“Though great our sins and sore our woes/ His grace much more aboundeth”*
by chuckofish
Well, we got about 6-7 inches of snow last week in our neck of the woods. It took us awhile to dig out–we had to get our driveway plowed–and so I was home until Saturday.
In the meantime I managed to shovel the front walk and felt pretty darn good about it.
No one lost their electricity and we had plenty of food and the house wine, so I kind of enjoyed it. Here’s a couple of pictures my friend Don took of the Frank Lloyd Wright house in his neighborhood in our flyover town.
Look at that unbroken stretch of white–just some deer tracks. So beautiful.
On Sunday the OM and I officially joined our new church along with fifteen or so other new members. We attended both morning services so people could get a look at us as we said our “I do’s” in response to the five vows in front of the church body (Do you acknowledge yourselves to be sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving His displeasure, and without hope save in His sovereign mercy?…). I like this old hymn by Martin Luther we sang (even with piano, guitar and drums), but the boy was offended that someone had turned it into a “praise song” with a new tune.
Well, you can’t please all the people all the time. Anyway, we are Presbyterians now! Our Scottish ancestors were all non-conforming Baptists, but our Irish ancestors were Presbyterians (until one married my namesake Catherine Rand, an Episcopalian.) We are back in the fold.
Recently I was reading something written by James Muilenburg, who taught at Union Theological Seminary back when Frederick Buechner was a student there in the 1950s (and back when it was a seminary worth going to.) It seems rather apropos to today and the misdirection of so many to the self.
This is a good interview with the Very Rev. Dr. Paul Zahl about the last third of life. “Where it becomes deeply Christian is, you get to a point when you realize that engagement with the world is sort of a joke, in that the world really is passing away. You can’t tell someone who’s in the midst of life at 35 years old, or 45 years old, that that’s true, because at that time it doesn’t feel like it is. This is why I’m speaking empirically, not prescriptively. But then they’ll get to a stage when they’ll see that a tremendous amount of what felt important simply is passing away.” Amen, brother.
I also liked this article, especially because I, too, am reading Job. “The thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.” (Job 3:25) We all deal with this one. “If atomic bombs or Chaldeans or tornados or illness or accidents or injury or our worst-case scenario finds us, let it find us living — not curled up in a ball in the corner.”
Amen, brother. Grace aboundeth.
*Martin Luther, Psalm 130
dual personalities 