The .Plan

Here is a lengthy, angst-ridden march across three continents, six cities, and 18 months:

Journal #1: submitted September 7, 2006; rejected October 4.
Journal #2: submitted December 4; rejected December 6.
Journal #3: submitted December 16; rejected January 18, 2007.
Journal #4: preliminary inquiry submitted September 12, 2007; rejected September 14.
Journal #5: submitted September 22; rejected November 5.
Journal #6: submitted November 6; rejected November 7.
Journal #7: submitted November 7; rejected November 19.
Journal #8: submitted November 21, 2007; revisions requested February 11, 2008; resubmitted February 18; re-revisions requested March 4; re-resubmitted March 5; accepted March 20, 2008.

My prior record was five rejections for a single paper, drawn out over the course of eleven months.

There are studies that suggest protective factors for divorce include the following: higher education, marriage onset after the age of 25, residence in a Blue state, and being Presbyterian or Catholic. What do you do with that information?

As a child of divorced parents who has seen many friends divorce, Maggi Deroian, 29, who is single, wants a happy marriage. To that end, the New York event producer follows the research and makes “rules for my life, based on statistics, that would help minimize my chances for divorce,” she says. What’s frustrating, though, is that many of the studies focus on factors she can’t control, such as family history or race. “Knowing that practicing Catholics who go to church have a lower divorce rate” doesn’t help someone who’s not one, she says.
–Sue Shellenbarger, “In Search of Wedded Bliss: What Research Can Tell Us”, Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2008

A meditation I have found worthwhile this week has been to think about the gap between the Messiah we want vs. the Messiah we get. To arrive at a place where you can sit in that reality, to peacefully give up your faith in the god (lowercase ‘g’) who meets all of the world’s expectations, is a process that requires disciplined practices of un-knowing what I think I know, and rethinking what I thought — and that is a struggle.

To King Jesus we owe our obedience and our loyalty. Yet, like Sulieman of old who jealously guarded his city, we jealously guard our lives and our possessions. We are slow to hand them over to a higher authority. To paraphrase the crowd on Good Friday, we have no king but ourselves. Henley’s poem Invictus speaks for us more than the shouts of “Hosanna” from the crowd. “I am the master of my fate/the captain of my soul.” Something within us says, Stay out, Jesus. I’m doing just fine, Thank you very much.
–Marvin Lindsay, “Do You Have a Permit for This Parade?”, Palm Sunday sermon, 2008