Strangely Warmed

Photo by Diane Helentjaris on Unsplash

I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

From the Journal of John Wesley on his experience at Aldersgate.
May 24, 1738

Today is Aldersgate Day, a day observed by Methodists around the world celebrating John Wesley’s spiritual assurance of his faith and new birth, and leading to the beginning of the Methodist Church in Britain and Colonial America.

That led to the appointment of Bishop Francis Asbury of whom I wrote last week, and the founding of Asbury College, now University, where I got my education, solidified my faith, and met my bride of now almost 36 years.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to preach.

But Methodism, and more specifically, Wesleyanism, is strong in my background.

My great-grandfather was a Methodist circuit rider and no doubt traveled some of the very same roads

Available from The Write Side Shop
(click the pic)

traveled by Bishop Asbury.

And, except for a three-year journey, not unlike a three-hour tour, where my wife and I were members of a Reformed Presbyterian Church, our worship tradition has always been in the Wesleyan tradition, even when not acknowledged as such, the lines trace back.

I’m still not going to preach.

But if you’ve followed lately, you know that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking, pondering if you will, about how I got where I am. Thinking about those who went before. Thinking about all of the “random” events that had to get me to the point of sitting here on a rainy morning typing out this post.

It’s all part of a grand design.

It certainly didn’t poof into existence.

Oh wait, maybe that was a little preachy.

I’m beginning to think that I’ll never figure it all out, not on this side of Jordan river anyway.

(Director’s note: the piano player begins softly playing “Just As I Am” while the speaker wraps up his presentation.)

Where was I?

Maybe it’s just that, the older I get, the more I realize the importance of the path, and the path makers, so to speak, that got me here.

Maybe that’s why the gospel music speaks to me.

Maybe that’s why the other day I told Alexa to play The Grand Ol’ Opry.

Maybe that’s why I wouldn’t cringe at watching Lawrence Welk.

Too far?

This morning, I’m thankful for my heritage that, in some fashion or another, goes all the way back to Aldersgate, England.

It gives a warm feeling.

Charles Wesley, the brother of John was also a leader in the Methodist movement. He wrote over 6,500 hymns, including And Can it Be? my class hymn at Asbury University. Please stand as we sing.


THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

Sunday Firesides: Why Isn’t Common Sense More Common?
The Art of Manliness
If it seems we’re suffering a deficit in common sense, it’s for this reason: there are multiple meanings of sense, the cultivation of common sense requires most of them, and they’ve all gone missing. Read More.

BORN ON THIS DAY

1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
1941 – Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, artist, writer, and producer; Nobel Prize laureate
1943 – Gary Burghoff, American actor
1944 – Patti LaBelle, American singer-songwriter and actress
1945 – Priscilla Presley, American actress and businesswoman
1953 – Alfred Molina, English actor
1955 – Rosanne Cash, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – Gene Anthony Ray, American actor, dancer, and choreographer (d. 2003)
1965 – John C. Reilly, American actor

BENEDICTION

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121:7–8

The One Where I Shut Down the Blog

No. Not today.

Facebook memories can be weird things. Sometimes I’m reminded of special times, special moments. Sometimes I read them and say “what…whut?”

So color me surprised when yesterday a memory popped up that I titled “All My Blogs Are Packed, I’m Ready to Go.”

I wrote:

“This post has been brewing for quite some time now. I’m closing down The Write Side of My Brain. No, it’s not a stroke. In a sense, it’s a preventative measure against a stroke.”

Well, that didn’t last.

What makes this weirder is that I can’t find that post. At some point, Facebook was posting the whole text of the blogs. Best I can figure it was something I wrote in and around the time I was switching domains from paid to free and back to paid again.

I know you’re thinking “OMG the last twelve years have been bad enough, how could we have made it

Mugshots

without The Write Side of My Brain?”

Okay, maybe you’re not thinking that.

But I have to think about what has happened in that time, particularly here with the blog.

I didn’t, as so many gurus have told me I could, turn this into a money-making machine, for only $499…today only.

I didn’t finish and publish the Great American Novel™.

I did finish and self publish my script, and saw it performed on stage.

I did spent a lot of time in theater, and working at the park.

Then there’s the whole red suit business that’s really beginning to define who I am.

The blog has changed multiple times over the years. Sometimes I do some brilliant writing. Sometimes, perhaps today even, I babble along.

The following is growing. It’s not in the thousands, well, it may be on a monthly basis.

I think, more than anything, what this re-surfaced post has done, is to remind me that it’s important to be adaptable, be willing to change, be willing to try new pathways.

So, here I am on a Monday.

I had a busy weekend. If you need to know about it, you already do.

I mean, this blog is obviously not paying for my retirement.


THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

I didn’t say this was going away, just changing it up.

Commentary: American illiteracy, not books, is what’s to fear
Shaun Kenney in The Free Lance-Star
Today, it might be safer to argue we no longer live in a literate culture. Most of us can read; few of us read anything of merit. A literate person ought to read at least one book a week; that is, 52 books a year. Most American households have on average no more than 30 books. In poor urban communities, there might be one book for every 300 children. Instead, we stare into smartphones nibbling at dopamine like lab rats while mindlessly entertaining ourselves to death. Read More.

BORN ON THIS DAY

1883 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1939)
1910 – Artie Shaw, American clarinet player, composer, and bandleader (d. 2004)
1919 – Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2011)
1928 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (d. 2002)
1933 – Joan Collins, English actress
1958 – Drew Carey, American actor, game show host, and entrepreneur

BENEDICTION

The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121:7–8