”When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”

And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?” (See Matthew 8:23-27, RSV)

The title of this reflection is, in part, inspired by what Wikipedia refers to as "a feat of smooth and ruthless efficiency", the historic "double play" action of infield basemen of the 1906-1910 Chicago Cubs that also inspired a short poem, entitled "Baseball's Sad Lexicon," also known as Tinker to Evers to Chance, by Franklin P. Adams. To summarize, the terms refer to the following "progressive" phenomena: The "smooth and ruthless efficiency" is a product of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.

President Trump came along at a time in our history when we were going down an ideological rabbit hole. He’s given us time to think about where that hole leads to. It remains to be seen whether we can recognize our collective folly in time. Of course, it didn't help that the mainstream media largely blinded half the country to the differences.

In the beginning...

These simple words from Genesis 1:1 alert us to the transcendent significance of what is to follow. Yet we don't begin to grasp how important this account of God's relationship to the world/the universe until we find these words...

A political cartoon by Steve Kelly (see Steve Kelly at Creator's Syndicate) on October 19, 2019 brilliantly captured our current political climate. I'll leave it to my readers to puzzle out its full significance...

Steve Kelly, Creator's Syndicate, October 19, 2019

I find it extraordinary that, after years of debate, millions of voters still don't know what an assault rifle is. I don't understand why they never bothered to look up the definition, even though there are perfectly good definitions readily available, for example, on the Internet. See, for example, the excellent article on Wikipedia.

This is a meditation on the spiritual and emotional challenges of watching someone you care about as they near death, One of the biggest challenges is the trade-off between easing pain and not hastening death.

I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people
to drink. [Exodus 17:6]

Once more he measured off a thousand,
but there was now a river through which I could not wade;
 for the water had risen so high
it had become a river that could not be crossed except by swimming. [Ezekiel 47:5]

I will remove the stony heart from their bodies,
 and replace it with a natural heart. [Ezekiel 11:19]

This is a reflection on the nature of God, His infinite power, knowledge, understanding, subtlety and love. All of these are ultimately beyond our ability to grasp. Nevertheless, there is much we can learn from meditating on Him.