Sunday afternoon thoughts

Holding fast to that which is good:

* Charles Hill (in his Pony Alter Ego of Dusty Sage) reported on this story. It caught my attention because Pony, because I follow both the main parties involved (LeekFish and Foal Papers) on Twitter, and, well, it's just a super nice story.

In short: LeekFish made a lovely art book for the Nightmare Nights Convention auction to raise money for St. Jude. She loved the book and hated giving it up, but knew that that was its purpose. Well, Foal Papers (with others' help, I guess) bid up the book, and finally got the winning bid.

And he gave the book back to her. And everybody cried happy tears.

I'm not SURPRISED by the action, from what I've read of the people involved, but I am moved by it.

* This week in church we celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. No, we are not Lutheran (though today's order of service was partly borrowed from whatever the world-wide Lutheran governing body is). The point being: without Martin Luther, there would likely not have been an Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone some 300 years later to lead to the founding of our little denomination.

And in the sermon, the minister noted that there seems to have been "upheavals" in the church every 500 years ago - first, with the fall of Rome and the incorporation of some heresies/more brutal beliefs in Christianity, then the Crusades (?I think that was the 1000 AD thing?), then the Reformation. And now, of course, we are in one of the periodic "dimmings" of the light - that we are in a world where many people reject faith or see Christians as the enemy (and, sadly, some Christians have behaved in unfriendly or exclusionary ways, even to those who are "seekers"). But a glimmer of hope: the idea that one thing we can offer that people hunger for is community, and that maybe, if we START by offering community, then some people will eventually be moved to faith or to a more-productive way of living (i.e.: not hurting others) as a result. It's an interesting idea and kind of upends the "first you believe and then you become part of the community" that has been traditional but you know? I don't know any more. Given the shrinking membership of churches maybe we need to try providing a community first, and then see if people want to join.

I just hope there continues to be something like church for me in the future; it is one of the few groups where I have consistently felt welcome and valued and where no one, for example, wants to know how much money I have or how "important" I am in the outside world.

Also much talk of how one of Luther's big ideas at the time (which was somewhat eclipsed in the Church of his time, but has since been embraced) is the fact that you can't buy God's love - that it is freely given, and it just must be accepted.

And I admit, on some level, I struggle with that. Maybe not with God so much but with people: an ongoing pattern in my life is that I take on the thankless tasks partly because I think the way to get people to love me is to do stuff for them, when really, the people who love me are going to love me anyway, and the people who don't, will just exploit me. But it's still hard, as I can still hear the echoes of "I won't be your friend if..." from my childhood.

* We also sang a lot of the old, old hymns that we don't often sing: A Mighty Fortress (of course, because Luther) but also Now Thank We All our God and O God our Help in Ages Past.

I love all of those hymns because of the history and the richness of the language. (And I admit, this bit from A Mighty Fortress always gets me, and I did start to tear up again today:

"And though this world, with devils filled,/ should threaten to undo us,"

And for me, the "undoing" does not come in being tempted to join in the evil, but it comes in the...giving up. In looking around and going "Everything's gone to literal Hell, I'm just going to curl up in a ball and not try any more" or despairing of the good or something. (I have joked on Twitter a couple times that "2017 will turn me Calvinist" in the most-stereotypical version of Calvinism, but like most jokes, there's a germ of truth in there)

But yes, of course: as I say in stronger times, the Good will win, in fact has already won, but I admit sometimes it's hard to see that in this world where crudeness and cruelty seem to go unchallenged, and sometimes the good you do gets buried and forgotten.

But anyway - it was a meaningful service and I'm reminded that one reason I've "trained" my Pandora stream that I use most often at work to include a bunch of (mostly British) church choral music is that I love it and it does calm me down when upset.

Though I've also recently discovered a 20th C. composer named Morten Lauridsen (through the Pandora stream) and while I'm normally not a big fan of 20th C. music or the more "dreamy" (for lack of a better term, or maybe "mystical" is what I'm looking for) arrangements - I really like his Chanson de la Rose, and Lux Aeterna, and O Magnum Mysterium:



* I will add to this later on - I am almost done with the "Pinky Swear" hat, and I want to photograph my newest ponies, and talk about a few other things. Or maybe I do a second post later with photos and craft-talk....