Hear the words from his mouth, and keep his wisdom deep in your heart." Job 22:21-22
“We are slow to master the great truth that even now Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us to follow Him. We do not understand that His call is a thing that takes place now. We think it took place in the Apostles' days, but we do not believe in it; we do not look for it in our own case.
God beholds you. He calls you by your name. He sees you and understands you as He made you. He knows what is in you, all your peculiar feelings and thoughts, your dispositions and likings, your strengths and your weaknesses. He views you in your day of rejoicing and in your day of sorrow. He sympathizes in your hopes and your temptations. He interests Himself in all your anxieties and remembrances, all the risings and fallings of your spirit.
He encompasses you round and bears you in His arms. He notes your very countenance, whether smiling or in tears. He looks tenderly upon you. He hears your voice, the beating of your heart, and your very breathing.
You do not love yourself better than He loves you. You cannot shrink from pain more than He dislikes your bearing it; and if He puts it on you, it is as you would put it on yourself, if you would be wise, for a greater good afterwards.
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission — I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me — still He knows what He is about.
Let us feel what we really are — sinners attempting great things. Let us simply obey God's will, whatever may come. He can turn all things to our eternal good. Easter day is preceded by the forty days of Lent, to show us that they only who sow in tears shall reap in joy. The more we do, the more shall we trust in Christ; and that surely is no morose doctrine, that leads us to soothe our selfish restlessness, and forget our fears, in the vision of the Incarnate Son of God.
May the Lord support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at last.”
John Henry Newman
Stocks are defying gravity and riding a wave of last gasp liquidity it seems.
The Trump Administration rejects the reality of the conflict in the Middle East, and substitutes its own.
VIX of course fell.
SpaceX continues to undergo the distribution phase of a 'pump and dump.'
The Dollar chopped sideways, just shy of the 100 handle.
The adults in the room, those who follow the bond markets closely, are making whimpering noises as they see the 10 and 30 year US Bonds climbing in yield to significant levels.
Uncle Sam is running a temperature.
Crude is bouncing up against resistance after its recent paper smackdown.
I think we will be looking back at these prices with nostalgia, in the not too distant future.
Bitcoin is very much in a trading range, and I fail to see anything that it going to be providing it any sustained lift.
To the contrary, if selling in the tech sector intensifies, as I suspect it will, then Bitcoin is going to be retracing and seeking support somewhere south of 50k.
It will be nice to finally have the midterm elections behind us. Narcissists and oligarchs can become quite volatile when they sense the possible collapse of their fever dreams.
A person who does not read, who has not explored and reflected upon the thoughts and experiences of those from other lands and times, those gone before us, is left stumbling through life, afflicted with what the Buddhists call the three poisons: greed, hate, and delusion.
And many grow quite comfortable with that impairment, with the notion that their cravings are the principal laws of the world. And they will destroy all that is the truth, and offends their hollowness. They raise their flags on fields of barbaric self-absorption, and attempt to fill the great hole in their being with things and structures and people whom they consume.
This is where we are today.
"Those who have faith had better keep in the state of grace, and those who have neither had better find out what they mean, for in the coming age there will be only one way to stop your trembling knees, and that will be to get down on them and pray. The most important problem in the world today is your soul, for that is what the struggle is about."You may wish to diversify your exposure to unfolding events, from the usual biased outlets and mouthpieces, because otherwise what is coming it going to hit you square in the face.
Fulton J. Sheen, The Day of the Beast, 1947
This reminds me so much of the early 2000s it is almost unnerving— tech bubbles and war drums fed by lies and deceptions and contrived narratives of hatred and fear.
Who could have seen it coming?
It is now as it was then, and has always been.
We are called to be a man, among beasts.
Have a pleasant weekend.
