IASP has an offspring.

Through the editorial genius and prodigious hard work of Gillian Fosdick a selection of pieces from IASP has been printed in book form.

Gillian has combed through the 1,000’s of entries on this blog and assembled 72 selections interspersed with personal photos of the author’s family to create a beautiful volume of reflections “on Family, Faith and Love.”

http://www.blurb.ca/b/8176004-grandpa-wisdom-on-beauty-truth-goodness

In presenting Grandpa Wisdom to my family yesterday in our celebration of 30 years together in ministry at St. Philip Church, Gillian said to the congregation:

most of you will know that – in the last decade – Christopher has published more than 3,000 articles at his Blog, In A Spacious Place, — by his own estimate this is “at least one MILLION three hundred and fifty thousands words.”

Readers from all over the world have been thinking and reflecting on their own ‘journey in Christ’ because Christopher has shared his journey in this very public way.

But to me, Christopher’s writing to, for, and about Heather, their children and grandchildren — his writing on family and parenting – on love — on the living God we meet in the Truth and Beauty and Goodness — is by far the most ‘open’ – the most ‘disarming’ – the most heart-warming and beautiful of any he has done. It seemed to me, that these should be brought out of internet land and preserved on paper….

Grandpa Wisdom on Beauty, Truth and Goodness, is intended to serve as a tangible reminder of so many conversations and avenues of exploration.

Every part of this book is personal. It contains lessons I have struggled to learn. It is filled with a love that has at times come to me as a surprising gift. I did not create this love; I did not bring it into being. It is the steady solid ground and driving force of my life and of all life. There is no way to adequately describe it; this love cannot be captured or controlled.

I have sought only to submit to this power of love in my life. And, I believe, that more than anything , it is this desire to submit to love that has shaped my life, formed my family, and created the community of Christian faith in which I and my family have been privileged to share for the past thirty years.

It took me a long time to begin to really appreciate the nature of this love that surpasses sentiment and is deeper than emotion. It was perhaps not until I met and began to discover the extraordinary beauty of our granddaughters that the full magnitude of this unparalleled force began to dawn in my consciousness.

It is a power that nothing in the world could ever undo. It demands nothing but to be released and shared. It has no expectations or needs other than to be expressed. It does not require any particular reception, acknowledgement, or even return. It is known most fully in simply flowing forth and giving unstintingly. It is the one thing in my life that resembles that creative, life-giving, steady force that in Christian tradition we call God and say we see embodied in the person of Jesus.

The only Grandpa Wisdom I have ever had is the wisdom that comes from seeking to open to this power of love and submit my life fully and deeply to the God who is its source. If IASP or Grandpa Wisdom helps in any way to enable another person to open to this power of love, the early morning hours of endless typing on this blog will have shared in a small way in achieving a luminous miracle.