It’s Sunday night and time to check in with you. How are you doing with the time change? The November nights start a lot earlier! An hour doesn’t seem like much of an adjustment until you have to do it. Unfortunately, it is not a matter of choice. Still, there’s no use in being in an uproar about it. We just cope with it. After all, this is ordinary time. Daylight Savings Time is the one we seem to like the most. So, on Sunday, March 10th, 2024 (should we still be here), you’ll get your hour back. Oh, the moaning about losing an hour of sleep we will hear. It’s hard to please human beings.
My last post (HERE) was about a recent retreat that I enjoyed with lifelong friends. I met some of them when I was 17 years old, and at almost 60, that feels like a lifetime. Thanks for the likes and comments there. That comes on the heels of a week away in Arkansas (HERE). Time away is not only good and appropriate, it is also needful. After restful periods, do you find it hard to get back into the flow of things? I love what I do, and it didn’t take long to get back to being very mindful of my time so that I get everything done that I want to (and sometimes choosing which things might go undone). I do not think that is unique to the ministry life. Everyone I know is incredibly busy. What do you do to unplug and seek peace? I know that taking photographs is, for me, that activity.
This coming week is what I call a “regular” week. It will be full, but nothing that I know of will be unusual. In my Wednesday night Bible class I will conclude a series called “Great Nights of the Bible”. After Thanksgiving, I’ll do a five-week short course on the Holy Spirit. I’m looking forward to teaching that. As always, when I teach, I share the notes through posts at the Forsythe Sermon Substack. I do not get many responses there, perhaps by the time readers get to the end of the post, slumber has overcome them.
I keep double-checking my calendar, certain that I must be wrong. But it’s true. A week from Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. I’m sure I’ll write more about that with next week’s check-in, but I’m wondering if we not only set our clocks back but also ramp up their speed. It reminds me of the words of an old gospel hymn, “Swiftly we’re turning life’s daily pages.”
Listening
Speaking of gospel songs, I was replaying a few songs this week. One of them was by Andre Crouch (July 1, 1942 – January 8, 2015), who composed a soul-lifting anthem when he wrote The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power
The blood that Jesus shed for me
Way back on Calvary
The blood that gives me strength
From day to day
It will never lose its power
It reaches to the highest mountain
It flows to the lowest valley
The blood that gives me strength
From day to day
It will never lose its power
It soothes my doubts and calms my fears
And it dries all my tears
The blood that gives me strength
From day to day
It will never lose its power
It reaches to the highest mountain
It flows to the lowest valley
The blood that gives me strength
From day to day
It will never lose its power.
Here’s the fantastic CeCe Winans singing this great Crouch song.
Whatever we’re facing these days, whether it is as simple as changing the hour on our clock or as tiring as working long hours without rest, we can count on the consistent strength that comes from the Lord. The blood of Jesus never loses its power! I would hate to face the struggles of life without knowing that the presence of the Lord is with me always.
November nights begin earlier, and for some, that is a time of sadness. The holidays are upon us, and for some that is a melancholy time. The year will be ending in a matter of weeks, and that should cause us to reflect. To help our November nights be brighter, I encourage us to spend our November days sharing the love of God with all we meet.
Linkage
Patrick Ryan hasn’t posted a sermon since August, and I’ve missed his writings. We have a new one called Practicing Resurrection. I hope this means we will be hearing from him more often. He has comments turned off and so there’s no way for me to tell him how much I really enjoy his messages. Maybe he will see this?
Heather Holland has been sending brief encouragements to bring kindness into the world.
I confessed on Notes that I am so far behind on reading posts - but I do plan to catch up. My problem is an overload of subscriptions which is compounded by continuing to add new subscriptions. I know I am not alone in this - it’s a nice problem to have.
Reading
I started Christian Cooper’s Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World. I like his observations about birding. I’m only a few chapters in, so a review wouldn’t be fair. I’ve also started Darrel Ahrens’ The Abundant Life. It’s pretty dense, a lot of statements without a lot of reflection. I’m going to continue with it for now. There are other books I’m in the midst of and haven’t finished, and I have no right to begin a new book but there you go.
Thanks for reading this Sunday night check-in. I’d love to hear some of your thoughts about some things I wrote about there. I would even like to hear how you’re doing.
My Mother, who’s now passed on, once expressed a concern that the hymns about the Blood were disappearing from the hymnals. I love this song you posted and hope we always sing about the “power in the blood!”
I'm glad you were able to enjoy some time away from the computer! Thank you for the armadillo pictures. They are a source of endless fascination.
Regarding the shorter days...ugh. I was writing this afternoon and next thing I knew the sun had gone down and my body wanted to take a nap. Hopefully what I wrote was coherent.