dual personalities

Tag: spirituality

February 12, 2024

Beer for my horses

by chuckofish

What a strange two weeks this has been! Daughter #2 and DN are moved in, but not totally settled in yet. That will take some time. Their new home is great–unfortunately I took no pictures when I was there–and the University of Illinois is very impressive. I liked Champaign-Urbana a lot. It is the perfect sized small city with everything you want but without a lot of the stuff you don’t need.

After a few days in their new house, Katie said, “I think Mamu is living with us now!” Well, no dear. I certainly enjoyed all the bonus time with daughter #2 and her sweet family, but I am glad to be home. In my absence the OM did not burn the house down. Now I have mountains of laundry to do and sheets to change and the house to get back in order…but c’est la vie.

It was so good to be back in church on Sunday. We had a good sermon on the transfiguration and we sang some great hymns. I teared up twice. The twins seem very grown up after spending so much time with a three-year old and one-year old! They came over for bagels after church and played contentedly with their old toys. The bud sang the doxology without prompting to show me that he knows all the words.

Daughter #3 made this updated sweatshirt for me (Wheeler, Lottie, Katie, and Ida), which I think is pretty great, don’t you?

In other news, I was sad to hear that ol’ Toby Keith had died. He was one-of-a-kind. I liked his attitude: “How do you like me now?” And I did love that deep vibrato of his. We’ll toast him tonight.

You gotta saddle up your boys
You gotta draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singin’ whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

4 Comments
February 6, 2024

Still hanging in there

by chuckofish

Today daughter #2 and I are headed to C-U today with the girls.

DN left yesterday– He is very excited and happy to start work in person. The movers will also arrive today (allegedly) so there will be a lot to do. I am leaving my house in an absolute shambles and the OM in it, recovering from the dreaded virus which caught up with him Sunday night. He’s through the worst of it, eating rice cakes and drinking Gatorade.

“Listen. Your life is happening. You are happening. Think back on your journey. The music of your life…” (Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey)

All will be well.

Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!

–Psalm 66:20
3 Comments
January 30, 2024

Now I ain’t too good at prayin’/But thanks for everything

by chuckofish

Well, I didn’t end up driving to Champaign-Urbana, as it turns out daughter #2’s moving truck-full of stuff won’t arrive until next week so…the best laid plans of mice and men and all that. Thank goodness they made it there safely.

Meanwhile Garden and Gun had a link to this back porch concert which introduced me to singer-songwriter Larry Fleet. I really like this song which Morgan Wallen also covered.

And this was really good.

Plus here’s a reminder. “I agree with Peter: “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder” (2 Peter 1:13).”

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

3 Comments
January 21, 2024

This is the day that the Lord has made*

by chuckofish

We survived another frigid weekend in flyover country. At least the sun was out. Daughter #1 and I braved the arctic elements on Saturday to go to an estate sale where Lamar gave us our usual good customer discount and made our day. We then went out to lunch at our local pizza place which was hoppin’ with activity.

Later at home I worked on a puzzle I got for Christmas…

And the Amaryllis is blooming! Wowee! What a show!

We went to church–it was almost 10 degrees! Our Sunday School class was on Limited Atonement. We had a lively discussion in our 60s age group. The boy said they also had a lively discussion in their 20-30s age group, but some of them are still working out their salvation with fear and trembling. It is a blessing to be able to go somewhere and have a lively intellectual discussion.

After church we went to our favorite diner for brunch and daughter #1 met us there after her service. We wolfed down our food like starving Presbyterians after a worshipful morning. As Charles Spurgeon said, “There is hardship in everything except eating pancakes.”

We went back to church that evening for our annual meeting, which was pushing it considering the eternal threat of bad weather. But we had a quorum and conducted our business. Our new pastor starts in two weeks!

Meanwhile daughter #2’s daughters continue to enjoy outdoor winter activities to varying degrees…

Ida prefers to play inside and I’m with her…

We are bracing for an ice storm today. Here’s to further hunkering down.

*This is the day that the Lord has made;
    let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)

6 Comments
January 11, 2024

Brighter days

by chuckofish

Well, news flash, the sun actually came out yesterday afternoon for a few hours. This was greatly appreciated. I ran a few errands. Meanwhile, my Amaryllis continues to grow…

I sent the next issue of the Kirkwood Historical Review off to the printer–always a big weight off my shoulders. And I received in the mail my copy of Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) which was published last year on its 100th anniversary. As Kevin DeYoung writes in the Foreword:

The bulk of Machen’s book is taken up with the exploration of five essential doctrines of the faith: the doctrine of man, the doctrine of Scripture, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of salvation, and the doctrine of the church. In each category, Machen demonstrates that the liberal conception of the faith is fundamentally out of step with historic, biblical Christianity: Where liberalism teaches the goodness of man and the universal fatherhood of God, Christianity insists that Jesus did not come into the world to call the righteous to be better citizens but to save sinners and bring them into the family of God. Where liberalism teaches that true faith is founded on spiritual experience, Christianity insists that true religious experience depends upon the veracity of the historical events in the Bible. Where liberalism lauds Christ as a great teacher and our moral exemplar, Christianity insists that faith in Christ does not make sense apart from a supernatural, sinless, and divine Christ. Where liberalism finds salvation in man’s upward journey to spiritual betterment based on the noble self-sacrifice of Jesus, Christianity proclaims good news based on the propitiatory work of Christ to redeem sinners and save all those who put their faith in him. Where liberalism conceives of the church as a gathering of generally spiritual persons coming together to effect social transformation, Christianity holds forth the church as a group of redeemed men and women (and, for Machen, their children) gathering together to humbly give thanks to Christ for his grace and to find unity in the truth as they worship Christ and him crucified.

My mother grew up in a denomination (American Baptist) which very much embraced the liberal view of Christianity. I think she had her doubts though. I was also brought up in that liberal camp (Episcopal) and it wasn’t until years later that the truth began to dawn. I am looking forward to reading this book.

And this is very interesting. Good news and bad news in Canada.

3 Comments
January 8, 2024

“Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? It snowed here on Friday evening so that slowed things down quite a bit. We watched The Court Jester (1955) in honor of Glynis Johns, who died last week at age 100.

Funnily enough, we had decided to watch it before she died, but it worked out just right and we toasted her and the rest of the cast and crew.

I don’t know where this movie has been all my life, but I just love it. It has everything–a great script by the team of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank (who both co-directed) and a sparkling cast of stars and veteran character actors. It also boasts art direction by the incomparable Hal Pereira, who, if you are a discerning movie watcher, you know was the supervising art director at Paramount and as such was responsible for the “look” of a lot of great movies–such as Shane, Double Indemnity, Rear Window, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and on and on. Nominated 23 times for an Oscar, he only won once, for The Rose Tattoo (1955). Typical. [Trivia note: Hal Pereira graduated from the University of Illinois!]

I finished putting away the last of the Christmas decorations and got things in relative order before the twins came over to wreck havoc after church to celebrate their Mom’s birthday.

At church we started on a new Sunday School unit on the 5 points of Calvinism (TULIP) starting with my favorite, Total Depravity.

T – Total depravity
U – Unconditional election
L – Limited atonement
I – Irresistible grace
P – Perseverance of the saints

Everyone is taking the same class, but we are divided up into four age groups with different leaders, i.e. 20s and 30s, 40s and 50s, 60s, and 70s and up. I was directed by my friend and style icon, Linda, to go into her room–the 70s and up. I said, “I’m not quite there yet.” She was embarrassed, but I’m like, who cares. I’m alive and breathing.

We also heard a good sermon about Bartimaeus, the blind beggar (Mark 10:46-52). Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is coming and he shouts out for Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuke him and tell him to be quiet. But he cries out all the more. And Jesus stops and calls him. Bartimaeus tells him he wants to be healed and Jesus heals him. “Your faith has made you well.” He responds to being healed by following Jesus “on the way”.

The simple cry for mercy by Bartimaeus has inspired countless prayers during the last two millennia. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” the so-called “Jesus Prayer,” which has a variety of forms, is spoken millions of times each day by believers throughout the world, myself included.

As sinners, we need to experience God’s forgiveness. And this comes, not through our efforts, but through God’s mercy. Because of his love for us and his faithfulness, God’s mercy is new every morning (Lamentations 3:23).

Grant us grace to see you, Lord,
mirrored in your holy Word.
May our lives and all we do
imitate and honor you
that we all like you may be
at your great epiphany
and may praise you, ever blest,
God in man made manifest.

–Christopher Wordsworth, 1807-85

*Mark 10:49

5 Comments
December 28, 2023

Halo my path with gentleness and love*

by chuckofish

I am picking up daughter #2 and DN (and the girls) at the airport this morning. I will see them for about 45 minutes and then they will pile into the OM’s SUV and head to Champaign-Urbana to go house hunting. It is a terrible time to be looking for a house and it will no doubt be raining/snowing…but I know it will work out. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 Pray for traveling mercies!

In the meantime here are a few good things to read/watch.

No, we didn’t expect you to come this way.

We didn’t expect you to come this way.

To us, in our need and wounds and darkness. To us, in our apathy and indulgence and pride.

But you did.

Here is Denny Burk’s annual roundup of the year’s best YouTube videos. I especially liked the dude who soundtracks his Mom’s life with his trombone and the Epic Trick Shots.

And who doesn’t love Sinclair Ferguson looking back on the year? “Count your many blessings/Name them one by one/And it will surprise you/What the Lord has done.”

Yes, even though we live in what Anne so accurately terms “a degenerate and fatuous age”, we are daily served up God’s mercy in generous quantities.

And the Babylon Bee is right again:

*Valley of Vision, “Voyage”

4 Comments
December 22, 2023

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky

by chuckofish

It is the end of the year, so it is the time when TCM remembers all those movie people who died in the past year:

It’s not, I think, one of their better videos, but it does the job. There were no real surprises except I did not know that Frederic Forrest had died. You remember him as Blue Duck in Lonesome Dove, don’t you? He scared us silly in that one. He also was Captain Jenko in the original 21 Jump Street (1987) tv series, which I have been watching recently. He had quite a range. There was also David McCallum, my DP’s first crush in elementary school. And we’ll all miss Tina Turner and Jim Brown and Gina Lollobrigida.

All these people knew their glory days, but like everyone else,

“Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

–Ecclesiastes 12:7

Denny Burk discusses this here. “Our lives go by us in a flash. Our time is so short. And yet, still our hearts long for a fading glory—a glory that will be forgotten and unknown infinitely longer than it was known or acknowledged by anyone.” 

Well, on that note, I wish all our readers a Merry Christmas!

And here’s a blast from the past which I found on ye olde internet, much to my delight:

2 Comments
December 4, 2023

Lift your head, weary sinner*

by chuckofish

It is December again and time to decorate the church, which I helped do on Friday morning.

So pretty and understated. (The TV screens are not usually there. We had a presentation earlier in the week about our senior pastor candidate.)

Later in the day daughter #1 and I celebrated at 19 North, about which I will tell you more later. Then we watched White Christmas (1954), officially ushering in the yuletide season. It never gets old.

The OM and I also ventured out and bought our Christmas tree this weekend from our friendly neighborhood Optimists–they get smaller and more expensive every year.

We’ll put it up and decorate it in a couple of weeks. For now it is chillin’ in a bucket of water in the Florida room.

I am doing my best to chill as well, but there is a lot going on. On Sunday we heard our senior pastor candidate preach and next week we, being Presbyterians, vote on whether we call him to our church. It has been a long process (almost two years!)–but all’s well that ends well, right?

We also had an Advent craft event in between services instead of Sunday School. Lottie is a real crafter and she hunkered right down and made some outlandishly garish Advent decorations.

The bud concentrated on the yummy treats available but also colored this for me, which I will treasure always:

Meanwhile Katie shared a cheeseburger meal with her Mommy and said this:

Can you even?

Well, have a good week! Watch an old movie, consider the Incarnation, and try to chillax!

“Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.”

–Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, 1787

2 Comments
November 20, 2023

How marvelous, how wonderful! And my song shall ever be…*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? We had another lovely fall weekend with a stupendous sunrise on Sunday. What a view out the kitchen window!

In church the choir sang and the wee bud stood up and applauded. I wanted to applaud after our sermon by our guest preacher Dan Doriani on the “I believe; help thou mine unbelief!” passage from Mark 9. How great is it to feel like that after a sermon? Yes, pretty great. We also found out that a new senior pastor has been called and it will be announced next week after he has had time to tell his current church that he is leaving. It has been nearly two years since our senior pastor left, but I think we have been doin’ all right.

The boy and the wee bud and daughter #1 came over after church. (Lottie went to another birthday party.) We had bagels and prosecco and good conversation. Then he moved a few things for me and turned one of the carseats around so baby Ida can use it. We are almost ready for a visit from daughter #2 and family.

By the way, the wee bud hit a milestone this weekend, scoring his first goal in a game with his indoor soccer team.

It was rather momentous! His other grandma, Mom and aunt cried. I would probably have too had I been there!

Miss Katie is also showing promise in her backyard…

…and Ida is the tunnel queen.

And hold the phone, Mizzou beat Florida with a field goal in the last 7 seconds! 😂😂😂

I tell you the world is falling apart, but there is still plenty about which to rejoice and be thankful.

Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand.

(George Keith, 1787)

*I Stand Amazed, Charles Hutchison Gabriel

2 Comments