Wise Words on Wednesday: William Cowper
“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees”
– William Cowper
Not the brightest candle in the menorah
Happy Hanukkah!
Okay, now go listen to the story of the Maccabees told my favourite Jewish a cappella group, the Maccabeats.
Death
It was announced today that Kim Jon-il is dead. It’s appropriate therefore that today we hear a little bit from “Tales of Mere Existence” on the subject of “Death”…
I’m not who I was
As 2011 draws to a close I’ve been reflecting on the events of this past year. New people have entered my life and some have left it. There have been fights and reconciliations. There has been the opportunity to go on some wonderful adventures as well as the chance to be still, to sit and listen and to reconsider my life’s vocation.
All of these things have changed me in some way. There is a proverb which I believe is attributed to E.E. Cummings which says “To grow is to change and to have grown often is to have changed much”. All the events of this past year have helped mould me, for better or worse, from the person I was at the end of 2010 to the person I am now at the end of 2011.
The more I’ve considered this, the more comforting I’ve found it. It means that there is always a dynamism. There is always hope. Things are not set in stone. The person I was in the past is not necessarily who I am now or, indeed, the person I will become.
Can these dry bones live?
For the last few weeks I’ve had Ezekiel 37 stuck in my head:
[The Lord] set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” – Ezekiel 37:1-3
The Lord then tells Ezekiel to speak to the dry bones and say:
“I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life…” – Ezekiel 37:5-6
We are then told that “there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them”. The Lord then commands Ezekiel to speak again, saying:
“Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live” – Ezekiel 37:9
Breath enters them, they come to life, “a vast army”…
Brad Stine
You’ll be a man my son!
I’m feeling in a poetic mood tonight although, to to be fair, it’s probably just the wine 😉
Anyway, I had previously written about my favourite poet, Kahlil Gibran, but I thought I’d share with you my favourite poem by another great poet and mustache wearer, Rudyard Kipling:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;