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Showing posts from January 31, 2021

Powerful does not necessarily mean strong!

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Scarlet Witch  is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe. In the movie Infinity War, the final battle began to turn toward the heroes when she joined the fight. And she had enough power to destroy a mind stone, and if not for the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet with all of the stones, she would have given Thanos a run for his money. Only Captain Marvel on the heroes’ side rivals the power of Wanda Maximoff. But having great power does not necessarily imbue you with great strength, which is the theme explored in the new Disney+ offering of  WandaVision . WandaVision  does not immediately take off from the closing events of  Avengers: Endgame  (well, that’s not true; it does, but it is not what you think). It begins in the surreal world of 1950’s sitcoms in a town called Westview.  Wanda Maximoff and Vision are living an idyllic suburban life trying to conceal their true natures. Neither seems to remember anything from their past, how they got to Westview, how they re

Prayer is the Souls Sincere Desire

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The hymn “Prayer Is The Souls Sincere Desire” was written by James Montgomery in or around 1825. Montgomery’s father was a minister, and his parents eventually served as missionaries in the West Indies.  He began writing poetry at age 10, inspired by the Moravians' hymns, the same group that influenced John Wesley.  Many hymns are essentially prayers, “God, Our Father, Hear us Pray” and “Sweet Hour of Prayer” are two of them, and there are many more. This hymn teaches us in a very personal way; it is poetry about prayer.  Even though I have known this song for most of my life, I only recently began to appreciate it.   In 1995, I was in Perth, Australia, serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I had a conversation with my Mission President in which he extolled to me the essential nature of prayer. During our discussion, President Hamilton then did something I did not expect.  He said, let’s pray together. Praying was a regular part of missionar