prayer | dual personalities

December 7, 2020

“We have seen strange things today.”*

by chuckofish

It’s been a strange year, indeed. And stranger things are no doubt in store. However, today I choose to focus on the positive. At least two great things have happened this year.

The first is a no brainer: little Katie was born in the middle of the pandemic and she is truly a pearl beyond price.

However, another great thing happened a few weeks ago, which I haven’t mentioned, but it has made me smile every time I think about it.

Our neighbors across the street sold their giant RV! Yes, we no longer have to see it every time we look out our living room window and our cul de sac no longer looks like a trailer park.

Their driveway still looks like a used car lot and the unused trampoline in the side yard still gathers leaves more efficiently than their teenage son can keep up with the leaves in their yard, but, hey, I’m not quibbling.

No doubt, something equally heinous will take its place, but such is community life. I mean these are the same people who halted their home renovation halfway through and it stayed half done for over a year with numerous ladders leaning up against the house. They frequently have an industrial dumpster in their driveway for extended periods of time. But this was big. A major source of triggering for me has been removed and so I am grateful.

Of course, they haven’t put up their Christmas decorations yet…

(Check out more festively decorated homes around my flyover hometown here.)

Well, I wouldn’t want you to think I haven’t repented many times for criticizing my neighbors and hated my terrible sinful nature, so here’s a great prayer from an early English Puritan, David Clarkson:

Lord, I would be the most miserable person in the world if my hopes were only in this life. Why? Because I am hopeless without Christ’s righteousness. My life could never be comfortable, and there would be no hope at all of eternal life.
If you denied me that hope, I would be the most miserable one of all. I may be happy without worldly enjoyments, but all things in the world cannot make me happy without this.
So however you treat me in this world, whatever you deny me, Lord, deny me not this. I can be happy without riches and abundance, like Job and Lazarus were. I can be happy even if I am reviled and reproached, as was Christ and his disciples. I can be happy and comfortable in prison, as were Paul and Silas.
But I cannot be happy without the righteousness of Christ.
All the riches, places, or honors on earth will leave me miserable if I am without this. Even if I were rich and needed nothing, without this I would still be wretched and miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
If I had all things that a person could desire on earth, what good would it do me without Christ’s righteousness?
What would riches do for me, if they came with the wrath of God? What comfort would honor bring me, if I remained a son of perdition or a child of wrath?
What sweetness would there be in pleasure, if I were on the path to everlasting torments?
What miserable comforts and enjoyments are these, without Christ’s righteousness!
Lord, however you deal with me in outward things, whatever you take from me, whatever you deny me—do not deny me Christ! Do not deny me a share in his righteousness! Amen.
–David Clarkson (1622-1686)

Need a great Christmas present? Here you go.

P.S. In an effort to broaden my movie viewing and try some newer Christmas movies, I have watched/half watched some really bad movies. Case in point: Jingle All the Way (1996) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad. Excruciating. And they made a sequel. It’s back to the classics for me.

Have a good week!

*Luke 5: 26

6 Comments

August 11, 2020

Faithless fears and worldly anxieties

by chuckofish

So yesterday I was allowed to go to my flyover university office on campus and retrieve my computer and other needful things that I have been doing without for six months (while using my personal laptop at home). Thinking I would be back in a couple of weeks, I left some plants in my office when I vacated the office back in March and they were (of course) all dead. I packed up a few files and such and brought everything home and lugged it inside and set it up.

And, oh boy, I had forgotten how great a big screen is! Anyway, I guess we are telecommuting for the long haul, i.e. the end of the year.

Sigh.

But here’s something to cheer you up if you need it:

Sigh. I’m sure we all need it.

Loving God,
you want us to give thanks for all things,
to fear nothing except losing you,
and to lay all our cares on you,
knowing that you care for us.
Protect us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties,
and grant that no clouds in this mortal life
may hide from us the light of your immortal love
shown to us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

–William Bright (1824-1901)

(The painting is by Van Gogh.)

4 Comments

June 9, 2020

Running the race set before me with joy

by chuckofish

Timothy Keller, founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and a bestselling author and church planter, announced on Sunday that he has pancreatic cancer and will soon begin chemotherapy treatment. This is sad news indeed, but he sees it as providential intervention that doctors caught the cancer when they did. In his twitter announcement he said:

These are all good things to remember when we are asked to pray for someone who is sick and I think it is great that he put them down as a guide for people to follow. The scripture quote at the bottom, which I cut off accidentally, is Hebrews 12:1-2. It is a perfect reminder to deal with whatever God puts in our path with joy.

When in doubt about prayer, there is always the Book of Common Prayer:

Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve your sick servant Tim, and give your power of healing to those who minister to his needs, that he may be strengthened in his weakness and have confidence in your loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I did call upon the Lord with my voice; And he heard me out of his holy hill.

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June 8, 2020

Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally, golly, what a day

by chuckofish

“It was a beautiful summer afternoon, at that delicious period of the year when summer has just burst forth from the growth of spring; when the summer is yet but three days old, and all the various shades of green which nature can put forth are still in their unsoiled purity of freshness.”
― Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage

Our weekend was filled with texts of the baby’s progress–they went home on Friday–and pictures and FaceTime calls.

screen-shot-2020-06-07-at-12.40.03-pm-1 The wee twins came over on Sunday morning to frolic in the yard. They found our vintage Cozy Coupe from the late ’80s (“This was your daddy’s car!”) and they insisted on taking it for a spin.

It has a broken wheel and we were planning to replace it, but they had fun cleaning it up. We had also gotten out the little pool and they used it mostly for washing the car.

I finished reading Excellent Women by Barbara Pym and I enjoyed it very much, although after awhile the unconscious, careless rudeness of people toward the heroine, a single church-going woman, although wittily written, began to wear on me. Now I am looking for something else to move on to.

Over the weekend, I watched several movies released in the year 1973: American Grafitti, which did not hold up terribly well,

Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 12.56.36 PM The Sting, which is a terrific movie,

Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 12.58.58 PM and Walking Tall, which I had never seen before and was an interesting movie.

Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 1.34.22 PM

Screen Shot 2020-06-07 at 1.05.13 PM

Indeed, it was an interesting year in movies. Except for the top movie, The Exorcist, the top 10 are surprisingly not a terrible list.

Anyway, I was in high school and I actually saw a lot of these movies, although I saw the rated R ones years later.

I also saw the Disney Robin Hood years later when my kids were small. We liked it a lot.

Now it is Monday and back to the salt mine of my home office. I am underwhelmed. Here’s a prayer we can all pray:

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November 30, 2016

Faithful soldiers and servants

by chuckofish

Blessed Lord, who wast tempted in all things like as we are, have mercy upon our frailty. Out of weakness give us strength; grant to us thy fear, that we may fear thee only; support us in time of temptation; embolden us in time of danger; help us to do thy work with good courage, and to continue thy faithful soldiers and servants unto our life’s end.

–Brooke Foss Westcott, British bishop, biblical scholar and theologian, serving as Bishop of Durham from 1890 until his death in 1901

These woodcuts are by Frances Hammell Gearhart (b. 1869-1958), California artist known for her color woodcuts of the Sierras, the Pacific Coast, and the area around Big Bear Lake. Aren’t they wonderful?

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November 15, 2016

Better to wear out than to rust out

by chuckofish

No, that isn’t a saying originated by Neil Young (“it’s better to burn out than to fade away”). Indeed, this aphorism is attributed to quite a few people, but one of those people who firmly believed it was George Whitefield (1714–1770), an 18th century Anglican clergyman who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement, “The Great Awakening.”

It is said that Whitefield preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million listeners in Great Britain and the American colonies. Impressive.

He is honored today, together with Francis Asbury, with a (lesser) feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church.

Francis Asbury (1745 – 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. In 1784 John Wesley named Asbury and Thomas Coke as co-superintendents of the work in America. This marks the beginning of the “Methodist Episcopal Church of the USA.”

For the next thirty-two years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America. Like Wesley, Asbury preached in all sorts of places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life he rode an average of 6,000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and 700 ordained preachers.

Holy God, who didst so inspire Francis Asbury and George Whitefield with evangelical zeal that their faithful proclamation of the Gospel caused a Great Awakening among those who heard them: Inspire us, we pray, by thy Holy Spirit, that, like them, we may be eager to share thy Good News and lead many to Jesus Christ, in whom is eternal life and peace; and who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Boy oh boy, both the Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church could really use these two today.

3 Comments

September 20, 2016

Humble and hearty thanks

by chuckofish

Fall arrives tomorrow. However, it is still hot as blazes here.

But that’s all right! Autumn weather is not far off.

Eternal God,
you crown the year with your goodness
and give us the fruits of the earth in their season:
Grant that we may use them to your glory,
for the relief of those in need
and for our own well-being;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–BCP, 2004

First four images via Pinterest; fifth, Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House

6 Comments

September 16, 2016

With a knick-knack paddywhack

by chuckofish

It has been quite a week and I plan to do very little this weekend.

Here’s Good news for Longmire fans.

And a prayer to begin the day from Samuel Johnson:

Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whose help all labour is ineffectual, and without whose grace all wisdom is folly: Grant, we beseech thee, that in our undertakings thy Holy Spirit may not be withheld from us, but that we may promote thy glory, and the coming of thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Enjoy your Friday!

The paintings are by Edouard Vuillard and Frederick William Elwell.

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September 12, 2016

“My ransomed soul he leadeth”*

by chuckofish

I had a rather long to-do list this weekend, and I checked off most everything on it. This included getting my hair cut, going to several estate sales, going to Lowe’s, cleaning up my closet, doing a little yard work, and going to church. Pretty typical.

[Daughter #1 celebrated her birthday in NYC with daughter #2. They had fun (see picture) and cake!]

I started reading The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins, which daughter #2 sent me. (Sentimental novels of the mid-19th century are a concentration of her doctoral studies.)

Published in 1854, The Lamplighter, Cummins’s first novel, was an immediate best-seller, selling 20,000 copies in twenty days. The work sold 40,000 in eight weeks, and within five months it had sold 65,000. At the time it was second in sales only to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It sold over 100,000 copies in Britain and was translated into multiple different languages.

I am enjoying it immensely. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne may have sneered at it, there is a reason so many people gobbled it up. It is well-written, diverting and instructive, and to the average person struggling along in the daily grind, uplifting.

[Gerty’s] especial favorite was a little work on astronomy, which puzzled her more than all the rest put together, but which delighted her in the same proportion; for it made some things clear, and all the rest, though a mystery still, was to her a beautiful mystery, and one which she fully meant some time to explore to the uttermost. And this ambition to learn more, and understand better, by and by, was, after all, the greatest good she derived. Awaken a child’s ambition, and implant in her a taste for literature, and more is gained than by years of school-room drudgery, where the heart works not in unison with the head.

Agreed.

At church the Gospel lesson was about Christ eating with sinners and the Pharisees grumbling about it. The Apostle Paul reminded us that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he foremost among them. In the OT lesson, God changed his mind, at Moses’ prompting, and forgave the slackers in the wilderness. Most of us are grumbling Pharisees ourselves, and it is good to be reminded of it. It is good to be reminded of it weekly and to say this prayer of confession:

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

We will forget soon enough and once again be grumbling Pharisees.

Later today the OM and I are driving to Indianapolis where the boy is having surgery tomorrow at Indiana University Hospital. All trace of his cancer is gone, but there is still a tumor and they will remove it. If all goes well, we will return on Wednesday. Please keep us all in your prayers.

*Hymn 410

4 Comments

July 28, 2016

Thursday thought for the day

by chuckofish

…and a prayer from Christina Rossetti:

O Lord, whose way is perfect: Help us, we pray thee, always to trust in thy goodness; that walking with thee in faith, and following thee in all simplicity, we may possess quiet and contented minds, and cast all our care on thee, because thou carest for us; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

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