I think I have told you the story of my conversation with my grandmother about her decision to move to Alberta at the turn of the last century to homestead. I say her decision because she was not married to my grandfather when she left home.
They were both born and raised on Prince Edward Island and met there. She was a girl of nineteen and he a man of thirty. Both were single. He took a liking to her and said he was headed west to pioneer and asked her to join him and be his bride on the frontier. What happened was he went first then she followed by rail, virtually crossing the continent to meet the man she would wed. Theirs was a stormy relationship and one of many hardships and perils. She once had what would be called a near death experience and used to tell us how she saw the gates of heaven. She was a very plain spoken woman and there was . . .
Dr. Harold McNabb
- Details
Mt. St. Helen's is rumbling and puffing again, although it seems less likely this week that a big eruption is imminent, than it seemed a couple of weeks ago. I lived a thousand miles to the east when it blew in 1980, but I remember smelling the sulfurous odor one morning and hearing on the local radio that the smell was from the eruption. The photos of it erupting are spectacular. Reading accounts of people who were on the mountain or near it and survived, it was an experience of absolutely overwhelming awe and magnitude. And of course there was enormous destruction. The Toutle river was rerouted. Spirit Lake disappeared and there were many deaths. Also interesting was the more long term after effect. Volcanic ash was distributed for many miles around, and we know that volcanic ash is filled with soil nutrients. Agricultural valleys east of the cascades range became benefactors of the mountain's fury. - Details
If anyone had a right to ask, "why me, God?", it was Hagar. Sure she had been a willing participant, but none of this had been her idea, and she really couldn't have refused her mistress Sarah. Now look where it got her! They needed her and she agreed. She let them have her most precious possession, her body. She had given them a son they could not have on their own and was pleased to be able to. For Abraham and Sarah to die with no heir would be tragic.
It's not as if she had been trying to steal Abraham from Sarah. She had total respect for Abraham and for Sarah for that matter, though she wondered why God had made her mistress barren. Not for her to wonder, though many times she thought, why does Sarah have such a good husband and I have none, but God must have a reason and she accepted her position as Sarah's maid. And it was a good position in the home of a wealthy and kind man. She could do much worse.
She loaded herself with as much water and food as she could carry for herself and Ishmael and headed out into the wilderness. She was frightened. Who would they meet? They would almost certainly . . .
It's not as if she had been trying to steal Abraham from Sarah. She had total respect for Abraham and for Sarah for that matter, though she wondered why God had made her mistress barren. Not for her to wonder, though many times she thought, why does Sarah have such a good husband and I have none, but God must have a reason and she accepted her position as Sarah's maid. And it was a good position in the home of a wealthy and kind man. She could do much worse.
She loaded herself with as much water and food as she could carry for herself and Ishmael and headed out into the wilderness. She was frightened. Who would they meet? They would almost certainly . . .
- Details
By adulthood most of us have experience with grieving the loss of someone we love.
David has just learned that his best friend, Jonathan and King Saul, Jonathan's father have been killed in battle.
What we read is David's response to his grief?his lament.
There are some very interesting features to his lament.
The first is that it is totally a masculine response. When he speaks of Jonathan and Saul, he speaks about them by what they do, not their connections with each other or his to them, except at the very end of the lament.
Both die as soldiers on the battle-field and David's imagery is the imagery of fallen warriors. He even expresses his sorrow picturing their scattered weapons and armor lying unattended . . .
David has just learned that his best friend, Jonathan and King Saul, Jonathan's father have been killed in battle.
What we read is David's response to his grief?his lament.
There are some very interesting features to his lament.
The first is that it is totally a masculine response. When he speaks of Jonathan and Saul, he speaks about them by what they do, not their connections with each other or his to them, except at the very end of the lament.
Both die as soldiers on the battle-field and David's imagery is the imagery of fallen warriors. He even expresses his sorrow picturing their scattered weapons and armor lying unattended . . .
- Details
Vaclav Havel, the president of the Czech Republic says:
"We live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain."
Havel is not the first to have said it, but what makes his comment interesting is that he is the first non-communist president of what was Czechoslovakia to speak that way. Communist doctrine was built on materialism: what you can see, touch, taste, hear and feel is all there is to reality. Marx built his theory on a radical vision that the material world is all there is and called religion "the opiate of the people." His version of mankind was that we find our meaning and our purpose from the community in which we live, the state to be precise.
The modern world was built on an assumption not too different in its own way. We inherited the scientific view of reality. That view of reality is similar to Marx in that it too is materialistic. The scientist says that the only version of reality that . . .
"We live in the postmodern world, where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain."
Havel is not the first to have said it, but what makes his comment interesting is that he is the first non-communist president of what was Czechoslovakia to speak that way. Communist doctrine was built on materialism: what you can see, touch, taste, hear and feel is all there is to reality. Marx built his theory on a radical vision that the material world is all there is and called religion "the opiate of the people." His version of mankind was that we find our meaning and our purpose from the community in which we live, the state to be precise.
The modern world was built on an assumption not too different in its own way. We inherited the scientific view of reality. That view of reality is similar to Marx in that it too is materialistic. The scientist says that the only version of reality that . . .