Reading Psalm 144 tonight

Almost 50 now--and, I have no idea where the time has gone--I am feeling old.  My body aches and doesn't seem to mend anymore. Where have the years gone, and what have I purchased with them?

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FATHER Strengthen Me

Praying the Penitential Rite for the ninth Sunday after Trinity from the BCP today--a fitting somber Office for my current state of despair and depression due to my work life and family problems--I noticed an occurrence of scripture speaking to me.  

First, the 44th Psalm re-introduced me to the idea that, my successes are not my own.  I owe them to God.  And, I do nothing on my own.

Second, the reading from 1 Corinthians tells us that God will not test us beyond our ability to resist.  Comforting, this is helpful, as I navigate the murky bog waters of disenchantment with my employer and heartbreaking disappointment with family members' self destructive behaviours.

Lean on God

 I often feel that I shouldn't pray to God because I'm in a bad place; I shouldn't turn to God because I'm desperate, and I should choose God because I want to when things are good.  But, is it really so bad to lean on God?

I bought the Feminist lie too.

It's happened before.  Like the time I asked why Mennonite pacifists owned guns, I messed up.  We can buy into the myth.  We cede ground to our opposition in an argument when we do not contest a false premise presented as fact and attack the conclusion, the intellectual meat in the bear trap; I'm pretty sure it's a logical fallacy and often presented as an inferred premise.  The answer--of course--is that firearms are not weapons.  They're tools.

Anyway, I digress here.  So, I did it again.  For so long, I've been told that the patriarchy had ruled, and in the Church too, where 2000 years ago they brought the woman to stone for the sin adultery before Jesus in the Gospel.  The inferred premise here is that the law was sexist and how dare they not bring the man.  Religion, therefore, is male centrist.  Well, if you look up Lev. Ch. 20 verse 10, you'll see that the law *is not* sexist.  The religious leaders were sinning by breaking the law.  Well, well, well.