Randy Ridenour

(Painting: Lamb by Francisco Zurbarán)1 The sounds of Passover fill the streets with desperate bleating as all the animals must be dragged to play their sacrificial roles.

Beginning today, for some reason, I could not indent Markdown list items in Emacs.

Best advice from the internet today: Master, what is the secret to happiness?

And perhaps the great day will come when a people, distinguished by wars and victories and by the highest development of a military order and intelligence, and accustomed to make the heaviest sacrifices for these things, will exclaim of its own free will,…

Holy God, The greatest tragedy is not to hate God, for the one who hates has God ever present before his mind.

This internet meme has been making the rounds lately: The graphic shows two people on opposite ends of an ambiguous figure on the ground.

Who am I this Christmas Day?

Peace be with you, When a new emperor took the throne in Rome, messengers were sent to the rich and powerful to deliver “glad tidings” of Caesar, who was called “savior and lord” and promised to bring peace to the empire through the power of his vast rich…

Father of Light, The creator of the universe came to us as a helpless child, reminding us that there is no reconciliation without risk or love without a chance of loss.

Three minutes’ thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.

Comedian Emo Phillips is credited with writing this classic – voted in a recent contest as the best religious joke of all time.

All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the

A prayer for the days preceding the election: God of comfort, No matter the result, Half of us will find That the thing we fear Will have come true.

Yesterday, I showed that claiming that only 5.7% of Clinton Foundation donations goes to charity is essentially false.

I just read a Facebook comment by someone who was apparently downplaying the Black Lives Matter movement by pointing out that the police shoot more white Americans than black Americans.

(Sung to the tune of “John Henry”) When Mitch Randall was a little baby, sitting on his father’s knee.

This is the benediction from a funeral service that I officiated today: In our blindness, may the light of God keep us from stumbling.

I officiated a wedding for a former student and dear friend yesterday.

I should have rather asked if the church alone should bear the burden of providing welfare.

God of compassion, In these weeks of violence and tragedy, we have mourned with those who grieve, cried with those who weep, sat in silence with those in pain, and protested with those who suffer injustice.

The iPad Pro has more people considering using the iPad for production, not just for entertainment.

Here is the world.

Here is my attempt at pull quotes in the Lanyon/Poole theme for Jekyll: .pquote { float: right; width: 15rem; color: #979797; font-size: 1.5rem; line-height: 1.8rem; font-style: italic; padding: 1rem; quotes: "\201C""\201D""\2…

Voice of Heaven, Words become thoughts, thoughts, beliefs, and beliefs, actions; and that which I once merely heard is soon that which I am.

I wrote this eight years ago, after President Obama’s election: The year that I was born, 1963, was marked by these significant events: In April, Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed in Birmingham.

God of hope and joy, You are with me, and in your presence, I will not be afraid of the world, for it is your creation; of the future, for you have already redeemed it; of the unknown, for surely you have seen it; of the stranger, for she was made in your…

Gracious God, We live in fear of failure and disappointment, afraid that we might say or do the wrong thing.

Ignorance may not be bliss, but it’s certainly less work.

Lord Jesus, You warned the disciples to be wary of claims that the messiah had come.

Gracious Father, Holy Saturday, the day of waiting, after all of our hopes and dreams have been crushed by a cruel world and a naive idealism is forced to succumb to a harsher reality.

The empire justifies its existence with promises of safety and security, promises that hold no power unless the people live in fear.

Prince of Peace, The palm branches waving in Jerusalem symbolized the dreams of the people, dreams of defeated enemies, and a peace gained by the overwhelming force of divine power and might.

In biblical texts, victims are innocent and collective violence is to blame. ln myths, the victims are to blame and communities are always innocent.

God of life, Sometimes our prayers are as parched as the desert and our hearts as dry as the dunes of sand.

God of compassion, Peter and John met a man asking for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple.

Philip Yancey relates an insightful comment by a Muslim scholar explaining the particular difficulties that Islam and Christianity each have relating to culture: I have read the entire Koran and can find in it no guidance on how Muslims should live as a m…

For the First Sunday of Advent God of all hope, When those seeking food and shelter are told only to pray to Jesus, When those fleeing the devastation of war are told only to go to Jesus, And when those who have lost all hope are told only to hope in Jesu…

Father, I’m surrounded by voices telling me what I want to hear, voices urging me to seek my own good, to protect what is mine, that my security is more important than the needs of others.

As we mourn for the lives lost this week in Paris, Lord, hear our prayer.

I recently started using John Wiegley’s [use-package](https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package ) for my Emacs init files.

Lord Jesus, You invite us to lay down our burdens, cares, concerns, fears, and anxieties, and give them all to you.

God of grace, On the door of the church, Luther proclaimed his message, “The true treasure of the church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.”

Man’s sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest things are marks of a strange disorder.

Gracious God, Giver of life, Long ago, a tree was planted by your grace and watered by your providential care.

I once sent a dozen of my friends a telegram saying ’flee at once - all is discovered.’

Glennon Doyle Melton at momastery.com posted an article with the provocative title, “If You Wouldn’t Go to Your Minister for a Mammogram, Don’t Go for Depression.”

God of love and grace, Before there was anything else, there was love, perfect and pure.

Etgar Keret’s new book, The Seven Good Years is a collection of essays concerning the interval between the birth of his son and the death of his father.

Gracious God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, Forgive me, when I quickly judge a harsh word, or impolite response without knowing the full story.

This is one of those posts that serve only to remind me of something in the future.