God created a world so full of suffering and evil and then gave us free will to lead full, rich and sometimes tragic lives in it for our own good and for the satisfaction of having children worthy of Him. He realized that in a perfect world, He would be irrelevant. He did not want robot children who were hard-wired to love Him. He did not want terrorized children who were coerced to love Him. He did not want spoiled children unwholesomely dependent upon Him. He wanted the kind of children we all want: independent, thoughtful, resourceful, brave and loving. Only a world consisting of both joys and sorrows could produce such children. Would we really want it any other way?2/23/2010 DMs
“[An] often beautiful jewel of a book . . . Black’s power as a writer means she can take us with her to places that normally our minds would refuse to go.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) From the New York Times bestselling author of The Still Point of the Turning World comes an incisive memoir about how she came to question and redefine the concept of resilience after the trauma of her first child’s death. “Congratulations on the resurrection of your life,” a colleague wrote to Emily Rapp Black when she announced the birth of her second child. The line made Rapp Black pause. Her first child, a boy named Ronan, had died from Tay-Sachs disease before he turned three years old, an experience she wrote about in her second book, The Still Point of the Turning World. Since that time, her life had changed utterly: She left the marriage that fractured under the terrible weight of her son’s illness, got remarried to a man who she fell in love with while her son was dying, had a flourishing career, and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. But she rejected the idea that she was leaving her old life behind—that she had, in the manner of the mythical phoenix, risen from the ashes and been reborn into a new story, when she still carried so much of her old story with her. More to the point, she wanted to carry it with her. Everyone she met told her she was resilient, strong, courageous in ways they didn’t think they could be. But what did those words mean, really? This book is an attempt to unpack the various notions of resilience that we carry as a culture. Drawing on contemporary psychology, neurology, etymology, literature, art, and self-help, Emily Rapp Black shows how we need a more complex understanding of this concept when applied to stories of loss and healing and overcoming the odds, knowing that we may be asked to rebuild and reimagine our lives at any moment, and often when we least expect it. Interwoven with lyrical, unforgettable personal vignettes from her life as a mother, wife, daughter, friend, and teacher, Rapp Black creates a stunning tapestry that is full of wisdom and insight.
God's word begins with the tree of life and the tree of knowledge watered by a river nourishing Eden. As it ends with the image of a tree by a river appearing in heaven, the redeemed who have stood as "a tree planted by streams of water, bringing the fruits of the spirit, and birds and animals of every kind find shelter" are healed by its leaves. In the ecology of trees, we find the believer, rooted in living water, lifting to the heavens, sheltering others, and bearing fruit. From communities of pines and oaks of the North American continent, to the solitary baobab silhouetted on the African savannah, to the restoration of Israel's cedars in Asia, trees are being felled under a darkening warfare to silence God's words. Every year an estimated 100,000 Christians die for their faith. Hundreds more suffer loss of home and jobs. Churches burn and worshippers are slaughtered. Jesus is being argued in the courts and classrooms. His believers are imprisoned and beheaded. Our Trees of Life combines the tangible world of trees around us with an image of God's concern for us in a world increasingly hostile to his word.
In the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, a conservation trust helped stabilize and regenerate the damaged area. When bird habitats along the Platte River were threatened by Grayrocks Dam, a similar trust came to their rescue. And if a family wants to protect its land for future generations, establishing a trust may be the best solution. For more than a century, bequests of land and funds for environmental protection have been common, but in recent decades the trusts used to address conservation issues and resolve environmental disputes have diversified and grown significantly. This book examines a variety of conservation organizations built on or close to trust principles—some government creations, some private, some combinations of the two—to explain how conservation trusts are created and how they work. It explores strengths and weaknesses of the trust concept, considers the widespread use of land trusts, and presents case studies that both illustrate successes and give instructive examples of potential pitfalls. Drawing on cases from Maine to Hawaii, the authors examine the different kinds and configurations of trusts. They consider government trusts that blend federal, state, and local agencies into a single entity or that derive funding from outside legislative and executive channels; trusts established by government and private cooperation to share responsibility for jointly held and managed resources; and trusts established by private organizations and families. For each type, they explain why each is created, how it operates, and whether it has been proven effective. They also address the important issue of accountability-and consider when a trust is not the answer to a problem. As more Americans reject federal control of land in favor of local determination, land trusts have become the most popular tool for the preservation of land, habitats, and species. And as the sharing of authority among public, private, and diverse government partners becomes more prevalent, sound guidelines for establishing effective trusts are critical. This book shows how the trust template provides an invaluable approach for future conservation efforts and is a primer for anyone involved in environmental management.
The case that launched the animal rights movement. Working undercover at a research laboratory in 1981, Alex Pacheco's discoveries led to the first criminal prosecution for animal cruelty against a medical researcher.
