Monthly Archives: October 2015

A Hopeful Prayer for Healing

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A prayer for a sick person named “C______”:

Gracious God,

We know how to pray for sick C______, and, indeed, for anyone (including ourselves). Your child, Jesus, taught us to pray for daily bread, forgiveness, for You not to lead us into temptation, AND TO DELIVER US FROM EVIL!

Cancer is evil (as are heart attacks, brain tumors, diseases beyond number, and your last enemy, death.) Deliver C______, and us all. We pray for healing and full health.

We also know, however, even Jesus did not heal everyone, that not all His prayers were answered, even His prayer “If possible, may this cup pass from me.”

If healing is impossible, remind us of Psalm 23, and that in the shadow of death, we can know You are with us, fear no evil, and be comforted. Amen.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 7, 2015

Verse – From Mid-West Farms

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Verse — From Mid-West Farms

…In Sidney, Illinois, the Elevator
waits for grain. The corn, the beans,
arrive in wagons or in trucks the farmers
drive. The loaded truck is weighed.
…The boy was only nine when first he steered the Farmall tractor with the corn
in wagons from grand-daddy’s farm
to here. Now twenty-five tons fill
his semi-truck. The probe descends
to measure moisture in the beans–
13 point 3 percent, a little wet,
but very close.
…The operators flip the switch on side
of truck, the grain descends through grates, the augers twist, the fans begin
to dry soybeans until the days the trains
arrive. In 20 seconds each train car is filled.
…The empty truck is weighed, the receipt
given to the driver. Shift, accelerate, and steer…go get another load. From 6 a.m.
to 9 p.m., the harvest days are long,
but it is happy work.

  • Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, October 6, 2015

Published with apologies to Steve for insertion of … in place of indentation.

The “Tragedy” of Sandy Hook

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Ten (10) gun deaths at the community college in Oregon re-play Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and Columbine. What can be said that hasn’t been said? The best Views from the Edge can do is re-blog an earlier post and pray that America will find a way out of this morass.

Gordon C. Stewart's avatarViews from the Edge

macbethIf philosophical parsing of the meaning of Sandy Hook was inappropriate just a few days ago, it is mandatory now.

The slaughter of these dear little ones and their teachers was a moment of terrible and terrifying insanity. When Adam put on his body armor and turned his mother’s guns on his own mother and Sandy Hook, insanity broke out to bring grief that chilled the bones of everyone in America.

Today there are calls for gun control and mental health services, and those calls make perfect sense as practical responses, but they will not fix the problem.

There is a more profound collective insanity that pervades our culture and our nation. It’s a tragedy in the sense of the old Greek and Shakespearean theater: a fatal flaw that is doing us in.

Sandy Hook was the latest symptom of the American tragedy: our worship of safety – arming ourselves to…

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Daily Riches: Without Excuse or Defense Before God (Thomas Merton)

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Pope Francis quoted Thomas Merton. Here’s more thought-provoking Merton.

Bill Britton's avatarRicher By Far

“ …we should let ourselves be brought naked and defenceless into the center of that dread where we stand alone before God in our nothingness, without explanation, without theories, completely dependent upon his providential care, in dire need of the gift of his grace, his mercy and the light of faith. …But when the time comes to enter the darkness in which we are naked and helpless and alone; in which we see the insufficiency of our greatest strength and the hollowness of our strongest virtues; in which we have nothing of our own to rely on, and nothing in our nature to support us, and nothing in the world to guide us or give us light – then we find out whether or not we live by faith.” Thomas Merton

“I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne;
 and the train of his robe filled the…

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Professors and Jack-hammer Operators

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Is there a difference between being retired and being dead?

Is there a difference between being employed and being dead?

It all depends, perhaps. Is your retirement deadly boring? Is your employment deadly meaningless? It all comes down to “calling” – the sense that one is called to something.

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey

Social philosopher Eugen Rosenstock-Huessey noted how curious is was that in their leisure time professors read books and jack-hammer operators rode motorcycles. If it really was leisure, he said, the professors who worked with ideas would be riding motorcycles; the jackhammer operators whose ears were filled with noise all week would be reading philosophy, history or novels.

I think  need a motorcycle!

P.S. My audiologist said I have the ears of a 45 year old jack-hammer operator.

  • Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, Oct. 1, 2015