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These prayers of lament, thanksgiving, and praise arose out of worship at Bayside Uniting Church in Queensland, Australia after May 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic challenged worship "as usual," since services were restricted to online gatherings. During this time, Paul Mercer felt stirred to discern how he could contribute positively within his own faith community. Over Easter 2020, he recognized the possibility of writing congregational prayers, both for in-person gatherings as well as online use. These were based on the weekly morning and evening liturgical readings of each Sunday as the pandemic gripped the world stage. What emerged was an eclectic set of integrated Old and New Testament "psalms" that follow the liturgical year. As people gather in Christ, amidst both "bad times" and "good times," they can receive the strange gift of a "new normal" world. May the circulation of these "new normal" prayers be to the glory of God.

The title is the heart of the lesson the story in the book tells.

In the early morning hours of March 29, 1911, a fire broke out in the New York State Capitol at Albany. By sunset, the entire western portion of the building had sustained extensive structural damage. Within lay the entire collection of the New York State Library, almost completely reduced to ashes. Founded in 1818, this had been one of the finest research libraries in the country and home to innumerable manuscript and printed rarities. In a particularly bitter irony, the fire struck as the overcrowded library was four months away from moving into new, spacious quarters under construction across the street. Miraculously there was only one fatality, an elderly watchman, Samuel Abbott, whose body was not recovered until several days later. Images of America: The New York State Capitol and the Great Fire of 1911 includes recently discovered photographs documenting the construction of the building, beginning in 1867, as well as eyewitness accounts of its destruction.

Running Deer thought that he was braver and smarter than his mother, father, and grandfather, but he was about to discover that he had a lot to learn.

America has had an invasion of liberalism, which has grown rapidly in the last fifty years. People who hold to liberal philosophy and liberal thinking for the part now hold positions of leadership in government, education, news, media, and entertainment. They have even made significant strides in the churches. The nonliberalists, on the other hand, question who these people are, why they have gained so much control, and why they think as they do. The most bothersome concern, however, is this: a lot of people who are supposed to have religious and moral beliefs-in God, the constitution, and the flag-support a politician who lies or opposes the fundamental values that America is built upon. Law of Reason points out to the nonliberalists that if they do not like the liberal direction America is heading, then it's time to stop being silent and complacent.