Wise Words on Wednesday: Making of friendship
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit
– Aristotle
Month: September 2015
Manvotional: Winston Churchill
I’m a regular reader of the website The Art of Manliness. I love their content, but wish that more of it was made available in audio format, in particular the “manvotionals”. At the moment I’m trying to get hold of the guys who run the site to make this request and also to offer my services as part of the team who’ll provide the audio version of their posts.
As part of my pitch, I’ve recorded a recent “manvotional” posted on their website from the autobiography of a man who is consistently voted as being the greatest Briton of all time, Sir Winston Churchill.
Manvotional (Download)
“The Descent” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
The unaccompanied MP3 is available here.
Music Monday: How can I keep from singing?
I’ve been on a real Chris Tomlin kick recently. As I drove back into Seattle the other week, I was rocking out to “How can I keep from singing?” with the windows down and the stereo blaring at full volume 🙂
There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring
And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling
How can I keep from singing Your praise?
How can I ever say enough?
How amazing is Your love!
How can I keep from shouting Your name?
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing
I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives
And I will walk with You
Knowing You’ll see me through
And sing the songs You give
I can sing in the troubled times, sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step and fall down again
I can sing ’cause You pick me up, sing ’cause You’re there
I can sing ’cause You hear me, Lord when I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know that I’ll sing with the angels and the saints around the throne
Pray He finds figs
If you’ve ever had the chance to speak about the Christian faith with a Muslim, chances are that you will have heard the following objection raised to the divinity of Jesus (whom they call “Isa”):
“Does God know everything? Of course He does! If so, why did Isa (Jesus) not know when you can get figs? In Mark’s Gospel he goes to a fig tree looking for fruit, but he didn’t even know they weren’t in season! Isa therefore cannot be God”
If you’re a Christian who knows his faith, it’s tempting to laugh at such an objection and ignore it. However, today I would like to respond to this argument. I would like to do this for two reasons. Firstly, Scripture commands us to “be ready to give an answer” (1 Peter 3:15). Secondly, I think that the Biblical text being referred to here is really interesting and one upon which we would do well to meditate.
Travel Log: Keeping it weird in Portland
Today I’m in Oregon for Oktoberfest and it reminded me that I never wrote about my trip here last month. After a week on retreat at Mount Angel, I spent the weekend in Portland:
I got to visit the famous Powells, a three-story bookstore covering an entire city block. I was so proud of myself, I managed to leave without buying anything – quite an achievement!
I spent most of Saturday morning visiting the extensive Saturday market down by the waterfront.
I also took an “Underground” walking tour of the city where I heard about some of the rather quirky history of Oregon’s most well-known city.
During our tour we went past one Portland’s iconic locations, Voodoo Donuts. The lines outside were crazy, with people waiting over an hour just to get a donut! During the tour we heard the story of how the business began. It turns out that a club owner created donuts which he said were hang-over cures. He could say this because the sugar frosting was replaced with crushed-up aspirins and the jam filling with pepto-bismol! The government discovered what he was doing and freaked out because he was putting drugs in the food he was selling. Rather than letting it sink his business, he then used the media storm as free advertising. He switched to making the kind of delicious sugar-filled treats they sell today and people flocked to buy them!
Finally, while in Portland I went to Mass at the Grotto on the outskirts to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. I returned the following day to spend some quiet time in the grotto grounds:
Friday Frivolity: Classic Eye of the Tiber
This post from Eye of the Tiber has come up several times recently in conversation so I figured I should probably share it for today’s Friday Frivolity:
All about that Neis
How is that I didn’t know about the new song from the Maccabeats?! Here they are to tell us about Hanukkah once more, this time with a little help of Meghan Trainor…