Saturday, November 13, 2004 AD Impervious Hymns like Eternal Father, Strong to Save seem so quaint. A friend is heading off on a cruise in a couple weeks. I'm thinkin' I wouldn't mind a bit of that "peril on the sea" for myself!
The BCP morning and evening prayers for families include gratitude "especially for having delivered us from the dangers of the past night" and a petition "to continue thy gracious protection to us this night. Defend us from all dangers and mischiefs, and from the fear of them." But nighttime doesn't seem particularly frightening to me, at least not once I'm snug in my bed. I managed to lock myself out of my house Wednesday night...but even then I had a warm, 24-hour restaurant to go hang out in until my neighbor woke up and I could get my spare key from her.
But fears of the sea and of the terrors of the night just sound so old-fashioned. Not that we don't have our own fears, real or imagined, but we think ourselves above such primitive ones. We're too sophisticated for such earthy dreads.
Oh, and there's one more that we think we've grown out of: the fear of God. We whittle that down to a tame version of respect with plenty of room for chumminess. Yeah, that's what left Isaiah crying Woe is me.... Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 11/13/2004 12:22:00 AM
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