dual personalities

Category: Spirituality

March 30, 2016

Mid-week pep talk

by chuckofish

“Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” –Exodus 14:13

These words contain God’s command to the believer when he is reduced to great straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. He cannot retreat; he cannot go forward; he is shut up on the right hand and on the left; what is he now to do? The Master’s word to him is, “Stand still.” It will be well for him if at such times he listens only to his Master’s word, for other and evil advisers come with their suggestions. Despair whispers, “Lie down and die; give it all up.” But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in our worst times, rejoice in his love and faithfulness. Cowardice says, “Retreat; go back to the worldling’s way of action; you cannot play the Christian’s part, it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles.” But, however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it if you are a child of God. His divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength, and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course. What, if for a while thou art called to stand still, yet this is but to renew thy strength for some greater advance in due time. Precipitancy cries, “do something. Stir yourself; to stand still and wait, is sheer idleness.” We must be doing something at once–we must do it so we think–instead of looking to the Lord, who will not only do something but will do everything. Presumption boasts, “If the sea be before you, march into it and expect a miracle.” But Faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to Precipitancy, but it hears God say, “Stand still”, and immovable as a rock it stands. “Stand still;”–keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward.”

–Charles Haddon Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 – January 31, 1892) was a British Baptist minister, known as the “Prince of Preachers”

The painting is Pine forest in the Tyrol, Bertha Wegmann, Danish artist (1847 – 1926).

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March 28, 2016

“Risen Lord, Risen Lord, give us a heart for simple things”*

by chuckofish

Saturday was a beautiful spring day and so the OM and I ventured downtown to see the progress being made on the addition to the historic Field House.

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Since we were in the same general vicinity, we stopped in at Ted Drewes. Duh.

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We watched Ben Hur that evening and so were spiritually ready for Easter. The OM accompanied me to church (his biannual visit) and it was a lovely service complete with a brass quartet. I can remember the days when we were happy to have the first chair trumpet from Kirkwood High School on Easter Sunday, so this was a definite step up for us.

The boy and daughter #3 came over for Episcopal soufflé afterwards and I was happy to have our small family group together for a casual meal.

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Indeed, the weekend was low-key and slow-paced, which was just fine with me.

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I finished putting books on my new built-in bookshelves in the living room.

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I have more books to move around, but this is work that makes me happy. So onward and upward!

It’s Monday: this is the day which the Lord has made;  let us rejoice and be glad.

*Barry Rose (b. 1934) OBE

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March 25, 2016

“The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.”

by chuckofish

“I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child’s faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.

What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you feel you can’t believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God. ”

―Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor

Easter is really early this year as you know, catching many of us semi-unawares. Where did Lent go? I have no excuses. But I “watched” for an hour last night in the darkened chapel as I do every year, keeping the vigil as the disciples did with our Lord in the garden. It is a meaningful exercise for me.

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The OM went with me so I wouldn’t be alone. (He didn’t fall asleep, but he looked at his phone like a good disciple.)

Today is Good Friday.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, College Station, PA

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, State College, PA

This has been a busy week at work and I have been distracted and inattentive to my spiritual routine. But the only path to the hope of Easter is through the struggle of Holy Week. We need to pay attention! Today I am hoping to leave work early and attend the Good Friday service at Noon. I frequently have good intentions of doing this, but then don’t. You know how that is.

Side note: daughter #2 was born on Easter Saturday and I remember sitting in the Good Friday service feeling weird and thinking something was going on. Sure enough, I went to the hospital that night and she was born the next morning.

Anyway, tonight we watch Ben Hur (1959) up to the intermission.

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We’ll watch the rest, starting with the chariot race, on Saturday night. On Sunday we’ll have a quiet brunch with the boy and daughter # 3 after church. What do you have planned?

“And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life?”

–Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

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March 22, 2016

Working out my own salvation with fear and trembling

by chuckofish

Last week it was announced that Mother Teresa was to be declared a saint in September. Well, great. I’m not going to go into a long thing about how I think this is silly, but I thought this explanation of why Protestants have no need of saints is apt:

How do we, as Protestants, think well about all of this? So much could be said and the more we say the deeper we would need to dig into the intricacies and errors of Roman Catholic doctrine and practice, especially as it relates to justification, sanctification, and glorification. But perhaps we can at least say this: We are saints who have no need of saints. All who have believed in the gospel of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone have already been declared saints by God (see Romans 1:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:1-3, 2 Corinthians 1:1-2, and Ephesians 2:19-21). We are God’s holy people, called by him and to him. Jesus Christ is the full and final mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5) who invites us to confidently approach the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) believing that his Spirit is already interceding on our behalf (Romans 8:26-27). We are the saints of God who have no need for the intercession of saints who have gone before.

–Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer

Discuss among yourselves.

BTW, internet problems at home are wrecking havoc with blogging, so please be patient.

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March 2, 2016

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us*

by chuckofish

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Daughter #1 is training again for another half marathon (her third!) which she will run next week in Washington D.C. Daughter #2 and I will be there to cheer her on. I could never actually run in a half marathon myself…indeed, I am doing my best not to complete a Snoopy-type triathlon.

But we are all running a race, aren’t we? Some say it’s a rat race. But I am not a rat, are you?

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I guess everything hinges on what you believe the prize to be, right?

(Discuss among yourselves.)

Here’s a little mid-week pep talk from George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired…You’ve always got to make the mind take over and keep going.

We can always use a good mid-week pep talk.

Keep straining forward.

And from the Did-You-Know Department: The Last Race (2016) is in post-production. It stars Joseph Fiennes as Eric Liddell, who, you will recall, was the hero of Chariots of Fire (1981). This film was shot largely in China where Liddell is a hero. It deals with Liddell’s work as a missionary in China after his victorious turn at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Apparently the Chinese consider Liddell to be “China’s first gold medalist.” Good news indeed!

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*Hebrews 12:1

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March 1, 2016

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I*

by chuckofish

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A new month, a new calendar page. The year is zooming by.

And March is going to be very busy, but I am not going to be overwhelmed by it.

We have fallen so much into the habit of being always busy that we know not how or when to break it off with firmness. Our business tags after us into the midst of our pleasures, and we are ill at ease beyond the reach of the telegraph and the daily newspaper.

–Henry Van Dyke, 1899

What would old Henry think of our iPhones and our personal computers? Zut alors!

I am trying to turn off the electronics an hour or two before I turn in at night. It seems like a good idea.

*Psalm 61:2

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February 16, 2016

The long procession

by chuckofish

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Well, I might not go quite so far as Calvin, but there is something to what he says. These gray winter days are certainly conducive to reflection. And reflection is a good thing.

“[My grandfather] returned to what he called ‘studying.’ He sat looking down at his lap, his left hand idle on the chair arm, his right scratching his head, his white hair gleaming in the lamplight. I knew that when he was studying he was thinking, but I did not know what about. Now I have aged into knowledge of what he thought about. He thought of his strength and endurance when he was young, his merriment and joy, and how his life’s burdens had then grown upon him. He thought of that arc of country that centered upon Port William as he first had known it in the years just after the Civil War, and as it had changed, and as it had become; and how all that time, which would have seemed almost forever when he was a boy, now seemed hardly any time at all. He thought of the people he remembered, now dead, and of those who had come and gone before his knowledge, and of those who would come after, and of his own place in that long procession.” (Wendell Berry, Andy Catlett: Early Travels)

Let’s all try to work some “studying” into our schedule.

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February 15, 2016

Meet, right and our bounden duty

by chuckofish

Sunday was the first Sunday in Lent so we had the Great Litany at the beginning of our service–you know, that’s the one where we implore Christ to preserve us from evil and wickedness, from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil, and from everlasting damnation, etc, etc, etc.

We also switch to Rite I in our church so we go back to “and with thy spirit” and “we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries.” Of course, I am one of only a handful of people that probably enjoys this, but oh well, c’est la vie.

It snowed Sunday morning, so a lot of people stayed home, and I might have myself but for the fact that I was reading. It was a good reading too: Romans 10:8b–13

The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); 9 because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved.11 The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. 13 For, “every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

After church, I had to go to the grocery store to pick up the cake for the baby shower I was co-hosting with Becky. The driving was worse than ever, but I got the cake and made it home. Then the OM drove me over to the baby shower and dropped me off with all my stuff. It was a fun party and the mama-to-be received a lot of presents.

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Daughter #1 sent her a present from NYC and it was a big hit.

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Ah, sunrise, sunset. And now it is Monday and I don’t have Presidents Day off. Hats off anyway to Washington and Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes

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and cousin Lyss

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et al. Huzzah.

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February 10, 2016

Mid-week pep talk

by chuckofish

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“Doubt not, O poet, but persist. Say ‘It is in me, and shall out.’ Stand there, balked and dumb, stuttering and stammering, hissed and hooted, stand and strive, until at last rage draw out of thee that dream-power which every night shows thee is thine own; a power transcending all limit and privacy, and by virtue of which a man is the conductor of the whole river of electricity.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays

Oh man, when in doubt, read some Emerson. Isn’t he just the best?

And, by the way, don’t we all need one of these? Or we could have one made with a R.W. Emerson head.

And here’s a prayer to start the day by William Bright:

O Eternal Light, illuminate us; O eternal Power, strengthen us; O eternal Wisdom, instruct us; O eternal Mercy, have pity upon us; and grant us with all our hearts and minds to seek thy face, and to love thy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Prayer via here.)

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February 9, 2016

Sackcloth and ashes

by chuckofish

Lent starts tomorrow. Lent, as you know, is a forty-day period of repentance and reflection leading up to Easter.

"Man of Sorrows" by William Dyce (1806--1864)

“Man of Sorrows” by William Dyce (1806–1864), Scottish National Gallery

The length is symbolic of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness just before his temptation.

Before we plunge in, here is some food for thought from our old friend Fred Buechner:

During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves.

-If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why?
-When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you see in it that you most deplore?
-If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?
-Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo? Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?
-Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?
-If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?

To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can me a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.

—Whistling in the Dark

If nothing else, Buechner reminds us that our lives are important and that we must take them seriously. It is a good thing to take these forty days and practice some introspection. Times a-wastin’!

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