Singing

Last evening a carload of us drove to Fairbury for a singing at the church Fellowship Hall.  A group from there invited 5 couples from each of the Illinois churches (and some from out of state) for a night of singing and fellowship prior to Thanksgiving.  It was good to meet some new people and renew some old friendships.  As we began singing, I started thinking what a blessing our church has been to me and my family.  The fellowship was sweet.  The bonds of Christian love were evident.  The singing was beautiful and spirited.  I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in our fellowship and praise. 

I had sat down by a Brother from a neighboring church that has been in turmoil recently.  Without knowing the thoughts going through my mind, about the third or fourth song in, he turned to me and said, "This reaffirms my convictions; I have the right faith and am in the right fellowship."

There has never been a perfect church or church leader.  There will always be problems somewhere.  But nobody will convince me that what I have and enjoy in our denomination is not a blessing from God.  And despite imperfections (real or perceived), God is working in and through us.

I was inspired.  I am thankful.

My third grade Sunday School teacher died a week or so ago.  I thought she was old when I had her for a teacher!  That was about 48 years ago.  One of the few things that I remember about the class is that she made us memorize a portion of Psalm 100, a psalm of thanksgiving.


Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Tree sitting

In all of my years of deer hunting, I think this past weekend was the most beautiful weather that I have hunted in.  Cool, crisp, clear, still mornings in the 30's and warm, clear, still afternoons in the 50's made for very comfortable treestand sitting.  Both sons took bucks.  I only saw a couple of small deer, so I waited.  Saturday evening, something spooked a button buck past my stand so I watched to see what it was.  A coyote came sneaking along into view, so since I was starting to get bored, I decided he made a great target and shot him.  I'll try to get back out for the second season to get some venison.

The winter meeting and show season has started. 
Today I shook hands with Coach Herman Boone.  The movie, Remember the Titans, was based on the inspirational story of his first football coaching year (1971) at a newly integrated and consolidated High School in Alexandria, Virginia. 
I was attending the Illinois Commodity Conference and Coach Boone was the keynote speaker.  I enjoyed his message on the importance of teamwork in agriculture to overcome the obstacles that we face, and anecdotes from his experiences that season.

And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.
Luke 19:4

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Poetry

Wednesday night at church, we had a topical Bible Study instead of normal services.  Brother Willis Ehnle gave a study on Thanksgiving.  During the course of his presentation, in his booming voice, he quoted from four poems to illustrate points.  They were as follows:

- A poem he wrote while teaching in Alabama.
- Flanders Field  by John McCrae
- Crossing the Bar by  Alfred Lord Tennyson
- A Psalm of Life  by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Crossing the Bar

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crost the bar.

 

 

A Psalm of Life

 

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act,— act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

 

He had a lot of good thoughts and unfortunately I don't remember all of the things he taught us about Thanksgiving. But I was impressed with his memorization of these famous poems.

 

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.
Psalm 26:7

 

 

 

Disappointment

Because of our switch to a wean to finish operation, we had to buy some new heaters for our buildings.  The sows had enough body heat to keep their rooms warm, and the continuous flow finishing didn't need additional heat either.  But now, there will be times when the pigs are young that we will need heat.  So, in the last week, I installed 6 new LB White heaters.  That ought to keep the pigs warm this winter.

Last Tuesday I voted.  Then Tuesday evening I chose not to pay any attention to the election coverage and went to bed without knowing the outcome.

I slept peacefully.

I was disappointed but not surprised by the headlines of the morning paper.  This country will get what it deserves. 

"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

— Benjamin Franklin

 

We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."

— Nikita Khrushchev

 

"The reason this country continues its drift toward socialism and big nanny government is because too many people vote in the expectation of getting something for nothing, not because they have a concern for what is good for the country. A better educated electorate might change the reason many persons vote. If children were forced to learn about the Constitution, about how government works, about how this nation came into being, about taxes and about how government forever threatens the cause of liberty perhaps we wouldn't see so many foolish ideas coming out of the mouths of silly men."

— Lyn Nofziger
American journalist, political consultant and author.

 

 

This evening I spoke on the phone with a friend, fellow hog farmer, and Brother in Christ, who was told by his doctor that he has 8 - 12 weeks to live.  Perhaps a few months longer if they perform a risky surgery.  Suddenly all my concerns and frustrations seem trivial.  He received this news on election day.  The outcome of the election really doesn't matter much to him anymore.  And it shouldn't to me either.  There are more important things in life than fretting about earthly government.  It was a good reminder again that this earth is not our home, we are strangers and pilgrims passing through.
We will uphold this Brother and his family in our prayers.

  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
2 Peter 1:10