Day 123: Efficiency

Daily Sheet: Day 123: Efficiency

Family Book: “Building an Igloo”

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Travel: Alaska

Video: “Scientists in Japan” – Sara Groves talks about the meaning behind the song

Video: “Scientists in Japan” – Sara Groves (official music video)

 

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Day 93: Kindness

Daily Sheet: Day 93: Kindness

Family Book: “The Watcher”

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Travel: Zimbabwe

Video: “All the Ways You Wander” – John Spillane

…And if you take the long way, if you take the long way home, down where the magicians and the dreamers roam, through the mountains of morning, through the valleys of night, searching for the island of your heart’s delight,

I’ll wait for you, like a true friend.  I’ll wait for you, ’til the very end.

Video: “Kindness”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helps Homeless People in Los Angeles”

“I might only have one match, but I can make an explosion.”

Video: “12 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Video: “14 Year Old Boy Helping More Homeless People in L.A.”

Elliot Katz, the boy in the last three videos above, was inspired in part to form his charity organization, ReachingOutCalifornia, by the following verse:

“And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” – Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Yerushalmi Talmud.  

Put in context, the passage reads as follows: 

…We find in regard to Cain, who killed his brother, “The bloods of your brother scream out!” (Genesis 4:10) – the verse does not say blood of your brother, but bloods of your brother, because it was his blood and also the blood of his future offspring [screaming out]!  [The judges’ speech continues] “It was for this reason that man was first created as one person [Adam], to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world.”

Questions:

  • The Talmud, from which the Mishnah Sanhedrin passage is taken, is a Jewish writing.  Compare these verses to Jesus’s words as recorded in Luke 9:24: 

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.  But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.  (New Living Translation – NLT)

  • “The Watcher” is written as a poem.  Describe the format.

 

 

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Day 92: Friendliness

Daily Sheet: Day 92: Friendliness

Family Book: “Meet Danitra Brown”

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Travel: Namibia

Video: “Twice As Good” – Sara Groves (official music video)

Life with you is half as hard and twice as good.

Video: “Where I Want to Go” – Roo Panes

Well I’ve found what I need, in your arms.  And there’s nothing for me outside your arms.

Because your love takes me where I want to go!

Further than the eye can see, but nearer than the air I breathe.  I don’t need to see the end, to follow you all the way my friend.

 

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Day 91: Acceptance

Daily Sheet: Day 91: Acceptance

Family Book: “Leo the Lop”

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Travel: Botswana

Video: “One Faith” – John Michael Talbot & Michael Card

He is the good Shepherd and He’s laid down his life for His sheep, so out of many nations He’s gathered one fold and one faith;

And He has built His church on the rock foundation of faith, on apostles and prophets who shepherd the people in His place.

And He gave to Simon Peter and to all the twelve the keys of the Kingdom so darkness shall never prevail

But some of the shepherds have pastured themselves on their sheep, so He has come out against them and scattered His people of faith.

In good pasture He will shepherd His people; On the mountain top He feeds His sheep.  He will heal the poor and afflicted; To the prisoner He brings release.

Yet He’ll not forsake His people; He’ll claim His sheep for His own.  He’ll send out His Word to the nations, regather His people back home,

For He is the good Shepherd.  He’s laid down His life for His sheep, so out of many nations He’s gathered one fold and one faith.

There is one faith, one hope, and one baptism, One God and Father of all.  There is one church, one body, one life in the Spirit now given so freely to all.

Questions:

  • What does it mean to “Accept one another… just as Christ accepted you”?
  • Put Leviticus 19:34 into today’s terms.
  • What does John Michael Talbot’s song, “One Faith,” have to do with acceptance?
  • Discuss the significance of John Michael Talbot’s (biography here) and Michael Card’s (biography here) collaboration on this project.

 

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Day 89: Empathy

Daily Sheet: Day 89: Empathy

Family Book: “The Long March: The Chocktaw’s Gift to Irish Famine Relief”

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Travel: Oklahoma; Texas

Song: “Why It Matters” – Sara Groves (with lyrics)

Sit with me and tell me once again of the story that’s been told us, of the power that will hold us, of the beauty, of the beauty, Why it matters.

Speak to me until I understand why our thinking and creating, why our efforts of narrating about the beauty, of the beauty, And why it matters.

Like the statue in the park of this war torn town, and its protest of the darkness and the chaos all around, with its beauty, how it matters, How it matters.

Show me the love that never fails, the compassion and attention midst confusion and dissension, like small ramparts for the soul, How it matters.

Like a single cup of water, How it matters.

Questions:

  • Compare “empathy” to “sympathy.”  Which is more meaningful?  Why?
  • Why do you think the story of Jesus raising the widow’s son was chosen for “Empathy” rather than for “Compassion?”
  • Think about the story of “The Long March” while you re-read the bolded lines at the end of Sara Groves’ song, “Why It Matters.”  How do you think the Chocktaw’s act of kindness, inspired by empathy, might have built “small ramparts for the soul”?  And what is the “single cup of water” reference?
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Day 71: Goodness

Daily Sheet: Day 71: Goodness

Family Book: “Bless the Lord: The 103rd Psalm”

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Travel: Federated States of Micronesia

Hymn: “I Need Thee Every Hour” – Fernando Ortega

Video: “Add to the Beauty” – Sara Groves

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Day 59: Welcoming

Daily Sheet: Day 59: Welcoming

Family Book: “Room for a Little One”

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Travel: Portugal; Spain

Video: “Just Come In” – Margaret Becker (live acoustic performance)

Video: “Just Come In” – Margaret Becker

Video: “Wayward and Torn” – Gungor (live performance)

 

 

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Day 53: Persistence

Daily Sheet: Day 53: Persistence

Family Book: “A Visitor for Bear”

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Travel: Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan

Video: “Late Have I Loved You” – Gungor (set against aerobatic night flight with fireworks)   The video quality here is not great, but even as a pilot who has attended the OshKosh air show, I have never seen anything like this!  If you want to see more, check out the last video on this list.

Video: “Late Have I Loved You” – Gungor (a cappella performance by the Beltones at Belmont)

Video: Gene Soucy Aerobatic Night Flight

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