Redeem the Time

Thou Great I AM,
Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur
at the thought of a Being
with whom one day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.

A mighty God, who,

amidst the lapse of worlds,
and the revolutions of empires,
feels no variableness,
but is glorious in immortality.

May I rejoice that,
while men die, the Lord lives;
that, while all creatures are broken reeds,
empty cisterns, fading flowers, withering grass,
He is the Rock of Ages, the Fountain of living waters.

Turn my heart from vanity, from dissatisfactions,
from uncertainties of the present state,
to an eternal interest in Christ.

Let me remember that life is short and unforeseen,
and is only an opportunity for usefulness.

Give me a holy avarice to redeem the time,
to awake at every call to charity and piety,
so that I may feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
instruct the ignorant,
reclaim the vicious,
forgive the offender,
diffuse the gospel,
show neighborly love to all.

Let me live a life of self-distrust,
dependence on Thyself,
mortification,
crucifixion,
prayer.

- Valley of Vision

HT: Kingdom People

Stupid Links

Today is the birthday of St Augustine of Hippo. Happy birthday, old brother!

What can Augustine, who lived in the 4th century AD, teach us about 21st century internet habits? Tony Reinke has the answer in "Why We Click Stupid Links."

By “stupid links,” I mean hyperlinks on the Web that do nothing but tap our kneejerk curiosity. They do little for us because they have little to offer. We click, we read, we watch, and often we feel dumber for it.

Such clamorous links litter the Internet, offering up celebrity gossip, bizarre crime stories, violent videos, and sexual images — each link asking for little more than a click (such a petty request).

So just how pervasive are these links? As I write, the CNN home page features these seven hyperlinked titles as “Top Stories”:

• Crack-smoking mayor won’t quit
• Was pushed husband blindfolded?
• Woman killed in cougar attacks
• Misquotes fuel Tom Cruise attacks
• Deer pierced in the face by arrow
• Guess who’s back in skinny jeans?
• Do astronauts clean their undies?

Augustine and Idle Curiosities

The magnetic pull we sometimes feel to headlines like these predates the Internet and the evening news. It was a concern taken up by church father Augustine, born on November 13, 354 A.D. (more than 1,650 years ago).

Augustine reflected on the temptations clouding and distracting his own heart in his classic of church history, The Confessions....

Curious? read the article at the link.