Personal Blogs

I spent most of yesterday down a mental rabbit hole. We've been going through the book of Matthew at church and my pastor's sermon yesterday was on the feeding of the five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes (Matthew 14: 13-21). My pastor pointed out that before that passage we'd been reading about miraculous healings and about the parables of the kingdom. But God is also concerned with our day to day needs too. Whether we're hungry and thirsty.

And my bible reading notes (I use Our Daily Bread) have been saying much the same thing for a few days now.

Here's the thing. I've always had what are known as prayer burdens. I could tell you stories that would make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. So, for me at least, prayer is something I do for other people. I never think to pray for myself. Which is remiss of me. I mean not only do I neglect myself, I don't think to thank God for all the good things I do have.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this and praying for my needs and asking for wisdom and peace and the ability to accept my situation as it currently is.

And I feel a lot better today than I have in weeks.

And I've been able to finally knuckle down and actually get on with some work - which brings me to the title.

Lynn Thorndike was a professor of history at Columbia University and wrote his magnum opus, an eight volume set on A History of Magic and Experimental Science. I picked up a secondhand volume 7 (which is concerned with the seventeenth century) quite cheaply, years ago and am reading through the relevant passages. I think I really need to find volume 6 as well - but the (non-) accessibility of the Internet Archive might be an issue here as old copies of volumes from A History of Magic and Experimental Science tend to sell for over £100 each.