 A double amputee runner The Boston Marathon is the Holy Grail of runners. Anyone can sign up to run a 26.2-mile race in Indianapolis or Beaver Island, Michigan, but you have to qualify for Boston. My son-in-law told me, “The easiest way to qualify is to get old.” That’s because the qualifying time goes up with age. Dan didn’t wait to get old. He did the distance in less than three hours at Beaver Island earlier this year and promptly went on to do two more Marathons culminating in a personal record of two hours and fifty-four minutes in New York in November.
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 Technology has its down side (witness all the ads for Viagra and body-part enlargers that show up in my spam box) but it really has some great stuff too. Recently I have been enjoying Inter-Varsity Press’s Quiet Time Study page. It works its way through the Bible over a couple years with questions and links to the Bible Gateway page for that passage. I read the introductory paragraph, click on the link to Bible Gateway, read the passage, then line up the two windows side-by-side on my screen, read the questions one at a time and find the answers in the passage.
 Rejoice for He is risen! I will not leave you this week in the darkness of Friday afternoon. After #18 ("Beneath the Cross of Jesus" in InterVarsity's Hymns) comes #19! Thine Be the Glory, Risen, Conquering Son!
I have been working on a short story about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on that long ago Easter afternoon, immersing myself in their grief, trying to imagine its transformation into joy as they recognized Jesus. (The lane at the left is on the campus of Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in Kenya, but I can easily imagine my disciples walking down it.) For that reason verse two of this hymn struck me especially. Verse three makes me think of Thomas. Maybe I need to write another story.  A good place for trysting in Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town When I wrote a couple weeks ago about one of my favorite hymns, "For All the Saints", several of you wrote back with your own favorites or sharing your love for mine. (For some reason readers of this blog seem to prefer to comment in personal e-mails or on Facebook rather than on the blog itself. I guess they are shy. Or maybe FB feels more personal. Who knows? I’m just glad when you tell me what you think!)
My sister mentioned #3 and #7 in InterVarsity's Hymns, which we used in family worship growing up. She didn’t bother to give their titles. She assumed I too would remember them from the numbers. She sent me back, thumbing through the slim blue volume on the shelf by the piano, reading favorite after favorite and remembering precious times of worship. |
