A Parody and a Lesson

   Someone sent me an email this morning with a quick joke:

Obama, Hillary and Trump are standing at the throne of heaven. God  looks at them and says, "Before granting you a place at my side, I must ask you what you have learned, what you believe in."

God asks Obama first: “What do you believe?"

He thinks long and hard, looks God in the eye, and says, "I believe in  hard work, and in staying true to family and friends. I believe in giving. I was lucky, but I always tried to do right by my countrymen".

God can’t help but see the essential goodness of Obama , and offers him a seat to his left.

Then God turns to Hillary and says, "What do you believe?"

Hillary says, "I believe passion, discipline, courage and honour are the fundamentals of life. Like Obama I believe in hard work. I, too, have been lucky, but win or lose, I've always tried to be a true patriot and a loyal American."

God is greatly moved by Hillary's high-pitched eloquence, and he offers her a seat to his right.

Finally, God turns to Trump and says, "And you, Donald, what do you believe?"

Trump replies, "I believe you're in my seat."

   I laugh, it is funny, and fits my perception of each personality, but then I think:

   "Wait a minute, that is me, too!"

   I think of the verse in Judges, that was in my reading for this morning: Judges 21:25

"Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

   And there I sit, right on the throne of my own life, doing what I want to.

   And that is not my rightful place, even if I want it to be.

   True, but no less hurtful..

   God, Forgive me for too often being this way, and Help me...

Our Safety or Our Compassion?

   Yes, I watch the news, and I read the news (and the opinions on the news).

   But it is hard to put it all in perspective. It is hard to know how to think about all that is said and presented. I stay:

      Confused

      Conflicted

      Concerned

   Not only about the actual news, but how I should think about it, and how I should respond to it.

   I confess that a lot of the time I just want to turn it all off and live in my own small world.

   I want to treat the world and its people like I did the basketball game I had taped a couple of nights back.

   Being busy at the time it was played, I put it on DVR, so I could decide later to watch if I wanted to. Not having time in the later evening hours to get to it, I went to bed. While eating breakfast the next morning, I checked the scores in the paper, found out my team had won, and decided to watch the end to see how it played out. I knew I would not be disappointed with the ending.

   But there is no way to record the results of some opinion on the news, or even the facts of the news as they play out over the next days, months and years. The future is not ours to see.

   I want to live in the present.

   I want my attitudes to reflect right thinking.

   I want to be in tune with God's will and think accordingly. God's will for events in the world, but also His will for my thinking.

   Let's take a hot button issue right now, one the pundits are all over.

   Refugees and Immigration: First of all, I have grown to hate those pictures of the southern border wall, or fence, or whatever. That just does not seem right as a symbol of our country. It is downright ugly.

   I understand the reason for it, lawlessness and safety, but I don't much like it.

   Reading a piece on the Internet yesterday about refugees, those people looking for a better life, a safer life, for themselves and their families, especially children, I found the author basically presenting two viewpoints, referring to those from Middle Eastern areas.

   Protecting our Country or Helping those that are vulnerable

   Now, I know that these two things do not have to be mutually exclusive, they can both be guiding principles. They don't have to be an "either/or" deal.

   Our Safety or Our Compassion. Which are we more concerned with? Which am I?

   I know I am simplifying the whole situation, and I sure do not want to be the person in D.C. in charge, or advising the one in the Oval Office, but I remember a verse:

   Micah 6:8…."I shall tell thee, ye people, what is good, and what the Lord asketh of thee; and that is, to act rightly, or with justice, and to love mercy/and to love mercifully, and to be busy,or committed, to walk with thy God."

   And how to flesh that out in these times and these events. For those who have the responsibility to act, and those of us who only watch.

   We all need His Eternal Guidance

 

Winter, Where Art Thou?

   It is Tuesday, February 21, 2017, and as I walk out the front door this morning, the temperature is 61 degrees.

   Yesterday it was 75, and the day before that I played golf in shorts and a short sleeve shirt.

   It has been a very mild winter. I believe there was only one morning in this season that had a temperature that was below freezing, and then it was only 30.

   Now, I realize that we still have plenty of time for Old Man Winter to strike us, so it is too early to be complacent, but the snow birds from the North have been overjoyed.

   As I look around, my eyes fall on Spring blooms. Color abounds.

   But I am cautious..

   I remember back in 1993, living in Chattanooga, when we were hit with the worst snowstorm I can remember. Roughly 2 feet officially, and 25 inches on our driveway.

   We are not even through with February yet, and March is still in the wings.

   So we will be happy with our mild Winter, while keeping a wary eye open for a drastic change.

   And we will wish that all the gnats would wait for the real spring to bug us.

   And remember, that, although we say we live in paradise, we spell it with a small "p"...

Words Do Matter

   1. From the Wall Street Journal:

Book Publishers Are Printing More #@$% Than Ever

   2. A line from a book I am now reading:

"Not drive all this way through a #&!%(symbols mine) awful night. Pardon my English." (spoken by a French Canadian)

   3. An action by a prospective book reader:

Skimming trough a recommended book selection to see if "bad" words are prevalent in the vocabulary of the author, before deciding to buy and read..

   What do all of these have to say about the person reading or acting this way?

   A prude, a language dinosaur, one too sensitive for the reality, out of the mainstream, one lost in another era?

   I mean, there was a time when a movie line, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a d***", was shocking, and I may be stuck back in 1939, after all I was already 3 then.

   I guess that is why I don't make a big effort to watch current cinema offerings. There are also a lot of the current TV programs that I don't even think about watching, and a vast array of new books that I'm not drawn to read.

   Now I've been in enough athletic locker rooms, on enough golf courses and been in enough military barracks to hear all this stuff, but it still does not seem to me to be the way people should talk.

   I remember, way back when I was in college in the '50s, I thought it was cool to try to talk like everyone else in the dorm, but then some inner voice asked "is this the way you want people to remember you?"

   I didn't, and I quit, and those words I used are so common nowadays that they probably pass for polite conversation.

   To many, I guess this is of no consequence, but to me it is still a big thing.

   I don't even like to see a newscaster or a candidate (or a President) using language that seems below where he or she should be. I know that's the way it is today, but it does not raise his or her's esteem in my eyes.

   When we cry out for civil discourse in our legislative halls and marketplaces, does it not help to be civil and circumspect in our conversation? I think so...

   The Psalmist writes:

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
    be acceptable in your sight,
    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

  Amen




  

   

 

All Choices Matter...

   I wrote the other day about holding our plans loosely in our hands and being ready to abandon them if God leads us otherwise.

   Living One Day at a Time (http://walkinganewpath-pilgrim.blogspot.com/2017/02/one-day-at-time.html)

   But you know, I referred to those major turning points in life, the big decisions if you will, but I believe this way of thinking applies to all of life.

   Think of it this way; as I go through my day, every day, there are many times that I have decided to go one way or another, but maybe then there is a check in my spirit, and I have to step back and take into account all the ways I could go.

   Look at a practical application, at least for me:

   Let's say I am on my way to a planned activity, and a feeling hits me that I really need to do something else. Do I keep on with my original destination, or am I willing to forgo that and act on the feeling?

   First of all, do I even think about a change?

   Secondly, do I give the situation due consideration, serious consideration?

   Thirdly, am I willing to change direction if…?

   My life is the sum of my choices

   Not only the choices between good and bad, but also choices between good and better and best..

   And these choices are an ongoing treadmill of life that is never turned off till we leave this earth, they are every day, maybe even every hour or less in a day.

   And they are not all in the actions we take, they are also in our attitudes.

   I can say, when I decide that I have to do something else, "I'll go this way, but I would rather go on my planned way; I have to, but I don't want to."

   All choices matter..

   I want to make every decision and plan in accordance with God's will for my life, and, if I am close enough to listen and understand His voice, I can make good choices.

   As long as I can get my own wants out of the way.

   Let's Do It...

One Day at a Time

   There is a Gospel song that has been around for awhile:

   I've heard it, and I have even sung it, both in a religious setting, and also to myself, as I walked through my days. The chorus goes like this:

One day at a time sweet Jesus that's all I'm asking from you
Give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do
Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine
So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time.

   But I thought of it again as I sat and mused about a Wii game that I had been trying to master.

   Let me digress just a moment:

   When our third child was here at Christmas, Doug helped me reset my Wii game. I had not used it in a while, but wanted to be able to do some exercises with its leading. So, we got it rewired to the TV, and I have been using the Wii fit program to stretch some and play some of its games.

   There is one balancing exercise on that disk that consists of trying to steer a bubble down a stream using your weight shifting on the balance board to avoid the hazards in and around the water. It is not easy, and I think I have only made it to the end of the flowing water just one or two times in all my attempts.

   At one point there is a section that puts the bubble, with my Wii person inside, under a cloud and in the dark. There is just enough light around the bubble to see a small distance in front, and, if you try to proceed in a hurry, you can't catch sight of the obstacles in time to be able to maneuver around them, thereby bursting your bubble and ending your round.

   Isn't that the way our lives work?

   As much as we try to see the future and plan for it, we can't see far enough ahead to really know.

   I may wake up in the morning all set to put my life in motion with how I have figured out it will be through the day, or week, or year, or lifetime.

   Then something happens that is not in the plan, My Plan, and I realize, I have moved too fast, I have made all the plans myself, and it is not going to happen that way. My bubble with me inside has bursted, that game is over.

   Am I disappointed, am I bitter, am I mad?

   Is the interruption a problem that I rail against?

   Is it all about My plan, or The plan?

   My attitude in conformance to God's Will, that makes all the difference.

   So for my sake teach me to take one day at a time.

 

From Across the Room--A Call

   "Help I've fallen, and I can't get up!"

   A silent call from across the room at breakfast this morning.

   Our daughter-in-law and her family had given us an indoor blooming kit for Christmas this past December. We read the directions, and planted it accordingly, and waited, and waited, and then…

   The amaryllis began to grow. You could have almost watched it spring up out of the pot. It was quick, it was steady, and it bent to the right.

   I turned the pot so that the stem and bloom might reach back for the light from the door close by.

   And it seemed to work, as the blooms appeared, it looked really good. We were expectant for the
finished product.

   There it came..and it was great.

   Then I had to reposition the whole plant over to another table. The stem seemed strong, and the plant was preening and smiling.

   This morning, the call came, and a silent plea for help.

   "Help I've fallen, and I can't get up!"

   I can prop it up on a stack of books, but for now, I just don't know..

   People need propping up, too.

   I just need to:

      Be aware of them around me

      Listen for the cry

      Respond

   Maybe they can continue to bloom also...

A Book in a Beauty Salon...

   Thinking for a title of this short piece, it could be:

      Six Degrees of Separation

      It's a Small World After All

   But here is the story, at least to this point in time…

   The other day I took my wife into her beauty shop to get her her washed. (It is hard for her to do this personal chore with only one good hand and arm these days.)

   As I waited for Char to finish up, I picked up a couple of books lying on her desk. I'm always looking for new stories to read aloud to my wife, so I asked the stylist about these two by an author that I did not know.

   I had thumbed through one of them and had not discovered any really bad language, so if the author wrote a good story, they could be good for our reading times.

   So I asked…

   Char, the beautician, told us that one of her male customers had loaned them to her, and she enjoyed them. The stories were entertaining, and the author kept the action flowing. Sounded good to me.

   As I glanced into one book, I noticed, on the inside front cover page, a personal seal. One of those identification markings that owners of books embossed on their private copies. The seal was not unusual, but the name was, and I knew it.

   The last name was Zbinden, first name Ray. He had also initialed the page RZ with the date '04.

   Now I had gone to high school back in Chattanooga with a Louis Zbinden, so I began to try to put all this information together.

   Googling for Ray Z. I found nothing current.

   Googling for Louis, I found a lot. He was in San Antonio, having pastored a Presbyterian Church there for 32 years. On one site I found an email address, so I took a chance and shot an email into cyberspace to see if I had the right McCallie alum and classmate of the class of "54.

   Louis answered that he had a brother, Ray, that was 2 years younger, and that he had passed away about 10 years ago and had lived in Dallas.

   After some further research online, it seems that the gentlemen who had loaned the books to Char, a certain Harry Moffett, was Ray's brother in law, and he lived here on St. Simons only about 5 miles or so from our place.

   So, from a visit to a beauty shop, a pick up of a loaned book, a look inside, the finding of an embossed seal from the book's owner at one time, to a name on the seal, to a search for a classmate of some 63 years in the past, to an answer to an email, all because the man who lived here on our Island had loaned a book, and that man's sister was the wife of the brother of my classmate.

   How neat is all that?

   You just never know…

And a blast from the past..McCallie's Mr. Purdy, physics teacher, and his politically incorrect rating board of his senior class. No. 11 is Binden (Louis) and No. 13 is D'man (blogger)