In All Things

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
I Thessalonians 5:18

When you say your wedding vows, you have a misguided youthful optimism that the "for poorer," "for worse," and "in sickness" will all be minimal, short-lived, and bearable. But when you feel as bashed upon the rocks as this water from a mountain stream, you must still give thanks in all circumstances.

(photo taken by my son on a weekend camping trip with our church)

Trust in the Lord

A friend who is battling cancer wrote this to me upon receiving our Christmas greetings and letter:

thanks, dear! I'm still working on ours...You are a brave woman. and you are in my prayers.

I am living another unenviable life. That of a wife abandoned for another. This is what I wrote back to my dear friend:

And you are in mine as well! I don't know how brave I am. I think that word is more applicable to you! I suppose we both are traveling a path we never asked for, a path we would not choose for anyone, and a path that elicits more tears than bravery. And yet, with His strength we see the sun rise anew every day. We see the Son arise anew as well. We grow closer to Him with each tortured footstep and vividly learn what it means to...

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

Proverbs 3: 5-7

In Christian sisterly love,

Deb

At some point I had to start writing about my current life. I suppose this is it. Here is a Christmas Eve picture of my precious children who bring me joy and strength.

Anniversaries

On May 25, my dad had been gone for five years. Five years. Seems like yesterday. Seems like ages ago. I tried to write something. Couldn't get the words right. It still sits in my blog queue, with Draft staring at me in blue letters.

This past Sunday was our wedding anniversary. Twenty-nine years we've been married. Seems like yesterday. Seems like ages ago. Some of my childhood memories are still so fresh, that it seems impossible that I've been married longer than I was single.

Here is one of the prayers spoken at our wedding, back when we weren't even Christians yet. It's only one sentence, but there's a lot of meat in that sentence.

O God, who hast so consecrated the state of Matrimony that in it is represented the spiritual marriage and unity betwixt Christ and His Church; Look mercifully upon these thy servants, that they may love, honour, and cherish each other, and so live together in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, that their home may be a haven of blessing and of peace; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony
Book of Common Prayer

Mrs. Edward Elgar

I am playing a concert tomorrow evening which includes a favorite piece of mine by British composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Although he's not a household name, most every adult can hum one of his most famous pieces, Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. Otherwise known as the music that gets played over and over at graduations.



In reading about his life, I ran across this little bit about his wife in this article. Oh, that I could be such a blessing to MY husband!

In 1920, Lady Elgar died and with her died much of Elgar's inspiration and will to compose. She had organised his household and ministered to his comforts. For a long time she saved him hours of drudgery, for instance by ruling bar lines on score paper. She walked miles in all weathers to post precious parcels of manuscript and proofs. In the early days of their marriage she had collaborated with him to produce such works as Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands (1896) - Elgar's settings of his wife's poems inspired by holidays spent in Germany. At times when success seemed forever to be eluding him, she never lost faith. In short, she had been the driving force behind his genius encouraging him and proclaiming his talents at every opportunity.

Interestingly, her family had discouraged her from marrying the man who was beneath her. Elgar, the son of a tradesman and a lowly music teacher "without prospects," wasn't good enough for their girl. He eventually became one of Britain's most loved composers and was knighted for his accomplishments.

Thank you, Lord, for Caroline Alice Roberts Elgar, who provides us with an example of a woman who had faith in her husband and played a vital role in his life and career.

Overheard at the Ballgame

We took my mother to a Rockies baseball game last night, her first major league game in over 50 years. She liked it so much she wants to go again this season! The Rockies beat St. Louis, 7-0, in a near perfect game, but that isn't what I want to write about.

We were seated in front of a group of five twenty-something kids (two girls and three guys), all Cardinal fans with ties to St. Louis. Their loud conversations volleyed back and forth between their narcissistic prattlings and the superiority of the Cardinals.

One of the two girls is engaged to be married this fall. (I can tell you all about their first date, how he proposed, where they're having their wedding photos taken, and the reception...she never stopped talking). But, before her monologue, one of the guys asked, "Why do people ever bother to get married anyway?" Another guy sagely replied, "In my tax bracket, you can save money if you're married!"

My husband and I both remarked on the drive home what a sad commentary on our society that marriage would be so trivialized and degraded. Given the state of American culture today, it's not surprising, but it's troubling nonetheless. Troubling, too, was that in Miss Bride-to-Be's conversation, nary a word was spoken about how much she loved her intended. In fact, the only opinions she expressed of the guy were how she thought it was past time they have a joint bank account, and how she was disappointed by his uninspired marriage proposal. The rest of the one-sided conversation between her and the other female companion consisted primarily of particulars surrounding the wedding day.

I think back to my grandparents and their very simple wedding, or to the simple wedding of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder written about in her Little House books, and of the lifelong devotion of each of these couples to one another. Many of the weddings of today (mostly in non-Christian circles) seem to be spectacles of opulence, without enough thought given to the vows or the days and years that follow the ceremony. Oh, that our culture would recapture the awe, reverence, and sacredness towards marriage.

Theses on Worship--Part 2

It's easy to wax nostalgic about "the good old days." I found this photo of a church at a website about Hobgood, North Carolina. It made me wonder what kind of worship took place here. What stories could this church tell? It also reminds me how I yearn for the "good old days" of my old church. Despite its shortcomings, it had a worship service that I miss terribly.

In my continuing study of worship, I turn again to Jim Jordan's book, Theses on Worship. Here are Jordan's first four thoughts on the matter of Biblical and proper practices for the Sunday morning worship service.

#1 God's House is a House of Prayer
The central feature of Sunday morning should be worship. Evangelism, entertainment, concert performance, and intensive instruction are all good for the church; they just need to be focused on at other times. "Worship is prayer focused on the person(s) of God."

#2 The Faithful Worship of the True God Does Not Come Naturally to Fallen Man
True covenant-renewal worship must be learned. "Anything that is good and wonderful takes effort, and our worship is not something we do sloppily..."

#3 Worship is a Command Performance
It is done at His command, for Him.

#4 Worship is Family Time
By this, Jordan means that it should be geared for Christians, and he even goes so far as to say that you don't need a "word to the lost." He recommends inviting unbelievers to other occasions in the life of the church. Although it may sound a bit harsh, I can see his point. We visited a church this fall that was obviously "seeker friendly." They used sound liturgy, but they kept apologizing for it and going overboard to explain why they used it. I wanted to yell out, "If it's important enough for you to use it, then just use it!" If someone is truly "seeking" and they come upon a meaty church service that's "hard to understand," perhaps they will be motivated to ask questions, pray, and search out what everything means. Isn't this far better than watering down the worship of God? I would never exclude an unbeliever from the Sunday morning worship, but when I go to church, I want to be fed meat, not pablum.

Jordan also considers all the Christian books on the market dealing with marriage and family. He says, "The first family is the Church. Join a Church that gives you bread and wine each week, that sings the Psalter, that teaches the whole Bible seriously, and has a decent community life. That is the most important thing you can do to build up our marriage and family."

What do you think?