A Singer, A Song

One of the more poignant offerings on PostSecret this week:

Followed by this even more poignant comment:

My med school has a memorial service at the end of anatomy for the students and the families of those who donated their bodies, including a slide show of the donors when they were alive. I don’t remember the last time I cried so hard.

“What really works in this country is not inciting the base, but making partnerships with people with different views to advance your agenda.” - Joel Hunter, Orlando pastor.

via MSNBC.

by Robert Browning

If I forget, yet God remembers.
If these hands of mine cease from their clinging,
yet the hands divine hold me so firmly
I cannot fall.
And if sometimes I am too tired to call for Him to help me,
then He reads the prayer unspoken in my heart
and lifts my care.

I dare not fear since certainly I know that I am in God’s keeping,
shielded so, from all that else would harm.
and in the hour of stern temptation,
strengthened by His power.
I tread no path in life to Him unknown.
I lift no burden, bear no pain alone.
My soul a calm, sure hiding place has found:
The everlasting arms my life surround.

God, Thou art love! I build my faith on that.
I know Thee who has kept my path
and made light for me in the darkness
tempering sorrow so that it reached me like a
solemn joy.

It were too strange
that I should doubt Thy love.

I know this isn’t exactly breaking news. I’m linking to this video in the hope that it might nudge people to more carefully listen and consider Powell’s noble words, especially the anecdote beginning at the 4:30 mark.

I’m not sure that the motivating philosophy is exactly spot-on, but this is still a very, very good thing.

Why this project?

Never in history have so many people had so much information, so many tools at their disposal, so many ways of making good ideas come to life. Yet at the same time, so many people, of all walks of life, could use so much help, in both little ways and big.

In the midst of this, new studies are reinforcing the simple wisdom that beyond a certain very basic level of material wealth, the only thing that increases individual happiness over time is helping other people.

In other words, helping helps everybody, helper and helped alike.

Now this is a sensible stateswoman.

Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought,
Ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.

I’m no financial wizard. I don’t have a stock porfolio or large sums of cash hiding in an offshore account. But even a financial dummy like me can see that the recent Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bailout signals that there’s something seriously wrong with our economy. This bailout follows quick on the heels of the IndyMac bank failure earlier this month — the third largest bank failure in U.S. history. And what’s worse is that these events are not isolated. IndyMac’s failure, the fifth one this year, followed the collossal collapse of Bear Stearns in March. By comparison, there were three such bank failures in 2007. How many in 2006? None. And in 2005? None.

Guess how many banks are expected to fail in the short term? “It’s our view that regulators are expecting 100 to 200 banks to fail” (U.S. News, July 15). Looks like Wachovia may be next. From today on CNBC: “Wachovia Posts $8.6 Billion Loss, Slashes Dividend.”

So what’s congress doing? They’re running up a criminally enormous deficit, and they’re cracking down on citizens’ privacy. (Way to go, congress!) Their answer seems to be for the state to own it all while the little guy is scrutinized and squeezed for every penny possible (as if we were the ones who caused this problem!).

View this 7-8 minute video by Congressman Ron Paul on the Housing Bill passed today. It’s very, very sobering.

“If everybody’s thinking the same thing, then nobody’s thinking.”

– General George S. Patton

Happy Birthday, my little lady. You are missed. Your brother Isaac wants to come see you. He is sure that your house smells like grapes.

http://www.drslewis.org/camille/2008/07/07/happy-7th-birthday-elise/