William Cowper and Perseverance

While working on a Sunday School lesson, I recently came across a talk by John Piper on the life of William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper," it turns out). You can listen to it here. It takes on the difficult question of the "perseverance of the saints" in a life marked primarily by despair and depression. It also highlights the "mysterious way" in which God moves--Cowper is the writer of several hymns, including "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" and "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood."

I'm not sure why, but I have a fascination with the "hard cases," such as William Cowper. If you do, too, you may be interested in this.

Good Article on Massachusetts Medical Care System

A little off on an unusual topic, here is a Factcheck report on the Massachusetts health care law, six years after it was passed. This is of interest to political types, because Mitt Romney, a likely republican presidential candidate, was behind the Massachusetts law. For my part, I am moderately opposed to what is known as "ObamaCare," and that is all the more reason to read reports like this carefully.

Some Thoughts on the Special Election

On Tuesday we had a special election for state senator, Michael O'Pake, our long-time state senator having died during surgery in December. Leading up to that, we received almost daily political fliers in the mail from the "challenger," Republican Larry Megdalia--I say "challenger" because it is a heavily Democratic district, as it includes the city of Reading. We never received anything from the campaign of the Democrat, Judy Schwank.

The first flier we received was what you might call a positive ad, telling us what Megdalia was likely to do if elected. That was fine, and I thought, yeah, he makes sense.

But following that were daily fliers reminding us that Schwank had received $12,500 from a disgraced former city-councilman in Philadelphia. Yes, they came every day, for at least a week (maybe two, I wasn't counting). And though each one looked a little different, they all had the same black-and-white and fuzzy picture of Schwank, and the accusation in large, bold print.

It was not the finest season of political advertising for Berks County. Nor was I terribly unhappy, I'll admit, when Schwank won the election. She did not do anything to get my vote, as it were, and she did not--but Megdalia did a lot to make me hold my nose when voting.

Is Depression Biological

Dr. David Powlison - Is Depression Purely Biological? from CCEF on Vimeo.

Here is an excellent video where Dr. David Powlison gives a measured answer to the question of a biological cause for depression. Very, very worth a view and listen.