President Theodore Roosevelt on a horse in Colorado, c. 1905
“There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging from grizzly bears to “mean” horses and gunfighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid. Most men can have the same experience if they choose.”
―Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
Agreed, but I will always be afraid of grizzly bears no matter what and always.
William Morris Hunt (1824-1879)
“We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.
Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don’t want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of ‘good time’ is seldom in sync with ours.”
–Oswald Chambers
It was snowing and very cold when I woke up on Sunday morning, but I had to get up and go to church because I was reading the second lesson. Luckily it was a good passage: I Corinthians 12:1-11–the one about there being varieties of gifts, but one Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
It is a good reminder to think about what our gifts are and to use them appropriately.
The Gospel was about the wedding in Cana when Jesus uses a tone with his mother, but then does what she asks him.
The Marriage at Cana by Giotto
Sounds familiar, all you mothers of sons, right?
It is interesting to note that Mary at this early point thinks Jesus can do something about the fact that the wedding party has run out of wine… Well, lots of food for thought.
Speaking of mothers, I bought a frame at an estate sale on Saturday which enabled me to put these three pictures together:
Mary Hough (great-great grandmother), Anna Hough Carnahan (great-grandmother) and Catherine Carnahan Cameron (grandmother). Pretty cool, eh?
I have today off for Martin Luther King’s birthday–how ’bout you?
*The top photo is of some Middlebury College skiers in the 1940s. Is that my mother, the third from the right?
“No matter how bad things got, no matter how anxious the staff became, the commander had to “preserve optimism in himself and in his command. Without confidence, enthusiasm and optimism in the command, victory is scarcely obtainable.” Eisenhower realized that “optimism and pessimism are infectious and they spread more rapidly from the head downward than in any other direction.” He learned that a commander’s optimism “has a most extraordinary effect upon all with whom he comes in contact. With this clear realization, I firmly determined that my mannerisms and speech in public would always reflect the cheerful certainty of victory—that any pessimism and discouragement I might ever feel would be reserved for my pillow.”
–Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches
Leadership 101, guys. Now, go out there and SMILE!
And as we like to remind ourselves: Philippians 4:13! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!
Yesterday I was back at work full swing and it was one of those days that really tests the soul. Not that anything bad happened or that people were mean or anything like that. It was just non-stop dealing with stuff.
I thought of this quote by C.S. Lewis:
“I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It does not change God. It changes me.”
“Toward Taos” by Eric Sloane
Know what I mean?
What a way to start the new year! According to our local weather guru Dave Murray, The Great Flood of 2015 is a very big deal.
Photo from FOX2 Facebook page
“During this event it has forced the closure of Interstate 70 in two locations, Interstate 44 in three locations, and Interstate 55 (at times overnight). This did not occur in the Great Flood of ’93, nor the December Flood of ’82…This flooding event is nothing less than historic and will serve as the new bench mark, the historic reference, for the Meramec River Basin, including the Bourbeuse.”
We who are high and dry take it all rather lightly, but I talked to a delivery guy at work who lives in House Springs who said he can’t even get home. That’s intense.
I am grateful that I can get home and that it is warm and dry there. All I have to do this weekend is take down my Christmas tree and box up all the decorations. This is not a small task, but it is not sand-bagging.
So a toast to and a prayer for all those who are fighting the flood and also for those newspeople who are in the field and in the studio reporting on the flood.
“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.”
–Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910
*Brad Paisley
“The nativity mystery “conceived from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary,” means, that God became human, truly human out of his own grace. The miracle of the existence of Jesus, his “climbing down of God” is: Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary! Here is a human being, the Virgin Mary, and as he comes from God, Jesus comes also from this human being. Born of the Virgin Mary means a human origin for God. Jesus Christ is not only truly God, he is human like every one of us. He is human without limitation. He is not only similar to us, he is like us.”
–Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline
Merry Christmas!
I did a very brave thing this weekend. I took an eighth grader out to lunch. Yes, as a confirmation mentor, it was time to go to a confirmation class again on Sunday before church. So I asked my mentee to go to lunch after church.
Being in the class threw me into a time warp. I remembered so vividly what it was like to be in eighth grade again. The awkwardness. The resistance to participating in the proceedings. OMG, what fresh hell is this?
Not that we had mentors back in the day. It is a good idea and a bad idea at the same time, you know? All that awkwardness made public. Ugh. Daughter #2 assures me that, although it is awkward now, it is a good thing in the long run. The kids will learn something about talking to people other than their peers and will probably look back on it fondly in the future. I think she’s just being nice.
We had a guest in the class–a man with MS, a surgeon who can no longer practice, who talked about his life. Afterwards when we were discussing his visit, I told the class that Rudy had just explained one of the secrets of life to them and I hoped they were paying attention. Live in the day. He also reminded us that the Plan is His and not ours. Be grateful for what you have, because it can change. Be grateful for the change too.
We also watched this video:
I had to give credit to the teacher–it’s a good song, even if the kids had no idea who Steve Earle is. Anyway, I said the revolution starts in your own backyard. Just be nice to the fat girl on the school bus. Be nice. As old Fred Buechner said, if you want to be holy, be kind.
I have a feeling that everyone involved in this Sunday morning activity was uncomfortable, and I guess that’s the point. For me anyway. It is a good thing to push oneself out of what we used to call “our comfort zone.”
Even if it is just having lunch with an eighth grader.
*Advent hymn #68
Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.
–C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Quote found on TitusOneNine, the weblog of the Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon who, among other things, is editor of The Anglican Digest. The photo of God rays in Scotland is from this blog.
dual personalities 