“Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits…”*

It’s been quite a week with some scary stuff happening in the world.

The best antidote for anxiety is frequent meditation upon God’s goodness, power and sufficiency…Nothing is too big and nothing is too little to spread before and cast upon the Lord.

A.W. Pink

This article articulates what a lot of us are thinking. “We had better wake up to the real world in which we live. There are realities in North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran (the list goes on and on) that would leave you terrified every single day of your life. The sad reality is that while many potificate over fabricated evils on social media in the Western world, the better part of those enduring extreme suffering in the Middle East, North Korea, and Africa never get a voice on social media. Most of what we rant about in our bubble is child’s play compared to the real evils of a fallen world.”

I liked this post from Duo Dickinson. We are not in exactly the same place, but I hear him. God has likewise always been with me since I was a small child.

“A raw and scary childhood meant God was there, with me, since I knew my parents were not. I never felt like a victim; I never blamed my parents — they were human, like me. There was no mistaking them for God (or the reverse). Jesus was not an invented coping mechanism, he was just there. I could not have constructed him; he was just with me. My atheist friends all assume that a genetically triggered survival response of religious rationalization made an alcoholic family less painful. That could be true except even my young adult coping was fully inadequate for twenty years. An adult rationalization is simply impossible for a five-year-old, it was the reality of God that made faith real.”

Once again, let’s concentrate on being thankful for those 10,000 things God is doing for us. For instance, on Tuesday I had to go in for my 6-month check-up at the Cancer Center at MOBAP. On the way there, the Christian radio station played Lauren Daigle’s “Look Up Child” and I calmed right down. Thank you.

Here are Paul Zahl’s TCM movie picks for the rest of August. I am definitely going to DVR The Rainmaker (1956) which I have not seen in a long time. Back in the 1960s I saw 110 in the Shade at the Muny Opera which starred, I believe, Robert Horton. By the way, I watched The Natural (1984) yesterday on Robert Redford day on TCM and it was great. They wouldn’t know how to make a movie like that today and where would they find actors who could actually hit a ball? They’d have to CG it. Great supporting cast–there’s no one like Richard Farnsworth, Wilford Brimley, Darren McGavin, Robert Prosky around anymore. And great music, of course. If you missed it, you can watch it on Amazon Prime.

And here are more prayers for our children from my old schoolmate Kathleen Neilson.

And, finally, just a reminder that beauty is everywhere. Don’t stop looking for it. The boy sent this picture of his drive home last night. (Don’t text and drive!)

In the midst of our bustling days,

O Lord who knows and sees our bustle,

May we not forget the presence of our Savior.

*A.A. Milne