Hymn: God is Love

God is Love, let heaven adore him;
God is Love, let earth rejoice;
let creation sing before him
and exalt him with one voice.
God who laid the earth’s foundation,
God who spread the heaven above,
God who breathes through all creation:
God is Love, eternal Love.

God is Love; and Love enfolds us,
all the world in one embrace:
with unfailing grasp God holds us,
every child of every race.
And when human hearts are breaking
under sorrow’s iron rod,
then we find that selfsame aching
deep within the heart of God.

God is Love; and though with blindness
sin afflicts all human life,
God’s eternal loving-kindness
guides us through our earthly strife.
Sin and death and hell shall never
o’er us final triumph gain;
God is Love, so Love for ever
o’er the universe must reign.

        Timothy Rees

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Tree Heart/True Heart

The hearts of trees
are serially displaced
pressed annually
outward to a ring.
They aren’t really
what we mean
by hearts, they so
easily acquiesce,
willing to thin and
stretch around some
upstart green. A
real heart does not
give way to spring.
A heart is true.
I say no more springs
without you.

        Kay Ryan 

 

 

 

 

 

Anxiety and courage

Anxiety is the unwillingness to play
    even when you know the odds are for you.
Courage is the willingness to play
    even when you know the odds are against you.

        Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin 

 

 

 

 

 

The supreme test

Most people can bear adversity;
but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power.
This is the supreme test.

        Robert G. Ingersoll, speaking of Abraham Lincoln

 

 

 

 

 

Those who have eyes to see...

There are many who stumble in the noon-day,
    not for want of light, but for want of eyes.

        John Newton, The Works of the Rev. J. Newton

 

 

 

 

 

A moral issue

It’s a moral issue. A moral issue.
And to me that’s always much more interesting than a real issue.

            Elaine May in a routine with Mike Nichols

 

 

 

 

 

 

A skill to cultivate

Call me a romantic,
But I believe that there will be a future,
and indeed a long future, beyond 2027.
History will not end.
We need to cultivate the skill
of exact thinking in demented times.

        Dan Wang, December 2025 blog post