Book of Common Prayer

Written prayers in The Book of Common Prayer are often my only way to pray. Pain and sorrow can bring out intercessory passion and even eloquence, but they can also silence it. These prayers, many of which are written for the trials of sickness, give a biblical voice to our yearnings, fears, and hopes. I commend them to you.

Hope and Truth

What if hope cannot extend beyond human endeavor itself and is never answered by anything beyond it? What if the millennia of human cries echo only into the empty sky and not further? That possibility must be faced if the quest itself is to have any meaning. In the end, hope without truth is pointless. Illusions and delusions, no matter how comforting or grandiose, are the enemies of those who strive for integrity in their knowing and being. Statements such as "I like to think of the universe as having a purpose" or "The thought of an afterlife gives me peace" reflect mere wishes. These notions do not address the truth or falsity of there being purpose in the world or of our postmortem survival, because there is no genuine claim to knowledge: a warranted awareness of reality as it is. A hearty, sturdy and insatiable appetite for reality--whatever it might be--is the only engine for testing and discerning truth. (D. Groothuis, Christian Apologetics, p.16)

The fall of humanity is admittedly difficult to fathom; however, once it is admitted into our worldview, the enigmas of the human condition are explained and the human landscape is illuminated as never before. Douglas Groothuis "Christian Apologetics"

Capacities

Book of Common Prayer

In Pain

Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you hallowed earthly pain and gave us the example of obedience to your Father's will: Be near me in my time of weakness and pain; sustain me by your grace, that my strength and courage may not fail; heal me according to your will; and help me always to believe that what happens to me here is of little account if you hold me in eternal life, my Lord and my God. Amen.

A friend of mine lost his young wife to cancer many years ago. She said to him, while dying, that she could not believe the human body's capacity for pain. That remark has haunted me since I first heard if over a decade ago. One wishes not to know such things, but they cannot be un-known once known. They linger, unbidden.

It now strikes me that the soul has untold capacities for emotional pain,

astonishing depths of despair...

and acres of acidic aching--

the miasma of myriad torments,

the abyss of agonies seemingly unrelenting and unforgiving.

And unbearable.

Yet Christ, yet Christ

suffered far, far worse:

"My God, my God.

Why have your forsaken me?!"

Then he died,

was buried.

And rose again, never forgetting

the worst wounds the world could inflict

or the eternal reward that God could provide.

God, have mercy on me,

a miserable sinner.

Wondering

There are a number of people following this blog, but few comment. It is lonely. One wonders if there is a point to it, then. Is there?

Yes and No

There is meaning.

There is suffering.

Is there meaning in suffering?

Christianity says, Yes.

Buddhism says, No.

I side with Jesus Christ,

crucified, dead, buried, and

raised eternal.

I can rejoice with him.

I can lament with him.

I must wait on and for him.

There is something wrong with the world.

We all know this.

We all feel this.

What can be done?

And what do we do

when nothing can be done?

Lament: before God,

and wait.

Giants cower at the sound of a bird.
Amnesiac clowns march unafraid.
Demons laugh.
Angels cry.
The world groans and heaves in the impossible present awaiting its ineluctable future.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Someone has put an immodest photo on the follower part of this page. I am sorry. I am trying to get rid of it.

Woe
upon woe
upon woe.

Sensitive is too mild of a word for it, really

Please read this excellent article on being kind to folks with chemical sensitivities. It is written by my friend, Sherri Connell.

Really?

"He's so patient with you."
"Well, yes, when there is an audience."
"Oh..."