“You can be underwhelmed,
you can be overwhelmed,
but you’re never just whelmed”— Rosamund Pike1
Every now and then a comment will take up residence in my brain, this is one of them. I think it’s because I feel whelmed quite a lot, maybe even most of the time. I’m also usually gruntled, sheveled, and kempt, and I hope people find me couth, plussed, and ept. It’s the highs and lows that leave us feeling disconcerted, while daily life is merely concerting.
This week’s articles all take place on the fringes of human experience. Those times when we’re experiencing mourning or suffering, or looking for God’s light, and finding his delicacies. Perhaps, right now though, you’re just making lunch, heading to work, or following the same routine you have for years.
Now is the time to read these articles.
To hear the encouragements they have in store.
If we wait until we’re no longer whelmed, we’ll be underprepared, and overloaded.
You don’t know what’s ahead, but if you work on getting to know the foundation beneath you, the world around you, and the people you do life with, it will be a lot easier to face, whatever it is.
Grace and Peace,
Adsum Try Ravenhill is married to Anna and together they are passionate about seeing men and women discipled in the context of the local church. They live in Reading, UK and are part of a church plant that meets in the town hall. Adsum edits the GCD Weekly Newsletter and can be found through his writing at The Raven’s Writing Desk. You can find all of Adsum’s previous articles for GCD here.
Crave the Lord’s Delicacies
Written by Chrys Jones
The best way to acquire a taste is to simply begin regularly consuming the delight you’re seeking to enjoy. I remember switching from store-bought bagged Dunkin’ Donuts coffee to home-roasted beans only a couple of weeks old. My experience with coffee had been heavy on the cream to cover the bitter notes of staleness and lower-quality coffee beans. When I tasted the goodness of home-roasted coffee, I didn’t want to mask the wonderful flavor with sugary, artificially flavored creamer anymore.
The Scars of Hope
Written by Tom Sugimura
Every morning we awake, God gives us just enough mercies to handle today, just enough pain to not overwhelm us, just enough pleasure to fix our gaze on him. And even our lament can be a gift, for tears remind us that we are still alive and recipients of God’s grace.
The Days of Light
An Excerpt from Andrea Burke’s A Bit of Earth: A Year in the Garden with God
Morning is for the flowers, for the water drops filling the birdbath and scattering in a full shower over the beds. Midnight is for garlic—cleaning, brushing, tying, and pulling dry garlic stem splinters out of my fingertips. The remnants of the day are long gone as I sweep up a pile of dried garlic stalks, ready to return in just four hours.