COMPLINE

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or
weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who
sleep.

Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless
the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the
joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen.
(From the Anglican Book of Common Prayer)

Sometimes I respond with lengthy comments on other people's blogs, as I did today on Thinking Housewife. I thought it might be good to re-post my comments here on my own blog, because I think the subject is worthy of expression here. I dedicate these words to any who may read them, the believers, those who are looking for a reason to believe, and for those friends who may have lost their way.

 ON WHY IT IS EASY FOR ME TO BELIEVE

 

I personally have no problem with the miracles and unprecedented circumstances surrounding the life of Christ. Jesus said His believers would do the things He did on earth and even greater things, and I have witnessed many a miracle, myself. In fact, miracles just seem to be what happens where true belief exists and faith is walked out in the nitty gritty details of life. As one Anglican bishop said of answered prayer and seeing God’s hand, “These may be mere coincidences, but the more I pray, the more they seem to occur.”

Are we the most deluded, and therefore the most to be pitied for it? Even if that were true, I have had, so far, a wonderful, hope-filled existence by being such a believing rube! In fact, God through Jesus has not only given me life, but the gift of being amused by my own life. God is the divine comic, and since all comedies have happy endings, we can be confident and content with our beginning, the middle, and our end.

Jesus also tells us of a common sense way to discern whether He is the truth. He reminds us that a tree is known by its fruit. Fig trees produce figs, not brambles, good trees produce good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. Where folks undergo a true conversion, they truly change, and the good fruit their lives produce testifies that God is real and really working through them and on their behalf.

Seeing creation itself, and God’s hand in my own life and in the lives of real people I have personally known, also removes the problem of evolution, the parting of the Red Sea, the virgin birth, and all the rest. A God who witnesses to Himself through this incredible creation, and who can redeem the most desperate, failed lives through His son, Jesus Christ, would have no problem making all the physical universe in six days if that’s what He wanted to do, or however He wanted to, with evolution, adaptation, or whatever. I really don’t see what the big deal is about that. Are we still such children that we think we have it all figured out? That there isn’t any more to know than what is known at present? Are we like the head of the U.S. Patent Office, who in the 1860’s quit his position because he said that there was now nothing left to be invented?

Maybe a lot of folks are so disheartened that they cannot fathom a God who would be so loving and personally involved that He could create them and wish to give them eternal life through His Son. I would just challenge any of those people to suspend their disbelief for a couple of days and just go with it, and see if their lives do not dramatically change. I know their lives will change because I know that God will show up.

Now I confess that I do enjoy all the traditions, the ritual, the liturgical seasons, the traditionalist culture, the art and ethics of a civilization that was once Christ-infused, but these are truly just dividends on the stock which is ridiculously rising all the time, that is, that the Holy Trinity exists, and that in Him we live and move and have our being.

That is why you will find me plodding along, in spite of a misstep or two along each day’s way, as I feebly attempt to lift high and carry the banner of Christ along the dusty streets of life.

HOORAY FOR HARVEST!!

As the temperature finally eases off a bit from it's usual setting - hot, life becomes a lot more enjoyable. The roses finally feel well enough to bloom and we are starting to think of ourselves more as people and less as insect prey. In fact, one can even open the back door and go out without a fly making it his business to come in!

But the fact that we are in between air conditioning season and heating season makes this a most glorious time!  The possibility of us saving a buck or two right now is a Godsend.  So this is about the only time I'll get till next spring to have the windows open, and therefore its time to do some fall cleaning, and maybe a little painting.

I have started to brush down ceilings and walls. Next comes cleaning out cupboards and closets, then its washing windows and curtains, woodwork, cleaning and polishing furniture, and finally washing and polishing floors.  Did I leave anything out?  Oh, probably. And that is just inside the house.

Bob already got most of the junk out of the garage. I am really proud of him. I would love to get it completely empty, then repaint and finish the floor and paint that, so it can be hosed down and mopped up at times. Boy, do I ever want a lot! I will be satisfied with just taking the shop vac to it every week for now.  After all, we still have to take care of yard/garden issues.

That will be simple enough. The garden has to be tilled under, we have to throw some grass seed around the yard, and put down some more mulch in the flower beds. Well, maybe move two rose bushes which do not get enough sun where they are right now.

Why do people ever say they are bored or do not have enough to do?  I mean, I don't even work full time, and I don't have small children, just big people and small monsters who pass themselves off as cats and the dog.  What I have just told you I have to accomplish does not even include the usual cooking, baking, entertaining, church work, and writing.  But really, compared to the ER nurses with little kids at home, the mothers who run marathons when they are not running their companies or in court prosecuting cases, or the teachers who tend bar on the weekends, I am a complete slug. (But really, where do these women come from, I mean, what planet?).

Well, so, I am not a person making big bucks or big waves, but perhaps I can impress you with my next venture. I am taking up alchemy.  I may not be able to turn lead into gold yet, but I plan to turn 300 dollars into Christmas for my family this year. A Christmas far more glorious than grand, for sure, but with God's help, its going to happen, and I bet the people I want to bless will be no more miserable than they are when I have spent thousands, and no less happy, either! Maybe more happy. Maybe happy as the little Who's from Who-ville. Now that would be turning lead into gold.