It’s still very hot here–but it is not officially Fall until next week on September 22–the Autumnal Equinox–so what are we all complaining about?
I went in for my semi-annual cancer check yesterday, which is always stressful, but I got through it by leaning on the everlasting arms.
This made me smile:
And finally…
Hang in there!
Well, how was your weekend? I enjoyed some quality time with my therapy dog…
We celebrated daughter #1’s birthday, but it was pretty low-key–burgers ‘n fries at the boy’s house and a French Silk pie…
It was quite hot on Saturday so we bailed on the Greentree Festival in our flyover town. I did, however, go to the bud’s soccer game on Sunday–so hot–96 degrees–but I am a devoted Mamu!
We went after church and Sunday School and a change of clothes at my house. By 1:30 I was wiped out!
Our current sermon series is on Philippians, so Sunday’s verses were very appropriate to what is going on in our country.
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. (Phil. 1:12-14)
Christ reframes everything, including the way we see our trials. Never forget that God is in control. Our Sunday School class on C.S. Lewis was also excellent and I appreciated that our teacher opened up the last 15 minutes of class to a discussion about Charlie Kirk–something we would never do in church or our sermon.
And this is the transcript of a podcast with Kevin DeYoung which is very helpful about processing violence and grief. “We never want to normalize evil, but we are trying to normalize that God has been with his people and has been with us personally through difficulties, national tragedies, and that same God is going to be with you…They need to know and hear from us a faith that we have, that God has not left the throne, that this did not take him by surprise, and that the end of the story has not yet been written for us, but it has been for God, and it’s ultimately a good story, right?”
Amen.
This is a new Lauren Daigle song (at least to me)–a re-working of the well-known Frances Ridley Havergal (1874) Anglican hymn:
Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise,
let them flow in endless praise.
Today is daughter #1’s birthday.
She shares it with Mungo Park (1771-1806), O. Henry (1862-1910), D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), Bear Bryant (1913-1983), Tom Landry (1924-2000), Earl Holliman (1928-2024), Harry Connick Jr. (b. 1967), Ludacris (b. 1977), and a host of other people whose birthdays will never be quite the same since the events in 2001.
Later today we are going to our favorite local hang-out for Happy Hour. And tomorrow we are going to the boy’s house for a bar-b-que. Too bad we can’t have a donut (“wif yots of sprinkles!”) with the Prairie Girls.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:4)
I don’t like to get political on the blog, but I have to say something about the political assassination of Charlie Kirk yesterday at a campus event in Utah, because it really upset me. Here was a young man–31 years old–who was totally committed to civil discourse. He believed in the power of free speech and debate. He would answer any question and talk to everyone.
But he was so successful in his use of the Socratic method that the opposition couldn’t win in a debate with him.
They hated Charlie because he was so effective at what he did. So they murdered him. They’re trying to scare us into not attending events and speaking out. This is biblical level evil.
Pray for his wife and two children. Pray hard for our country. Charlie was a Christian, so we know he is in a better place…
Today is the birthday of Confederate General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler (1836-1906). He was a calvary general in the CSA during the American Civil War, and then a general in the U.S. Army during both the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars near the turn of the twentieth century. He also served several terms in the U.S. Congress representing Alabama.
After graduating from West Point in 1854, while stationed in New Mexico and fighting in a skirmish with Indians, Wheeler picked up the nickname “Fighting Joe.” He is one of the few Confederates who is buried in Arlington Cemetery.
It is worth noting that Wheeler was of New England ancestry–descended from the English Puritans who came to New England in the seventeenth century–so it is possible that he is a distant cousin of our own Connecticut Wheelers.
Today is also the birthday of Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962), the American particle physicist who shared the 1927 Nobel Prize for Physics with C.T.R. Wilson for his discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radiation.
(Compton on the cover of Time magazine on January 13, 1936, holding his cosmic ray detector)
Compton was a key figure in the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear weapons. His reports were important in launching the project. In 1942, he became a member of the executive committee and then head of the “X” projects overseeing the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. Throughout WWII, Compton remained a prominent scientific adviser and administrator. In 1945, he served, along with Lawrence, Oppenheimer, and Fermi, on the Scientific Panel that recommended military use of the atomic bomb against Japan. He was awarded the Medal of Merit for his services to the Manhattan Project.
After WWII he became the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. When I worked there, forty-plus years after he retired, people were constantly asking me if I was related to him. I would say, no, and my husband isn’t either.
So a toast to famous non-relatives Fighting Joe Wheeler and Arthur Holly Compton! Have a good day!
Our beautiful weather continues, although they say it is going to heat up again by the end of the week. I will endeavor to live in the moment and enjoy it.
This made me LOL:
This is an interesting article about an unexpected encounter with an American Patriot. “I was intrigued to see a solitary grave with a military headstone out in the middle of nowhere. There were no houses or businesses anywhere in sight. It was a very rural area without any nearby tourist attractions…Not a place where I expected to see a veterans’ cemetery or even a solitary grave.”
The twins are coming over to my house tonight while their parents go to some parent-teacher thing at school. I am planning to make them suggest we watch The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1963), also known as Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. I loved that movie when I was their age and especially the song.
You remember the story of Dr. Syn, a country vicar who leads a rebel band against the King’s naval press gangs in the 18th century. Dr. Syn conceals his secret identity behind a sackcloth mask, and carries on activities a la Scarlet Pimpernel from his parish base. The twins may be too jaded to enjoy it, but I hope not.
And Josiah Queen has a new song!
How was your weekend? Mine was lovely. The weather was perfect. The sky was blue. I enjoyed great conversation, good fellowship at my mini-retreat in a beautiful setting…
I watched a good movie with daughter #1–in fact, my favorite Woody Allen movie (besides Annie Hall)–Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). There is no bad language, no sex–just middle aged neurotics trying to solve a murder! I love the end where Woody is so relieved to find his wife (Diane Keaton) bound and gagged, but okay–he is so relieved and happy! It is like Cary Grant and Irene Dunne!
And you have to love Diane in a turtleneck, a blouse, a tweed jacket, and a belt!
Meanwhile we are back on our fall schedule of going to the 8:30 a.m. service at church, followed by Sunday School, and then on to a soccer game at 12:15. The boy and I went to the class on “The Power of Story in the Works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien” taught by our favorite college professor with a ponytail. It was very good. Also, our Associate Pastor is back from sabbatical and he gave a really good sermon on Philippians 1: 1-11.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace,[d] both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
And BTW I heartily agree with this article by Albert Mohler Jr.: “I try to be appropriately respectful of all elected officials, but Sen. Kaine uttered one of the most profoundly wrong, dangerous, and downright stupid comments a member of the Senate might articulate.” Who are these ignorant people?
Have a good week! Pray hard.
*Larry Lipton in Manhattan Murder Mystery
Last night my Church Community Group started up again after its summer recess, so I am back to doing homework! We are continuing to read this book…
…which we began last spring. I think I would rather read an actual book by Tim Keller, but this is okay. We got some good conversation going.
Next week my Women’s Bible Study starts back up. We are continuing with the study of Exodus (19-40) by Jen Wilken. So more homework! It’s a good thing my shredding project is almost finis. And in case you are wondering, somehow I have kept up with my daily Bible reading! I just read 2 Corinthians 4–I highly recommend it.
Tomorrow I am going to a ladies’ lakeside mini-retreat at Innsbrook about an hour out of town. I am looking forward to this fellowship time with my church friends.
Here’s a fascinating look at the “secular liturgy” that is Goodnight Moon. This book is still a favorite of my younger grandchildren, but it cannot be denied that its author, Margaret Wise Brown, was a real mess and lost soul. (You may recall that she was the granddaughter of early Missouri governor Gratz Brown, about whom I wrote a while ago.) Her famous book reflects her lostness. I have to admit, I always thought the book was a little odd. “Instead of appealing to a God who holds all things together in his ordered creation, the liturgy of Goodnight Moon simply observes the randomness of an inexplicable universe: Goodnight nobody. Goodnight mush.“
This is much better:
O LET the Earth bless the Lord: * yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Green Things upon the earth, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Whales, and all that move in the waters, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O all ye Beasts and Cattle, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Children of Men, bless ye the Lord: * praise him, and magnify him for ever.
–BCP, 1928
Today is the birthday of Syd Hoff (September 4, 1912 – May 12, 2004)–American cartoonist and children’s book author. Hoff was known for his cartoons in The New Yorker depicting tenements and lower-middle class life in the city. He was a Communist, although he was never blacklisted.
Today is also the anniversary of the day American actress Irene Dunne died in 1990. She was nominated five times for a Best Actress Oscar, but never won. She was no Communist, but a lifelong Republican. She starred with Skippy, the Wire Fox Terrier, in several movies, including The Awful Truth (1937) which features Skippy as Mr. Smith, after whom you-know-who was named.
So a toast to Syd Hoff, Irene Dunne and Skippy…watch an Irene Dunne movie, pet a nice dog, laugh at a cartoon!
The Madcaps are grieving the death of one of their beloved Pugs. They are so right about “working” through it. Personally, I have been wearing out the shredder every day, since the OM never threw out a piece of paper in his life. Slowly but surely I am making progress. Bringing some measure of order to the chaos is bringing me joy.
This is a really good article about God’s mercies “even to your old age”.
“The manna in the wilderness was given one day at a time. There was no storing up. God wants us to depend on him every single day. We do not receive today the strength to bear tomorrow’s burdens. We are given mercy and strength to match the needs of today.”
What a great analogy from Exodus!
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
–Lamentations 3:22-23
Today is Victory over Japan Day, the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in WWII, bringing an end to the war. The formal signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender took place on board the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, and at that time President Truman declared September 2 to be the official V-J Day.
General Douglas MacArthur signing the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of th e Allied Powers. Generals Wainwright and Percival, both former prisoners of the Japanese, stand behind him.
Missouri was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the US state of Missouri. The ship was authorized by Congress in 1938. The ship was launched on 29 January 1944 before a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. At the launching ceremony, the ship was christened by Margaret Truman, the ship sponsor and daughter of Harry S. Truman, then one of the senators from the ship’s namesake state.
USS Missouri underway in August 1944.
Missouri earned three battle stars for World War II service, five for Korean War service and a further three for Gulf War service.
Let’s all just take a moment, shall we?
dual personalities 