Acceptance but No Complacence

SOURCE:  Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin.  Quoted in The Daily Stoic, September 21, 2021. 

KEYWORD:  care, not care, Stoic, justice, injustice, fight, change, transformation

Quote by James Baldwin, 

 “It began to seem that one would have to hold in mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as they are: in light of this idea it goes without saying that injustice is commonplace. But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one’s own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but one must fight them with all one’s strength.”

George Will on Writing Columns

SOURCE:  "George Will On Our Unruly Torrent." The Bulwark Podcast. September 14, 2021. https://podcast.thebulwark.com/george-will-on-our-unruly-torrent

KEYWORD:  writing, sermon, craft, writer, preach, 

In a recent podcast, George Will, the columnist, shared his rules for writing a column.  Of course, the goals and purpose of a sermon are very different.  First and foremost, the sermon must be grounded in Scripture.  I would also demand that the gospel be proclaimed.  Nonetheless, I am amazed that I seem to follow Will's rules in writing my own sermons.  Perhaps, I spent too much time reading his columns before becoming a preacher.  

PODCAST HOST:

In your mind, do you have an ideal of the perfect column? I mean, how do you write a column? Because...it is such a finite art form in and of itself.

GEORGE WILL:

Yes. I'll give you a few of my rules.

First. There's nothing in the world, more optional than reading a column and people are only going to do it if it's fun, and you make it fun by having a good lead paragraph. 

And then by packing it full of facts. I know our columns appear on order called the opinion pages of papers, but that doesn't mean opinion is enough to carry a column. But I want my readers to encounter a whole lot of facts...I think that people want to learn things and learning about Will's opinions is fairly far down the list of what they want to learn. 

Third, it seems to me, laughter is fun. So I think people want some wit or something amusing within the column. It can just be a phrase. It can be a story, but if you put all these things together and you figure out how to compress it all into 750 words, you've got a nice little craft.

Life at 100 Years Old

 SOURCE:  "Then and Now Photos Show People as Young Adults and at 100 Years Old." 

My Modern Met.  https://mymodernmet.com/100-years-old-jan-langer/

KEYWORDS:  Generation, Age, Youth, Wisdom, Elder, Respect, Change, Life, Death, Mortality, 

The photographer, Jan Lager, has done a series of photographs that pair younger and older pictures of people.  You are able to see his Czech subjects in their late teens or early twenties with themselves as centenarians.  There is something poignant about being reminded of a person's full life.  You can also find his photos at this link.  

If They Knew They Were Slaves

SOURCE:  Unfortunately, this looks like one of those fabricated quotes.  

https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/i_freed_a_thousand_slaves#:~:text=American%20abolitionist%20Harriet%20Tubman%20%281822-1913%29%20is%20often%20credited,is%20no%20evidence%20that%20Tubman%20ever%20said%20this.

"I freed thousands of slaves.  I could have freed thousands more if they knew they were slaves."

--(falsely attributed to) Harriet Tubman

A Prayer for Labor Day

SOURCE:   Peter Marshall, circa 1937

KEYWORD: labor, vocation, work, career, witness, 

Lord Jesus,

Bless all who serve us,

who have dedicated their lives

to the ministry of others—

All the teachers of our schools

who labor so patiently with so little appreciation;

all who wait upon the public,

the clerks in the stores who have to accept criticism,

complaints, bad manners, and selfishness

at the hands of a thoughtless public.

Bless the mailmen, the drivers of streetcars

and busses who must listen to people

who lose their tempers.

Bless every humble soul who, in these

days of stress and strain, preaches sermons

without words. Amen.

Do We Grieve for Ourselves?

SOURCE:  https://tonycooke.org/funeral-resources/sample_funeral2/

KEYWORDS:  death, dying, grief, funeral, graveside, committal, resurrection, love, life

When the wife of the evangelist Charles Finney died, he grieved deeply.  Here are his words describing the experience:

My wife was gone!  I should never hear her speak again nor see her face!  Her children were motherless!  What should I do?  My brain seemed to reel, as if my mind would swing from its pivot.  I rose instantly from my bed exclaiming, “I shall be deranged if I cannot rest in God!”  The Lord soon calmed my mind for that night, but still, at times, seasons of sorrow would come over me that were almost overwhelming.

One day I was upon my knees, fellowshipping with God upon the subject, and all at once He seemed to say to me, “You loved your wife?”  “Yes,” I said. “Well, did you love her for her own sake or for your sake? Did you love her or yourself?  If you loved her for her own sake, why do you sorrow that she is with me?  Should not her happiness with me make you rejoice instead of mourn if you loved her for her own sake?”

“Did you love her,” He seemed to say to me, “for my sake?  If you loved her for my sake, surely you would not grieve that she is with me.  Why do you think of your loss, and lay so much stress up that, instead of thinking of her gain?  Can you be sorrowful when she is so joyful and happy?  If you loved her for her own sake, would you not rejoice in her joy and be happy in her happiness?”

I can never describe the feelings that came over me when I seemed to be thus addressed.  It produced an instantaneous change in the whole state of my mind.

From that moment, sorrow, on account of my loss, was gone forever.  I no longer thought of my wife as dead, but as alive, and in the midst of the glories of heaven.

(Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, p. 382)

"It Gets the Corners"

SOURCE: https://twitter.com/RevKPB/status/1428455682865602562?s=20

KEYWORD: baptism, water, sprinkler, hospitality, evangelism

In a tweet by Katrina Pekich-Bundy, a pastor in the PCUSA, she describes an old sprinkler system that was used to ensure that the "corners" of the lawn are covered.  

She compares this to loving people on the edges and the image of baptism.  

Decline in Courage, the First Symptom of the End

SOURCE: Quoted in "A Catholic Call to Courage" by Jeremy Kee.

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/a-catholic-call-to-courage

KEYWORD:  courage, virtue, distinct, ethics, morality, values

Quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn to the graduating class of Harvard in 1978:

"A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today… Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites, causing an impression of a loss of courage by the entire society. There are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life… Political and intellectual functionaries exhibit this depression, passivity, and perplexity in their actions and in their statements, and even more so in their self-serving rationales as to how realistic, reasonable, and intellectually and even morally justified it is to base state policies on weakness and cowardice… Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end?"

New Life in Christ and the Beast

SOURCE:  

https://twitter.com/KatieRedfern3/status/1422926155917705216?s=20

KEYWORDS:

transformation, conversion, new life, renewal, revival, change

SCRIPTURE:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (1 Corinthians 5:17)

One of the animators, Glen Keane, for Beauty and the Beast saw the transformation of the beast into a human being as symbolic of the spiritual transformation into new creations by Christ.  In fact, he kept the verse, 1 Corinthians 5:17, in front of him the entire time as he animated the scene.   

 

The Song of the Lark

SOURCE:  

• https://youtu.be/8eOIcWB7jSA
• https://equallyempty.com/picturesofthefloatingworld/2013/1/31/art2see-chicago-the-song-of-the-lark-by-jules-adolphe-breton.html
• https://www.artic.edu/artworks/94841/the-song-of-the-lark

KEYWORDS:  dawn, hope, morning, possibility, 

The painting The Song of the Lark by Jules Breton was painted in 1884 and is currently at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The painting was deemed as the most popular painting in America by a poll in 1934.  The painting apparently was Eleanor Roosevelt's favorite work of art.  

The painting depicts a peasant woman in the flat fields of the artist's native Normandy.  As the sun rises, she listens to the song of the lark.  

Shakespeare wrote of the lark in Sonnet 29, "the lark at break of day arising / From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate" (11-12).

Bill Murray speaks about a time when he was struggling as an actor in Chicago, contemplating whether he wanted to live or die.  This painting inspired him.  

He said, "There's a girl who doesn't have a whole lot of prospects, but the sun is coming up anyway.  And she has another chance at it."

When life seems chaotic or hopeless, sometimes the constants of life can give us hope.  We can depend on the rising of the sun and the morning song of the lark.  The constancy of God's love is something that we all can depend on.  It certainly gives us hope.  

 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." -- Hebrews 13:8

The Past and the Future

SOURCE:  "Elderly People Look At Their Younger Reflections In This Beautiful Photo Series By Tom Hussey." https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/reflections-of-the-past-tom-hussey/

KEYWORDS:  age, clay jar, treasure, worth, regret, elderly, youth

‘Reflections of The Past’ is an award-winning photo series by commercial advertising photographer Tom Hussey. The photographs show an elderly person looking pensively at the reflection of his/her younger self in the mirror.

Hussey was inspired by a World War II veteran who said “I can’t believe I’m going to be 80. I feel like I just came back from the war. I look in the mirror and I see this old guy.”

This photo series could speak to a number of themes.  Human beings are fragile, especially as we get older.  We all have worth.  Sometimes life is filled with regret.  Our lives are fleeting.  Only God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  

The Pain of Defeat

SOURCE:  https://youtu.be/RIHZypMyQ2s

KEYWORDS:  

Chadwick Boseman gave the commencement address at Howard University in 2018.

"Sometimes you need to feel the pain and sting of defeat to activate the real passion and purpose that God predestined inside of you.  God says in Jeremiah [29:11], 'I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you hope and a future.'" (31:05)

"When God has something for you it doesn't matter who stands against it. God will move someone who is holding you back away from a door, and put someone there who will open it for you if it is meant for you." (32:35)

Watch it all.  It's good.  Boseman was a devout believer in Jesus Christ willing to share his faith both in word and action.  We are better for having known him.  Requiescat in pace.

I am a Christian

SOURCE:   "I am a Christian" by Carol Wimmer.  (Often mistakenly attributed to Maya Angelou) https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/i-am-a-christian/

KEYWORDS:  Grace, love, forgiveness, discipleship, arrogance, pride, sinner

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not shouting, “I’ve been saved!”

I’m whispering, “I get lost! That’s why I chose this way”

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I don’t speak with human pride

I’m confessing that I stumble — needing God to be my guide

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not trying to be strong

I’m professing that I’m weak and pray for strength to carry on

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not bragging of success

I’m admitting that I’ve failed and cannot ever pay the debt

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I don’t think I know it all

I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not claiming to be perfect

My flaws are far too visible but God believes I’m worth it

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I still feel the sting of pain

I have my share of heartache which is why I seek His name

When I say, “I am a Christian,” I do not wish to judge

I have no authority — I only know I’m loved

You Don't Know What People Are Going Through

SOURCE:  "You Don't Know What is Going on With People."  Daily Stoic, April 7, 2021.  

KEYWORDS:  Accountability, accountable, neighbor, love, 

“We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and to not let it upset our state of mind–for things have no natural power to shape our judgment.” ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.52

Those of us who are not celebrity gossip addicts missed it. But a few weeks before the tragic and premature death of Chadwick Boseman, pictures showed him to be alarmingly thin and haggard. In comments sections and meme accounts, people joked at the effects of a few months of quarantine. Others called him Crack Panther, implying that drugs were to blame for his radical change in appearance.

Of course, we now know why he looked that way. He was dying of stage four colon cancer He had only a few more days to live.

Even if you did not see these pictures or jump to those conclusions, the lesson is a sobering one: You have no idea what people are going through. The famous singer who puts on weight. The coworker who is messing up over and over. The new person you’re dating who seems to be suddenly preoccupied. The rude person in traffic. Even the Karen who is melting down on video at the grocery store.

We have no idea about their private struggles. We have no idea about their pain. Marcus Aurelius tried to remind himself that people and events are not asking to be judged by you. You have the option of having no opinion, he said. So, somebody gained weight? So someone seems different lately? Unless you’re providing sympathy or help, why don’t you mind your own business?

Nobody asked for your criticism. Nobody needs you to make fun of them. They’re struggling. They’ve got more than enough on their plate and they don’t need you adding to it. Remember that. Because every time you forget you risk ending up like the people who got their kicks mocking a guy dying of cancer. You end up missing what was actually quiet and profound heroism.

"Cut It Out"

SOURCE: Stephen Wright. http://www.owl232.net/wright.htm
KEYWORD: Sin, "No man is an island," connection, unintended consequence, cause, effect.

'In my house, there's this light switch that doesn't do anything. Every so often I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday, I got a call from a woman in Germany. She said, "Cut it out."'

I was thinking about this joke in the context of how our actions affect others. No person is an island. Our choices, even benign ones, tend to impact the lives of others.