dual personalities

Tag: prayers

August 8, 2025

Infinite serenity

by chuckofish

Well, it’s Friday again. The summer is winding down…Daughter #2 and her family are in Michigan…

…and the boy and his family are in Oklahoma.

I am looking forward to a quiet weekend after a very busy week. Tonight daughter #1 and I are venturing out to a special lecture by Mark Meynell, a Church of England priest, who is speaking at my church. I’m not sure what to expect, but we’ll see.

O GOD MOST HIGH, MOST GLORIOUS,

The thought of thine infinite serenity
      cheers me,
For I am toiling and moiling, troubled
    and distressed,
  but thou art for ever at perfect peace.
Thy designs cause thee no fear or care
    of unfulfilment,
  they stand fast as the eternal hills.
Thy power knows no bond,
  thy goodness no stint.
Thou bringest order out of confusion,
  and my defeats are thy victories:
The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
I come to thee as a sinner with cares and sorrows,
  to leave every concern entirely to thee,
  every sin calling for Christ’s precious blood;
Revive deep spirituality in my heart;
Let me live near to the great Shepherd,
  hear his voice, know its tones, follow its calls.
Keep me from deception by causing me to abide
    in the truth,
  from harm by helping me to walk in the power
    of the Spirit.
Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities,
  burning into me by experience the things I know;
Let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel,
  that I may bear its reproach,
  vindicate it,
  see Jesus as its essence,
  know in it the power of the Spirit.
Lord, help me, for I am often lukewarm and chill;
  unbelief mars my confidence,
  sin makes me forget thee.
Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut
    at their roots;
Grant me to know that I truly live only
    when I live to thee,
  that all else is trifling.
Thy presence alone can make me holy, devout,
    strong and happy.
Abide in me, gracious God.

–The Valley of Vision

Have a good weekend! Go to church!

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April 30, 2025

Old and modern nooks

by chuckofish

It’s the last day of April! Spring has sprung! Buds on the peonies, buds on the iris…

Goodness gracious–weeds proliferating!

Here’s a poem for May by Leigh Hunt:

There is May in books forever;
May will part from Spenser never;
May’s in Milton, May’s in Prior,
May’s in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer;
May’s in all the Italian books:—
She has old and modern nooks,
Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves,
In happy places they call shelves,
And will rise and dress your rooms
With a drapery thick with blooms.
Come, ye rains, then if ye will,
May’s at home, and with me still;
But come rather, thou, good weather,
And find us in the fields together.

And here’s a prayer daughter #1 sent me yesterday–it’s a good one:

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October 24, 2024

THOU GREAT I AM

by chuckofish

THOU GREAT I AM,

I acknowledge and confess that all things
    come of thee —
  life, breath, happiness, advancement,
  sight, touch, hearing,
  goodness, truth, beauty –
  all that makes existence amiable.
In the spiritual world also I am dependent
    entirely upon thee.
Give me grace to know more of my need of grace;
Show me my sinfulness that I may willingly
    confess it;
Reveal to me my weakness that I may know
    my strength in thee.
I thank thee for any sign of penitence;
    give me more of it;
My sins are black and deep,
  and rise from a stony, proud,
    self-righteous heart;
Help me to confess them with mourning, regret,
  self-loathing,
  with no pretence to merit or excuse;
I need healing,
Good Physician, here is scope for thee,
  come and manifest thy power;
I need faith;
Thou who hast given it me, maintain, strengthen,
    increase it,
Centre it upon the Saviour’s work,
  upon the majesty of the Father,
  upon the operations of the Spirit;
Work it in me now that I may never doubt thee
  as the truthful, mighty, faithful God.
Then I can bring my heart to thee
  full of love, gratitude, hope, joy.
May I lay at thy feet these fruits grown
    in thy garden,
  love thee with a passion that can never cool,
  believe in thee with a confidence that never
    staggers,
  hope in thee with an expectation that can never
    be dim,
  delight in thee with a rejoicing that cannot
    be stifled,
  glorify thee with the highest of my powers,
    burning, blazing, glowing, radiating, as from
      thy own glory.

–The Valley of Vision

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April 14, 2023

Born yesterday

by chuckofish

Today we toast daughter #2 who was born on this day in 1990. She may have been my neglected third child, but I think she turned out awfully well.

Things did not work out for Sally Amis, for whom this poem was written, but I know you are happy.

So happy birthday, precious daughter.

Watch over your child O Lord, as her days increase; bless and guide her, and keep her ever unspotted from the world. Strengthen her when she stands; comfort her when discouraged or sorrowful; raise her up if she falls; and in her heart may your peace which passes understanding abide all the days of her life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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August 19, 2021

“Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits…”*

by chuckofish

It’s been quite a week with some scary stuff happening in the world.

The best antidote for anxiety is frequent meditation upon God’s goodness, power and sufficiency…Nothing is too big and nothing is too little to spread before and cast upon the Lord.

A.W. Pink

This article articulates what a lot of us are thinking. “We had better wake up to the real world in which we live. There are realities in North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran (the list goes on and on) that would leave you terrified every single day of your life. The sad reality is that while many potificate over fabricated evils on social media in the Western world, the better part of those enduring extreme suffering in the Middle East, North Korea, and Africa never get a voice on social media. Most of what we rant about in our bubble is child’s play compared to the real evils of a fallen world.”

I liked this post from Duo Dickinson. We are not in exactly the same place, but I hear him. God has likewise always been with me since I was a small child.

“A raw and scary childhood meant God was there, with me, since I knew my parents were not. I never felt like a victim; I never blamed my parents — they were human, like me. There was no mistaking them for God (or the reverse). Jesus was not an invented coping mechanism, he was just there. I could not have constructed him; he was just with me. My atheist friends all assume that a genetically triggered survival response of religious rationalization made an alcoholic family less painful. That could be true except even my young adult coping was fully inadequate for twenty years. An adult rationalization is simply impossible for a five-year-old, it was the reality of God that made faith real.”

Once again, let’s concentrate on being thankful for those 10,000 things God is doing for us. For instance, on Tuesday I had to go in for my 6-month check-up at the Cancer Center at MOBAP. On the way there, the Christian radio station played Lauren Daigle’s “Look Up Child” and I calmed right down. Thank you.

Here are Paul Zahl’s TCM movie picks for the rest of August. I am definitely going to DVR The Rainmaker (1956) which I have not seen in a long time. Back in the 1960s I saw 110 in the Shade at the Muny Opera which starred, I believe, Robert Horton. By the way, I watched The Natural (1984) yesterday on Robert Redford day on TCM and it was great. They wouldn’t know how to make a movie like that today and where would they find actors who could actually hit a ball? They’d have to CG it. Great supporting cast–there’s no one like Richard Farnsworth, Wilford Brimley, Darren McGavin, Robert Prosky around anymore. And great music, of course. If you missed it, you can watch it on Amazon Prime.

And here are more prayers for our children from my old schoolmate Kathleen Neilson.

And, finally, just a reminder that beauty is everywhere. Don’t stop looking for it. The boy sent this picture of his drive home last night. (Don’t text and drive!)

In the midst of our bustling days,

O Lord who knows and sees our bustle,

May we not forget the presence of our Savior.

*A.A. Milne

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February 19, 2021

“Call it sad, call it funny/ But it’s better than even money”*

by chuckofish

Another Friday and another snowy week. I ventured out once for a doctor’s appointment and the driving was okay. I have driven so infrequently over the past 11 months, that I always worry that I will have forgotten how…and in the snow!

Recently I was reminded that the movie The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) was based on Glory For Me, a novel by MacKinlay Kantor, which he wrote in blank verse. I bought a used copy online and read it this week.

It is about about three service men, honorably dis­charged for medical causes toward the end of WWII, who re­turn home to the same town where in peacetime they had not known one an­other. The Oscar-winning screenplay, written by Robert Emmett Sherwood, uses much of the book, but softens it up for the postwar audience. The book is quite graphic in parts, as books can be where films dared not be. I liked it and it reminds one how hard veterans returning to “normal” life have always had it, even after a “popular” war. I’ll have to watch the movie–which is a great one–again soon.

Earlier in the week the OM and I watched the movie Robinson Crusoe (1954) based on the novel written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. Everyone knows the story about a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers, before ultimately being rescued, but I had never read the book or seen any of the movies based on it. I was interested in the 1954 version because it was directed by the famous Luis Bunuel, the Spanish director who is considered the “father of cinematic Surrealism.” It is, however, a straightforward telling of the story with Dan O’Herlihy as Crusoe and Jaime Fernandez, the Mexican movie star, as Friday. Both are engaging. They develop as characters and that is, after all, what we look for.

It is a much better movie than Castaway (2000), that’s for sure. So check it out. It’s available on Amazon Prime and Youtube.

“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that He has not given them.  All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Robinson Crusoe

I will note that yesterday was the anniversary of Martin Luther’s death in 1546. This article about his death is interesting. Even Episcopalians mark the day on their calendar of saints and well they should.

Behold, Lord
   An empty vessel that needs
      to be filled.
   My Lord, fill it
   I am weak in the faith;
   Strengthen me.
   I am cold in love;
   Warm me and make me fervent,
   That my love may go out
      to my neighbor…
   O Lord, help me.
   Strengthen my faith and
      trust in you…
   With me, there is an
      abundance of sin;
   In You is the fullness of
      righteousness.
   Therefore I will remain
      with You,
   Whom I can receive,
   But to Whom I may not give.

Martin Luther

Enjoy your weekend! Daughter #1 is taking the train home later today so she can fetch her car. Some fun is in the offing.

*Frank Loesser

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September 21, 2020

We thine unworthy servants

by chuckofish

This is a picture of pure joy (accompanied by a lot of screaming.)

I’ve been trying to think (once again) of all the things for which I give my “most humble and hearty thanks” and they are, indeed, many.

Besides the obvious and deeply felt ones like my family, no one being on chemotherapy, having a roof over my head and food on the table (our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life)…

I would add, my silver hair.

Lottie says, “Why can’t we go inside? I’m hoooooooot.”

I am so grateful my hair grew back (and some semblance of my eyebrows) and I am happy to be silver-haired and looking my age.

I am thankful for God’s green earth and all the weird and wonderful creatures that inhabit it.

According to this Woolly Worm on the driveway and the Farmer’s Almanac, it should be a mild winter here in my neck of the flyover woods.

I am happy the weather is cooling off and fall will be here soon. Fall is a favorite season. I always loved going back to school. Going back to school when classes are online, is not the same, but, nevertheless, we thank God for the opportunity to do so. Anyway, I have opened up some windows and sleeping has been very nice.

I am also grateful for being able to hop in my Cooper and take a drive when I am going beserk from being home all. the. time.

The OM has filled my gas tank twice in the last six months. No, I have not driven much–but on Sunday I drove to Lowe’s and bought some new indoor plants. We do what we have to do.

So we beseech thee, give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; and that we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to thy service, and by walking before thee in holiness and righteousness all our days.

And this was a surprise, but not a surprise.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32) 

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