Author: danefowlkes

Valentine’s Day is not a holiday to observe, but a sequence to savor. It is one moment to push pause among other quite ordinary moments and really see the other, and in the seeing learn something that changes yourself….

I met the best part of my life at a predetermined place and time. We planned to meet outside the Navarro County courthouse in Corsicana, having mutually agreed to eating lunch together at a neutral site so that either or both of us could make a graceful exit should the experience prove uncomfortable or unbearable. I arrived first, and sat in my pickup nervously waiting for her to pull up. When she did, even from a distance I could see that she was attractive, and her arrival in a sporty Acura RSX made me feel all the more awkward and out of place. I sat frozen to the stained bench seat of my old Ford while she waited for me to exit my truck and walk over to greet her. After what seemed an eternity to us both, I garnered enough courage to make my way to her open window. We exchanged greetings and I invited her to join me for lunch a few blocks away at Roy’s Cafe on Beaton Street. The date was off to a sluggish start, largely because I proved adept at all the wrong things. She chose healthy salad-something while I doused my chicken fried steak in ketchup, but for reasons known only to her she agreed to extend our date by walking together down Beaton and stepping into antique shops. To my surprise and utter delight, we kept finding reasons to prolong the experience, extending the date a full eight hours. What was even more unexpected was her willingness to see me again. We married six months later. The attraction is stronger now than ever because it has deepened into appreciation. I recognize the value of my wife and can honestly say that I see God’s grace in her eyes every morning…. This is not love defined by attraction; it is far more meaningful than that. It is appreciation, satisfaction, adoration, respect, friendship, astonishment and passion enough for a lifetime. Thank God I got out of the truck and said “hello.”
(Excerpts from Ordinary Glory: Finding Grace in the Commonplace, available at Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com)

I owe a great debt to a man I will likely never meet–Frederick Buechner is the single most significant influence on my writing. If I am able to be one-tenth of the author Buechner is, I will deem my writing a great success. You will find several Buechner quotes in my newly released book, Ordinary Glory: Finding Grace in the Commonplace. Thank you Mr. Buechner for your ongoing influence in many lives, including my own. 

Literary inspiration from C. H. Spurgeon:

“Many of our hours of pain and weakness have been lightened by preparing the first volume of our book on the Psalms for the press. If we could not preach we could write, and we pray that this form of service may be accepted of the Lord” (Sword & Trowel, January 1870).

Here is an excerpt from the chapter entitled “Surrender” in Ordinary Glory: Finding grace in the commonplace. 

“Our calling is to allow Christ to show through us, but the inescapable reality is that anything passing through us will be either slightly or greatly distorted. That need not be entirely undesirable, if indeed it is negative at all. God intends to use flawed human beings in showing himself to the world. Just like vintage glass, we add texture to the light that passes through us. We may distort his image slightly, but Christ must sound and look something like us in order for people to understand him at all. Without us as a filter, God remains an abstract thought, a truth to which we give assent but never know.”

Ordinary Glory is available now on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

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Ordinary Glory: Finding grace in the commonplace is now available on Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com for $13.95.  I hope you enjoy the book, and look forward to hearing from you with your comments. 

The Publisher’s Proof has finally arrived and Ordinary Glory will be available soon through the most common channels: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Books-a-Million, iTunes, Spring Arbor, Ingram, etc. Be looking for an official press release with video trailer and more in the very near future. Ordinary Glory is being produced in both print and ebook versions. Thank you for your continued interest in my writing and this project. 

“One human life is worth more than all the treasures of the earth.” ~Seth Adam Smith

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”(Jeremiah 1:4-5 | NRSV)

I chose not to post this on national Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, simply because for me, everyday is such. I was adopted as an infant, which means I take the sanctity of life personally. The debate and divide widening in this country should be absurd to all, but is especially so to those of us who were given a second chance. I will likely never meet the woman who birthed me, but were I to do so I would thank her for her courage in going through with the whole ordeal. Had those same circumstances taken place in a more recent era, I would likely have never seen the light of day, much less been allowed the full range of trials and triumphs that come with being human. Life is sacred, and those charged with embracing or discarding it hold a sacred trust, whether they want it or not. At the risk of coming across as arrogant to my feminist friends, I concede everyone has the right to choose–abstinence or contraception. A woman’s rights end when the unborn child’s rights begin, and that is at conception. Pro-life advocates recognize both the mother’s life and the unborn child’s life as equally sacred. To violate that sacred trust is to cease to be human. 

While living in northwest India, I was mesmerized by the lifestyle of a Hindu sect known as Jains. Jain Dharma is an ancient Indian religious group whose central tenets are non-violence and respect towards all living beings. In fact, they hold all life so sacred that they go to extremes in efforts to prevent harming any living thing. The most devout wear a mask to keep from ingesting an insect, and they sweep in front of them as they walk to prevent stepping on any creature. While I am not promoting such practice, we could do with a healthy dose of such reverence for those who bear the imagio dei, the image of God. “Whoever sheds the blood of a human,by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own imageGod made humankind” (Genesis 9:6 | NRSV). When will the madness end? Who will lay aside all argument for convenience and hold a life that encapsulates eternity in flesh? Hear well the declaration of Mother Teresa: “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” I was given a chance to love and lose, succeed and fail, serve and be served, all because someone chose not to choose. Thank God, and thank her for such an indescribable gift. 

Grace is always present tense!

“The chief thing that separates us from God is the thought that we are separated from Him. If we get rid of that thought, our troubles will be greatly reduced. We fail to believe that we are always with God and that He is part of every reality. The present moment, every object we see, our inmost nature are all rooted in Him. But we hesitate to believe this until our personal experience gives us confidence to believe in it. This involves the gradual development of intimacy with God [through contemplative prayer]. God constantly speaks to us through each other as well as within. The interior experience of God’s presence activates our capacity to experience Him in everything else—in people, in events, in nature. We may enjoy union with God in any experience of the external senses as well as in prayer.” 

(Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel (Amity House: 1986), 44. )

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”~Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20/ ESV)

We name cats after our favorite authors (our dog came to us bearing a registered identifier that stuck). Our first was Hemingway. He died tragically when a pack of wild dogs came through and he got in the way. Next came Maya Angelou, and most recently Harper Lee. Our choice of monicker is less random than one might think. We select based on the twin criteria of literary quality and cultural influence. Angelou is known primarily because of her work, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” One of her most poignant quotes is particularly apropos for a culture in turmoil: “Hate. It has caused a lot of problems in this world, it it has not solved one yet.” 

Hatred always garners the most headlines. One would be hard pressed to identify the root cause of any evil in our world as lying at the feet of anything other than hatred. It may be hatred expressed toward another individual or collection of them, or it may be acted out upon ourselves; ultimately, all hate is an angry fist thrust at the face of God. Dr. Ross Rhoades insists, “It’s the nonchalance of faith that impedes revival.” While I do not disagree with him, drill down further and you will find hatred at the core of all spiritual dullness. This should not surprise us. Scripture states matter-of-factly that “God is love;” therefore, anything individually or culturally that moves in an opposing direction smacks of its antithetical quality, namely hate. I am not immune; I have hated before, each damning episode marching me farther away from God and myself. Hatred may postpone, but it never resolves anything. Hate erodes the foundation of all relationships-respect. Respect is not luxury; it is essential to humanity and respect is nothing more than the earthly reflection of divine love. Love looks beyond wounds to discern sacred possibility in others. Love is the only hope for anyone, starting with myself. 

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8 | NRSV)