my article in EFL Magazine on Cubing

  I've been interested in cubing as a brainstorming method for several years now. In fact, it's what I did my MA presentation on, at the Sandanona Conference in 2019. Anyways, a couple months ago, I submitted an article on how to use cubing as a pre-writing method specifically for language learners to EFL Magazine. It was recently published here, under the title "Cubing: Recharging the Power of Brainstorming." I'll let you explore it more there if you care to.

Fakurian Design (Unsplash)

2021 Reading

 In this -the eleventh- annual edition of my significant reading list,  I present my normal, eclectic approach to gathering learning and joy from the thoughts of others. Two pieces of advice come to mind as a look at this list and consider my reading.

1. Be careful of your friends... over half of these books that I am recommending were recommended to me by friends, typically quite close ones. If you don't like what someone reads, don't get too close to them! They'll try to get you to love what they love. I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I suppose it is actually quite true.
   
2. Be careful about foreign bookshops... a surprising feature of a well-stocked bookshop in a foreign land is that its English language section is likely to be loaded with high quality reading material, much of which you might not have noticed in a bookstore stocked with old favorites. Only one of the books on this list (Prisoners of Geography) actually came from such a shop, but this evening I also just finished a different book (The Sultan of Byzantium) which I came across at said bookstore and was given for Christmas. Thus, a foreign bookshop - with its books that are mostly more difficult to read due to being in a less familiar language - can be just as dangerous a place as an American bookshop filled with more flotsam and jetsam.
   

Biography and Autobiography

Scotch and Holy Water by John D. Trumpane is an enjoyable and insightful read about Turkey in the late 1950s into the 1960s. Trumpane has a way of describing circumstances and events that is at once both humorous and relatable. He shines a light on aspects of culture (Turkish and foreign) that brings clarity to the confusion that happens when people from far apart meet each other. The book is good for a laugh, but just as often, it is thought-provoking. If you've never encountered Turkish culture, you'll likely enjoy it; but if you have experienced Turkish culture, you'll enjoy it even more.

Love Stories by Belle Brain (edited by David Hosaflook) - a collection of stories of many who served God and loved His name. It is about how their Lord provided for them with and without spouses. It makes excellent reading around Valentine's Day or an anniversary.

Raymund Lull by Samuel Zwemer - Lull was a significant figure in a variety of ways, and Zwemer shows much of that variety in this relatively brief treatment of his life.

Exiled: The Story of John Lathrop by Helene Holt - Originally, I wanted to read this due to my interest in family history. John Lathrop was one of my ancestors, but the book (a novelized biography) was much more interesting than expected. The struggles of the 'English Reformation', the fight for freedom of conscience and expression, the difficulties of worshiping in ways that were unaccepted, and the willingness to suffer for ones principles or beliefs - these are all displayed clearly in this biography. While much of it takes place in England before Lathrop's exile and emigration to the American colony that became Massachusetts, it is quite instructive as well about the pressures which shaped early American beliefs about democracy as seen in a particular set of lives.

The Triumph of an Indian Widow by Mary Lucia Bierce Fuller - This short book was written by my great-grandmother's cousin about Pandita Ramabai, whom the author had known well. Thus, I also came across it through my interest in family history. It was a worthwhile sketch of the remarkable life of a reformer in India.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester - Telling a part of the story of The Oxford English Dictionary, this narrative is captivating. It includes murder, an attempt at the impossible, and a certain romanticism in parts that make it quite compelling.

Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson (post 1 & post 2) - A philosophy of living by an artist, autobiographical ponderings that are thoroughly relatable. (This one muddles the boundary between autobiography and nonfiction; it was an excellent, counter-point to Keller's Every Good Endeavor, which I finished shortly before reading it.

Nonfiction

Pedagogy of Freedom by Paulo Freire (post) - A book to love and, as I mentioned in my post on it, one that immediately joined my favorites about education and learning and 'teaching.'

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall (post) - How geography shapes events, especially long-term and on a large skill is a fascinating study. Read my post for more of my thoughts.

Putting Off Anger by John Coblentz - This book, which I read along with others in Turkish was immensely practical and far more wide-ranging than the title makes it sounds. It seems to me like very practical book for engaging and 'putting off' more than just anger although it deals most directly with that topic.

The Bible Made Impossible (Christian Smith) - I read parts of this book with a friend who was interested in it. I wouldn't particularly recommend it although the author makes some legitimate critiques of biblicism. On the one hand, it seems to me that the biblicism being critiqued is one that has been subjected to very little thought or teaching. On the other hand, some of the ways Smith suggested thinking about the Bible seemed valuable and well considered even without agreeing with his whole argument or all his views. This one falls into the category of "it's important to read people whom you're not sure you'll agree with and actually try to listen to them whether you end up agreeing with them or not in the end."

Fiction

Oroonoko by Aphra Behn - A novel from the late 1600s, about Suriname, by "the first Englishwoman known to earn her living by writing" (source)! This was a tale that reminded me more of classical tales than of modern ones. The story discusses heroism and slavery and nobility. It's a fascinating glimpse into how art can be made to speak to an issue: it is not explicitly anti-slavery, yet it shows the cruelties and twisted thinking which spawned chattel slavery. On the other hand, there are still places in the book where Behn seems to endorse the prejudices of her day. As with so much of life, it seems to be a mixture of truth and error. It is a sobering reminder that even when we are clear-minded, we are often still muddled in other areas. At the personal level, it was interesting to learn more about the history of the words and culture that I grew up in.

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga - A beautiful story of immigration, TCKs, learning culture, and courage. It's listed as being for ages 8-12, and my 10-year old enjoyed it. But, so did I! It's 'an easy read' that can be hard to read. The author expressed (revealed?) the inner lives of a cultural nomad in really striking ways. It's also peppered with a series of insights about American culture as it is perceived by those just meeting it. 

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - This book was a surprise and joy; it was stirring and deep. Mostly, I'd say it resonated with reality. The characters felt true - this inner life of a country preacher in a small town... I haven't gotten up the courage to go on to the next stories in the series, and, yes, I think it feels like it can take a certain courage to look into the mirror of well-expressed inner worlds.

The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse - (post) - Wodehouse is always good for a smile and for insight into human nature; the fact that this one encounters the 'Spanish flu' of a century ago adds an interesting dynamic to it.

Wolf Brother by Jim Kjelgaard - A young adult novel by an author I've always loved though I hadn't heard of this particular story. It tells of the last days of the free-roving Apache bands presenting many of the perspectives and realities of the time.

When Ravens Fall & The Innkeeper's Wife by Savannah Jezowski - These shorter stories drew me in to unexpected depths. They're worth their price.

The Spoken Mage series by Melanie Cellier - As foreshadowed in last year's list, I ended up in this series in 2021. It's quite enjoyable.

By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie - This is one of the Tommy & Tuppence series. They have always been some of my favorite of her characters, and this was a lovely read. I hadn't read it before, and it didn't disappoint. I didn't get the inkling of whom the murderer was till slightly before it was revealed, as normal. (Plus, I read other Christie works when I remember how much I enjoyed her writing: The Labors of Hercules is the only book of hers that I know of that's in the 'short story' format. It was quite enjoyable.)

A re-read worth mentioning: The Hobbit & LOTR by JRR Tolkien - My latest re-reading of these was in tandem with with my oldest daughter! It is a joy long-anticipated to begin sharing my favorite old book-companions with one of my children.

 

Recommendations from years past: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

Prisoners of Geography

  The name may say it all; the book makes and supports a claim that seems common in geopolitical thought. However, the subtitle's claim is a bit of a stretch: can ten maps (even with insightful explanations) really explain all you need to know about global politics? Maybe a better subtitle might have been "Ten maps that will give you a firm foundation in global political realities," but obviously this more tempered claim would be less marketable. Actually, the subtitle for the Turkish edition would do as well for the English edition, "10 Maps that change the world's fate."

  Regardless of all that, Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall (2019) is an instructive and enjoyable read, so far. I've read the Introduction and the first map's explanation, Russia. A few quotes from this first 15% of the book seem worthwhile.

"So it is with all nations, big and small. The landscape imprisons their leaders, giving them fewer choices and less room to manoeuvre than you might think." (pg vii. British edition explains British spellings.) 

"Overall there is no one geographical factor that is more important than any other. Mountains are no more important than deserts, nor rivers than jungles. In different parts of the planet, different geographical features are among the dominant factors in determining what people can and cannot do." (pg viii)

 "By 2004, just fifteen years from 1989, every single former Warsaw Pact state bar Russia was in NATO or the European Union." (pg 7)

"Here was a man [Tsar Ivan the Terrible] to give support to the theory that individuals can change history." (pg 8)

"... Rule A, Lesson One, in 'Diplomacy for Beginners': when faced with what is considered an existential threat, a great power will use force." (pg 17-18)

    Hopefully this gives you a taste of the book; I may post more quotes along the way, but this seems like a book that could inform and enhance lots of conversations. I should mention that it's not 'a heavy read'; if you read the news regularly, you should have a sufficient basis of knowledge to read this book.

Adorning the Dark

  I highlighted much more of Andrew Peterson's Adorning the Dark than what appears below when I was reading it early this year, but these are the pieces that I wanted to share here. It is a work about art and 'a life work'; it is also about developing into who we are able to be, not just who we want to be. It deals with weaknesses that accompany strengths; it speaks of grace. It acted as a perfect complement to a book I'd read shortly before it, Tim Keller's Every Good Endeavor, which spoke of a biblical view of work more broadly and deeply. Adorning the Dark was like an illustration of one person's working out of those principles. Below I offer a few of the thoughts that I found meaningful or encouraging. 

Since we were made to glorify God, worship happens when someone is doing exactly what he or she was made to do. (p. 17). 

God, however, never takes his eyes off me, and on my good days I believe that he is smiling, never demanding an answer other than the fact of myself. I exist as his redeemed creation, and that is, pleasantly, enough for him. (p. 20). 

Dahl remembered what it was like to be a little boy. And he remembered that it is terrifying. It reminded me how vital it is that Christians bend low and speak tenderly to the children in our lives. These boys and girls at our churches, in our schools, down the street, are living a harrowing adventure. Every one of them falls into one of two categories: wounded, or soon-to-be-wounded. The depth and nature of those wounds will vary, but they’re all malleable souls in a world clanging with hammer blows. The bigger they get, the easier the target.

[...]

Those of us who write, who sing, who paint, must remember that to a child a song may glow like a nightlight in a scary bedroom. It may be the only thing holding back the monsters. That story may be the only beautiful, true thing that makes it through all the ugliness of a little girl’s world to rest in her secret heart. May we take that seriously. It is our job, it is our ministry, it is the sword we swing in the Kingdom, to remind children that the good guys win, that the stories are true, and that a fool’s hope may be the best kind. (p. 106). 

I’ll probably always be self-conscious, so the battle to make something out of nothing at all will rage on, and I’ll have to fight it in the familiar territory of selfishness until the Spirit winnows my work into something loving and lovable. I’m no longer surprised by my capacity for self-doubt, but I’ve learned that the only way to victory is to lose myself, to surrender to sacredness—which is safer than insecurity. I have to accept the fact that I’m beloved by God. That’s it. Compared to that, the songs don’t matter so much—a realization which has the surprising consequence of making them easier to write. (p. 26). 

All you really have is your willingness to fail, coupled with the mountain of evidence that the Maker has never left nor forsaken you. (p. 34). 

Either you’re willing to steward the gift God gave you by stepping into the ring and fighting for it, or you spend your life in training, cashing in excuse after excuse until there’s no time left, no fight left, no song, no story. (p. 108). 

Learning-Teaching and Loving-Being Angry - thoughts from Freire (and a bit beyond)

  Several years ago, Paulo Freire's work, Pedagogy of Freedom was recommended to me as a favorite work. While I got it shortly thereafter, I am just now getting around to reading it, and it has most certainly been worth it. It immediately joins my list of favorite books on good teaching such as Parker Palmer's The Courage to Teach, Peter Elbow's various works (supposedly on teaching writing, but much more widely applicable), and Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children. 

There is, in fact, no teaching without learning. One requires the other. And the subject of each, despite their obvious differences, cannot be educated to the status of object. Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning.  

[...]

To learn, then, logically precedes to teach. In other words, to teach is part of the very fabric of learning. This is true to such an extent that I do not hesitate to say that there is no valid teaching from which there does not emerge something learned and through which the learner does not become capable of recreating and remaking what has been thought. In essence, teaching that does not emerge from the experience of learning cannot be learned by anyone. 

When we live our lives with the authenticity demanded by the practice of teaching that is also learning and learning that is also teaching, we are participating in a total experience that is simultaneously directive, political, ideological, gnostic, pedagogical, aesthetic, and ethical. In this experience the beautiful, the decent, and the serious form a circle with hands joined. (pp. 31-32). 

The kind of education that does not recognize the right to express appropriate anger against injustice, against disloyalty, against the negation of love, against exploitation, and against violence fails to see the educational role implicit in the expression of these feelings. (p. 45). 

One of the most important tasks of critical educational practice is to make possible the conditions in which the learners, in their interaction with one another and with their teachers, engage in the experience of assuming themselves as social, historical, thinking, communicating, transformative, creative persons; dreamers of possible utopias, capable of being angry because of a capacity to love. Capable of assuming themselves as “subject” because of the capacity to recognize themselves as “object.”  (pp. 45-46). 

To question, to search, and to research are parts of the nature of teaching practice. What is necessary is that, in their ongoing education, teachers consider themselves researchers because they are teachers.

 (p. 130, footnote 5). 

[The bold emphasis is mine throughout the above quotations.]

 I found the thoughts on the appropriateness of anger to be particularly interesting as I've been giving thought to this topic as part of a group study that I was invited to join. The readings are in Turkish, but the English edition is called "Putting Off Anger." So far, it has been valuable, and it has talked also about proper anger. 

 Random question I've had recently: What situations made Jesus angry in the New Testament?  

Shame in the Community of Faith

  Early in the pandemic season, I mentioned that I had been reading Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity by David deSilva, and it came up again in my 2020 Reading List.  Well, I'm still working my way through it, and after nearly every reading I want to tell someone how much I like it and get someone else to read it. 

  The book starts with a valuable discussion of how to engage meaningfully with honor-shame language in Scripture, particularly if you are from a 'Western' culture. It ranges across the New Testament and would make an excellent reference tool on the title subjects. Below I want to share some quotes from the book.

Regarding Jesus

No member of the Jewish community or the Greco-Roman society would have come to faith or joined the Christian movement without first accepting that God’s perspective on what kind of behavior merits honor differs exceedingly from the perspective of human beings, since the message about Jesus is that both the Jewish and Gentile leaders of Jerusalem evaluated Jesus, his convictions and his deeds as meriting a shameful death, but God overturned their evaluation of Jesus by raising him from the dead and seating him at God’s own right hand as Lord. (p. 51). 

Regarding community

One’s fellow believers will be the most visible and, in many senses, the most available reflection of God’s estimation of the individual, and so the New Testament authors are deeply concerned with building up a strong community of faith that will reinforce individual commitment to the group. [...]

They were to be family, a call that was all the more essential given the networks of relationships that a believer could potentially lose in the ancient world. This kinship was to extend beyond the local group to the provision of hospitality to traveling sisters and brothers. Hospitality in the early church served to create strong bonds between local churches, [...] The love of sisters and brothers of Christ is most needed where the censure of society is most keenly felt. (p. 59-60)

Regarding being shamed

Because the unbelievers will use the power of shaming to impose their values on the believers, and to call them back to a way of life that supports and perpetuates the values of the non-Christian culture, it is imperative that the believers’ sense of worth be detached from the opinion of unbelievers. (p. 61) 

To be shamed by the shameless is ultimately no shame at all. (p. 63)

[Referring to the beatitude regarding being reviled and persecuted...] The fact that Jews had for centuries revered the names of Jeremiah and Isaiah overturns any shame that their kings might have tried to impose upon them. The followers of Jesus can have the same confidence when they encounter impositions of dishonor from outside. (p. 68). 

Regarding responding to shaming 

The honorable person subjected to insult or to some other challenge to honor is culturally conditioned to retaliate, to offer a riposte (see discussion in chapter one) that will counter the challenge and preserve honor in the public eye intact. Christians confronted with such attacks on their honor as verbal challenges, reproachful speech and even physical affronts would be sorely tempted to respond in kind, playing out the challenge-riposte game before the onlookers. Beginning with Jesus, however, Christian leaders sought to cultivate a specifically Christian riposte— the believer is allowed to respond to the challenges made against his or her honor, but directed to do so in such a way as reflects to the outside world the virtues and values of the Christian group. You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. (Mt 5:38-41; see also Mt 5:44; Lk 6:28, 35)

[...]

Followers of Jesus overcome challenges to honor not through using the same currency of insult or violence that the outside world throws at them, but rather they meet hostility with generosity, violence with courageous refusal to use violence, curse with blessing from God’s inexhaustible resources of goodness and kindness. Paul expands on the teaching of Jesus by urging the Christian to “take thought for what is noble in the sight of all” (Rom 12:17) rather than repaying “evil for evil.” One finds in Paul and 1 Peter a deep concern to demonstrate to outsiders that being Christian is in fact honorable. (p. 70-71)

 This book has easily joined my favorites on the topic of honor, shame, and their surrounding topics, along with Roland Muller's Honor and Shame and Jackson Wu's One Gospel for All Nations. It is somewhat more academic but not in an unreadable way at all. Overall, it is continuing to add significantly to my collection of thoughts on this topic, many of which have been gathered here over the years.

Anticipation, summarized by Wodehouse

"Few things are so pleasant as the anticipation of them."

~ P. G. Wodehouse, The Adventures of Sally

Teaching Academic Reading: a method including the Academic Word List

  It was frustration and some level of despair with teaching Academic Reading that pushed me to do an MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) several years ago. Now, two years after completing that degree, my academic reading classes are still the ones most likely to frustrate me, but I've learned a lot over the last 6 years. I am now completing my thirteenth one-semester, EAP class focused on Academic Reading and Writing for first-year students. (EAP stands for English for Academic Purposes.)

 When I started, I was given a variety of material and a lot of freedom to design the classes however I wanted. These classes are specific to the students' department/field of study, and that first class was with the History department. I love studying history, so it was an ideal match! 

  The problem was my lack of experience and knowledge: 

How do you teach someone who already knows how to read, how to read better? 

  I mean, I know how to read, and so do they. Also, I know how to read academic material quite well, but that's a really personal skill, or at least it feels like it. So, there was a lot of trial and error, and I began accumulating experience, often of things that didn't work well.

 Eventually, I was transferred to teaching EAP classes for Political Science and International Relations (interesting!) and Economics (not so interesting!) departments. These classes (with my MA teachers' guidance) pointed me to a central principle for teaching EAP classes: 

I'm not the expert; the students are. 

  How can I teach economics students when I don't know economics? Well, the students get to be the experts, and I tell them so! Suddenly the class becomes more collaborative because this principles suggests certain corollaries. The students answer a survey in the first week of class each semester choosing which topics we will discuss that semester and also indicating which skill areas they feel the need to learn. That's the first step in the method.

   Of course, I also bring an expertise to the classroom: 

My job is to provide shortcuts and productive pathways that students can travel for streamlined learning.  

  What does this look like? Well, one key area of learning for university-level reading is field-specific vocabulary. Every field of study has its own specialized vocabulary; every student needs to learn these, but the stakes are raised for those who have spent fewer years using English regularly. 

  Years ago, the Academic Word List was researched and published; Oxford now has a similar list. However, these are somewhat blunt tools; they merely tell the reader what words they are likely to encounter throughout the ENTIRE university campus. While useful, these tools don't tell students what words to focus on and try using this week for this topic. However, they can!

  Before assigning each reading in class each week, I take the text from whatever article we are reading, and I pass it through this text analyzer. 

   Then, I copy and paste the list of words produced by that into Excel and copy just the list of single words. 

   Then, I paste that into this List Comparison tool. On the other side, I paste the AWL words (from the PDF at the above site.)

  This tells me, which AWL words are in the assigned text. I can then prioritize the ones that are most crucial to the reading, while I can also note which ones have cognates in the students' native languages. I keep a list of all these AWL words throughout the semester; and by again using the List Comparison tool, I know what AWL words have been shared before and which ones are new this week. In this way, we can avoid excessive repetition.

  One final benefit of this process is that by scanning the original text analysis, I can note any key collocations or expressions that may be important for this text as well. These may not be on the Academic Word List, but they can be really useful for the students. This is especially true for noun-preposition combinations.

 Where do I get my articles for the readings? Well, from a variety of sources. However, two of the best sources for appropriate-length, academic-level readings are JSTOR Daily and the Council on Foreign Relations. The particular example used above came from JSTOR Daily, "The Bold Future of the Outer Space Treaty." 

  Naturally, having learned the most relevant vocabulary for their (class-chosen) topic and having read an article on it, the students are prepared to share some of their own thoughts on the topic. Thus, there's usually a follow-up writing assignment. This process can help with one final principle that Dana Ferris mentions:

“Similarly, students should be encouraged to generate key vocabulary for a specific piece of writing.” Ferris (Supporting Multilingual Writers in EAP, 154)

Responsibility-Independence & Second Languages Entrapping Thirds

Responsibility was the inevitable price one had to pay for independence; irresponsibility was something which, in the very nature of things, could not co-exist with independence.

Commodore Hornblower (p. 230). Kindle Edition. 

[While trying to speak French...] But conversation did not proceed smoothly, with Hornblower having laboriously to build up his sentences beforehand and to avoid the easy descent into Spanish which was liable to entrap him whenever he began to think in a foreign tongue.

Flying Colours (p. 98). Kindle Edition. 

 One of the three epic series that I re-read regularly, probably every three-ish years, is the Hornblower saga by C. S. Forester. (The others being Tolkien's Middle Earth works and Herbert's Dune saga.) Anyways, I recently finished reading Hornblower again and pulled out these two lovely quotes. The first is a bit of sage wisdom [is there another type?!] which seems especially applicable to parents raising children... and everyone else. 

  The second quote is a rather sympathetic insight of the ambush laid for anyone who has dabbled in third or fourth languages. Whichever non-native language is strongest is always lingering just over the horizon to ensnare the speaker in their other languages, occasionally even twisting the native language itself! 

Photo by Martin Laprise on Unsplash

A White Stone, with a Secret Name

Photo by Who’s Denilo ?

  In my recent reading of Adorning the Dark, a passage from this old 'unspoken' sermon on 'The New Name' by George MacDonald was mentioned. I've included some excerpts below. While there are many places in the Scriptures where the communal or corporate identities of God's followers are emphasized, the particular verse in this sermon is strikingly focused on the individual. It is sourced in the promise of Jesus:

To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ 

Revelation 2:17b

Photo by Edgar Soto

The true name is one which expresses the character, the nature, the being, the meaning of the person who bears it. It is the man's own symbol,--his soul's picture, in a word,--the sign which belongs to him and to no one else. Who can give a man this, his own name? God alone.

...

God's name for a man must then be the expression in a mystical word--a word of that language which all who have overcome understand--of his own idea of the man, that being whom he had in his thought when he began to make the child, and whom he kept in his thought through the long process of creation that went to realize the idea. To tell the name is to seal the success--to say, "In thee also I am well pleased."
...

To him who climbs on the stair of all his God-born efforts and God-given victories up to the height of his being--that of looking face to face upon his ideal self in the bosom of the Father--God's him, realized in him through the Father's love in the Elder Brother's devotion--to him God gives the new name written.
...

But I leave this, because that which follows embraces and intensifies this individuality of relation in a fuller development of the truth. For the name is one "which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Not only then has each man his individual relation to God, but each man has his peculiar relation to God. He is to God a peculiar being, made after his own fashion, and that of no one else; for when he is perfected he shall receive the new name which no one else can understand. Hence he can worship God as no man else can worship him,-- can understand God as no man else can understand him. This or that man may understand God more, may understand God better than he, but no other man can understand God as he understands him. God give me grace to be humble before thee, my brother, that I drag not my simulacrum of thee before the judgment-seat of the unjust judge, but look up to thyself for what revelation of God thou and no one else canst give. As the fir-tree lifts up itself with a far different need from the need of the palm-tree, so does each man stand before God, and lift up a different humanity to the common Father. And for each God has a different response. With every man he has a secret--the secret of the new name. In every man there is a loneliness, an inner chamber of peculiar life into which God only can enter. I say not it is the innermost chamber--but a chamber into which no brother, nay, no sister can come.

From this it follows that there is a chamber also--(O God, humble and accept my speech)--a chamber in God himself, into which none can enter but the one, the individual, the peculiar man,--out of which chamber that man has to bring revelation and strength for his brethren. This is that for which he was made--to reveal the secret things of the Father.
...

And what an end lies before us! To have a consciousness of our own ideal being flashed into us from the thought of God! Surely for this may well give way all our paltry self-consciousnesses, our self-admirations and self-worships! Surely to know what he thinks about us will pale out of our souls all our thoughts about ourselves! and we may well hold them loosely now, and be ready to let them go.
...

[Application:]
Ambition is the desire to be above one's neighbour; and here there is no possibility of comparison with one's neighbour: no one knows what the white stone contains except the man who receives it. Here is room for endless aspiration towards the unseen ideal; none for ambition. Ambition would only be higher than others; aspiration would be high. Relative worth is not only unknown--to the children of the kingdom it is unknowable.

(emphasis added)

Source: http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/unspoken-sermons/5/

Photo by bantersnaps