dual personalities

Tag: reading

July 3, 2024

Come and see, look on this mystery

by chuckofish

It is a sultry day; the sun has drunk

The dew that lay upon the morning grass;

There is no rustling in the lofty elm

That canopies my dwelling, and its shade

Scarce cools me. All is silent, save the faint

And interrupted murmur of the bee,

Settling on the sick flowers, and then again

Instantly on the wing.

–William Cullen Bryant, “Summer Wind”–read it here.

Yesterday I had lunch with two old (and much older than I) friends at the fancy retirement home where they live. It is always a delight to meet with them and talk about what we are reading, re-reading and what we are finding to watch on TV/streaming. One of them walks on the treadmill every morning and recites the Gettysburg Address from memory. I told him about the guy I used to know who recited the lyrics to Abide With Me while maintaining a plank position every morning. We avoid discussing politics but one of them said that the (very liberal) interfaith group he was in fell apart this year following the events of October 7. This is troubling, but no surprise to me I said. It is not the evangelicals the Jews have to worry about. I have no doubt that I am somewhat of a mystery to them, but we respect each other, and yes, even love each other. And that is the way it should be.

So meet an old friend for lunch, read some poetry out loud, memorize something! And here’s a hymn that we heard in church on Sunday that the boy really liked:



Sing to Jesus, Lord of our shame
Lord of our sinful hearts
He is our great redeemer
Sing to Jesus, honor His name

(The painting above is by Winslow Homer, 1878)

4 Comments
May 9, 2024

An habitation of dragons

by chuckofish

Last night as I awakened as usual at 4:15 a.m. (why?), I reached over to my bedside table and picked up The Mortification of Sin by the Puritan John Owen. (I am not ashamed to say the edition I have is abridged and “made easy to read” by Richard Rushing.) You may laugh and say, well, that must have put you back to sleep à toute vitesse, but actually I read for about an hour.

As you know, John Owen (1616 – 1683) was an English Noncorformist church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the University of Oxford. He was also an aide and chaplain to Oliver Cromwell. The Mortification of Sin grew out of a series of sermons he preached while serving as Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. 

Let, then, thy soul by faith be exercised with such thoughts and apprehensions as these: “I am a poor, weak creature; unstable as water, I cannot excel. This corruption is too hard for me, and is at the very door of ruining my soul; and what to do I know not. My soul is become as parched ground, and an habitation of dragons. I have made promises and broken them; vows and engagements have been as a thing of nought. Many persuasions have I had that I had got the victory and should be delivered, but I am deceived; so that I plainly see, that without some eminent succour and assistance, I am lost, and shall be prevailed on to an utter relinquishment of God. But yet, though this be my state and condition, let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be strengthened. Behold, the Lord Christ, that hath all fulness of grace in his heart, all fulness of power in his hand, he is able to slay all these his enemies. There is sufficient provision in him for my relief and assistance. He can take my drooping, dying soul and make me more than a conqueror.

Heady stuff, I know, but far superior to scrolling on your phone in the middle of the night. Sinclair Ferguson says, yes, read John Owen on the mortification of sin, but turn to your Scriptures first, and that is good advice. I am currently reading the Psalms in my reading-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. The Psalms never disappoint–especially in the dark recesses of the night.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me
    and delivered me from all my fears.

–Psalm 34:4

And here’s good news: Epic, Tim Challies’ video series about his round-the-world three-year journey, spanning multiple continents and some of the most unusual places in the world, is available and free to watch on YouTube. In it he searches for thirty-three carefully selected objects that help us understand the long and complicated history of Christianity. I watched the first episode where he travels to Jerusalem and Rome and the second where he goes to England. In that one he visits the cemetery where John Bunyan and John Owen are buried. I really enjoyed both episodes. I hope you do too.

Oh, and the cicadas have arrived. I had to sweep a lot of shells off the front porch!

Have a good day! If the weather allows, get outside and chuck a ball around.

3 Comments
May 2, 2024

Like a cedar in Lebanon*

by chuckofish

Today is the first day of my 50th high school reunion extravaganza. Please pray for me. I am going to two of the five planned events/get-togethers. And my two oldest BFFs are coming over for lunch on Saturday. Also our church Pig Roast is being held later that day…so it will be a busy weekend!

This bit from Amor Towles’ new novella Eve in Hollywood seems apropos:

Taking a deep breath, Prentice steeled his resolve and began making his way through the crowd toward his host.

It was a humbling journey. A gauntlet composed of every sort of slight. First there was the director of light romances who turned his body just enough to make a casual encounter with Prentice less likely. Then the actress who hadn’t worked since the advent of talkies, who waved at Prentice enthusiastically. Then the writer of droll comedies who nudged a fellow scribbler in order to make a wry remark resulting in an audible guffaw. While scattered throughout were starlets whose eyes barely settled on Prentice at all, recognizing instinctively from the way the others treated him that he was not a man of consequence.

Well, so be it. For that which humbles our sense of vanity prepares us to face that which insults our sense of honor!

Today is also the National Day of Prayer. Following a challenge by Billy Graham, the spring observance was established by President Harry Truman  in 1952. Get praying, y’all.

I have to say: thank goodness for Florida. The University of Florida released a memo to students late last week outlining what conduct was unacceptable and the consequences that protesters would face if they chose to violate school policy. “This is not complicated: The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children — they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences,” the school said. Local media reported that nine individuals were arrested on campus by the university’s police department and the Florida Highway Patrol. Would that other universities and college administrators could be so direct and follow through so mindfully.

But this. Please.

And here is John Piper’s counsel for godly parenting. Really good advice.

*The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
15 To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

–Psalm 92: 12-15

2 Comments
April 25, 2024

Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day*

by chuckofish

We had a rainy day on Tuesday, so the road crew was absent from our street and work stalled. Damn and blast. Yesterday was a beautiful day, but the workmen were slow in getting started and basically did nothing. We’ll see what happens today.

Since I was given two archival boxes for my birthday, I have been reading through piles of old letters before filing them away. They really are a window into the souls of our ancestors. I especially enjoy the ones my maternal grandmother wrote to my mother when she lived far away in flyover exile.

Tomorrow morning I have a hair appointment. Have I ever mentioned that I have let my hair grow since last Sept. and it is a “French Twist”? Ellen Coghlin told me I looked 20 years older and tried to get me to cut it. But long it is. I am nearly 65 and willing to look it. I am sure Ellen’s dyed, buffant hairdo does not make her look any younger! And her wrinkles are many.

Women do not change, do they? Well, I am with my grandmother. I am 68 and willing to look it.

Today we note the birthday of Maud Hart Lovelace (1892 – 1980), an American writer best known for the Betsy-Tacy series. My daughters were big fans of these books back in the day and now daughter #2 is reading them aloud to three-year old Katie, who loves them. She then “reads” them aloud to her sister and to the world at large. Since she has begun atttending a Lutheran pre-school two mornings a week, Jesus has been introduced as a character in her interpretive readings.

I approve.

*Delmore Schwartz, read the poem here.

Each minute bursts in the burning room,   

The great globe reels in the solar fire,   

Spinning the trivial and unique away.

(How all things flash! How all things flare!)   

What am I now that I was then?   

May memory restore again and again   

The smallest color of the smallest day:   

Time is the school in which we learn,   

Time is the fire in which we burn.

4 Comments
April 24, 2024

And like Goliath they’ll be conquered

by chuckofish

In my daily Bible reading I have been working through 1 and 2 Samuel and the story of David who I don’t have to tell you is pretty great. Everyone knows the story of David, the shepherd boy who fought the giant Philistine, Goliath, who had been ridiculing the Israelites for forty days, daring one of them to fight him. Everyone thinks David is crazy when he says he’ll fight Goliath. But do you remember what David said to Saul?

But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

–I Samuel 17: 34-37

This is David’s attitude throughout his life and it is a good attitude. Later in II Samuel 22 he spoke to the Lord the words of a song he wrote when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies. He also wrote a Psalm about it: Psalm 18.

The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation. (II Samuel 22:47)

I’m not sure where I was going with this except to say that daily Bible reading is quite an encouragement to me and I highly recommend it.

Along these same lines, this is a good article about Jesus as our shepherd and why he carries a rod. “Numbered by Jesus, we’re led by Jesus; led by Jesus, we’re protected by Jesus; and protected by Jesus, we’re comforted by Jesus.”

And God love him, here’s Bob:

And they’ll raise their hands
Sayin’, “We’ll meet all your demands”
But we’ll shout from the bow, “Your days are numbered”
And like Pharoah’s tribe
They’ll be drowned in the tide
And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered

P.S. I always liked the Bernini David best (see above).

2 Comments
April 23, 2024

Meditate on these things

by chuckofish

I received some good books for my birthday–I mean does my family know me or what?

I got some other nice things as well, including archival boxes to aid me in my quest to be organized. However, the twins quickly became bored with my presents as I opened my pile of goodies and returned to playing with Mr. Smith. But I will have no excuse for being bored for some time.

Just a reminder that yesterday was the 62nd Anniversary of the release of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). ​​​​​​​​​

In its review, The New York Times heralded Duke as a paragon of the Western genre, writing, “Mr. Wayne again proves, if it is necessary at this late date, that he can sit a horse well, shoot from the hip and throw a haymaker with the best of them.” Well, he could do a lot more than that and he did in this great film, which is a lot more than your everyday, run-of-the-mill western. But you know that. Anyway, if you are looking for something good to watch, I suggest Liberty Valance.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

–Philippians 4:8-9

4 Comments
March 26, 2024

An omniscience of godwits*

by chuckofish

It has been a very windy winter and now it is a very windy spring. And by that, I mean very windy. I am tired of the wind rattling around the corners of my house. And there is not enough hairspray in the world to handle some very bad hair days. I so relate to Peppermint Patty:

Heavy sigh.

Currently I am reading several books.

A few weeks ago when I posted about the movie Our Town (1944), I ordered a used copy of the biography of Thornton Wilder by Penelope Niven published in 2012. She wrote it over a ten-year period and used thousands of his papers housed at Yale which had previously been unavailable. It is, as the New York Times’ review wrote, “deeply researched and fluidly written”. But that seems mild praise for a really good biography. The author understands context and does not judge Wilder from a 21st century elitist viewpoint. She is not on a mission to prove either his gayness or his cisgender identity or to bash him for being a white male. I am enjoying it a lot.

Ask Pastor John, which I mentioned a few weeks ago, summarizes and organizes ten years of the most insightful episodes of John Piper’s popular podcasts. It includes 750 Bible Answers to life’s big questions–seriously, if you have a question, Pastor John attempts to answer it.

Get honest with your motives and plead for help. Determining why we choose what we do is ‘a huge burden.’ Our culture’s media warp us, our sinful hearts shroud our true motives, and we are ‘prone to come up with a theology and an ethical framework that justifies our desires.’

The green book is Volume I in the “The R.C. Sproul Signature Classics” collection which The OM gave me for Christmas a few years ago. It includes The Holiness of God and Chosen by God. It is eminently readable.

Well, you know, it is good to have options when you wake up in the middle of the night and the wind is threatening to blow your house down and you cannot fall back to sleep.

Anne has this to say about an encounter in Marshalls with a Satanist. ““Christians,” she explains, “are quite literally… the most hateful people I have ever encountered in my life.” Not to be pedantic, but this can’t be true because she is a Satan-worshiper, and Satan quite literally is the most hateful being ever to exist. You can’t get more hateful than the Devil. But I can understand why she would feel this way. Discovering you are wrong and are committed to the wrong people and ideas is painful. So painful that each of us resist it to the outermost parts of the sea. But even there the Lord can go and snatch a creature out of the clutches of Satan. This is technically the most loving thing that can ever happen to anyone, even though it might be unpleasant in the moment. But how comfortable is it to get your cheeks pierced and your neck tattooed? I feel like having to chat with a Christian in the beauty section of Marshalls wouldn’t even barely compete.”

And I liked this.

*This is a wonderful reflection on the way we name collectives, whether of birds or people. “Or if you’re in a metaphysical mood, what about an omniscience of godwits, a contradiction of sandpipers, or my personal favorite — an invisibleness of ptarmigans? This is the sound of one hand clapping.”

Now go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

3 Comments
February 13, 2024

The earthly tent we live in*

by chuckofish

We are off to another unseasonably warm week and I am not complaining.

I am slowly putting my house back together. I keep finding baby dolls and plastic cups and packages of wet wipes in odd places that remind me of our sweet visitors. Luckily now I do not have to pack up a box of odds and ends to send back to them but can wait until they/we visit again.

Also note: the amaryllis is blooming again. They are truly amazing plants.

I also caught up on my daily Bible reading. I was a tad behind.

Q: How is the word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual to salvation? 

A: That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer, receive it with faith and love, lay it up in your hearts, and practice it in your lives. 

Q: If the matter we read or hear be good, is not that enough for our salvation? 

A: No, God requires that the word be read and heard in a due manner, and the manner of hearing is of special regard with God; Luke 8:18. Take heed therefore how ye hear. 

–John Flavel (1627-91)

Here are a few good things to read…This is an interesting article about whether we should pray the “vengeance” psalms. The boy and I were just discussing the issue of vengeance and how it is right “to leave room for the wrath of God.” However, I am all for reading those psalms which some find offensive, especially Psalm 58. The Anglicans, no surprise, exiled the imprecatory prayers from the psalter after WWI.

Do you indeed speak righteousness, you silent ones?
Do you judge uprightly, you sons of men?
2 No, in your heart you work wickedness;
You weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.

3 The wicked are estranged from the womb;
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear,
5 Which will not heed the voice of charmers,
Charming ever so skillfully.

6 Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!
Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them flow away as waters which run continually;
When he bends his bow,
Let his arrows be as if cut in pieces.
8 Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes,
Like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

9 Before your pots can feel the burning thorns,
He shall take them away as with a whirlwind,
As in His living and burning wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
11 So that men will say,
“Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely He is God who judges in the earth.”

–Psalm 58

Food for thought. Read the article!

And this is about President Lincoln, the almost-Presbyterian. Very interesting.

And the inimitable Joni Eareckson Tada writes about grumbling.

The Lord be with you and bless you today.

*I Corinthians 5:1

4 Comments
October 17, 2023

Grace abounds even in Babylon

by chuckofish

There is always a lot to do after traveling in regards to catching up on laundry, putting things back where they belong, re-stocking the refrigerator, and generally re-establishing order. I also had a lot of reading to catch up with since I was (intentionally) without a computer for four days. Zut alors!

This is a great rant from Blair Sobel on “fashion”: “However, if you want to see real poor taste schlubbery go to any airport. Remember when it meant something to dress up to go travel? Last week a woman appeared naked from the waist down exposing more than her ass cheeks while waiting in a ticket line at Spirit Airlines in Florida. Is it time to get real Fashion Police in to do some clean up now!?! Forget decorum. Basic decency is at risk here. But this is how far things have sunk in our collective. And it is kinda serious. I refuse to travel because the airport experience alone permanently repulses me — no matter how great the place I plan to go is.” She is not wrong about the airport!

Carl Trueman explains that “There is a lesson here for us all in this current political climate: The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend, and, as soon as I start thinking he is, I might find myself on the way to excusing or even justifying evil.”

As usual, I agree with Anne about Halloween. “What this means is that there are no holidays in America. By the time you get to the special day, you are sick of it and just want it to go away. Through no fault of anyone except Satan, all the actual feasting has been transformed into a strange fast, an always Halloween but never All Saints Day, always Christmas and never Advent—or something like that.”

And I love sermons like this from John Piper:

Not grace to bar what is not bliss,
     Nor flight from all distress, but this:
The grace that orders our trouble and pain,
     And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.

Also, when I left for Maryland I was in the middle of moving all my houseplants inside from the Florida Room and trying to find them winter homes in the limited confines of my house. Some of my plants have grown so much over the toasty summer!

This is quite a job, but I am making progress.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

5 Comments
September 13, 2023

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

As usual I am reading a lot of different things. I have a new book We Believe, which includes all the reformed creeds, catechisms, and confessions of faith.

Woohoo–it’s all here–even the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church which they now view as a quaint, antique document to ignore.

I am also doing the reading for my Bible Study group. The homework takes up a lot of time!

Also, Craig Johnson’s latest Longmire book was released last week, so I have been reading The Longmire Defense. After last year’s not-so-great entry in the Walt Longmire oeuvre, Johnson has thankfully gone back to his tried-and-true formula and this one is a winner (so far anyway).

Now that I have gotten through my deluge of doctor appointments which comes every six months, it’s time to start working on the next edition of the Kirkwood Historical Review.

And did I mention that we’re dog-sittin’ with Mr. Smith while daughter #1 travels for work? Well, yes we are.

Good dog!

2 Comments