3 thoughts on “Our helper amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing”
I find so many words and deeds of compassion in Jesus’ life that it frequently makes me stress mercy above a rigid conscience. However it remains a choice needing all God’s help to make.
CA, I’m so glad to have these marvelous traditions to fall back on in times when wisdom escapes me, as now, and in times when we as a culture and nation confide in our own strength, and when fear rules the day in human hearts and public policy. It’s not easy, is it! One of our members at Shepherd of the Hill yesterday shared a wise aphorism to the effect that the strength of one’s convictions is no guarantee that one is right 🙂 And Willem Zuurdeeg taught us that human beings live by powerful “convictors” that establish our frail selves in time. Homo Convictus is not rational. Jesus’ encounter with the Gerasene Demoniac is one of the most poignant stories of a soul under occupation of fear’s power. Jesus does not argue with the man. He asks him “What is your name?” And when the “demons” answer “My name is ‘Legion’ Jesus knows, as does the Gerasene, that he’s gotten to the bottom of it. As soon as they are named, they leave the man and run headlong into the sea of chaos from which they had come. The man is next seen “clothed and in his right mind.”
Being raised in the MO SYN Lutheran Church, Eine feste Berg was nearly our Anthem. It still is a part of my sure foundationM. Has seen me through many a tough situation.
Views from the Edge 
I find so many words and deeds of compassion in Jesus’ life that it frequently makes me stress mercy above a rigid conscience. However it remains a choice needing all God’s help to make.
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CA, I’m so glad to have these marvelous traditions to fall back on in times when wisdom escapes me, as now, and in times when we as a culture and nation confide in our own strength, and when fear rules the day in human hearts and public policy. It’s not easy, is it! One of our members at Shepherd of the Hill yesterday shared a wise aphorism to the effect that the strength of one’s convictions is no guarantee that one is right 🙂 And Willem Zuurdeeg taught us that human beings live by powerful “convictors” that establish our frail selves in time. Homo Convictus is not rational. Jesus’ encounter with the Gerasene Demoniac is one of the most poignant stories of a soul under occupation of fear’s power. Jesus does not argue with the man. He asks him “What is your name?” And when the “demons” answer “My name is ‘Legion’ Jesus knows, as does the Gerasene, that he’s gotten to the bottom of it. As soon as they are named, they leave the man and run headlong into the sea of chaos from which they had come. The man is next seen “clothed and in his right mind.”
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Being raised in the MO SYN Lutheran Church, Eine feste Berg was nearly our Anthem. It still is a part of my sure foundationM. Has seen me through many a tough situation.
LikeLike