My friend Stan is in much better shape than we feared last week. He's banged up and will have to spend a good bit of time recuperating. But he's alive, with the hope of a full recovery. I'm thankful for your prayers for him.
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Regarding the political character of the expression "Jesus is Lord," here's another quote from Michael Bird's new book, Introducing Paul:
Imagine it is the late 1930s and you are in a lavish hotel in Berlin for a sumptuous dinner with a cohort of German industrialists, bankers, barons, university lecturers and officers from a German SS Panzer division. The evening is relatively cheerful and the mood jovial; conversation revolves around the weather, advice on financial investments, holiday plans in Austria and the latest operas. Then an SS officer taps his glass and proposes a toast to the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, to his health and the new Germany, and everyone raises their glasses. And then you, being the committed Christian you are, propose another toast and bellow out in your best German, "Jesus ist Fuhrer!" Now what manner of reaction do you suppose it would prompt from those SS officers? Do you think they would even entertain the idea that Germany has room for two Fuhrers, the other being a Jew? (pp. 83-84).
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A few weeks ago, I was in a used bookstore and came across this sweet, classic-looking paperback copy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. It was a dollar, I think. Friday evening I started reading it a little at a time; for a few minutes sitting on the porch, a little bit more lying in bed.
That night it was so much on my mind that I couldn't sleep very well. I'd wake up, read for a little while, go back to bed, fall asleep, and then do that all over again. I finished it on Saturday afternoon.
There aren't too many writers who can do that to me. So what is it about Hemingway? Which writers can keep you up reading when you'd otherwise be sleeping?
So glad to hear that Stan is doing better.
ReplyDeleteGlad your friend is doing better.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, your connection with Hemmingway's writing is the thing you have in common: Piggott! He wrote "A Fairwell o Arms" while living there.
I read your posts regularly and appreciate your reflections. I would to catch up on where our lives have meandered since we last saw each other. In Him...
Hi, Carisse. If you don't already know Stan and Lorrie, you'll want to eventually meet them.
ReplyDeleteLannie, so great to hear from you after all these years. I'd love to find out more about what's going on with you these days. Drop me a note when you can.