With My Phone in My Hand.

This re-post about the responsible use of our mobiles was first 

posted in October 2021and rapidly became the most frequently 

viewed item on this blog. It is re-posted now to celebrate 

passing the 500,000 page-views marker with my gratitude to all 

of you who have helped to achieve this encouraging marker. 

Thank You!

Image credit Pixabay free images

Sing or read this, holding your mobile phone - and maybe pray! 

(If you wish to sing - suggested tune: 

Nettleton – American folk song/

'Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing').

With My Phone in My Hand.

In my hand I hold vast knowledge
of God’s awesome universe:
from it I can seek out beauty
or deep darkness, hate and worse.
Focus me, Lord, on the Godly,
help me seek out truth not lies:
give me strength to shun distractions
that cause harm if I'm unwise.

Give me prudence when I’m spending,

help me to resist excess

that results in landfill fodder,

or in debt that brings distress.

Help me never to be spiteful
even when my anger’s raw.

Let me not become beguiled by

evil threads that foment war. 

 

Help me keep in mind the workers

risking life that I might be

well-connected by my touch-screen

to vast networks globally.

Help me question whether justice

flourishes or is suppressed:

see if families of those workers

thrive and grow, or are oppressed.

 

If I’m prone to chase trendsetters

help me, please to recognise,

when I click their lifestyle platforms

they’ll be geared to monetize!

So to deeper sites, Lord, guide me:

sites which help me understand

that great mystery, that great wonder:

You love me - just as I am.

Always remember this last line.

You can listen to this song recorded by the Author by clicking : HERE

(c) Trevor Thorn October 2021.

The piano backing is a YouTube instrumental of ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing posted by Christian Hymns-Music: the link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaKwRu3hIso

You can find a different angle on this same theme on this blog -which can be sung to “Streets of Laredo’. To access this, CLICK HERE “Lord Fill Me With Digital Wisdom'

 

With My Phone in My Hand

 

Image credit Pixabay free images

Sing or read this, holding your mobile phone - and maybe pray! 

(If you wish to sing - suggested tune: 

Nettleton – American folk song/

'Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing').

With My Phone in My Hand.

In my hand I hold vast knowledge
of God’s awesome universe:
from it I can seek out beauty
or deep darkness, hate and worse.
Focus me, Lord, on the Godly,
help me seek out truth not lies:
give me strength to shun distractions
that cause harm if I'm unwise.

Give me prudence when I’m spending,

help me to resist excess

that results in landfill fodder,

or in debt that brings distress.

Help me never to be spiteful
even when my anger’s raw.

Let me not become beguiled by

evil threads that foment war. 

 

Help me keep in mind the workers

risking life that I might be

well-connected by my touch-screen

to vast networks globally.

Help me question whether justice

flourishes or is suppressed:

see if families of those workers

thrive and grow, or are oppressed.

 

If I’m prone to chase trendsetters

help me, please to recognise,

when I click their lifestyle platforms

they’ll be geared to monetize!

So to deeper sites, Lord, guide me:

sites which help me understand

that great mystery, that great wonder:

You love me - just as I am.

Always remember this last line.

You can listen to this song recorded by the Author by clicking : HERE

(c) Trevor Thorn October 2021.

The piano backing is a YouTube instrumental of ‘Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing posted by Christian Hymns-Music: the link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaKwRu3hIso

You can find a different angle on this same theme on this blog -which can be sung to “Streets of Laredo’. To access this, CLICK HERE “Lord Fill Me With Digital Wisdom'

 

Portfolio for Life. (When Fossil Fuels Have Been Comprehensively Shunned)

Image Pixabay edited

Portfolio for Life. (When Fossil Fuels Have Been Comprehensively Shunned)

When fossil fuels have been comprehensively shunned -

and they must be;

 

when the production and proliferation of armaments

are killed off -

as they need to be;

 

when the impossible pursuit of perpetual growth

Is accepted to be illusory -

for it clearly is;

 

and when greed is once more perceived to be 

corrosive and deadly;

 

then hope can blossom

and the love that lies at the heart of creation

burst into the Godly glory of global justice and peace.

 

Seals and White Horses

Seals on Lindisfarne Sandbank

Staying once again on the beautiful Holy Island of Lindisfarne and privileged to be able to watch the tides from the lounge and bedroom windows. Sunday 10 days ago we experienced a wild wind which roared up the sound, so I tried to capture the moment and ... consider the future.

Seals and White Horses

(on a Lindisfarne Sandbank)

 

Twice a day,

some twenty score of seals

languidly allow themselves to succumb

to the encroaching sea,

as it steadfastly overwhelms

their sandbank resting-place.

 

But on this tide

a stampede of white horses

chases them

into forced retreat

before a fast-running tide,

driven by ferocious wind.

 

This wind has roared across the Atlantic

having wrought devastation-by-flooding

prior to leaving its last landfall.

 

Yet more extreme weather

resulting from the

undeniable climate chaos,

discerned by the truth-seeking,

broad-based research

of rightly sombre scientists.

 

Too soon, the sandbanks

will be permanently submerged.

 

No respite then for seals.

This post is part of  ‘My Lindisfarne Collection’, the rest of which which can be found HERE

No Longer is The Ploughing

Picture credit Kridneh via Pixabay free images

Last Sunday, in keeping with the Bible story of the sower, scattering seeds that both perish and prosper depending on where they fall, we sung (on Lindisfarne) the well-known harvest thanksgiving hymn ‘We Plough The Seeds and Scatter the Good Seed on the Land’. 

 

I was reminded that back in 2011, I wrote new words trying to reflect the onward march of technology on the farm. The revised version was called ‘The Great Machines of Harvest’ which can be accessed by link at the end of this post.

 

However, as we sang the original version of the hymn, I was disconcerted by, what in these ‘extreme weather’ times, felt complacent to me, and I realised, the same criticism could be applied to my 2011 version. 

 

During the afternoon following the service, I explored a different approach which once again could be sung to any familiar hymn tune used for the original version. Here it is - and suddenly with the stupidity of politicians wanting to ditch green policies, it feels important to post it

 

No Longer is The Ploughing

No longer is the ploughing

one annual winter chore:

fields now are laced with compounds

so they will yield much more.

But snow which once warmed seedlings

might now be rain extreme,

so weather’s wild excesses 

wreck cultivation schemes.

 

Refrain

 

All good gifts around us

are not found everywhere,

for drought and floods and warfare,

can render farmland bare.

 

Although our generous Maker

desires that earth should thrive,

sustain its population

that everyone might live. 

The greed and vast consumption

of those in lands of wealth

mean millions face starvation

and dangerous ill-health

 

Refrain

 

We ask you then, O Father

‘Help us make protests strong

‘gainst fools and vested interests

who’d short-term gains prolong,

instead of realising

the change we can’t avoid:

STOP oil! STOP profiteering!

Before all Earth’s destroyed.  

The Great Machines of Harvest mentioned in the first paragraph can be accessed HERE 

Nested Within Eternity

Life Forces: CGI by the author

Nested Within Eternity

(Drawing on the prevailing scientific views of mid 2023)

 

Nested within eternity

lies creation.

Big bang? Big bounce? 

A single benign universe or multiverses?

Physicists and mathematicians, speculate,

and for a while, in one seat-of-learning or another

a fresh concept will gain traction,

prompting intellectuals to hunt for strings, 

for dimensions, for physical states:

for theories of the sub-atomic

that attempt to explain

our astounding presence, satisfactorily.

 

But the veils persist, sometimes parting

to reveal a new glimpse

of our existence:

minds race to accommodate the novel,

within a new theory of everything.

 

Amazingly-conceived telescopes

uncover new puzzles in hitherto

partially explored wavelengths

and intellects are brought to bear from

a multitude of disciplines

as the apparently, very first

tremblings of matter

emerge, with unexpected patterns

of gases, plasma and time.

 

And beyond it all is that vastness

we call eternity: 

God’s overarching realm

from which,

emanates

all that is seeable,

all that is hidden,

all that remains cosmic mystery,

spliced together with the sheer wonder of love

for everyone and everything that exists

on a small, insignificant planet

which is in danger of being destroyed

by us, its beloved but wilful inhabitants.

 

How can we be so sure of that realm

amidst such awesome mysteries?

Because the all-mighty God

visited us, showing us supreme love

by dying for this wayward race.

Our Earth is Beset by a Crisis

 

Earth and Space  (imagined): Pixabay free image

This poem was written as a song for the Resound 12 Song Challenge 2022/3. Musicians might like the challenge of writing music for it. If used as a poem, in the chorus use line 1, 3,4,6

Our Earth is Beset by a Crisis 

 

Our earth is beset by a crisis, 

driven by human excess,

through profligate use of resources 

by we who could manage with less.

God surely calls us to be stewards

of the planet where Jesus has lived,

and challenge the fossil fuel behemoths,

to save our Creator’s great gift.

 

chorus

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord,

of this your much-loved home.

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord,

working so justice may come.

 

The evidence for this disaster

spans continents islands and seas:

so Christians in every nation

need pray and protest to relieve

the damage that’s being inflicted

on this ravaged planet, our home,

and bring hope through visionary challenge,

as_we_plead ’Now with justice, Lord, come’

 

chorus

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord, 

of this your much-loved home.

help us be stewards Lord,

 help us be stewards Lord,

 working so justice may come.

 

Where Intellects Are Nurtured in this Fast-moving Age,

Photo: Pixabay free images

I am currently engaged with a challenge to write a new worship song every month for twelve months. This month’s challenge has been to write about our hometown or village. With my enthusiasm for weaving ideas of faith and science together it was unsurprising that a hymn/ song for Cambridge (UK) suggested itself. (We live on the edge of the City).

It could equally be used by any chapel/ church/ worship group in any University town - worldwide. The prayer-plea for wisdom feels very needed in this day and age.

Here it is: the verses can be sung to ’The Church’s One Foundation’ (Aurelia) with an invitation for the refrain to be improvised by local musicians.

Where intellects are nurtured

in this fast-moving age,

the gift of Godly wisdom

is needed day by day:

when innovation fosters

new ethical demands,

or scientific progress

might transgress God’s commands.

 

Refrain

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day

 

Where intellects are gathered 

from countries far and wide

deep-rooted propositions 

will frequently arise:

for with such fertile gatherings

of minds from many a race,

Inspired, wide-ranging theories

can be explored apace.

 

Refrain

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day

 

Where intellects are welcome

from every race and creed,

inclusive ways are crucial

for Learning to proceed.

So Lord, let moral purpose 

and peace-based attitudes

grace all our institutions,

where research is pursued.

 

Refrain

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

 

  

Psalm 24 (Re-imagined) for the Second Space Age

NASA: Colliding Galaxies: arp 143

Psalm 24 For Today.

Verses can be spoken or chanted.

The three Responsories can sung by all to the tune Truro/ Jesus Shall Reign Wherere The Sun.

 

The whole cosmos is the Lord's and everything in it:

every particle of matter throughout the universe.

 

All human beings, the earth’s wild creatures and resources:

and unknown beings who may live on planets far beyond our reach.

(Responsory 1) 

Lift Up your heads, you galaxies, 

Bright Nova form a dazzling path,

That your great King of Glo-o-o-ory 

Through all your realms may nobly pass 

 

It was God commanded the deep realm of space, Come forth:

and it sprang into instant being.

 

He established light and dark; light to see the wonders of our generous planet:

darkness to invite us to see the vastness of creation.

(Responsory 2)

 Who is this great and glorious King?

The Lord, Creator of us all, 

It was His Word establish-ed 

Prime forces and base particles.

Who shall travel beyond, into the eternal presence of The Lord:

or who shall dare to approach that holy place?

 

Even those who have clean hands and pure hearts, 

who love righteousness and Godly justice, and who despise greed and iniquity.

 

These will receive blessings from The Lord: and be welcomed into his kingdom of love.

They will be a renewed generation of those who revere God,

who stand in awe at the unfolding of the magnificence of his creation. 

 

Lift Up your heads, you galaxies, 

Bright Nova form a dazzling path,

That your great King of Glo-o-o-ory 

Through all your realms may nobly pass 

 

 

(c) March 2023

There is a YouTube Video  posted on the Sing of God  and Science channel. You will find it at 

https://youtu.be/4XHgjfVDhlY