The Good Portion

This morning I awoke without the usual midweek pressure of needing to get up and get ready for work. Remembering that I had the day off, I was able to relax and sink into my prayers with a more leisurely attitude. I thought, "I should ask the Lord what to do with this rare, unstructured day," or words to that effect.  And so I began, "Lord, how would You have me use this day?" The first word of my prayer echoed in my head. "Lord....lord".  What an odd word.  In this "land of the free and home of the brave" there are no lords.  We are a nation born of rebellion - spawned by the rejection of outside authority.  We, The People, have the authority.  We are created equal, and so doff our hats to no man. Do we even know what we are saying when we address Christ as "Lord"?  What do I mean? This is a challenging thought and one which Christ Himself implores me to consider:  “Why  do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?...

I don't think I will or should ever like it, but I'm learning to be thankful for my depressions. It is for me as C.S. Lewis so famously put it in The Problem of Pain ,  "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."   When I look back I see many times during my years as a Christian when a deep depression has led to a renewal of faith in my heart. Jesus Christ is the source of whatever peace and joy I am capable of, so when I drift away from Him these begin to slip away, along with my hope for the future.  I slip into despair.  The pain grows louder. Eventually none of my usual distractions can drown it out, and in desperation I remember Christ and cry to Him for rescue. Through my sorrow He gently guides me back to His word and His promises, and through them (along with much prayer) renews my faith and restores my hope in His goodness and my future with Him. I'm so thankful ...

This Saturday past I posted a little article about translating hymns, so imagine my surprise at lunchtime today when NPR's Talk of the Nation aired an interview with the author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything .  A fascinating discussion! I bet you can guess what just got added to my Christmas wish list.  If you're curious, you can listen to the segment or read a transcript here .  Also related to my last post, a friend of mine informed me in the comments that Bach had composed a cantata of Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress is Our God/Our God He Is a Castle Strong).  I went straight to find a recording of it.  I thought this one was very lovely: Finally, I thought you might enjoy hearing Ein Feste Burg sung in German.  I certainly did!

"Our God He Is a Castle Strong" Our God he is a castle strong, A good mail-coat and weapon; He sets us free from ev'ry wrong That wickedness would heap on. The old knavish foe  He means earnest now; force and cunning sly His horrid policy, On earth there's nothing like him.* Perhaps you recognized this first stanza from a very famous hymn.  Or perhaps, like me, you didn't.  I happened upon it one evening as I was searching through our copy of Luther's Works: Liturgy and Hymns checking to see if a certain hymn I like happened to have been written by Martin Luther. It did not, but while I had the book open I noticed that it provided commentary on each of the hymns.  Excited, I decided to look up my Lutheran favorite: A Mighty Fortress is Our God .  It was nowhere to be found.  I knew that was impossible, so I kept looking until the light-bulb came on.... A "mighty fortress".... a "castle strong"... A might...

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."  Col. 3:16 "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart..." Eph. 5:18,19 Have you ever noticed the parallel between these separate passages from two of Paul's letters? Years ago a pastor called it to my attention when I asked what being filled with the Holy Spirit meant, or what it looked or felt like. He showed me the connection between the statements, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..." and "...be filled with the Spirit..."  Aha! Paul equates being filled with the Spirit with letting "the word of Christ dwell in you richly". This is helpful! More recently my current pastor ...

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Col. 3:16 My recent discussion of the singing of Psalms in church prompted an unexpected and lively internet discussion with some friends from all over the globe as to the distinctions between the three types of singing mentioned in Paul's words to the Colossian and Ephesian churches. The initial concern seemed to be that I was implying that only the Psalms should be sung in churches, a notion which had honestly never occurred to me.  I began this little mini-series with the intention of addressing the categories as I understood them, and as I believe they are most commonly understood. It hadn't really occurred to me that my view of them was so insular.  How typically American of me.  Having been made aware of just how much room there is for misunderstanding, I decided to exa...

Did you know the Psalms are actually songs? Of course you did. Anyone who's spent any time at all in Sunday School knows that. But have you ever really stopped to think about what that means?  I've had that piece of information stored in my cranium for decades, but never really gave it much thought. I still tend to think of the Psalms as the poems that I was assigned to memorize when I was a kid, or as the words they taught us to chant in the Lutheran church of my childhood. Though they are lovely, when I read them I almost never think of them as music, and, since I'm not a very musical person, I've honestly never really thought it mattered one way or the other. That changed this past Sunday. Our pastor began his sermon, the latest in a series on the church,  with a discussion of Psalm 118. He explained that it was originally written as a festival song, most likely for the Festival of Booths, and that it was sung responsively. The crowd gathered at the Temple to w...

I enjoy social media. Facebook has helped me connect, re-connect, and stay in touch with people, old friends and new, from all over the world.  It has been a boon for me in many, many ways. Social media also has its downsides. It can be a time and creativity waster. Some say it contributes to the disintegration of "real" relationships: more Facebook equals less "face time". I've seen it work both ways. I've seen it build relationships, and I've seen it tear them apart. But, then, these things have been happening throughout the ages. Facebook is just another medium for human hearts.  Whatever lurks there also lurks in Facebook, for better or for worse. For better, there are friendships - kind, respectful words of support, encouragement, love and hope. For worse, there is election season. Though I am interested in politics, I avoid political discussions, both in person and on social media. I have my reasons, most of them obvious. So now I feel the ne...

Lady Gaga is an extreme talent, a driving personality, a dynamo of culture, and a force of nature.  She is not only a singer but a performance artist, a theatrical diva. Those who dismiss her as a knock-off of Madonna not only over-rate Madonna but miss the point. While Madonna, at Gaga's age, was the "Material Girl", Gaga, at 25 is out to change the world.  Paul and I are both fascinated by her. Photo courtesy Softpedia Her latest hit, Born This Way appears both designed and destined to be an anthem for the disenfranchised, the discarded, the downtrodden of our society.  Beginning with words from a mother to her trepid little girl, it aches with passionate love and compassion.  It fights to strengthen the heart of the child and fill it full with her own hope for her future. Gaga, almost nun-like in her devotion to career and mission, having no marriage, and no children of her own, reaches out with an aching maternal heart to embrace a world of marginalized so...

I was thinking yesterday about the love of God, and how I really have to believe in His love before I can ever trust Him and repent of my hatred and rebellion against Him. I was thinking how true it is that fear has never led me to repent, only reflecting on God's kindness toward me has. And I thought how the world sits already under condemnation, yet it is through the love of God embodied in Christ that God has chosen to call mankind to repentance. And this morning I found these words of Brennan Manning in my inbox: “The saved sinner is prostrate in adoration, lost in wonder and praise.  He knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven.  It serves as an expression of gratitude rather than an effort to earn forgiveness.  Thus the sequence of forgiveness and then repentance, rather than repentance and then forgiveness is crucial for understanding the gospel of grace” Which brought me back to yesterday eve...

Sometime around 1769, the Quaker John Woolman fell ill and nearly died. He related later in his journal that for several hours he was so near death that he no longer even knew who he was. He was only aware that he was a part of the gray mass that is the misery of humankind. But then he heard what he thought must be "an holy angel" saying to him, "John Woolman is dead." Then, remembering that he was John Woolman, and recognizing that he was still alive, he was... "...carried in spirit to the mines where poor oppressed people were digging rich treasures for those called Christians, and heard them blaspheme the name of Christ, at which I was grieved, for his name to me was precious. I was then informed that these heathens were told that those who oppressed them were the followers of Christ, and they said among themselves, 'If Christ directed them to use us in this sort, then Christ is a cruel tyrant.'"  As Woolman began to recover and as he lay sti...

Who would think that with my "reformed" background I would be so blessed and challenged by the simple writings of an unassuming Quaker? While my last post, the one about reviling, was still echoing in the ears of my heart I continued my reading in The Journal of John Woolman . (By the way, Woolman was an approximate contemporary of Jonathan Edwards, who was 17 years older. Both lived in Colonial America. Both died in their fifties, of smallpox, before the Revolutionary War.)  I found myself with Woolman at the 1760 Newport, Rhode Island Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends (Quakers), feeling his desire to glorify Christ, along with his deep trepidation, as he contemplated how to broach the subject of the slavery in their midst. He agonized over the great evil of the African slave trade, and also over his love for these brothers and sisters in Christ, his fellow Quakers. It was in his heart to suggest, if he could find his way clear, that the assembly present a petition ag...

I've finally begun reading another of the Harvard Classics my husband has been pressing me to read for months now: The Journal of John Woolman. Woolman was a Quaker living in colonial days in America. In his travels visiting Friends among the colonies he saw his share of slavery and was often housed by fellow Quakers who were slaveholders. His experiences and his faith convinced him that slavery was an evil which destroyed both slave and master: "Two things were remarkable to me in this journey: first, in regard to my entertainment. When I ate, drank, and lodged free-cost with people who lived in ease on the hard labor of their slaves I felt uneasy; and as my mind was inward to the Lord, I found this uneasiness return upon me, at times, through the whole visit. Where the masters bore a good share of the burden, and lived frugally, so that their servants were well provided for, and their labor moderate, I felt more easy; but where they lived in a costly way, and laid heavy bur...