When Doubts Start to Rise

 

When troubles assail me, when doubts start to rise,

When storm clouds obscure hope and dim faith's sharp eyes,

When heartache gives way then to gloom and deep pain,

My Jesus still holds me; His love will not wane.

When loud tempests buffet my soul on life's seas,

When foes all accuse me and help fails and flees,

When vict'ry is trampled and crushed to the dust,

My Jesus still holds me; in Him will I trust.

I never could stand long against hosts so dark;

By myself I'd falter and lose hope's small spark;

But I have a promise, a great surety!

My Jesus still holds me—He loves endlessly.

It's not by my doing nor by my intent,

It's not by my words though their being well-meant;

But Grace has assured me: by Grace I shall stand;

My Jesus still holds me—I'm safe in His hand.

© 2025, D. Benning

May be sung to the tune, St. Denio  (11.11.11.11), by John Roberts, 1839

There!

There at the right time, Christ came down from Heav'n;

There in time's fullness, God the Son was giv'n.

There, Jesus born of Mary — Infinite disguised —

Him we esteemed not, Him we then despised.

There on the hillside, crowds were fed from Heav'n;

There in His teaching, spir'tual bread was giv'n;

He touched, He healed, He strengthened, Life anew He gave;

He came among us: He His sheep to save.

There in a body, Christ abode with us,

Obeying fully, living victorious!

He always pleased the Father, to His will He bent;

Knowing the full cost, to the cross He went.

There in a Garden, on His bended knees,

There hear His anguish, hear His fervent pleas:

There Father's will was spoken; to that will aligned.

There it was spoken: "Not My will but Thine."

Then in a Garden, see the empty grave;

He rose victorious, mighty then to save!

Delivered for our sins but raised to justify,

Brings us to Zion from dread Mount Sinai!

There in your heart enthrone Him Lord and King;

There in each action let His praises ring!

Let hallelujahs ring out now and for all days:

Unto Him only be eternal praise!

In the Darkness (Ps. 42)

I heard a Ukrainian folk song and became quite taken with its haunting melody.  After contemplating it for a while, I realized that the words and raw emotions of Psalm 42 could fit the mood of the song.  What follows is my first draft.  The lead sheet for this is at the bottom of this page.

In the darkness, apprehension comes and ends hope;

With the starkness of my sins I falter and grope.

Then Your promise comes to open up my eyes wide,

And like Thomas, I am bid to touch Your side.

I remember God, my God, my Rock and Tower—

Dying ember, longingly to seek Your power;

But You're still God, with my tongue and voice I'll praise You;

You I will laud, for You're holy, just and true.

Why so downcast? O my soul, fear not and tremble.

God is steadfast—He will hear me from His temple.

I will praise Him, He will lift me up to His throne.

And with glad hymns, He will claim me as His own.

Here is the youtube video of a mother / daughter duo playing banduras and singing the song in Ukrainian.

The lead sheet contains some suggestions for the intro and possible accompaniment.  It is not complete.

Math Teacher Arrested

 

A local public school teacher was arrested today at the Sacramento International airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule, and a calculator.  Public officials expressed gratefulness that the TSA was vigilant, looking for troubling sines.   At a morning press conference, the Secretary of Homeland Security said she believes the individual is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement.  She did not identify the teacher, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

"Al-Gebra is a problem for us," the Secretary said. "They derive solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values.  They use secret code names like 'X' and 'Y’ and refer to themselves as 'unknowns,' but we have determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country and on every plane.  They set up intercepts and matrices of whole numbers.  While they talk of infinite possibilities, they seek limits and convergence.  The amplitude of the problem has been compounded by their constants.  We were able to substitute one of our operations in at a critical point to find their identity.  We have apprehended a center of rotation and many of the cofunction identities.  Their chain rule has been broken at the root.  Their function is now discontinuous.  We believe that this arrest will give us a new angle on Sohcahtoa and Fibonacci!"

The prime suspect was apprehended as he left his Torus in the parking lot.  A police spokesperson mentioned that the translation of the suspect's papers will not be trivial.  

When asked to comment on the arrest, the President said, "These individuals are narrow-minded and exclusive in their approach.  They recognize only one possible solution to each problem.  They are constantly applying demeaning labels such as 'Real' or 'Imaginary' — 'Rational' or 'Irrational'!  This behavior divides and is not constructive to everyone's sense of self-worth."

At press time, the District Attorney said that they were pressing for an absolute penalty with no limits.  "Infinity is what we're hoping for," he added.

 

No More Spelling Shaming!

I am seeing more and more "X" words--you know, the ones where they are purposely avoiding calling attention to gender.  That's why we have Latinx instead of Latino or Latina.  Although most who actually speak that language daily are either offended or find the whole thing silly.

However, upping the ante recently, I saw "womxn."  I suppose this is to nullify that fact that the word "women" derives from "men."  Or perhaps they don't want to offend by assuming the plural over the singular.

But instead of shunning such radical changes to the language, maybe everyone should embrace it.  I, for one, can see advantages for spelling troublesome words.  Don't remember whether it's "i-e" or "e-i"?  No problem.  Spell it with an "x"!  Thus words like Recxve and Cxling and Bxge are instantly accessible to those who never took the time to study those onerous spelling rules.  The hero of Scxnce and Relativity becomes the very Far Out Spacy name Xnstxn. 

There might be some initial pushback or percxved confusion, but this method does away with spelling shaming. No longer will we be calling out letter-challenged members of our socxty as illiterate--they will be included and recxved as functional members of our socxty.  Forxgners are welcomed.  Spelling will no longer be the sxve that separates people into different txrs.  Nxces and thxves, clxnts and soldxrs, outpatxnts and lxutenants--all will have an equal place in this brand new world unoccupxd by inconvenxnce.  It will be far easxr to overvxw the meaning, understand the vxw, pxrce through the disorxntation, and face the fxrce battlefxld of fxry ideas.  Whether frxndly or alxnated, unyxlding or transxnt, an effcxnt transmission of knowledge will delight the scxntist and help in the retrxval of all salxnt pxces that underlx our communication experxnce.  This truly will break down barrxrs and allow our communcation to proceed in this new more lenxnt courxr of speech.

In celebration, I think I will temporarily break my dxt and have a fudge brownx.

A Delicious Brownx