Powerless

Saturday the weather was so warm we didn't even wear jackets.  Then Sunday afternoon it began snowing, and kept on and kept on.  And we aren't exactly snowbound, because it is already melting and will be back in the 60s Fahrenheit, by Wednesday.  But a transformer in our neighborhood blew up, and our whole block has been without power since Sunday evening.

Our house is all-electric.  Its amazing how many things we use that rely upon electricity, including, as we've discovered, our Verizon FIOS service.  We can't even call for help, should we need it.  (Another reason to get a cell phone!!!)  Fortunatey, we do have one radio and a couple of clocks that run on batteries.  But we can't have a hot drink or a hot breakfast, or use a heating pad, or turn on lights, or use the computer, nor wash the clothes or dry them.  Or shower (more than once).  And the temp inside our refrigerator is the same as the temp outside it.  We do have a camp-style cooler, large, so some of the food can go in there for the nonce.

I got out two flashlights and put a jar candle in the bathroom overnight, and we snuggled under the comforters (duvets) and were fine. 

We're at Barnes and Noble now, where they have hot drinks and heating.Planning to spend most of the day here at the mall.  Lunch at the foodcourt.

Oh well, a little adventure spices up life some.  And it's a beautiful day, with bright blue skies, sonw-deorated trees that seem to be in blossom, and he streets are already mostly clear.  That's the kind of snow I like; it should look gorgeous and then go away.

UPDATE:  Mid afternoon and we've just ogtten back froimt he bookstore to find our house warm, lit, and online. 

Valentine Hairdo

A girl who was in front of me in church Sunday was wearing a Valentine hairdo and I thought it was so clever I wanted to share it with you.

First, the top part of her hair, around the crown, was brushed back and put into a ponytail, a style we see quite often. But then the ponytail was divided in half, and each half was twisted up and outward to make the halves of the heart. Then the two twisted strands were reunited below to make the point of the heart.

Obviously, I'm no artist, but I've tried to make this crude sketch for you. Just in case you have a girl who might like to wear her hair this way next year, or for that matter, any time.

Incense

People from non-liturgical traditions often wonder about the use of incense in church. What's it for? What good is it? Isn't it superstitious or something? Or isn't it some Roman Catholic encrustation which we ought to scrub away?

Actually, it's neither superstition nor anything invented by Rome. It's an element of worship mandated, in the Old Testament, by God Himself. And in the New Testament, it is described as part of the ceaseless worship in heaven. We use it for both of those reasons: first, because since God ordained it, incense in its right place with its right meaning must be pleasing to Him; and secondly, because our worship is both a foreshadowing of and a participation in the heavenly worship.

Incense is a token of honor. When the priest waves it at us, that means he is honoring us. And what is the proper response of a Christian when anybody shows him honor? It's humility. So when we are censed, we bow. The bow has nothing to do with "clericalism"; it's rather the opposite. Not that you are honoring the priest (although there's nothing wrong with that either), but he is honoring you. That's why he also censes the icons, to honor them, or more accurately, those whom they depict.

The incense is also a token of blessing. When the priest waves the incense in your direction, he's doing the outward, visible counterpart of what Christ is doing invisibly: blessing you. Again, the appropriate response is to bow. You bow toward the priest, but really to the One ministering alongside him.

Incense, of course, also symbolizes prayer, as in the Psalm which says, "Let my prayer rise as incense before Thee." In Christianity, what we mainly offer God is spiritual sacrifice; namely, our faith, our hope, our love, our selves, our lives. So for us, incense symbolizes all that.

So no, incense is not superstitious, unless perhaps one adds other elements or meanings to it that are. And no, it's not "too Catholic"; it's older than Rome and it's ultimately angelic.

Latest on Mary and her Recovery...

...from a local newspaper. 

And from her brother: 

Healing continues, and a discharge is expected soon. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. She and the rest of my family, are overwhelmed by the love and support offered by everyone. God bless you all.

Alan Anderson

Praying to Saints

Amy, on her blog The Daily Weaving, has a nice, clear, concise explanation of why we Orthodox Christians "pray" to saints.  I place "pray" in quotes because it's perhaps a misleading word, implying, for some people, worship.  We don't worship saints, of course; we ask them to pray to God with and for us, as Amy explains in more detail.

So I commend her post to you, and would like to add perhaps one point to it.  Many times we are asked how the saints in heaven, even granting they are still alive, can hear us here on earth. 

Well, "hear" may also be a misleading word, as they, not yet reunited with their resurrection bodies, have no flesh-and-blood ears.  Nevertheless, they "hear" us the same way they "see" the face of Christ without eyes or "sing" His praises without voices.  How can this be?  They are all filled with the Holy Spirit, Who enables them to do these things in Him and by His power.  That's just as they do everything, and just as all Christians are meant to do everything.

Update on Mary (Who was Beaten, Robbed, Abducted, etc.)

...the one for whom we've been praying, from her brother...

Mary is healing very well. She's been moved to the rehab section of the hospital. The nurses hope to get her outside into a courtyard this week should the weather cooperate. Both arms remain in casts (one for a broken bone, the other due to surgery on her wrist tendons) so she's still not able to feed herself. Her four children, two of my sisters, and my father have been there almost continuously to help care for her. I've not yet been able to make the trip, although I hope to get there before the month is out.

And another:

Mary is looking a bit better. Eye patch removed, vision in both eyes with some issues in her left eye. She is slowly training to become a left hander as she cannot use the right arm. She still has limited use of her left arm/hand and will be receiving 6 noncontinuous hours of therapy each day. She's able to roam about the hospital via wheelchair, and enjoyed getting out. Hoping for warm days and sunshine so she can spend a little time outdoors getting fresh air.

Thank you so much for your prayers, which are obviously still needed.

Embarrassing Admission

Turns out our home, which we reported had been broken into and burgled, wasn't. 

We were sure it had been, because our DVR was (and still is) missing.  So, apparently, are our brains.  The boy who mows our yard and has ever since he was big enough to puch a mower and is now a high school junior came over the other day and discussed with Demetrios his ambtion to be a doctor.  Anyway, he also reminded us that we had packaged up that DVR and had paid him (handsomely) to mail it back to Verizon for us.  Which he did.

Yes, of course!  I do remember now.  When I put our account on suspended status, a Verizon rep on the phone asked me to return the DVR and gave me the address. 

Don't know why Verizon didn't receive it.  Or why the rep wanted it back, as the rep more recently told us they wouldn't have needed or wanted it to be returned.

Anyway, it's all taken care of now, and it's nice to know our house was not burgled after all.

Now to camouflage my embarrassment, I'll pass on a joke my neighbor has sent me, about an even more embarrassing Senior Moment.

Several days ago as I left a meeting at our church, I desperately gave myself a personal pat down. I was looking for my keys. They were not in my pockets. A quick search in the meeting room revealed nothing.

Suddenly I realized, I must have left them in the car. Frantically, I headed for the parking lot. My wife, Diane, has scolded me many times for leaving the keys in the ignition. My theory is the ignition is the best place not to lose them. Her theory is that the car would be stolen. As I burst through the doors to the parking lot, I came to a miserable conclusion. Her theory was right. The parking lot was empty.

I immediately called the police. I gave them my location, confessed that I had left my keys in the car, and reported that it had been stolen.

Then I made the most difficult phone call of all, “Honey,” I stammered. (I always call her “honey” in times like these.) “I left my keys in the car, and it has been stolen.”

There was a period of silence. I thought the call had been dropped, but then I heard Diane’s voice. “Ken” she barked, “I dropped you off!”

Now it was my time to be silent. Embarrassed, I said, “Well, come and get me.”

Diane retorted, “I will, as soon as I convince this policeman I have not stolen your car!”

New Blog

My niece Elizabeth, 11 (Barbara's younger daughter), has begun a blog to contain her poems and short stories.  Most of her stories seem to be in the fantasy genre, involving her pet dragon named Destiny. 

Have a look just for the fun of it.  Especially if you are good at creative writing and care to offer a young girl your helpful hints, suggestions, encouragements, etc., check out Lizzie's Notebook. 

Go for it, Elizabeth!  I'm adding your blog to my sidebar.

God Rest You Well, Carol!



Carol was a friend our our family's for decades; I think from the early '80s.  After the death of her husband, she ate most of the holiday meals with us:  Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter.  (I don't know why, possibly her children lived rather far away.)  She became a part of our famiy.  She was also one of the first among my parents' circle of friends to move to Greenspring, the retirement community to which my parents eventually came.  She gave us a little tour of it, together with a discussion of its pros and cons (mainly, that although Greenspring is a wonderful and downright luxurious place, it is still, as Carol put it, "institutional living, and you have to accept that if you come here.")

She was blind in one eye; we never knew why, but have heard it was due to that eye having been cancerous, or something.  I remember when she had a cataract removed from the good eye, and how nerve-wracking that was. 

She went on a trip to China with my mother in 1989 and on a cruise with Mom on the QEII, during which the ship's engines conked out and the vessel was adrift at sea for I forget how long.  A day?  Three days?  Mom?  So they shared many adventures.

Mom and I went to her memorial service Friday.  May her memory be eternal.

I Did Promise to Avoid Political Commentary, and I Shall...

...but from time to time, I still plan to point out items I consider important.

If you live in Europe or America and you value your country, here's the future planned for you, presented by the German Foreign Minister addressing the Brookings Institute on January 20.

To give examples of why this is important for you to know, below are a few excerpts from the speech, together with the minute and seconds where you can find them on this recording.  Beware euphemism.



14:04 First we have to fix the flaws in the Eurozone’s construction. When setting it up shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we were not able to go all the way and create a political union side-by-side with the economic and monetary union. It took awhile for the consequences of this failure to become apparent, because we enjoyed a decade of low interest rates and strong economic growth, especially in southern Eurozone lenders.

31:25 It would be wrong to deny that there are different visions of what Europe should be. There are those who do not want an open, tolerant, and integrated Europe; there are those who stress the differences by their ethnics of religious rather than what unites us. [Yes, this is what Minister said, word for word.]  They are advocating a fortress Europe. This is a vision that we need to oppose forcibly. The re-nationalization in a time of globalization is a dangerous concept; and this is a message to whom it may concern.

32:55 Our European model of shared sovereignty can be an inspiration in a globalized world in need of order.

35:16 We stand firmly together in confronting Iran’s increasingly dangerous course, and for us, like for many of you, the security of Israel is raison d'être. The European Union will put into place a new and very substantial round of sanctions this coming Monday to forcefully make the point that Iran’s behavior in the nuclear issue is unacceptable and a danger to world peace. 35:50

37:00 Possibly the most important common task of all will be to restore the legitimacy and viability of our economic model. The proper regulation of the global financial system is still unfinished business. We have to continue to work on it together and in the G-20 framework. This includes making sure that the IMF has what it takes to play its crucial role in the global system.

Update on our Friend, John

Thanks again and yet again to all of you who sent John your supportive messages.  They have meant more to him than they would even to most people, I think.  He has been deeply moved by your well-wishes and prayers. 

Last night, we found John eating his supper, and he ate well, considering he wasn't hungry and it was hospital food, after all.  (I did still have to cut up his pork chop for him, and open the little plastic tub of diced peaches and pears.) 

He has been moved off the ward where he had been, since he no longer needs the telemetry available there.  He is also no longer connected to an IV, we noticed.  No extra fluids, no IV medications.

He reported having walked 85 steps yesterday, with a walker but otherwise unsupported.  He sits up in a chair two or three times a day for half an hour at a time. He even cracked a joke or two. 

He was to have been transferred to a rehab facility by today, but that isn't going to happen for a while.  John is pretty closed-mouthed about his condition, so we don't know why or what this apparent set-back is. It still seems to us that every day is an improvement over the day before.

Thanks again for your support, which has unquestionably been a MAJOR factor in his recovery.

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

Yesterday in church we sat next to a girl about two and a half years old, we think, who looked at us with enormous, searching, soulful, serious eyes.  After a few moments, she began talking to Demetrios, who was next to her, but as it was all babytalk he understood very little.  Her mother said the child was asking Demetrios his name.  So he told her and she continued the conversation.  All he could do was beam at her.  And somehow, the age gap melted away; this old man and this toddler were meeting beautiful soul-to- beautiful soul, as equals, in a communion that transcended all such matters as age or gender or nationality or language or anything else. 

And no, it was not a distraction from the worship; it was part of it. 

After church, I commented that it had been so beautiful it had actually brought tears to my eyes, and Demetrios said that was exactly how he had felt, like crying.  And he wondered if that's how paradise will be.

Of course it will be - and is, for the Christian life is a large measure of paradise already!

Reviews: A Restaurant and a Movie

Texas Roadhouse

We ate, with two other couples, at the Texas Roadhouse for the first time Saturday night.  So if you've never been there, you may like to know our unanimous opinion:  we don't ever plan to go back. 

The Texas Roadhouse has the best steak I've eaten for at least 20 years (with the possible exception of David Bate's steak).  That's important, of course, especially if you are a steak lover.  And the prices are reasonable, too.  But for us, the whole experience was a severe mismatch.

The first problem was that the restaurant has a highly misleading "call ahead" policy; you call an hour before you plan to arrive and tell them you're coming.  It's not a reservation, but we did suppose it was worth something.  Wrong.  We waited more than another full hour before we were seated, and even then, only after we let our displeasure be known and said wwe were leaving if we weren't seated within 5 more minutes.

The second problem was the noise.  If you are in the twenty-something crowd, the music might have been just right for you; maybe even if you are thirty-something.  As the manager put it, lots of energy going on in there.  But if you're a senior citizens it's just noise, and far too loud at that.  Because everybody has difficulty conversing with that stuff blaring, everyone has to shout to be heard, so the noise level from all the talking alone was terrible, unless you like that sort of thing.

The wait staff stops everything once per hour and stands in a line and  performs some sort of silly little line dance for you.  They seem to be encouraging everybody else to do the same, but nobody does.  For one thing, there is no space wide enough.  Meanwhile, of course, nobody's order is being taken, nobody is being served. 

And then the servers have a nasty little habit of asking, for example, whether you'd like onions and jack cheese on your steak without telling you it costs extra, or whether you'd like your baked potato with anything more than butter, also without telling you sour cream, chives, and bacon bits are extra. 

If it's your birthday you get to sit on a saddle atop a sawhorse, and the staff lifts that up and rocks you around a bit while singing something awful.  Your small children may enjoy that.

But for us, the whole evening was an ordeal and we were glad to depart as soon as we had finished eating.

Iron Lady

We have long been Margaret Thatcher fans, so we looked forward eagerly to this film about her.

The movie consists of a series of episodes from Mrs. Thatcher's career as remembered through the dementia of her old age.  I would rather have had the story presented through the eyes of someone not demented.   It lacked coherence.  I also would rather have had more details about her career than the gloss-overs this movie provided.   So as a story or as a documentary (take your pick) I rate the film a "C", as did the others with whom we watched it.

But my first reaction was, "That was SOME great piece of acting!"  Meryl Streep's performance is simply superb.   It's definitely Academy Award calibre.  And that makes this film worth watching and worth the price of the ticket. 

"God Loves you, Period" - Isn't That Only Half the Story?

No, it's the whole, entire, complete story.  There is nothing else in God's attitude toward you but love.  His love does not come alongside anything else that might dilute or alter or temper it, or overrule it or modify it in any way.  Or even "balance" it or form some sort of polarity with it.   There is no tension, so to speak, between God's love and anything else.  There is no dark side whatsoever in God's attitude toward you.  It's pure love, infinite love, unconditional love. 

But isn't He going to cast the wicked into hell, someone may ask?  And come on, do not even try to tell me that is love.

Indeed, that would not be love.  It would conflict with love.  It would form a boundary upon the boundless, a condition upon the unconditional, a limit to the infinite.  It would mean that at some point, God had turned on you. 

God doesn't cast anyone into hell.  God continues to love every single person completely, forever.  Hell is what happens when He places you squarely in the immediate presence of that love and you can't stand it.

What?  Not be able to stand God's love, are you serious?

It's true.  Not everyone may want God's love.  There can be serveral reasons for this, and they all have to do with the condition of the human heart, not with God's heart. 

One reason is that God's Love is inseparable from God's Truth.  It's clear not everybody wants to be confronted with the truth about himself.  While seeing our shocking ugliness now, while there's time to change it, is appalling enough, seeing it when we've become too hardened to change is infinitely worse.  It's hell.

Another reason we may not like to stand in the sunshine of God's love is jealousy, as illustrated by the elder brother of the Prodigal Son.  A person may not mind if God loves him infinitely, but he does not want to stand around and watch (much less participate in) any love-fest involving God and that terrible other person.  It would seem so wrong if, for example, that terrible other person were Stalin.   Such gross injustice, even if he did repent at the last moment!  Of course, there isn't really any question of injustice; as Jesus pointed out, God has every right to do whatever He chooses with what is His own.  (And this would apply regardless of how Stalin had come to be saved.)  It's an unloving heart that resents it, and the resentment prevents a person from joining the celebration.  That's hell.

Another example:  if I did not take my well-deserved revenge upon so-and-so, it was because I fully expected God to do it for me, and now I find Him rejoicing in and with that miserable wretch?  An unloving heart cannot bear this.  It might be even worse for me if I did take my revenge and felt well-satisfied, to find myself now confronted with that person, standing before me in his glory, shining, and basking in God's love - my own burning astonishment, plus the satisfaction in the revenge I took,  meanwhile keeping me out of the loop.  

Then again, there may be some who are so heavily invested in "the flesh" that they have become blind to spiritual joys.  While the saints rejoice in one another, in forgiveness, in praising God, in living His Life with Him, in creativity, in peace, we may speculate that others may miss bridge games or hot showers or pizza too much to care about the rest, and would be bored stiff if it weren't for resenting the absence of their physical pleasures. 

Hell does not mean God sends someone to any separate place.  Hell does not mean God tortures us, or has the devil do it for Him.  Hell is something each person does to himself.  As the saying goes, the gates of hell are locked on the inside.   It's our reaction to God's love that becomes our hell.  There can be all sorts of reasons God's very Love becomes hell for us.    But God Himself harbors nothing for us but eternal, undiluted, steadfast, unchanging, infinite Love.  Period.

About Prayer Chains and Prayer Requests

What's all this, someone recently asked me, about prayer and prayer requests?  Will God be more inclined to heal a sick child if someone prays for him than if nobody does?  Or isn't God going to do His will in any case, with or without prayer?  And what's this thing we so often hear said to someone in trouble:  "Hundreds of people are praying for you?"  What's the whole idea behind prayer chains; is it a massive lobbying effort, like getting as many signatures as possible on a petition?  And how is it that even when hundreds or thousands of people are devoutly praying for the health of some small child, the kid dies anyway?  Is that God's will, that we had all been praying must be done?  The whole thing seems to make very little sense.

I don't have many answers and will welcome input from anyone who can add a new perspective to these issues.  But I think I do have some items to offer as contributions toward the answer(s).

The first thing, perhaps, is, we do not know God's will.  It seems to us it would be better if a sick child lived, but perhaps, in ways we cannot see, it is not the best, even for the child himself.  Maybe being taken straight into the armns of God will be better for him than living a life of horrible  suffering, or - what is so hard to imagine when beholding an infant - a life of horrible sin that would grieve us all.   Perhaps your brother's death was better for him and his whole family than the wrenching, searing, years-long divorce battle and custody fight God knew would have happened in another few years, had he lived.  Or maybe your aunt's dropping dead of a heart attack was better than dying of the cancer she had been about to develop.  We simply do not know even what is best for anybody, and we need to be humble enough to acknowledge this; that is why the bottom line, in all our prayers, is "Thy will be done."

Yes, God is going to do His will in any case.  But such is His love for us, that He wants us to participate in the doing of it.  He wants to glorify all of us by allowing us to share in His Life, in all His doings,  and to have that as the center of communion with one another.  Prayer requests and prayer chains are about Christian communion, and especially about solidarity with the suffering among us.  They are not about lobbying God, but about union with God and with one another.

So if God is going to do His will in any case, does that mean some innocent baby's misery and grotesque suffering was God's will?  No, that was the work of the devil.  That's evil at work, and not our all-loving God.

But God is still allowing this horror, isn't He?  Why?

Yes, He is.   And has been letting terrible things happen since the fall of Adam and Eve.  And we don't know why.  We do not know why.  Period.  We can speculate as to whether it involves chastisement to bring us to repentance or challenges to help us grow, or lessons in courage or faith or perseverance or practice in charity or resisting temptation or whatever.  Sometimes a wise spiritual father or mother can discern these things for us in our own lives.  But bottom line is, we either have faith or we don't.  Faith in this context means trust that whatever the reason(s) may be, they are, despite all appearances, kind, compassionate reasons of the good God Who loves us better than we love ourselves and is infinitely wiser.  In this warped world, "God writes straight with crooked lines." 

And the basis for our hope, ultimately, is the death and resurrection of God-in-the Flesh.  What could have been more immoral, more unjust, more obscene, than an innocent Man murdered by crucifixion?  What greater victory could the devil ever have claimed than deicide?  And this, despite every prayer from the disciples and from His mother?  And in fact, despite His own, "If possible, let this cup pass from me!"

But God did let the catastrophe happen.  And in and through it He did many wonderful things for us (type "Why Did Jesus Die?" in the search box, top right of this blog).  Not that He needed this monstrous sin for the doing of His workl He never requires there to be evil for the sake of the greater good.  But He saw fit to work through this crime, for whatever reason, perhaps because WE needed it to be that way.

And then He brought victory out of it.  He didn't do away entirely with the devil and all his mignons, not yet, and we do not know why not yet.  But the promise that He shall destroy them entirely, in His own good time, whenever He knows is best, that promise is in what He did do in His resurrection:  He took away satan's main weapon against us.  He took away death and the fear of death.  He showed Himself stronger than death and suffering and wickedness.  That's what assures us that ultimately, He will consummate His victory and shall "wipe away the tears from every cheek," and reveal that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all things, in a hidden sense, always were well.  We were always in His care, and we shall be able to see that everything that ever happened to us was for our good, and shall be able to give thanks in all things.

We either have faith in God, trust Him, or we don't.  If we do, then we pray.