Robert Burns was a self-indulgent man who drank too much and fathered children with several women. He had many of the character flaws of a contemporary rock star. He was also a brilliant writer of poetry and song. One of my favourites is still “To A Mouse.” Here it is in its original form. An English translation follows.

I think that all of us can relate to the penultimate stanza:

But, mousie, thou art not alone,
In proving foresight may be in vain,
The best laid schemes of mice and men,
Go oft astray

The final stanza subtly reminds us that mice and men must live with their eye on the present. Happy Robert Burns Day!

To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough, 1785

Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi’ bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion,
Has broken nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
‘S a sma’ request;
I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,
An’ never miss’t!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!
An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,
O’ foggage green!
An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,
Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,
An’ weary winter comin fast,
An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell-
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro’ thy cell.

That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter’s sleety dribble,
An’ cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e’e.
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!

To a Mouse

Oh, tiny timorous forlorn beast,
Oh why the panic in your breast?
You need not dart away in haste
To some corn-rick
I’d never run and chase thee,
With murdering stick.

I’m truly sorry man’s dominion
Has broken nature’s social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor earth-born companion,
And fellow mortal.

I do not doubt you have to thieve;
What then? Poor beastie you must live;
One ear of corn that’s scarcely missed
Is small enough:
I’ll share with you all this year’s grist,
Without rebuff.

Thy wee bit housie too in ruin,
Its fragile walls the winds have strewn,
And you’ve nothing new to build a new one,
Of grasses green;
And bleak December winds ensuing,
Both cold and keen.

You saw the fields laid bare and waste,
And weary winter coming fast,
And cosy there beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash; the cruel ploughman crushed
Thy little cell.

Your wee bit heap of leaves and stubble,
Had cost thee many a weary nibble.
Now you’re turned out for all thy trouble
Of house and home
To bear the winter’s sleety drizzle,
And hoar frost cold.

But, mousie, thou art not alone,
In proving foresight may be in vain,
The best laid schemes of mice and men,
Go oft astray,
And leave us nought but grief and pain,
To rend our day.

Still thou art blessed, compared with me!
The present only touches thee,
But, oh, I backward cast my eye
On prospects drear,
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear.

For more of Burns’ poetry and more English translations see the Burns Country website. Another of my personal favourites is “To A Louse.“

No preamble or discussion required.

The ordinary idea which we all have before we become Christians is this. We take as a starting point our ordinary self with its various desires and interests. We then admit that something else – call it ‘morality’ or ‘decent behaviour’, or ‘the good of society’ – has claims on this self: claims which interfere with its own desires. What we mean by ‘being good’ is giving in to these claims. Some of the things the ordinary self wanted to do turn out to be what we call ‘wrong’: well, we must give them up. Other things, which the self did not want to do, turn out to be what we call ‘right’: well, we shall have to do them. But we are hoping all the time that when all the demands have been met, the poor natural self will still have some chance, and some time, to get on with its own life and do what it likes. In fact, we are very like an honest man paying his taxes. He pays them all right, but he does hope that there will be enough left over for him to live on. Because we are still taking our natural self as the starting point. . . .

The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’

It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self – all your wishes and precautions – to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call ‘ourselves’, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be ‘good’. We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way – centred on money or pleasure or ambition – and hoping, in spite of this to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown.

I, like many people in January, find that there is much work to be done and I become quite busy. It is certainly a fitting time to consider what we are accomplishing as we work at our jobs, volunteer with non-profit organizations, and serve at our churches. In the midst of my busyness I will consider my vocation. At least three authors have influenced my perspective on work and service to others. Martin Luther spoke very clearly about how our vocation will influence our day-to-day living when he said,

The prince should think: Christ has served me and made everything to follow
him; therefore, I should also serve my neighbor, protect him and everything that
belongs to him. That is why God has given me this office, and I have it that I
might serve him. That would be a good prince and ruler. When a prince sees his
neighbor oppressed, he should think: That concerns me! I must protect and
shield my neighbor….The same is true for shoemaker, tailor, scribe, or reader. If
he is a Christian tailor, he will say: I make these clothes because God has bidden
me do so, so that I can earn a living, so that I can help and serve my neighbor.
When a Christian does not serve the other, God is not present; that is not Christian living.1

He is suggesting that every person has a place, either of their own choosing or by virtue of having that role thrust upon them, and we seek to fulfill that role to the best of our abilities. In this way we praise God with our vocation. But you might ask, “What of the mundane interruptions of life and the things which seem so unrelated to my vocation?” Dietrich Bonhoeffer had this to say about helpfulness and interruptions.

God’s perspective is that we must enter into the ministry of helpfulness, which is
simple assistance in trifling, external matters. . . One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly. . . . We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by, preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps — reading the Bible. When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the Cross raised athwart our path to show us that not our way, but God’s way must be done.2

I often think of this quote when someone asks me to help them move or paint their house. It is in these interruptions of life that we have some of our greatest opportunities to praise God with our time. Finally, Henri J. Nouwen brings the two concepts together in this brief statement. “My whole life I’ve been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered the interruptions were my work.”3

1 Martin Luther, “Sermon in the Castle Church at Weimar” (25 October 1522, Saturday after the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity), in D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 60 vols. (Weimar: Herman Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1883–1980) 10/3:382.

2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer Life Together, Harper, New York: 1954.

3 Henri J. M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life (Toronto: Doubleday, 1975), 52, 53.

Proverbs 9:10 says, “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.” God is truly the source of wisdom and He speaks to us through His word in the Bible; and, we also know that we can experience knowledge and wisdom as we read other books and apply God’s wisdom to the circumstances of life. I particularly appreciate these words by Tim Keller:

When you listen to and read one thinker, you become a clone; two thinkers, you become confused; ten thinkers, you’ll begin developing your own voice; two or three hundred thinkers, you become wise and develop your voice. “Reform and Resurge Conference,” 2006.

I pray that we might listen to the words of many and, with appropriate reverence for our God, discern the wisdom to which He calls us.

. . . let no man . . . think or maintain, that a man can search too far or be too well studied in the book of God’s word, or in the book of God’s works; divinity or philosophy; but rather let men endeavour an endless progress or proficience in both.

These words were written by Francis Bacon in his book Advancement of Learning in 1605. We might put it differently today and say that one can study both theology and philosophy or theology and science. The study of God’s word in the Bible and God’s works in the world are both legitimate pursuits. We need not fear finding the truth. The Creator of the universe knows the minute details of genetics, physics, mathematics, sociology, philosophy, and anthropology. Nothing that we can learn will surprise Him or call into question His word in the Bible. We humans may need to change our interpretations of the Bible or our theology as we learn more about the universe He has created; and this is how things should be. Reading one helps us with the reading of the other.

Darwin writes, in the sixth edition of his On the Origen of Species book:

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.1

Notice his use of the word “Creator.” Darwin was not afraid of searching for scientific answers and searching for Christian answers. Neither do we need to fear science nor fear theology. God is Lord over both.

1 On the Origin of Species, 6th Edition, Charles Darwin, EBook November 23, 2009. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2009/2009-h/2009-h.htmhttp://www.gutenberg.org/files/2009/2009-h/2009-h.htm

The end of one calendar year and the beginning of another is a good time for me to look back and consider how I have grown through the year. That means looking through the blog posts of the past year and seeing what I have been thinking and writing about in 2012. After a quick perusal I came up with the following top-ten list. These are a few of my favourite posts in a, close to, tenth to first favourite order.

10. Our Time is a reminder of how grateful I am for the incredible blessings of my life. Thank-you Father for the place and time in which I live.

9. Don’t Miss Your Life is the title of a song that came out on Father’s day last June. It reminds all of us of the important things in life.

8. Prayer Changes Things is a bit of a confession that I am an experimenter at heart. The three styles of prayer represented in this blog show how I have spent a life-time in the laboratory of prayer.

7. Observation is all about science and the mystery of how God has put the universe together.

6. Contact is another excursion into exobiology and musings about the expanses of our universe. It reminds us that both theology and science must search for truth.

5. Dark Knight shows how deeply God has built self-sacrifice and resurrection stories into the fabric of our culture.

4. Adam and Genetics celebrates the completion of a degree and introduces a controversial yet widely held perspective on genetics and theology.

3. Higgs and Bosons pays homage to the biggest scientific discovery of the year and what certainly should have been the newsmaker of the year (contrary to what you will read about the Canadian Press newsmaker of the year).

2. Spiritual Inertia is short and to the point but reveals a quote that finally gave me the language to describe a principle of spiritual growth that I have experienced all of my life.

1. Pacing the Cage relates the lyrics of Bruce Cockburn’s classic song and reminds me that I can never rest on yesterday’s successes. Next year I will continue to seek to grow and develop as a person and a writer.

Together these blog posts show the spiritual journey of 2012 but there is one more event that has changed the man I am. This is also the year in which our first grandchild was born. He is certainly one of the best things that has happened to us in this year; and in our lifetime. Spending Christmas with him and his parents, cuddling his ten pound body into my shoulder, and praising God for his birth have been a beautiful way to end 2012. His small body reminds us of another tiny baby who came into the world with “fragile finger sent to save us; tender brow prepared for thorn; (and) tiny heart whose blood will save us.”1 May our memories of 2012 help us become the people whom God is calling us to be. Happy New Year.

1. Chris Rice, “Welcome to Our World.”

Welcome to Our World (Lyrics and music by Chris Rice – listen to his recording here.)

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You’ve been promised, we’ve been waiting
Welcome Holy Child; Welcome Holy Child


Hope that you don’t mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home; Please make Yourself at home


Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven’s silence
Welcome to our world; Welcome to our world


Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born; Unto us is born


So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God; Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

I am guest blogging on the Cosmos site. Add the Cosmos blog site to your regular reading and enjoy a re-blog of a recent Thirst post.

Christmas reminds us that God‘s
great endings come from His humble beginnings.






Keith Shields 2003

Paul Valdemar Horsdal, known professionally as Valdy, is a Canadian folk musician who has been writing songs and performing for more than forty years. I remember discovering his “Country Man” album in the seventies and the couple of times I saw him in concert I was amazed with how this one man and his guitar could keep an audience engaged for hours. He is also one of the original artists who spoke out against the damage humans were causing to our environment.

His song entitled “MM-MM-MM-MM” is all but forgotten now (perhaps partly owing to the strange title) but has a great message of warning. The song envisions a future in which air pollution has reached such extremes that the people of earth have never seen the sun in the sky. In 1972 this was a vision that was easy to imagine. Due to the work of environmentalists and folk singers, air quality in such cities as Los Angeles has vastly improved since the seventies but air pollution is still a major health concern in rapidly developing cities such as Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

Valdy’s words are still an important warning to the people of our planet. I looked for these lyrics online and could not find them so I offer them here in this blog.

MM-MM-MM-MM
(Listen to the song here.)
Valdy (from the album “Country Man,” 1972; also released as the B side of the single: “A Good Song.”)

And I’ll say mm-mm-mm-mm
That’s not the way things oughta be
And I’ll say mm-mm-mm-mm excuse me
I’m on the outside being free

Run to your houses and dally no more
Close up your windows and lock your doors
The sunlight is comin’ the sunlight is comin’
Close all your curtains and lie on the floor

They had never seen the sunlight before they were sore afraid
They had never seen the sunlight before so they all obeyed

And I’ll say mm-mm-mm-mm
That’s not the way things oughta be
And I’ll say mm-mm-mm-mm excuse me
I’m on the outside being free

Why, the last time the sun came out in full
Four men were trapped out on the moors
Now they’ve all four gone stir crazy
Cause they won’t come back indoors

They say the sky is gonna break and turn some colour of blue
They’re all nuts they said the trees looked green
Do you want that to happen to you?

And I’ll say mm-mm-mm-mm
That’s not the way things oughta be
And I’ll say mm-mm-mm-mm excuse me
I’m on the outside being free