A Concord Pastor on Happiness and Meaning

This must be my week of sending readers to other sites with outstanding posts. I don't usually do that. Yet, for the second day in a row, I have come across posts eminently worth sharing. This particular one I came across a short while back but have not had time to share until now. Many of you who read my Monday Morning Meditations also continue on to read Fr. Austin's Monday morning "coffee" prayers, the link for which I include in my MMM posts. In addition to his Monday prayers, Fr. Austin posts on a wide range of topics, and some of his insights are brilliantly insightful and helpful, especially to those of us who are new converts.

In my book, Blest Atheist, and in my forthcoming book, Believer in Waiting, and in several blog posts, I have discussed the question of why bad things happen to good people. (See, for example, "Bad Things and Good People.")

C. S. Lewis (The Problem of Pain) suggested that we only expect to have a life without pain because we believe in a compassionate God. If God is compassionate, the argument goes, why would He not remove any trouble from our lives so that we can be always happy. Fr. Austin, in looking at the happiness question, points out to us that "happiness" is not what life is about, "meaning" is. Well, I cannot summarize what he has explained more eloquently and articulately. So, please take the time to click on the link and read his post: A Concord Pastor Comments: Happiness and Meaning.

May your life be meaningful always and happy when it should be!

Nelson Mandela

famous people

Born in Mvezo, Transkei on July 18, 1918, Rolihlahla Mendela then moved to Qunu until the age of 9 years. He was the first of his family who attend school. He also received the name
of Nelson from his teacher who is a Methodist. At age 16, he entered Clarkebury Boarding Institute study western culture.

In 1934, he began a program B.A. at Fort Hare University, where he met Oliver Tambo who became a loyal friend and colleague. Having opposed the policy of the university and asked to leave. He moved to Johannesburg and continued his studies at the University of South Africa after taking law at the University of the Witswatersrand.

As an activist Nelson Mandela following the African National Congress (ANC) of activities that antiapartheid 1942.Karena year, he underwent a variety of future punishment. On August 5, 1962, Mandela was arrested and imprisoned in the Johannesburg Fort and then on October 25, 1962, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison and on June 12, 1964, he and a group of other activists were sentenced to life imprisonment.

 

After refusing parole to stop the armed struggle in February 1985, Mandela stayed in prison until released on February 11, 1990 on the orders of President Frederik Willem de Klerk after pressured by the whole world. Mandela and de Klerk get the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993

Nelson Mandela served as President of South Africa in a period of approximately 5 years (May 1994 - June 1999) after winning the election and became the first black president by de Klerk as a deputy president.

The problem of AIDS became the source of disappointment and regret those Mandela because in his reign, he pays little attention to this problem. His son, Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS on January 6, 2005.

Abraham Lincoln

famous people

Lincoln was born in Kentucky, USA, where his father worked as a carpenter. He has lost his mother at an early age, then her father married again. But Lincoln and his sister had loved her
stepmother's.

Early in his career, Lincoln was elected to the parliament for the Illinois region in 1834. Then re-elected in 1838 and 1840. At that time, In 1846, Lincoln was elected to Congress. However, its membership was not renewed because he proposed legislation to end slavery in the District of Columbia. Disappointed, he re-activate his firm. He stopped his political activities for some time, but then he is better known by the public as an honest lawyer.

Lincoln could not stop for too long from the political world. In 1854, the issue of slavery made him jump back into politics. Taampaknya he had to compete with Stephen Douglas, who tried to subdue the South Americans who supported slavery, while the Northern region were opposed. Lincoln did not expect that half of this country to maintain the practice of slavery as opposed to half of his fellow countrymen. He thought it could not be made up of half the nation half slave instead. However, Lincoln was hit in the first round against Douglas, the U.S. Senate seats.

Shortly after Lincoln was elected President, Southern withdraw from the federation. On April 12, 1861, the South attacked the North area in the city of Fort Sunter. Civil War or the 'war between the states of the federation' has begun.

In November 1863, in the battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered a speech, which is remembered throughout history. He said "... was born a new nation, founded on liberty that upholds the recognition that all men are created equal." The words of Lincoln at Gettysburg gives two principles of freedom and equality - which the founding of the United States.

Lincoln died in a way that unexpected. While we were watching a theater with his wife, he was shot by a fellow named John Wilkes Booth. Pick her death, when peace has come for America. Maybe it was the culmination of events that have occurred as casualties of the end of slavery in America. After his death, Lincoln was known as a great man, and the ideals that have been upheld to be maintained by all Americans.

Memorial Day 2011: Life after War

I would invite readers to go to the following article, written by a member of Give an Hour. It tells the poignant story of a war veteran, hopelessly lost to drugs and despair, trapped in post-traumatic stress disorder and with few resources to help (most petered out before she could recover). The story seemed too appropriate for Memorial Day, just observed yesterday, not to share. However, since it seems to be copyrighted, I have decided simply to include the link and urge you to take the time to follow the link and read the story; you won't regret it. You can find it here: I Served My Country...and Wound Up Living in My Car The veteran is Jennifer Crane; the author is Lynn Harris. If you can help GAH through a donation or through spreading the world, you will involve yourself in a very worthy cause. Visit the GAH website for more information.

Reminder! We Don't Live Here Anymore!

Hey there little lords and ladies. Just a friendly little reminder that this here blog isn't being updated any longer. If you want your favorite DC music folks, you now have two options for reading our stuff.

Terrible Chris now gets his kicks over at Odd Bloggings. For your weekly fill of nekkid innuendo and beaty jams, head his way.

Yours truly now resides at Fuzzy Logic, the place to get your fill of, well, everything I wrote about while co-CEO of LET. Also, shameless self-promotion, I'm now doing a monthly residency at Bella, near the 9:30 Club. Come see some of the bands I love live and in person each and every month.

Thanks to each and every one of you for reading. We really appreciate it, and if there were more hours in the day I'm sure we'd make it a point to makeout with all of you.

xoxo!

Monday Morning Meditation #81: God Keeps His Promises

Let me begin the morning by wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day. This is one holiday I can never forget because my daughter, Noelle, was born on the real Memorial Day (May 30), which falls on the same day as the Monday observation this year, a rarity. Of course, not being used to the celebration being on the real day, I somehow became confused and the family ending up celebrating Noelle's birthday a day early -- and she did not say a word until afterward! (I wonder if she got confused, too.)

This week I read through Jeremiah until I reached Chapter 35, which sent me scurrying to research sources, as well as to Jewish scholars who are friends of mine. In this chapter, God tells Jeremiah to invite the Rechabites, a tribe living at that time in Jerusalem, to wine and dine with him. The Rechabites, who had come to avoid the armies of Chaldea and Aram (Syria), were a nomadic people, following the original practices of Israel and the dictates of Jonadab, son of Rechab, the father of their tribe:

3. We do not drink wine," they said to me: "Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, forbade us in these words: 'Neither you nor your children shall ever drink wine. Build no house and sow no seed; neither plant nor own a vineyard. You shall dwell in tents all your life, so that you may live long on the earth where you are wayfarers.' Now we have heeded Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, in all his prohibitions. All our lives we have not drunk wine, neither we, nor our wives, nor our sons, nor our daughters. We build no houses to live in; we own no vineyards or fields or crops, and we live in tents; we obediently do everything our father Jonadab commanded us.

The reason God had asked Jeremiah to tempt the Rechabites in this way was to point out how well they obeyed in comparison to the rebellious Israelites who were about to be led into captivity for their unwillingness to do the same. As a reward for their faithfulness, God promised that there would "always be a Rechabite standing in service to Him."

Reading: Jeremiah 35.

Meditation: When we read this chapter recently in our Bible Studies group (my reading of Jeremiah has corresponded the past couple of months with our Bible Studies, which has been quite exciting and certainly mathemagenic), questions were raised as to whether God had kept His promise. After all, where do the Rechabites live today? No one calls themselves by that name.

The description of the lifestyle of the Rechabites, however, reminded me of the Bedouin tribe I had lived with in Jordan: they raised goats, planted no crops, drank no wine, lived in tents, and were devoted to Allah (God). I wondered whether they could be the descendants of the Rechabites and set out to do some research, as I mentioned above. What I learned did not surprise me: the Bedouin tribes in the area of the Dead Sea (near where I was living a few years ago and not all that far from where they were living in Jeremiah's time) trace their ancestry to Jonadab, son of Rechab. In addition, there are supposedly a few people living in Yemen, not far from where the tribe with whom Jeremiah spoke had come from, who consider themselves descendants of the Rechabites. So, yes, it would appear that God did keep His promise. (Could there have been any doubt?)

Contemplation: That is far as I can go with you this Monday morning. I now retire to private prayer to thank God for always keeping His promises, to repent for any time I have been rebellious, to ask for more opportunities to learn obedience, and to praise God for the ways in which He shows His faithfulness to us. Then I will move on to contemplation, my favorite part of the day, letting God take over the direction in which my relationship with Him moves.

I will leave you now to your prayer and contemplation. First, though, I would like to bring to your attention a Monday morning prayer post that you might enjoy:

Fr. Austin Fleming, priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and pastor in Concord, Massachusetts, posts a prayer each Monday morning that he calls "Monday Morning Offering." I enjoy his prayers very much. I think you also will find them inspirational. He has graciously given me permission to include a link to his blog on my Monday Morning Meditation posts. (During the week, he also posts great homilies and other thoughtful discussions. I enjoy reading those, too, as do readers of this blog who have taken the stroll over to his blog.)

For additional inspiration throughout the week, I would point out two sets of blogs: (1) the list of devotional blogs on my sidebar and (2) my blogroll, where I am following a number of inspirational priests and writers about spiritual matters. I learn so very much from all these people. I highly recommend them to you.

Spiritual Sunday #24: No Words Needed

For more Spiritual Sunday posts, I recommend that you wander over to the website of Charlotte and Ginger, who host the Spiritual Sunday meme.

Because I do not blog on Sundays -- keeping it as the sabbath, a practice started by Fr. Christian Mathis (Blessed Is the Kingdom) -- I usually use older posts (forgotten perhaps but hopefully still interesting) from one or another of my blogs that seem appropriate for this meme. This week, however, one of my colleagues shared a picture, source unknown (otherwise I would give credit), which is a post all by itself. Would you agree that any words would just take away from the message and feel of this picture?



Peace to all! Prayers for all -- always!