A Pilgrim's Journal

It's the classic Statler Brothers song. I found the bulk of this on the net, but touched it up a bit with the G / D switches.

   Key of D

   (Chorus)
       D         Bm          G        A7     D
   Oh Elizabeth,   I long to see your pretty face.
                              Bm          G         A7     D
   I long to touch your lips,   I long to feel your warm embrace.
                              D7               G        Em7 (Em works too)
   Don't know if I could ever live my life without you,
       D         A7               D   G   D
   Oh Elizabeth, I'm sure missing you.

       G              A7              G  D
   I remember when we shared a life together.
                                                          A7
   You gave me strength and love and life that felt brand new.
                 G           A7              G       D
   But you're so far away, I have to say I'm feeling blue.
   G  D          A7                 D   G   D
   Oh Elizabeth,   I'm sure missing you.       (Chorus)

                  G                A7               G    D
   Well it's been said before that I've caused many heartaches,
                                       A7
   And I wonder, if that part's really true.
         G                  A7                  G      D
   Being right or wrong, it feels my heart will surely break,
   G  D          A7                D     G     D
   Oh Elizabeth,   I hope you understand.      (Chorus)

                              D7               G        Em7
   Don't know if I could ever live my life without you,
       D         A7               D   G   D
   Oh Elizabeth, I'm sure missing you.

      D      A7  D
   Oh Eliz - a - beth.

If you're rusty on some of the chords like me, I found hobby-hour quite useful.

The more I read the Bible lately, the more that little things pop out at me, that I hadn't seen before, and start to build into a general instruction that the whole of the Bible appears to be teaching me.

One of these instructions is that being a loner is not wise.

As I recall, the first verse that opened my eyes to this is from Proverbs:

	Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and
	intermeddleth with all wisdom.

	    Proverbs 18:1

Let's take a peek in a different translation to make that clearer:

	HE WHO willfully separates and estranges himself [from God
	and man] seeks his own desire and pretext to break out
	against all wise and sound judgment.

	    Proverbs 18:1 (Amplified)

It was an interesting correlation to me, that the seeking of one's own desire is connected so strongly with being a loner, separating yourself from God and man. This has definitely been true in my own life. Each side feeds the other. The more I follow my own desire, the less desire I have for fellowship with all kinds of people, and vice versa.

The other night, I was reading Psalm 107 (which is a beautiful Psalm... it is highly recommended to read the whole thing). The first section talks about two different ways: the solitary or desolate way, and the right way:

	4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way;
	they found no city to dwell in.

	5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

	6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble,
	and he delivered them out of their distresses.

	7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they
	might go to a city of habitation.

	8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,
	and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

	9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth
	the hungry soul with goodness.

	   Psalm 107

Here, by implication, the "wrong way" is linked to desolation, or solitude. It is linked to having no dwelling place, to being stuck in a lost and wandering life.

Armed with these messages, I decided to do a quick search, to see if other writers came to the same conclusion. One search turned up an inspiring article by Walter A Henrichsen of the Navigators written in 1975, called Many Aspire - Few Attain (mirror). Again, it is a worthy read if you have the time.

Point #7 is "Avoid an Independent Spirit." He writes:

	The seventh reason why people will never finish the race is they
	have an independent spirit. They are mavericks, loners. They
	want to serve God, but in their own way. Perhaps you are like
	the fellow I asked about the Episcopal form of government. He
	answered, "Well, I'm against bishops unless I can be one."

	A lot of Christians have that attitude. They are against spiritual
	authority and leadership unless they are the authority and
	leader. But God says He will not give you that which is your
	own until you have been part of that which is another man's
	(Luke 16:12).

	    Walter A Henrichsen

Not only is being a loner unwise for the loner himself, but it is the wrong way to serve God. God gives us relationships with fellow Christians for a reason. We are stronger together than apart. (see also Being the Church)

This all speaks directly to me. While part of me loves friendship and social life, I have a natural loner tendency. It could just be laziness. I prefer the written word to verbal communication. I prefer my own sterile keyboard to handshaking with strangers. But this is not wise. It is not the right way. It is not the way to a "city of habitation."

I was chatting with an elderly couple in the doctor's waiting room this afternoon, talking about the weather, the warmth, and the upcoming maple syrup festival.

I mentioned that the festival day was earlier this year, and they agreed. It's usually near the beginning of April.

The gentleman mentioned (conversation paraphrased), "as long as they don't postpone it."

"Oh, they do that sometimes?"

"Oh yes, if the weather's bad."

"When was the last time they postponed it?"

The man thought a while and then turned to his wife: "When did they postpone it last?"

She replied, "oh.... when did Adrianne move?"

She thought a little while, and then said, "maybe 78? 79?"

This was a surprise to me. 1979! No wonder I hadn't remembered any such thing.

A number of thoughts occurred to me. Isn't it amazing how certain dates seem like yesterday to us, even though time still keeps marching on? The year 1990 still seems like recent history to me, but it is 20 years ago. Surely, the year 1978 must have seemed like recent history to this couple.

And second: I can just imagine the shock of taking the time and trouble of going to the maple syrup festival, in bad weather no less, only to find that it had been postponed. Assuming that had happened to this couple, I can understand why such a memory would not be soon forgotten!

Moral of the story: keep your party dates fixed, and remember to live in the present.

I've been working on my blog, and a bit on chronicle lately. I sent some patches to Steve Kemp to speed up cached blog operation. On my poor little PII, it reduced the build time from 2min 4sec when uncached to 9sec when cached. Much better. Previous difference was about 2 min uncached, 1 min cached.

I also need to tweak the CSS for this site. I like the default layout more than the rest, but there were some items that just didn't work for me.

One was that the date was on a line of its own. Since everything is HTML templates and CSS, I thought this would be easy. But obviously I'm rusty on my CSS!

So, boiled down, my problem was:

	<div class="container">
		<div class="element1">...<div>
		<div class="element2">...<div>
	<div>

If I make element1 to float left, and 2 to float right, then the container suddenly decides that it doesn't "contain" anything anymore, and the elements overflow the small container div, making it disappear.

There were two ways to fix this:

1) Add an empty clearing div:

	<div class="container">
		<div class="element1">...<div>
		<div class="element2">...<div>
		<div style="clear: both;"><div>
	<div>

This now expands the container to the bottom of both elements.

or,

2) Use the automatic overflow mode in the container:

	# css
	.container { overflow: auto; }

	<div class="container">
		<div class="element1">...<div>
		<div class="element2">...<div>
	<div>

Thanks to the kind folks on freenode's #css channel for pointing me to the following sites:

• http://phrogz.net/css/understandingfloats.html (very good!)
• http://css.maxdesign.com.au/floatutorial/

Before I get too deep into my blog, and include notes on the Bible from my personal study, I want to make a disclaimer and encourage anyone reading this blog to be like a Berean.

What's a Berean?

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians,
for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the
Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
- Acts 17:11 (NIV)

I may be mistaken in my posts. I may not see things perfectly clearly. And I may miss things, or even read over them in my haste and joy.

So be a Berean, and think about what I write, and check it against your own reason and (most importantly) the Bible itself, and pray, before you accept what I say as truth.

And if I am wrong, or you know of something that would clarify a topic, please don't hesitate to write to me. It is better to be corrected than to continue blissfully in error.

You can find my contact information on the main page.

I recently read the book of Job. What I found most interesting is that the overall message of the book is the same as the New Testament declaration of salvation. i.e. not by works, but by grace. Not by man, but by God.

The difference is that Job had to somewhat blindly trust that God would work out his salvation in the end, somehow; while we can look into history and see God's work on our behalf, in the person of Jesus Christ. Job talked with God face to face in the whirlwind, but did not see his salvation finished. We see our salvation finished, but don't often get to talk face to face with God.

I sometimes wonder if that lack of face to face conversation is our fault. Of course, it is up to God whether we see Him or not, indeed whether we see anything or not. But if we choose not to repent when we have the opportunity, certainly God won't bless us. Anyway, that's a topic for another time.

Someone told me that they wondered how Job could talk so boastfully yet still be considered righteous.

It probably was boastful, but the interesting thing was that I think Job was just telling the truth, as far as he knew it. Even God pointed out in the beginning of the book that Job was exemplary.

It seems that Job did have a righteousness of his own, but the problem was that he was trusting in his own righteousness, instead of God's righteousness, which is better by far than ours.

That's how I understand it anyway. Job had a righteousness of his own, and trusted in it, and was even eager to argue with God about it. Yet before we judge Job, I think Job had great faith, greater than we do in many ways. He trusted in God for great things, and he had a determination not to give up on God, no matter what came his way. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." (13:15) He also trusted in God for his Redeemer. "I know that my Redeemer lives" (19:25 NIV) And he believed in the resurrection. "after my flesh has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." (19:26 NIV)

He just trusted too much in himself, thinking that if he lived right, God would have no choice but to judge in Job's favour.

When his 3 friends saw his life, they assumed that it was because of his sin and that all he had to do was repent. They were flabbergasted at his defiance in the face of their criticism, and they tried multiple times to convince him, but ended up frustrated. But they were arguing on the same basis as Job: that God's reactions were based on man's behaviour. They argued that there were only two states: either man was righteous and was blessed, or was wicked and was cursed. And obviously since Job was suffering, they were convinced he must be harbouring wickedness in his heart. Yet according to Job's testimony, and God's testimony at the beginning of the book, he wasn't.

Then Elihu speaks. I don't see any correction to what he says. Job doesn't answer him, neither do the 3 friends, and God doesn't seem to include him in the condemnation of the friends. So I assume that Elihu was right, although rather angry. He argues that God is sovereign. God is not harmed by the wicked, nor does He benefit from the righteous. What God does is Just because He is God, not because of what man does. Man needs to conform to God; God does not react to man. God knows what man will do already.

In other words, there are more than just two states to a man's life. God is not a vending machine with blessing and cursing buttons on the front. God will do what is right, even if it doesn't look that way to us, regardless of what we do.

Then God speaks, and asks Job question after question after question, that Job cannot answer. Just like in Genesis, when Adam and Eve sinned and God asked them questions. But Job responds differently. Adam pointed at Eve, and Eve pointed at the serpent, but Job repented in dust and ashes. (42:6) Job's 3 friends don't seem to repent either. At least it is not recorded that they do.

And after Job humbled himself, then God lifted Job up, (James 4:10) first to the level of intercessor for his friends, offering a sacrifice on their behalf. And secondly, after he helped his friends, God lifted Job to double his former level of prosperity: double the sheep (14,000), double the camels (6,000), double the oxen (1,000), and double the female donkeys (1,000). And another 7 sons and 3 daughters, to match those he lost. And all this was not because of what Job did, but it was all a gift from God, like everything really is.

My main blog has, for many years, been right here on Advogato. But due to its focus on free software, I always hesitated writing about topics that strayed too far afield.

I've now moved my main blog to http://foursquare.net/cdfrey/blog/, and syndicated all entries with the "advogato" tag to show up here.

I plan to check the recentlog regularly, so feel free to reply to my blog posts on advogato as usual.

Enjoy.

It's about time I start a blog on my own website. I found chronicle, the software I'm using to maintain this blog, back in October 2009, and I really like the concept.

So here's the blog. Enjoy.

Note: I've imported all the posts from my previous blog at advogato.