A little mid-week inspiration
by chuckofish
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
dual personalities
Tag: spirituality
July 19, 2012
June 27, 2012
It’s good to be curious
by chuckofish
I hope you enjoy this “remixed” Mr. Rogers as much as I did!
Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) was an American educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, author, and television host. He was most famous for creating and hosting Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968–2001).
In 2002 he gave the commencement address at Dartmouth College (which he had attended many years before). It was a good speech. Here’s a snippet:
I’d like to give you all an invisible gift. A gift of a silent minute to think about those who have helped you become who you are today. Some of them may be here right now. Some may be far away. Some, like my astronomy professor, may even be in Heaven. But wherever they are, if they’ve loved you and encouraged you and wanted what was best in life for you, they’re right inside yourself. And I feel that you deserve quiet time on this special occasion to devote some thought to them. So let’s just take a minute in honor of those who have cared about us all along the way. One silent minute.
Whomever you’ve been thinking about, imagine how grateful they must be that during your silent times you remember how important they are to you. It’s not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It’s the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our lives from which we make our choices is very good stuff.
Good stuff, indeed!
P.S. I found this YouTube treasure on the wonderful SouleMama blog. Check it out here.
June 21, 2012
That’s My King
by chuckofish
Shadrach Meshach Lockridge (1913—2000) was the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, a prominent African-American congregation located in San Diego, California, from 1953 to 1993. He was known for his preaching across the United States and around the world.
I never hear anything like this in my church. I wish I did.
Do you know Him?
June 6, 2012
This is the day
by chuckofish
“Today is the day which the Lord has made,” says the 118th Psalm. “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Or weep and be sad in it for that matter. The point is to see it for what it is because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life that you’re wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always, that you’re missing.
All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from them. Today is the only day there is.”
–Frederick Buechner “Whistling in the Dark”
May 7, 2012
The great bright dream
by chuckofish
“I have been thinking about existence lately. In fact, I have been so full of admiration for existence that I have hardly been able to enjoy it properly . . . I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can’t believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don’t imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.”
(Marilynne Robinson, Gilead).
May 2, 2012
Happy 401st birthday
by chuckofish
…to the King James Version of the Bible. Time flies, doesn’t it? In 1611 the King James Bible was published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker. It molded the English language, “buttressed by ‘the powers that be’–one of its famous phrases–and yet enshrined a gospel of individual freedom. No other book has given more to the English-speaking world.”
Phrases that originated in the KJV:
From time to time
The root of the matter
As a lamb to the slaughter
Stand in awe
Turned the world upside down
To every thing there is a season
Unto the pure all things are pure
A thorn in the flesh
A still small voice
Suffer the little children
Pour out your heart
No small stir
Know for a certainty
The skin of my teeth
Fell flat on his face
Set thine house in order
(Thank you to the National Geographic, December 2011, for this information)
Let’s all take a break today and read a chapter from the KJV. Here’s one to start with (I Corinthians 13):
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
And while we’re at it, Happy birthday, David Beckham!
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE (born 2 May 1975) is an English association footballer who plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He has played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Milan, and the England national team for which he holds the appearance record for an outfield player. And, for the record, he is perfect.
April 27, 2012
The simple things
by chuckofish
I am a morning person. My favorite time of day is early in the morning, after I have done my NordicTrack time and my husband has left for work. I have the house to myself to putter to my hearts content before (and while) I get ready to return to the salt mines.
I clean up the kitchen. I water my plants. I stack the magazines.
Today I swiffered the ceiling fan blades in my bedroom (and, boy, did they need it!).
I looked at my birthday cards from last week.
I went outside and cut some flowers.
There are buds on the peonies (and ants).
There is coffee.
“I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)
April 17, 2012
The slob is loved
by chuckofish
The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or just doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen. Henry Ward Beecher cheats on his wife, his God, himself, but manages to keep on bringing the Gospel to life for people anyway, maybe even for himself. Lear goes beserk on a heath but comes out of it for a few brief hours every inch a king. Zaccheus climbs up a sycamore tree a crook and climbs down a saint. Paul sets out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth.
Frederick Buechner, “Telling the Truth”
April 6, 2012
It ain’t no easy thing
by chuckofish
“Ever’one here think it easy for me. I be this good little church boy from Mississippi with my good little church-goin’ Mammy, and since I be this stupid country n**ger with the big faith, I don’t have no troubles. Well, it just don’t work that way. He paused. Jermain said nothing. “I see my friend Williams get ate by a tiger,” Cortell continued. “I see my friend Broyer get his face ripped off by a mine. What you think I do all night, sit around thankin’ Sweet Jesus? Raise my palms to sweet heaven and cry hallelujah? You know what I do? You know what I do? I lose my heart.” Cortell’s throat suddenly tightened, strangling his words. “I lose my heart.” He took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. He exhaled and went on quietly, back in control. “I sit there and I don’t see any hope. Hope gone.” Cortell was seeing his dead friends. “Then, the sky turn gray again in the east, and you know what I do? I choose all over to keep believen’. All along I know Jesus could maybe be just some fairy tale, and I could be just this one big fool. I choose anyway.” He turned away from his inward images and returned to the blackness of the world around him. “It ain’t no easy thing.”
Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn
A blessed Good Friday to all who “choose anyway”.
March 26, 2012
Postcards from abroad
by chuckofish
The Cathedral Church of St. George in Jerusalem
A dear friend of mine recently returned from a trip to the Holy Land where she visited the (Episcopal) Cathedral Church of St. George in Jerusalem. According to their website, the Cathedral is home today to two congregations: the indigenous Palestinian Anglicans, often called the ‘Living Stones,’ and a community of expatriate English-speaking members. The local Arabic-speaking Anglicans are part of the historic Christian presence here since the time of the first Pentecost:
‘Cretans and Arabs – in our own language we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power’ (Acts 2:11)
The Cathedral remains a focal point for the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Worldwide Anglican Communion.
My friend took a picture of this for me:
How perfect is that? A needlepoint chair pad with the family cognomen! I was very touched. It is indeed a small world, especially in the Anglican Communion. And here’s a Monday morning shout-out to those distant relatives at St. George’s!
dual personalities 