He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” [Mark 4:26–29]

Jesus tells a simple, yet profound parable. A farmer does his job to plant his crop then goes about his life, going to bed and getting up in the morning. And in due time the harvest comes, just as expected. But as to how this harvest came to be, “he does not know.” The farmer couldn’t recite the laws of nature, or the science of how this seed became this crop over time. He just knew that he did his part in planting the seed and behold, a harvest!

This is God’s way, the way of faith…and the way of work. Silently, mysteriously, yet faithfully God is enabling the harvest and making things happen. Of course, we still have to plant the seed. And fret? And constantly be checking? And lose sleep? Now, we may do that. But really, should we? The example of the parable says otherwise.

What have you been working on lately? What seeds have you planted? What will it take to go about your life, even sleeping and waking? And peacefully relying on the Lord to do his part—even if you do not know how.

Calling all bibliophiles

First, the bad news
We are in a literacy crisis in the United States. A survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2023 found that 28% of Americans ages 16–65 read at or below a third-grade level! The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest American Time Use Survey indicated that only 16% of adults read for pleasure on a given day in 2023. That is down from a high of 28% in 2004. To make matters worse, our public library funding is constantly being threatened, hours on their screens is hurting students’ ability to read, and bookstores are going the way of rotary phones. (Two of my favorite ones in the Cleveland area have recently closed—Appletree Books and Visible Voice Bookstore.) Ouch.

Now for some good news
Much like the bookmobiles when I was a kid, there is growing group of librarians, booksellers, and literary-minded folks that are taking their treasure of books on bicycles to distribute books to readers!

Katrin Abel, a librarian at Austin Public Library in Texas who has researched the history of bookmobiles, started to see book bikes take off about a decade ago. “They’re small, they’re nimble, they’re able to get places where you might not expect to see the library and get to people who might not come to the library,” Abel says.

Whatever it takes!

A pub, a stadium, and an airport

The Eagle and the Child is reopening!
For C.S. Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien fans alike, this is good news! The Eagle and the Child is the famous watering hole where Lewis and Tolkien and their other writing colleagues (self-named “The Inklings”) would share their latest works over a pint. Sue and I visited it when we were studying in Oxford many years ago. I was disappointed to find out that Lewis’ go-to drink was hard cider. 😊

Indoor stadium project to Brook Park approved
The city of Cleveland and the Browns’ owners (Jimmy and Dee Haslem) have agreed in principle to allow the football team to move its home to a new stadium near the airport with an estimated cost of $2.4 billion (yes, that is billion with a “B”)! Not to be snarky but, the Haslems seem more interested in building a shiny, new facility than in building a decent, watchable team.

Hopkins Airport getting (another) renovation
It seems like Cleveland’s main airport is always under renovation and never renovated, doesn’t it? Remember the Republican Convention renovation several years ago that pretty much only yielded big, new revolving doors? Anyway, this $1.6 billion plan called CLEvolution is underway and due to be completed by 2032. I was going to make another comment, but one snarky remark per blog is my limit. 😊

Two quotes from two films Sue and I just watched

Truth and Treason
Quite a well done and engaging film from Angel Studios (I almost wrote surprising, but that may have come off as snarky too) about Helmuth Hübener, the 17-year-old Mormon who chose to actively oppose Hitler in his own way and paid the ultimate price.

“Helmuth’s example of courage and uprightness guided me through the journey of my formative years and beyond. At a time when hatred toward minorities and warmongering became guiding principles of government and society, he held onto the maxim of the hymn, ‘Do what is right; let the consequence follow.’” [Ralf Grunke, Latter-Day Saints spokesperson for central Europe]

I Like Me
A tender and sad documentary on the life of John Candy. The movie captures the humanity and genuineness of this kind actor who died too soon.

“Candy treated everyone, even the children he worked with, as respected equals, a rarity in a business where power and money keep the playing field in constant flux. But for Candy, fame was seemingly never the goal. He liked to make people smile and feel as grateful for life as he did, and that was the place his massive influence was born. Thirty-one years after his death, that impact is still felt, still worth examining and celebrating. We have to make time for the good as much as we do the bad, allow space for our laughter as much as we do our tears and our terrors.”

Our Tuesday Afternoon prayer
“Grant me, even me, my dearest Lord,

to know you, and love you, and rejoice in you.

And, if I cannot do these perfectly in this life,

let me at least advance to higher degrees every day,

until I can come to do them in perfection.

Let the knowledge of you increase in me here,

that it may be full hereafter.

Let the love of you grow every day more and more here,

that it may be perfect hereafter;

that my joy may be full in you.

I know, O God, that you are a God of truth,

O make good your gracious promises to me,

that my joy may be full;

to your honor and glory,

with the Father and the Holy Spirit, you live and reign,

one God, now and forever. Amen.”
[Augustine of Hippo, fourth century]