the Americans refuse to let her in because she is bald. During her journey, Rifka has been writing her cousin on the white spaces found around the poems in the Pushkin poetry book Tovah gifted her when her family left Russia.

Rifka has the gift of language but better than knowing different languages is her gift of compassion for the hurting. The orphan baby with typhus becomes her mission as does the 7 year old Russian peasant boy that will not talk or eat. Can she help them? Will she be reunited with her family?

“Suddenly I realize how defenseless we are —not just Jews, all of us…I realize how precious our lives are. And how brief.”

May you join Rifka on her journey and see her wonderful example of taking life one day at a time and blooming where one is planted!

Your fellow recapsters,

Kate & Sheila

Glittering Vice #3 Acedia (uh·see·dee·uh)

What is acedia? Maybe we should first say what it is not. Acedia is often called sloth. The problem with this term is it helps to camouflage the real vice. Sloth paints a picture of one who has an aversion to work, like Tom Sawyer taking it easy while his friends whitewash the fence. Actually, the lazy person and the busy person can both suffer from hearts afflicted with acedia. The original definition of sloth was lazy about love not work, a faintheartedness accompanied by unhelpful thoughts that threatens our core commitment to our identity. It thwarts our fundamental identity as someone devoted to developing a lifelong relationship with God. Remember Lot’s wife? During the family’s lifesaving rescue, what did she do? Sadly, she looked back. Why? She was reluctant to leave her former life of ease. People with acedia choose to stunt their spiritual growth by avoiding the tough stuff while we work feverishly on minor things that are ‘urgent’. Ouch!

Aquinas defined acedia as “aversion to the divine good in us.” We are made in the image of God, but we have many struggles to overcome to stay focused on pleasing Him. These struggles come daily so our response to them must be daily. Think about it, relationships need to be invested in to thrive, whether they’re with God or family or friends. When acedia creeps in those relationships flounder instead of flourish.

What can we do? Relationships need sacrifice, nurturing, and effort. We cannot exterminate this vice without consistent commitment. Our love for God, our choice to be like Him, must be lived out day after day as we dedicate ourselves to developing and deepening our relationship with our Heavenly Father and the relationships of those near and dear, whether we feel like it or not. This daily discipline, this perseverance, this weaning off worldly wants and learning to enjoy God’s presence is a process. Join us as we struggle, with our Father’s help, to overcome this vice that often goes under the radar.

Good-bye acedia, Hello diligence!

Join Titus, Kate, & Sheila as they discuss The Wingfeather Saga, book 1,

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. They meet Janner, a 12 year old questioner, Tink, a brave 11 year old with a fear of heights, and Leeli, their younger sister who has a twisted leg and a dog named Nugget. The kids live with their mom, Nia, and their grandfather, Podo, an ex-pirate with a pegleg. The Igiby family lives in a land that has been taken over by flagitious forces. This gritty determined family endures many hard times because the brutal Fangs have the family’s homeland in their cruel clutches.

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is filled with enlightening quotes:

“It does no good to worry over what’s already happened. What matters is now. The past and future are both beyond our reach.” Nia told the boys this after Slarb took Leeli.

Podo, the grandfather, shares his wisdom.

“To think too long on what might happen is a fool’s business.”

“Part of being a man is putting others' needs before your own.”

“Lad, it’s one thing to be poor in pocket—nothing wrong with that. But poor in heart—that’s no good. Look at them. They’re sad in the eyes, and it’s a sadness no amount of money could repair. Why, they hardly remember what it’s like to laugh from the belly anymore.”

Titus started his summary with the Igbys wanted freedom…Isn’t that a quest for us all?

Freedom doesn’t come easy, dangers and struggles ensnare,

Be bold dear readers, be aware—

Discover the truth if you dare!

Glittering Vice #2 Envy

What is envy? Rebecca DeYoung explains this vice so well. “Jealousy is envy’s close cousin. Both are personal and related to love. The jealous “have” something or someone they love but might lose. The envious, by contrast, are the “have-nots”--they do not have the good their rival does, and they do not have self-love either.”

Let’s look at two athletes and contrast the differences. In 1924, Eric Liddell raced against Harold Abrahams in the 400 meter race in the Olympics. Eric said he felt God's pleasure whenever he ran, not when he won. (This explained why he confidently switched to a race he had not trained for because he would not compete in the 100 meter that was held on Sunday.) Harold devoted himself to winning. Winning was his goal and the fear of losing was what drove him. What is driving us?

We all need to be loved and found worthy but the envier makes it competitive.

“Envy is ever joined to the comparing of man’s self; and where there is no comparison, no envy.”

--Francis Bacon

To escape this vice we must find a different foundation for our self-worth as we work on a new vision of who we are, unconditionally beloved children of God. There’s a lot of talk about identity. We should all rest assured and repeat— I am a child of God! My worth is found in my Creator.

Let’s reframe our vision of the world, ourselves, and others beginning with a change of heart.

Please join us as we strive to exchange fear and resentment for gratitude and contentment.

Good-bye envy, Hello love.

“I should be dead. Buried in an unmarked grave in Romania. Obviously, I am not. God had other plans.”

Virginia was a real-life Cinderella, she was forced to do all the work while her siblings played. Her mother threatened to put her up for adoption, dyed her red hair black so she would blend in and never once in 18 years made her a birthday cake or said a kind word. The family went on a vacation to Bucharest every year while Virginia stayed home to work.

After she finishes school, she goes to Bucharest to stay with her Aunt Cassandra to prepare to take a test to see if she will be accepted into law school. This was a memorial time for Virginia. Her aunt showed her kindness that she had never had as a child. During this time, she meets Radu and the two eventually marry.

Virginia was grown before she was told, “I believe in you. I will help you as long as you are teachable” by Vera Poescu, a lawyer with spine problems but very strong in heart.

Virginia was a seeker of truth her whole life. The first scripture to impact her was John 14:6,

“I am the Way and the truth and the life.” For years, she’d been searching for truth in the wrong places. Her faith in God strengthened her and sustained through the worst of times. When she entered courtrooms she thought, “This is His battle and I am His tool.”

Please join Kate and Sheila as they recap Saving My Assassin in which the author profoundly lives out Stephen Covey’s quote, “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my choices.”

Are you looking for a novella to introduce your children to WWII? Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop fits the bill. Twenty French kids are living at a Catholic school during the German occupation of France. They agree to hide 10 Jewish orphans. This book was inspired by a true story. The kids are told by Sister Gabrielle that if they say yes they cannot tell about the Jewish children no matter what the Nazis do to them. It is a tale of kindness and integrity that needs to be told. Friendship begins over shared soup and a small piece of chocolate. The Flight to Egypt Game cleverly connects Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus having to flee to escape King Herod just as the Jewish children must hide to escape the Nazis. The climax comes quickly in this page-turner. Sister Gabrielle doesn’t return on her trip to get the school’s food rations. Nazi soldiers try to bribe the hungry kids with food. How will the Jewish kids hold up in the cramped cave? Will the French children be able to hold up to the intense pressure? What a wonderful story to share with kids or grandkids! Join Kate, Sheila and Jonah as they recap this historical fiction jewel!

Bonus Book Bite - Greetings! As Kate and I are reading through Rebecca DeYoung’s Glittering Vices, we pondered doing short podcasts on each of the seven deadly sins and their positive counterparts. Please join us as we break this valuable information into bite size pieces.

What is a vice? Vices are corruptive and destructive habits while virtues help us to live and act well, to be solutions instead of instigate problems. C.S. Lewis wrote The Screwtape Letters in a backward format so we would know the enemy’s game plan to help us maneuver more succinctly through this broken world as we strive to be aligned with God.

“Naming our sins is the confessional counterpart to counting our blessings…The project of becoming like Christ is our life’s most important task. C.S. Lewis once said, ‘We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.’...Once we identify our moral corruption as a muddy puddle we want to leave behind, we are faced with the challenge of re-forming our habits from vice into virtue—” Thus, our journey begins…

The first glittering vice is vainglory, the excessive and disordered desire for approval from others. Pride wants to excel above others while vainglory hinges on display,letting others know how great you are. Think Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. We call pride and vainglory vices because they distort our desire of good things. In Matthew 23:27-28, Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their showiness that was done to be seen by man.

Boastfulness, bragging, dominating the conversation are all examples of vainglory. Enough of the vice, what is the antidote?

In 2 Cor. 10:17-18, Paul writes, “Let us boast in the Lord…”

We need to devote ourselves to a life that glorifies God, seeks to please Him, and yields control to Him, this takes humility. The desire to control our own happiness comes from fear or overconfidence not from God. We are known and loved by God. He is our Father.

Let us practice…

silence and solitude alone with Him

unplugging from social media

listening to others ATTENTIVELY (not just to respond) Ouch!

serving others

Are you ready to grow together? Good-bye- vainglory… Hello- humility!

Can readers follow families in 1939, 1994, and 2015 as each one seeks to survive unbelievable circumstances in uncertain times? Alan Gratz gives us the chance in Refugee. We meet Josef and his family as they escape their homeland, Germany, and board the MS St. Louis heading for Cuba. Next, Isabel and her family board a small homemade boat built by their neighbors to travel to America. Their passage would have been refused if not for Isabel’s fast-thinking. She sold her prized trumpet to buy gas for the journey. Lastly, Mahmoud and his family of four are exiting Syria as quickly as possible after their apartment building was bombed. Will his family make it to Germany? Follow each family in different decades with different dilemmas as they struggle to move forward while striving to stay together.

Mahmoud tried to stay invisible until he discovered…

“If you were invisible, the bad people couldn’t hurt you, that was true. But the good people couldn't see you either.”

Join Kate and Sheila as they dive into this beautiful weaving of three stories into a common thread of family, hope, and love.

Please check out the Love Better podcast. It will enrich your life. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/loves-formula/id1662597316?i=1000627569498

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the debut novel for the gifted author, Heather Morris, was written while building a three year relationship with Lale Sokolov. Readers are taken back to April of 1942. Lale took his married brother’s place to protect his family. The harrowing journey taken by this kind, caring and compassionate man is one of tragedy, hope, and perseverance.

Lale and the others were herded into a cattle car. Some men were telling him to help them bust out of the cattle car but he cleverly replied, “If these walls could be breached don’t you think a cow would’ve done it?” His witty comment calms them down and eases the frustration felt by all.

They were taken to Auschwitz where Lale got typhus and was thrown on a cart for the dead. A young man pushed him off and the tattooist helped heal him and trained him to number the prisoners. Lale first met Gita as he numbered those entering Auschwitz. He asked how her day had been, she deftly answered, “Oh, you know how it is. Got up, had a big breakfast, kissed Mama and Papa goodbye before catching the bus to work…” to which Lale replied, “OK, dumb question.” Lale falls instantly and totally in love with this girl, 34902.

Can love take root in conditions that are deplorable? The answer is yes! Lale and Gita proved it. Heather Morris shows readers the love story of a lifetime through the eyes of a sensitive soul. We learn how Lale and Gita’s love impacted those around them. As Dana, Gita’s friend said, “ It’s enough that one of us has a little happiness, we share in it.”

Lale’s mother had once told him to be a good husband, “…learn to listen to her, learn what she likes and more important what she doesn’t like.” This conversation occurred because Lale’s dad was distant and cold. Lale didn’t want to be like him so he sought the advice of his kind and caring mother.

This story helps us learn to love better. “To save one is to save the world.”