iLike Artist Dashboard - Syndicate Brian Jett & Hangtough
12/25/08
JazzyJett - Blogger Pictures & Poem "Before You Left The Womb" by Brian G. Jett
Picasa Web Albums - JazzyJett - Blogger Pictures
~Before You Left The Womb~
I loved you my little angel, before you knew your time on earth…
I treasured you in your mother’s womb, crying joy’s tears at your birth
I adored your giggle and tiny toes, when your diaper I would change
I held you tight and prayed each night, and your mother did the same
My eyes lit up when you first spoke up, your first “Daddy” and “Mama” too…
Your inquisitive smile, those pretty big eyes, from infant to walking shoes
I watched you grow and play in the snow, your red cheeks, the mittens and gloves
A daddy’s girl with bows and curls, your kind kisses and goodnight hugs…
I could write until dawn of rhymes and songs, of “Humpty” and “The Man On The Moon”
But I’ll stop for now and pray you’ll know somehow, that daddy loved you before you left the womb…
By Brian G. Jett (Copyright-ã 2001)
Blogged with the Flock Browser
12/22/08
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Dead Right, Eternally Wrong
"Children accept answers to questions by faith at the very first. Of paradoxical understanding, cynical adults reject answers to questions in faith when unsupported in fact. It would seem that only the severest of dullards might fail considering his life worthy of an eternity with God because of what an ignorant child was just stupid enough to accept as fact by faith. Contrarily, both the self-aggrandized scholar and societal simpleton well into adulthood sadly appears just knave enough to reject through faith without considerable facts at the most pressing time their purpose for marking time fully privy to eternal notions. A temporal existence need not have eternally distressful implications unless egg headed egos requiring soothing are satisfactorily certain, if it were possible, that the God who had begged them thoughtful of all humanity's question crave a semblance of otherworldly possibilities. Such a fool likely sat upon Santa's knee before his free-will and life's demand to be right at all costs measured his faith, not facts, as his greatest of blunders. Eternally and literally dead right was his prideful and shameful wrong. At the very last, Christ's compassion still willing to forgive and allowing this adult still time and cognition to be broken by that implicit despair all might hope to embrace. No person of brainy effort and rationalization has been, is, or ever will be always correct. As a matter of course, not even remotely close to any substantive truth because the need for more than one has served to ease a discordant mind that had nary an original thought if but pawned off as the artifice to exclude God for mere human favor. Only one truth must exist and such a litany of chaps either cannot or will not, more likely, choose Him as greater than they were ever in the past and bearing with forever in each fellow’s future.” –Brian. G. Jett
12/19/08
Changing Our Nature by Max Lucado
My dog Molly and I aren't getting along. The problem is not her personality. A sweeter mutt you will not find. She sees every person as a friend and every day as a holiday. I have no problem with Molly's attitude. I have a problem with her habits.
Eating scraps out of the trash. Licking dirty plates in the dishwasher. Dropping dead birds on our sidewalk and stealing bones from the neighbor's dog. Shameful! Molly rolls in the grass, chews on her paw, does her business in the wrong places, and, I'm embarrassed to admit, quenches her thirst in the toilet.
Now what kind of behavior is that?
Dog behavior, you reply.
You are right. So right. Molly's problem is not a Molly problem. Molly has a dog problem. It is a dog's nature to do such things. And it is her nature that I wish to change. Not just her behavior, mind you. A canine obedience school can change what she does; I want to go deeper. I want to change who she is.
Here is my idea: a me-to-her transfusion. The deposit of a Max seed in Molly. I want to give her a kernel of human character. As it grew, would she not change? Her human nature would develop, and her dog nature would diminish. We would witness, not just a change of habits, but a change of essence. In time Molly would be less like Molly and more like me, sharing my disgust for trash snacking, potty slurping, and dish licking. She would have a new nature. Why, Denalyn might even let her eat at the table.
You think the plan is crazy? Then take it up with God. The idea is his.
What I would like to do with Molly, God does with us. He changes our nature from the inside out! "I will put a new way of thinking inside you. I will take out the stubborn hearts of stone from your bodies, and I will give you obedient hearts of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside you and help you live by my rules and carefully obey my laws" (Ezek. 36:26--27 NCV.).
God doesn't send us to obedience school to learn new habits; he sends us to the hospital to be given a new heart. Forget training; he gives transplants.
Do you understand what God has done? He has deposited a Christ seed in you. As it grows, you will change. It's not that sin has no more presence in your life, but rather that sin has no more power over your life. Temptation will pester you, but temptation will not master you. What hope this brings!
It's not up to you! Within you abides a budding power. Trust him!
"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6 NIV.). God will do with you what I only dream of doing with Molly. Change you from the inside out. When he is finished, he'll even let you sit at his table.
---------------------------
From Next Door Savior
© (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006) Max Lucado
Eating scraps out of the trash. Licking dirty plates in the dishwasher. Dropping dead birds on our sidewalk and stealing bones from the neighbor's dog. Shameful! Molly rolls in the grass, chews on her paw, does her business in the wrong places, and, I'm embarrassed to admit, quenches her thirst in the toilet.
Now what kind of behavior is that?
Dog behavior, you reply.
You are right. So right. Molly's problem is not a Molly problem. Molly has a dog problem. It is a dog's nature to do such things. And it is her nature that I wish to change. Not just her behavior, mind you. A canine obedience school can change what she does; I want to go deeper. I want to change who she is.
Here is my idea: a me-to-her transfusion. The deposit of a Max seed in Molly. I want to give her a kernel of human character. As it grew, would she not change? Her human nature would develop, and her dog nature would diminish. We would witness, not just a change of habits, but a change of essence. In time Molly would be less like Molly and more like me, sharing my disgust for trash snacking, potty slurping, and dish licking. She would have a new nature. Why, Denalyn might even let her eat at the table.
You think the plan is crazy? Then take it up with God. The idea is his.
What I would like to do with Molly, God does with us. He changes our nature from the inside out! "I will put a new way of thinking inside you. I will take out the stubborn hearts of stone from your bodies, and I will give you obedient hearts of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside you and help you live by my rules and carefully obey my laws" (Ezek. 36:26--27 NCV.).
God doesn't send us to obedience school to learn new habits; he sends us to the hospital to be given a new heart. Forget training; he gives transplants.
Do you understand what God has done? He has deposited a Christ seed in you. As it grows, you will change. It's not that sin has no more presence in your life, but rather that sin has no more power over your life. Temptation will pester you, but temptation will not master you. What hope this brings!
It's not up to you! Within you abides a budding power. Trust him!
"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6 NIV.). God will do with you what I only dream of doing with Molly. Change you from the inside out. When he is finished, he'll even let you sit at his table.
---------------------------
From Next Door Savior
© (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006) Max Lucado
12/18/08
Coincidence (Just Don't Buy It, Not Selling it) BG. JETT
Of this word coincidence; such as even the common herd ought to blend both bedeviling frequency and resplendently perfect timing to rightly conclude and convince, if but one of the rarest literati, the curious word does exist by way of King's English in print only. However, any sound minded secularist might dare agree with a Creationist that it evolve no further than Mr. Webster's fragile pages to glean any useful scientific meaning for scientifically, it has none. –Brian G. Jett
THINK!
Of this word coincidence; such as even the common herd ought to blend both bedeviling frequency and resplendently perfect timing to rightly conclude and convince, if but one of the rarest literati, the curious word does exist by way of King's English in print only. However, any sound minded secularist might dare agree with a Creationist that it evolve no further than Mr. Webster's fragile pages to glean any useful scientific meaning for scientifically, it has none. –Brian G. Jett
"Each and every occasion wherein we demand that another person apologize, we will discover that our intentions were neither to pardon the person nor accept our own need for amnesty." –Brian G. Jett
"I have yet to understand how an individual could possibly lose their patience if they never had any to begin with!" –Brian G. Jett
"When we allow men's creations to hold right of way before our Creator, at that very moment we have, perhaps, unwittingly become naturalists." -Brian G. Jett
"It's easy to figure out who isn't a team player. They'll constantly remind the coach just how good they are." -Brian G. Jett
"It wasn't easier said than done if you did it faster than it took you to explain what you needed to do." -Brian G. Jett
"You can determine how confident a person truly is by listening to what they don’t say about themselves." -Brian G. Jett
"Don't focus on changing someone's mind, but love them unconditionally and you'll likely change their heart. This is your only requirement as the heart guides the way." -Brian G. Jett
“Simple honesty makes life less complex.” –Brian G. Jett
"I have discovered that those who constantly complain will in their very circumstances constantly remain." –Brian G. Jett
“Don't get stuck in the pipe portion of your dreams.” -Brian G. Jett
"Some people have the ability to literally drive us crazy, and some can even shorten the drive." -Brian G. Jett
"Protect trust as it is the last thing to come, yet the very first thing to go." –Brian G. Jett
"Before we begin questioning another's character, we better have some answers to explain our own." -Brian G. Jett
“If anger is your most frequently used outlet, try unplugging it for awhile." -Brian G. Jett
"The surest way to kill fear is to take action in spite of it." -Brian G. Jett
"Winners choose the highest summits and see the sun prior to cresting them. There are no limits for those with expectant attitudes." -Brian G. Jett
"We think good ideas to death, when we should be acting them to life." -Brian G. Jett
“If the ‘sky is the limit’ then how did man make it to the moon?” –Brian G. Jett
"Squeeze every bit of love you can out of life, and life will HUG you back like never before." -Brian G. Jett
“A compliment is kith and kin to confidence insofar as we can accurately appraise a man’s affable disposition; yet if he is incapable of the first, he has dreadfully little of the second.” –Brian G. Jett
"Don't just kick a bad habit, beat the thing to death." -Brian G. Jett
"The interest of being positive today will determine the incredible returns that await you tomorrow." -Brian G. Jett
"The greatest possession we have costs nothing; it's known as love." -Brian G. Jett
"Life is full of obstacles. Viewing life as an obstacle course eliminates the obstacles and centers our focus on creatively finding a way under, over, around or through them." -Brian G. Jett
"If you've learned from losing, it wasn't a loss!" -Brian G. Jett
"Courage can be best defined at which point willful self-denial demands priority in the face of foreknown and dreadful duty.” –Brian G. Jett
"The first step towards wisdom is our awareness and acceptance that God has forever been and will continue to be its unchanging origin." –Brian G. Jett
“Confidence is the author of compliments.” –Brian G. Jett
"You can determine whether or not a person has a point by merely observing how long it takes them to get to it." –Brian G. Jett
"As a culture, we would be well served in associating 'Parental Guidance' beyond the realms of television programming." -Brian G. Jett
"It is in caring and sharing that we discover that we are not only helping those dear to us, but bettering who we are and opening the gates fully to that which we can become." –Brian G. Jett
“Recognize that gossip is the lazy thinkers way of communicating.” -Brian G. Jett
"Be acutely aware of your non-verbal behaviors; body language has an unlimited vocabulary." -Brian G. Jett
"Hating is tantamount to eating briars through a barbed wire fence." -Brian G. Jett
“It's much easier to face adversity when our backs are not turned to it." -Brian Jett
"The depth of our faith determines the height of our joy." -Brian Jett
"People who define themselves primarily by what they do, will one day awaken and wonder what they actually did." -Brian G. Jett
“Every employee has a valuable position to play, and every facet of management and leadership has the responsibility of providing each of them with the way to execute it.” -Brian G. Jett
"If you believe in luck, you're flat out of it." -Brian G. Jett
~Shame and Pride, Once side by Side~
The meek, the mild, the timid masses, all so very tame
In a cold thistle’s cover, oft mute abutting empty shame
From hopes to fears to faith, and ‘rounding all over again
Nary silent by breadth of thicket, merely the doubter’s hand
Whilst dreams for freedom’s joyful calm, bellow for level play
Scarcely than feigning shadows, caught parched in yesterdays
‘Til now, the brawny of mind and nerve, the courageously fine of heart
These, too, of restless mood clutch hope, that the meekly tame dare start
This heat and toil, so weary from weight, these brave ones also beg
Asking for what the thistle’s seize, what the meek and mild dread
The meek and those most mighty, in truth seeking at end the same
Their lots in life as given, both keen for quick exchange
But freedom comes, in fact and deed, by balancing of proper rest
Both shame and pride, once side by side, blood brothers - Comparison’s Test
October 31: © 2008 – by Brian G. Jett
"You can make almost anything happen, if you happen to believe almost anything can." –Brian G. Jett
"Those who gossip a great deal have much on their minds, but absolutely nothing in them." –Brian G. Jett
"One quality endemic to every victorious person is their learned ability to take desperation and, nonetheless, turn it into celebration.” –Brian G. Jett
"I stalwartly accept as true, that one of our greatest strengths is our ingenuous awareness of our own greatest weakness." –Brian G. Jett
“We can’t right a wrong if we don’t know the difference between the two.” –Brian G. Jett
"Think about what you're thinking, as whatever is on your mind will eventually get in it." –Brian G. Jett
"When all is said and done, the unselfish acts of what we have done without asking for anything in return, will have said it all." -Brian G. Jett
"Be careful around those individuals who have bought into negativity, because they have the uncanny ability of selling it as well." -Brian G. Jett
“The most absurd imaginings have historically been brought to fruition by men and women who refused to be conquered by frequent encounters with failure.” –Brian G. Jett
"A man defines his character with verbs, not nouns." -Brian G. Jett
"One’s true character is most transparent when placed in a position of power." -Brian G. Jett
"The decisions that I’ve made while in an emotional frenzy, would be the thickheaded equivalent to a man’s purposefully capturing a wild gorilla for use at a children’s petting zoo.” -B.G. Jett
”Children can go no farther from home than the memories they left there.” –Brian G. Jett
“Hard work is more of a secret than success has ever been.” –Brian G. Jett
"Sitting on our dreams as hand-me-downs from a once silly and youthful zeal is unadulterated stupidity! –Brian G. Jett
"The tears of today may be just enough eye water to cleanse and clear my vision for seeing a tremendously joyous tomorrow." –Brian G. Jett
"There is a vast difference between feeling like a failure, and actually being one." -Brian G. Jett
“We lose the vast majority of our creature battles not because we’re always wrong, but due to our ravenously disturbing approaches in exacting, at any cost, our rightness.” –Brian G. Jett
"Harbors were built for ships, not resentments." -Brian G. Jett
"If you think that someone else thinks that they are better than you, perhaps it is you who thinks they are better than you." -Brian G. Jett
"Atheists have continued to predictably wax philosophical concerning their intellectually self-sufficient certainties of God's nonexistence. However, the ease of their perilously lazy cynicism will become increasingly thorny as they age and are forced to acknowledge that their previously chosen stance as atheists must, as a matter of course, empirically and ultimately bear out that they were neither overly intellectual nor self-sufficient; neither unpredictable in opinion nor genuinely philosophic to originality; neither competent in certainties nor cerebrally capable of explaining creation without stumbling over the necessity of a Creator; neither convicted atheists excluded from eternal questions nor naturalists undaunted by morose preoccupations for ethereal answers; and lastly, neither authentically acceptant of a life without end nor having ever been secure in trusting their facts based on science in lieu of who or what made their science possible." -Brian G. Jett
What Matters Most
I'd watched this old man for many months, with tattered clothes most worn
I'd seen the look on many a face, as each looked at him with scorn
He did not hold a sign up, on the corner where he stood
Begging for food or money, like others like him would
And each day that I'd see him, I'd glimpse into his eyes
He'd catch my gaze and look away, and I'd often wonder why
I began to think to myself, what life he'd lived before
A beggar not was this man I saw, was he rich or feigned be poor?
One day I noticed he wasn't there, that corner, his familiar place
And I vowed that if I saw him again, I'd speak to him face to face
As days went by I forgot this man, this man who'd seen much hate
He must have been just another bum; another corner would be his fate
One day I walked past his spot, on my way to meet a friend
And saw him right in front of me, my vow this day I'd spend
"Sir, I vowed I'd talk to you, if ever I saw you here.
And ask you what your life had been, throughout your many years."
"Son", he said, "I know you, I've seen your face before
I'm not a bum as you probably think; I'm rich and not poor."
"If rich why do you dress this way, can you explain this to me?
The rich own cars and have big homes, they stand not on the street."
He reached into his pocket, and showed me a picture of
His wife who'd died one year ago, the one he dearly loved
"It matters not how big the home, I have everything I need
What matters most in life my son, is that which we can't see."
Copyright © 1998
Of this word coincidence; such as even the common herd ought to blend both bedeviling frequency and resplendently perfect timing to rightly conclude and convince, if but one of the rarest literati, the curious word does exist by way of King's English in print only. However, any sound minded secularist might dare agree with a Creationist that it evolve no further than Mr. Webster's fragile pages to glean any useful scientific meaning for scientifically, it has none. –Brian G. Jett
"Each and every occasion wherein we demand that another person apologize, we will discover that our intentions were neither to pardon the person nor accept our own need for amnesty." –Brian G. Jett
"I have yet to understand how an individual could possibly lose their patience if they never had any to begin with!" –Brian G. Jett
"When we allow men's creations to hold right of way before our Creator, at that very moment we have, perhaps, unwittingly become naturalists." -Brian G. Jett
"It's easy to figure out who isn't a team player. They'll constantly remind the coach just how good they are." -Brian G. Jett
"It wasn't easier said than done if you did it faster than it took you to explain what you needed to do." -Brian G. Jett
"You can determine how confident a person truly is by listening to what they don’t say about themselves." -Brian G. Jett
"Don't focus on changing someone's mind, but love them unconditionally and you'll likely change their heart. This is your only requirement as the heart guides the way." -Brian G. Jett
“Simple honesty makes life less complex.” –Brian G. Jett
"I have discovered that those who constantly complain will in their very circumstances constantly remain." –Brian G. Jett
“Don't get stuck in the pipe portion of your dreams.” -Brian G. Jett
"Some people have the ability to literally drive us crazy, and some can even shorten the drive." -Brian G. Jett
"Protect trust as it is the last thing to come, yet the very first thing to go." –Brian G. Jett
"Before we begin questioning another's character, we better have some answers to explain our own." -Brian G. Jett
“If anger is your most frequently used outlet, try unplugging it for awhile." -Brian G. Jett
"The surest way to kill fear is to take action in spite of it." -Brian G. Jett
"Winners choose the highest summits and see the sun prior to cresting them. There are no limits for those with expectant attitudes." -Brian G. Jett
"We think good ideas to death, when we should be acting them to life." -Brian G. Jett
“If the ‘sky is the limit’ then how did man make it to the moon?” –Brian G. Jett
"Squeeze every bit of love you can out of life, and life will HUG you back like never before." -Brian G. Jett
“A compliment is kith and kin to confidence insofar as we can accurately appraise a man’s affable disposition; yet if he is incapable of the first, he has dreadfully little of the second.” –Brian G. Jett
"Don't just kick a bad habit, beat the thing to death." -Brian G. Jett
"The interest of being positive today will determine the incredible returns that await you tomorrow." -Brian G. Jett
"The greatest possession we have costs nothing; it's known as love." -Brian G. Jett
"Life is full of obstacles. Viewing life as an obstacle course eliminates the obstacles and centers our focus on creatively finding a way under, over, around or through them." -Brian G. Jett
"If you've learned from losing, it wasn't a loss!" -Brian G. Jett
"Courage can be best defined at which point willful self-denial demands priority in the face of foreknown and dreadful duty.” –Brian G. Jett
"The first step towards wisdom is our awareness and acceptance that God has forever been and will continue to be its unchanging origin." –Brian G. Jett
“Confidence is the author of compliments.” –Brian G. Jett
"You can determine whether or not a person has a point by merely observing how long it takes them to get to it." –Brian G. Jett
"As a culture, we would be well served in associating 'Parental Guidance' beyond the realms of television programming." -Brian G. Jett
"It is in caring and sharing that we discover that we are not only helping those dear to us, but bettering who we are and opening the gates fully to that which we can become." –Brian G. Jett
“Recognize that gossip is the lazy thinkers way of communicating.” -Brian G. Jett
"Be acutely aware of your non-verbal behaviors; body language has an unlimited vocabulary." -Brian G. Jett
"Hating is tantamount to eating briars through a barbed wire fence." -Brian G. Jett
“It's much easier to face adversity when our backs are not turned to it." -Brian Jett
"The depth of our faith determines the height of our joy." -Brian Jett
"People who define themselves primarily by what they do, will one day awaken and wonder what they actually did." -Brian G. Jett
“Every employee has a valuable position to play, and every facet of management and leadership has the responsibility of providing each of them with the way to execute it.” -Brian G. Jett
"If you believe in luck, you're flat out of it." -Brian G. Jett
~Shame and Pride, Once side by Side~
The meek, the mild, the timid masses, all so very tame
In a cold thistle’s cover, oft mute abutting empty shame
From hopes to fears to faith, and ‘rounding all over again
Nary silent by breadth of thicket, merely the doubter’s hand
Whilst dreams for freedom’s joyful calm, bellow for level play
Scarcely than feigning shadows, caught parched in yesterdays
‘Til now, the brawny of mind and nerve, the courageously fine of heart
These, too, of restless mood clutch hope, that the meekly tame dare start
This heat and toil, so weary from weight, these brave ones also beg
Asking for what the thistle’s seize, what the meek and mild dread
The meek and those most mighty, in truth seeking at end the same
Their lots in life as given, both keen for quick exchange
But freedom comes, in fact and deed, by balancing of proper rest
Both shame and pride, once side by side, blood brothers - Comparison’s Test
October 31: © 2008 – by Brian G. Jett
"You can make almost anything happen, if you happen to believe almost anything can." –Brian G. Jett
"Those who gossip a great deal have much on their minds, but absolutely nothing in them." –Brian G. Jett
"One quality endemic to every victorious person is their learned ability to take desperation and, nonetheless, turn it into celebration.” –Brian G. Jett
"I stalwartly accept as true, that one of our greatest strengths is our ingenuous awareness of our own greatest weakness." –Brian G. Jett
“We can’t right a wrong if we don’t know the difference between the two.” –Brian G. Jett
"Think about what you're thinking, as whatever is on your mind will eventually get in it." –Brian G. Jett
"When all is said and done, the unselfish acts of what we have done without asking for anything in return, will have said it all." -Brian G. Jett
"Be careful around those individuals who have bought into negativity, because they have the uncanny ability of selling it as well." -Brian G. Jett
“The most absurd imaginings have historically been brought to fruition by men and women who refused to be conquered by frequent encounters with failure.” –Brian G. Jett
"A man defines his character with verbs, not nouns." -Brian G. Jett
"One’s true character is most transparent when placed in a position of power." -Brian G. Jett
"The decisions that I’ve made while in an emotional frenzy, would be the thickheaded equivalent to a man’s purposefully capturing a wild gorilla for use at a children’s petting zoo.” -B.G. Jett
”Children can go no farther from home than the memories they left there.” –Brian G. Jett
“Hard work is more of a secret than success has ever been.” –Brian G. Jett
"Sitting on our dreams as hand-me-downs from a once silly and youthful zeal is unadulterated stupidity! –Brian G. Jett
"The tears of today may be just enough eye water to cleanse and clear my vision for seeing a tremendously joyous tomorrow." –Brian G. Jett
"There is a vast difference between feeling like a failure, and actually being one." -Brian G. Jett
“We lose the vast majority of our creature battles not because we’re always wrong, but due to our ravenously disturbing approaches in exacting, at any cost, our rightness.” –Brian G. Jett
"Harbors were built for ships, not resentments." -Brian G. Jett
"If you think that someone else thinks that they are better than you, perhaps it is you who thinks they are better than you." -Brian G. Jett
"Atheists have continued to predictably wax philosophical concerning their intellectually self-sufficient certainties of God's nonexistence. However, the ease of their perilously lazy cynicism will become increasingly thorny as they age and are forced to acknowledge that their previously chosen stance as atheists must, as a matter of course, empirically and ultimately bear out that they were neither overly intellectual nor self-sufficient; neither unpredictable in opinion nor genuinely philosophic to originality; neither competent in certainties nor cerebrally capable of explaining creation without stumbling over the necessity of a Creator; neither convicted atheists excluded from eternal questions nor naturalists undaunted by morose preoccupations for ethereal answers; and lastly, neither authentically acceptant of a life without end nor having ever been secure in trusting their facts based on science in lieu of who or what made their science possible." -Brian G. Jett
What Matters Most
I'd watched this old man for many months, with tattered clothes most worn
I'd seen the look on many a face, as each looked at him with scorn
He did not hold a sign up, on the corner where he stood
Begging for food or money, like others like him would
And each day that I'd see him, I'd glimpse into his eyes
He'd catch my gaze and look away, and I'd often wonder why
I began to think to myself, what life he'd lived before
A beggar not was this man I saw, was he rich or feigned be poor?
One day I noticed he wasn't there, that corner, his familiar place
And I vowed that if I saw him again, I'd speak to him face to face
As days went by I forgot this man, this man who'd seen much hate
He must have been just another bum; another corner would be his fate
One day I walked past his spot, on my way to meet a friend
And saw him right in front of me, my vow this day I'd spend
"Sir, I vowed I'd talk to you, if ever I saw you here.
And ask you what your life had been, throughout your many years."
"Son", he said, "I know you, I've seen your face before
I'm not a bum as you probably think; I'm rich and not poor."
"If rich why do you dress this way, can you explain this to me?
The rich own cars and have big homes, they stand not on the street."
He reached into his pocket, and showed me a picture of
His wife who'd died one year ago, the one he dearly loved
"It matters not how big the home, I have everything I need
What matters most in life my son, is that which we can't see."
Copyright © 1998
12/9/08
C.S. Lewis BIO by Blog Rube
"C.S." is used by this author as an acronym for, "Common Sense." Mr. Lewis’ move from atheism to Christianity is a subject he wrote much about and his missives still have the brainy and prideful (both Christian’s by mere label, and those who straightaway state God is nonexistent) in utter fluxing bedevilment. C.S. Lewis was unquestionably a brilliant thinker, prolific writer, and surrendered seeker who followed Christ and it is because of his imagination in tandem with scholastic wherewithal that firmed his convictions of Christ being God-Man.
Mr. Lewis’ uncommon ability actually tapped into the common part of human sense which was routinely abandoned by academia. Lewis' intellectual counterparts seemingly couldn't compete with his command of the King's English that he sought to keep simple. Lewis thought little of those who professed their intellectually enlightened state of mind. Such folks confused what the most callow of children could easily communicate with common words and compelling implications about God's renowned and present reality.
C.S. Lewis convinced both the agnostic and atheist that their assaultive arguments against God clearly suggested that such strongly peculiar opposition confirmed God's providential presence. As a matter of question:
‘Why, Sir, are you emotionally strained and under clear duress over an issue, called God, for which you assert does not exist? Isn’t your science and intelligence blended with your right thinking take all emotion and sharp anger out of all tête-à-tête regarding God?’
Very simply, one had not an argument against nothingness unless this nothingness was truly something over which to argue and be worth opposing. Hence, common sense made agnostics (clearly the atheists) wish such common sense didn't make such profoundly disturbing good sense. Succinctly, nothing made sense unless something made sense. Thus, a man with a lick of sense knew God made the man so he could reason rightly at all.” –Brian G. Jett
12/8/08
C.S. Lewis Quotations (Actual Meaningful Remarks In My, biased perhaps, Opinion)
C.S. Lewis Quotes – Life“You will never know how much you believe something until it is a matter of life and death.” “If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.” – God in the Dock, page 52.
“One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human.” – God in the Dock,page 108. Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself. – The Problem of Pain
C.S. Lewis Quotes – Atheism"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning. . ." – Mere Christianity
"Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable." – Mere Christianity
"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere -- 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." – Surprised by Joy
"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?" - Mere Christianity
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.
"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." – Surprised by Joy
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. – Is Theology Poetry?
“One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human.” – God in the Dock,page 108. Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself. – The Problem of Pain
C.S. Lewis Quotes – Atheism"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning. . ." – Mere Christianity
"Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable." – Mere Christianity
"A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere -- 'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.' God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous." – Surprised by Joy
"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?" - Mere Christianity
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.
"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." – Surprised by Joy
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. – Is Theology Poetry?
Emotionality of Atheist I Find Curious (No God? Why Is Anger Typically Involved Over a NON Issue?)
"Atheists have continued to predictably wax philosophical concerning their intellectually self-sufficient certainties of God's nonexistence. However, the ease of their perilously lazy cynicism will become increasingly thorny as they age and are forced to acknowledge that their previously chosen stance as atheists must, as a matter of course, empirically and ultimately bear out that they were neither overly intellectual nor self-sufficient; neither unpredictable in opinion nor genuinely philosophic to originality; neither competent in certainties nor cerebrally capable of explaining creation without stumbling over the necessity of a Creator; neither convicted atheists excluded from eternal questions nor naturalists undaunted by morose preoccupations for ethereal answers; and lastly, neither authentically acceptant of a life without end nor having ever been secure in trusting their facts based on science in lieu of who or what made their science possible." -B.G. Jett
What facts?
I just want one agnostic or "Atheist" as none truly exist to, with reason, undo their argument by asserting even a portion of the aforementioned axiom penned for fun as completely false. Indeed, it is either false or not. If there cannot be one truth, than there reasonably cannot be any truth. What, therein, is false or wrong if anything? Why do atheists do and say things that surely seem marginally if not considerably correct and suggestive of being a human being with a conscience? How can this be explained away? Learned behavior from apes? I don't wish to be discordant, but I simply am asking for (as are many atheist if honest with said position, if atheist) an intellectual, reasonable, and orginal positing of information and even possibly compelling conviction as to why God or one God cannot and does not exist?
It is not just a "Christian" who must be mandated to produce apologetics.
Thank you,
Hang Tough
What facts?
I just want one agnostic or "Atheist" as none truly exist to, with reason, undo their argument by asserting even a portion of the aforementioned axiom penned for fun as completely false. Indeed, it is either false or not. If there cannot be one truth, than there reasonably cannot be any truth. What, therein, is false or wrong if anything? Why do atheists do and say things that surely seem marginally if not considerably correct and suggestive of being a human being with a conscience? How can this be explained away? Learned behavior from apes? I don't wish to be discordant, but I simply am asking for (as are many atheist if honest with said position, if atheist) an intellectual, reasonable, and orginal positing of information and even possibly compelling conviction as to why God or one God cannot and does not exist?
It is not just a "Christian" who must be mandated to produce apologetics.
Thank you,
Hang Tough
Answers to Obvious Ones Only One Way Discerned (Musings)
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense -- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. -1 John 2:1-2
“No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.” -Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck How very true the above maxim is and I submit the answers so obvious to each of us are continually questioned by Jesus Christ’s words to the Apostle Peter; “The flesh is weak; the Spirit is willing.” In the book of Mark, Christ states, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. “ Mark 14:38
Interesting to note the order of His statement of truth, One truth, The Truth, and if there Is Another truth we’re contemplating than instantly ushered in is confusion. Two truths cannot exist and this is the unresolved conflict we are in constant debate. In a world of patterns and people pleasing, we are apt to please our need for acceptance and give power to people of influence and even those who hold no social prominence.
Pluralism isn’t to blame but the knavery excuse we choose to pattern our habits and hang ups on to the extent everyone else has their own foibles, faults, and multiplicity of options which justify our very own unjust and absurd patterns and problems. To accept Christ’s love for others is often easier than to swallow than the possibility that He could, in fact, love us for who and what we are even in the present. This is where ego and pride and self-consciousness, self-centeredness and our ravenously disturbing desire to compete wrongly to soothe our “Rightness Addiction” and press off from the withdrawals of possible wrongness – particularly if we know we’re wrong. The “plank” in our eye is not seen from the inside looking inward unless the Holy Spirit is in us to pluck it out. If what lies within us is nothing spiritual of the sort, it cannot be sorted. Blaming others for their fleshly faults we subtly or not so subtly assert that they change are our fleshly carnality in its most unseemly, repulsive and revolting demonstrations.
"If the Son shall set you free, you will be free indeed.” -John 8:36 The flesh is always tempted to be right, dead right. The Spirit is willing and it is always demonstrated from that which really is in a Christ Follower who has allowed what only the Holy Spirit must “work out” as it is our salvation, not our neighbor’s we win over. We must admit we need to lose everything and be willing to see it go for a testimony to be of use to another soul. Removing all “Ifs” that precede the promise of Christ setting one free is forever beckoning that the believer actually believe Christ, not merely in Christ as a folk hero or other sage with interesting things to say. What we are jealous of is Jesus Christ Himself. We don’t like to be told what to do by anyone and even if it’s for our own good temporally. To run from Christ and find other worldly wisdom to lean on so as to justify or minimize the dealing with of self is the other side of the fence we’ll straddle until God trumps our “free will” which is the very thing that He does by wooing us not with condemnation, but through love in spite of our desire to avoid the One Truth that can take the lid of the lightening bug jar.
We must see the opening and find peace by our final decision being decidedly final – Christ is God-Man and I can only stay awake for an hour to be with a someone whom I love above all else. Peter and the disciples did not do so for Christ because, perhaps, they took His repeated demonstrations of unconditional love and mercy for granted; He was familiar but He was far from being done with a lesson or two to get to only one thing – Himself! We are offended because we are defensive. There cannot be an attack by any man or woman on our personhood that ought cause us to become offended and, in due short time, defensive, with Christ or if Christ is our salvation, our only attorney, so to speak, whom pleads our case before His Father. We can only see the change in others when we’ve been freed to see the change in ourselves never done by will power or gritty determination. His Spirit is the reason we know we will be uncomfortable down here in the world and in our homes that are but feigned mansions regardless of size until we accept Heaven’s Mansions and He, Christ, who spoke of them. We must allow Him in and see that our goodness is of no concern to what His love sacrificed.
We cannot and will never do unto others so much so that we find ourselves viewing this life as unfair and our contributions bigger than that of our One God’s Son and His death for us. His death requires that we put to death self to see the horrid nature in us as revealed by God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit. There can be no real reason to judge another if filled with the fruits of the Spirit [which are grown in patience]; but to be filled up, all must move out that wants to reside in His temple and His creation. He loves us that much. Indeed, to live is for Christ; to die is gain.
"They have conquered Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death" (Revelation 12:11)
No fear of death when the only source of eternal life is fully embraced. Judging goes with such abandonment. (Brian G. Jett)
Lord, help me apply this.
“No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.” -Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck How very true the above maxim is and I submit the answers so obvious to each of us are continually questioned by Jesus Christ’s words to the Apostle Peter; “The flesh is weak; the Spirit is willing.” In the book of Mark, Christ states, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak. “ Mark 14:38
Interesting to note the order of His statement of truth, One truth, The Truth, and if there Is Another truth we’re contemplating than instantly ushered in is confusion. Two truths cannot exist and this is the unresolved conflict we are in constant debate. In a world of patterns and people pleasing, we are apt to please our need for acceptance and give power to people of influence and even those who hold no social prominence.
Pluralism isn’t to blame but the knavery excuse we choose to pattern our habits and hang ups on to the extent everyone else has their own foibles, faults, and multiplicity of options which justify our very own unjust and absurd patterns and problems. To accept Christ’s love for others is often easier than to swallow than the possibility that He could, in fact, love us for who and what we are even in the present. This is where ego and pride and self-consciousness, self-centeredness and our ravenously disturbing desire to compete wrongly to soothe our “Rightness Addiction” and press off from the withdrawals of possible wrongness – particularly if we know we’re wrong. The “plank” in our eye is not seen from the inside looking inward unless the Holy Spirit is in us to pluck it out. If what lies within us is nothing spiritual of the sort, it cannot be sorted. Blaming others for their fleshly faults we subtly or not so subtly assert that they change are our fleshly carnality in its most unseemly, repulsive and revolting demonstrations.
"If the Son shall set you free, you will be free indeed.” -John 8:36 The flesh is always tempted to be right, dead right. The Spirit is willing and it is always demonstrated from that which really is in a Christ Follower who has allowed what only the Holy Spirit must “work out” as it is our salvation, not our neighbor’s we win over. We must admit we need to lose everything and be willing to see it go for a testimony to be of use to another soul. Removing all “Ifs” that precede the promise of Christ setting one free is forever beckoning that the believer actually believe Christ, not merely in Christ as a folk hero or other sage with interesting things to say. What we are jealous of is Jesus Christ Himself. We don’t like to be told what to do by anyone and even if it’s for our own good temporally. To run from Christ and find other worldly wisdom to lean on so as to justify or minimize the dealing with of self is the other side of the fence we’ll straddle until God trumps our “free will” which is the very thing that He does by wooing us not with condemnation, but through love in spite of our desire to avoid the One Truth that can take the lid of the lightening bug jar.
We must see the opening and find peace by our final decision being decidedly final – Christ is God-Man and I can only stay awake for an hour to be with a someone whom I love above all else. Peter and the disciples did not do so for Christ because, perhaps, they took His repeated demonstrations of unconditional love and mercy for granted; He was familiar but He was far from being done with a lesson or two to get to only one thing – Himself! We are offended because we are defensive. There cannot be an attack by any man or woman on our personhood that ought cause us to become offended and, in due short time, defensive, with Christ or if Christ is our salvation, our only attorney, so to speak, whom pleads our case before His Father. We can only see the change in others when we’ve been freed to see the change in ourselves never done by will power or gritty determination. His Spirit is the reason we know we will be uncomfortable down here in the world and in our homes that are but feigned mansions regardless of size until we accept Heaven’s Mansions and He, Christ, who spoke of them. We must allow Him in and see that our goodness is of no concern to what His love sacrificed.
We cannot and will never do unto others so much so that we find ourselves viewing this life as unfair and our contributions bigger than that of our One God’s Son and His death for us. His death requires that we put to death self to see the horrid nature in us as revealed by God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit. There can be no real reason to judge another if filled with the fruits of the Spirit [which are grown in patience]; but to be filled up, all must move out that wants to reside in His temple and His creation. He loves us that much. Indeed, to live is for Christ; to die is gain.
"They have conquered Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death" (Revelation 12:11)
No fear of death when the only source of eternal life is fully embraced. Judging goes with such abandonment. (Brian G. Jett)
Lord, help me apply this.
Excerpt from C. S. Lewis -As long as X remains-
Excerpt from C. S. Lewis:
I suppose I may assume that seven out of ten of those who read these lines are in some kind of difficulty about some other human being. Either at work or at home, either the people who employ you or those whom you employ, either those who share your house or those whose house you share, either your in-laws or parents or children, your wife or your husband, are making life harder for you than it need be even in these days. It is hoped that we do not often mention these difficulties (especially the domestic ones) to outsiders. But sometimes we do. An outside friend asks us why we are looking so glum, and the truth comes out.On such occasions the outside friend usually says, "But why don't you tell them? Why don't you go to your wife (or husband, or father, or daughter, or boss, or
landlady, or lodger) and have it all out? People are usually reasonable. All you've got to do is to make them see things in the right light. Explain it to them in a reasonable, quiet, friendly way." And we, whatever we say outwardly, think sadly to ourselves, "He doesn't know X." We do. We know how utterly hopeless it is to make X see reason. Either we've tried it over and over again--tried till we are sick of trying it--or else we've never tried because we saw from the beginning how useless it would be. We know that if we attempt to "have it all out with X" there will be a "scene", or else X will stare at us in blank amazement and say "I don't know what on earth you're talking about"; or else (which is perhaps worst of all) X will quite agree with us and promise to turn over a new leaf and put everything on a new footing -- and then, twenty-four hours later, will be exactly the same as X has always been. You know, in fact, that any attempt to talk things over with X will shipwreck on the old, fatal flaw in X's character. And you see, looking back, how all the plans you have ever made always have shipwrecked on that fatal flaw--on X's incurable jealousy, or laziness, or touchiness, or muddle-headedness, or bossiness, or ill temper, or changeableness. Up to a certain age you have perhaps had the illusion that some external stroke of good fortune--an improvement in health, a rise of salary, the end of the war -- would solve your difficulty. But you know better now. The war is over, and you realize that even if the other things happened, X would still be X, and you would still be up against the same old problem. Even if you became a millionaire, your husband would still be a bully, or your wife would still nag, or your son would still drink, or you'd still have to have your mother-in-law live with you. It is a great step forward to realize that this is so; to face up to the fact that even if all external things went right, real happiness would still depend on the character of the people you have to live with--and that you can't alter their characters. And now comes the point. When you have seen this you have, for the first time, had a glimpse of what it must be like for God. For of course, this is (in one way) just what God Himself is up against. He has provided a rich, beautiful world for people to live in. He has given them intelligence to show them how it ought to be used. He has contrived that the things they need for their biological life (food, drink, rest, sleep, exercise) should be positively delightful to them. And, having done all this, He then sees all His plans spoiled--just as our little plans are spoiled -- by the crookedness of the people themselves. All the things He has given them to be happy with they turn into occasions for quarreling and jealousy, and excess and hoarding, and tomfoolery... But... there are two respects in which God's view must be very different from ours. In the first place, He sees (like you) how all the people in your home or your job are in various degrees awkward or difficult; but when He looks into that home or factory or office He sees one more person of the same kind--the one you never do see.
I mean, of course, yourself. That is the next great step in wisdom--to realize that you also are just that sort of person. You also have a fatal flaw in your character. All the hopes and plans of others have again and again shipwrecked on your character just as your hopes and plans have shipwrecked on theirs.
It is no good passing this over with some vague, general admission such as "Of course, I know I have my faults." It is important to realize that there is some really fatal flaw in you: something which gives others the same feeling of despair which their flaws give you. And it is almost certainly something you don't know about--like what the advertisements call "halitosis", which everyone notices except the person who has it. But why, you ask, don't the others tell me? Believe me, they have tried
to tell you over and over and over again. And you just couldn't "take it". Perhaps a good deal of what you call their "nagging" or "bad temper"... are just their attempts to make you see the truth. And even the faults you do know you don't know fully. You say, "I admit I lost my temper last night"; but the others know that you're always doing it, that you are a bad-tempered person. You say, "I admit I drank too much last Saturday"; but every one else knows that you are a habitual drunkard.
This is one way in which God's view must differ from mine. He sees all the characters: I see all except my own. But the second difference is this. He loves the people in spite of their faults. He goes on loving. He does not let go. Don't say, "It's all very well for Him. He hasn't got to live with them." He has. He is inside them as well as outside them. He is with them far more intimately and closely and incessantly that we can ever be. Every vile thought within their minds (and ours), every
moment of spite, envy, arrogance, greed, and self-conceit comes right up against His patient and longing love, and grieves His Spirit more than it grieves ours.
The more we can imitate God in both these respects, the more progress we shall make. We must love X more; and we must learn to see ourselves as a person of exactly the
same kind. Some people say it is morbid to always be thinking of one's own faults. That would be all very well if most of us could stop thinking of our own without soon beginning to think about those of other people. For unfortunately we enjoy thinking about other people's faults: and in the proper sense of the word "morbid", that is the most morbid pleasure in the world. We don't like rationing which is imposed upon us, but I suggest one form of rationing which we ought to impose on ourselves. Abstain from all thinking about other people's faults, unless your duties as a teacher or parent make it necessary to think about them. Whenever the thoughts come unnecessarily into one's mind, why not simply shove them away? And think of one's own faults instead? For there, with God's help, one can do something. Of all the awkward people in your house or job there is only one whom you can improve very much. That is the practical end at which to begin. And really, we'd better. The job has got to be tackled some day; and every day we put it off will make it harder to begin. What, after all, is the alternative? You see clearly enough that nothing... can make X really happy as long as X remains envious, self-centered, and spiteful. Be sure that there is something inside you which, unless it is altered, will put it out of God's power to prevent your being eternally miserable. While that something remains, there can be no Heaven for you, just as there can be no sweet smells for a man with a cold in the nose, and no music for a man who is deaf. It's not a question of God "sending" us to Hell. In each of us there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud. The matter is serious: let us put ourselves in His hands at once--this very day, this hour. -(by C.S. Lewis)
I suppose I may assume that seven out of ten of those who read these lines are in some kind of difficulty about some other human being. Either at work or at home, either the people who employ you or those whom you employ, either those who share your house or those whose house you share, either your in-laws or parents or children, your wife or your husband, are making life harder for you than it need be even in these days. It is hoped that we do not often mention these difficulties (especially the domestic ones) to outsiders. But sometimes we do. An outside friend asks us why we are looking so glum, and the truth comes out.On such occasions the outside friend usually says, "But why don't you tell them? Why don't you go to your wife (or husband, or father, or daughter, or boss, or
landlady, or lodger) and have it all out? People are usually reasonable. All you've got to do is to make them see things in the right light. Explain it to them in a reasonable, quiet, friendly way." And we, whatever we say outwardly, think sadly to ourselves, "He doesn't know X." We do. We know how utterly hopeless it is to make X see reason. Either we've tried it over and over again--tried till we are sick of trying it--or else we've never tried because we saw from the beginning how useless it would be. We know that if we attempt to "have it all out with X" there will be a "scene", or else X will stare at us in blank amazement and say "I don't know what on earth you're talking about"; or else (which is perhaps worst of all) X will quite agree with us and promise to turn over a new leaf and put everything on a new footing -- and then, twenty-four hours later, will be exactly the same as X has always been. You know, in fact, that any attempt to talk things over with X will shipwreck on the old, fatal flaw in X's character. And you see, looking back, how all the plans you have ever made always have shipwrecked on that fatal flaw--on X's incurable jealousy, or laziness, or touchiness, or muddle-headedness, or bossiness, or ill temper, or changeableness. Up to a certain age you have perhaps had the illusion that some external stroke of good fortune--an improvement in health, a rise of salary, the end of the war -- would solve your difficulty. But you know better now. The war is over, and you realize that even if the other things happened, X would still be X, and you would still be up against the same old problem. Even if you became a millionaire, your husband would still be a bully, or your wife would still nag, or your son would still drink, or you'd still have to have your mother-in-law live with you. It is a great step forward to realize that this is so; to face up to the fact that even if all external things went right, real happiness would still depend on the character of the people you have to live with--and that you can't alter their characters. And now comes the point. When you have seen this you have, for the first time, had a glimpse of what it must be like for God. For of course, this is (in one way) just what God Himself is up against. He has provided a rich, beautiful world for people to live in. He has given them intelligence to show them how it ought to be used. He has contrived that the things they need for their biological life (food, drink, rest, sleep, exercise) should be positively delightful to them. And, having done all this, He then sees all His plans spoiled--just as our little plans are spoiled -- by the crookedness of the people themselves. All the things He has given them to be happy with they turn into occasions for quarreling and jealousy, and excess and hoarding, and tomfoolery... But... there are two respects in which God's view must be very different from ours. In the first place, He sees (like you) how all the people in your home or your job are in various degrees awkward or difficult; but when He looks into that home or factory or office He sees one more person of the same kind--the one you never do see.
I mean, of course, yourself. That is the next great step in wisdom--to realize that you also are just that sort of person. You also have a fatal flaw in your character. All the hopes and plans of others have again and again shipwrecked on your character just as your hopes and plans have shipwrecked on theirs.
It is no good passing this over with some vague, general admission such as "Of course, I know I have my faults." It is important to realize that there is some really fatal flaw in you: something which gives others the same feeling of despair which their flaws give you. And it is almost certainly something you don't know about--like what the advertisements call "halitosis", which everyone notices except the person who has it. But why, you ask, don't the others tell me? Believe me, they have tried
to tell you over and over and over again. And you just couldn't "take it". Perhaps a good deal of what you call their "nagging" or "bad temper"... are just their attempts to make you see the truth. And even the faults you do know you don't know fully. You say, "I admit I lost my temper last night"; but the others know that you're always doing it, that you are a bad-tempered person. You say, "I admit I drank too much last Saturday"; but every one else knows that you are a habitual drunkard.
This is one way in which God's view must differ from mine. He sees all the characters: I see all except my own. But the second difference is this. He loves the people in spite of their faults. He goes on loving. He does not let go. Don't say, "It's all very well for Him. He hasn't got to live with them." He has. He is inside them as well as outside them. He is with them far more intimately and closely and incessantly that we can ever be. Every vile thought within their minds (and ours), every
moment of spite, envy, arrogance, greed, and self-conceit comes right up against His patient and longing love, and grieves His Spirit more than it grieves ours.
The more we can imitate God in both these respects, the more progress we shall make. We must love X more; and we must learn to see ourselves as a person of exactly the
same kind. Some people say it is morbid to always be thinking of one's own faults. That would be all very well if most of us could stop thinking of our own without soon beginning to think about those of other people. For unfortunately we enjoy thinking about other people's faults: and in the proper sense of the word "morbid", that is the most morbid pleasure in the world. We don't like rationing which is imposed upon us, but I suggest one form of rationing which we ought to impose on ourselves. Abstain from all thinking about other people's faults, unless your duties as a teacher or parent make it necessary to think about them. Whenever the thoughts come unnecessarily into one's mind, why not simply shove them away? And think of one's own faults instead? For there, with God's help, one can do something. Of all the awkward people in your house or job there is only one whom you can improve very much. That is the practical end at which to begin. And really, we'd better. The job has got to be tackled some day; and every day we put it off will make it harder to begin. What, after all, is the alternative? You see clearly enough that nothing... can make X really happy as long as X remains envious, self-centered, and spiteful. Be sure that there is something inside you which, unless it is altered, will put it out of God's power to prevent your being eternally miserable. While that something remains, there can be no Heaven for you, just as there can be no sweet smells for a man with a cold in the nose, and no music for a man who is deaf. It's not a question of God "sending" us to Hell. In each of us there is something growing up which will of itself be Hell unless it is nipped in the bud. The matter is serious: let us put ourselves in His hands at once--this very day, this hour. -(by C.S. Lewis)
12/7/08
Grandpa's Little Buddy (HCI Publishing, 2002) B. Jett
As Steven stood awkwardly on the bank of Lake Malone in Western Kentucky, his grandfather watched his "Little Buddy" desperately attempt to get just one of the many flat rocks he'd gathered to skip over the lake's sun reflective surface. "Keep at it son!" his grandfather shouted with much enthusiasm.
"Grandpa," Steven asked in his pre-adolescent and breaking voice, "Why am I no good at anything I try? I want to be a great pitcher like you used to be!"
His grandfather gently touched his shoulder while observing his grandson's eyes beginning to brim with tears. "Little Buddy, let me tell you why you are already a great pitcher and will be a better pitcher than your old grandpa ever was. Can I give you a little advice son?"
Steven looked intensely into his hero's eyes and replied, "Yes grandpa! I'll do anything to be great like you!"
His grandfather sat him down on a hollowed out log and pulled him in close. "Little Buddy, I want you to remember what I am about to tell you and all I ask is that you never forget what I had to learn the hard way. Do you promise you will remember?" Steven's grandfather asked. Without pause, Steven assured his grandfather he'd remember any and everything he told him.
His grandfather continued, "If you think someone is better than you, always remember that you are the only one who is thinking the other guy is."
His grandson looked at him inquisitively and caught his grandfather off guard with his response. "So you're saying that I need to use my brain, is that what you said grandpa?"
"You got it Little Buddy! Many folks focus on what they are doing wrong, but the winners figure out what they are doing right."
His grandson replied with yet another super insight based on what he'd heard his grandfather say. "So I need to tell myself that I am good?" he asked.
His grandfather smiled and went further: "Not only do you need to tell yourself that you're good, you must always believe that you are great! You see Little Buddy, you've got determination and grit. I've been watching you throw those stones for over two hours and anyone who stays at it that long has what it takes to be a winner even though he may get a bit down on occasion!"
As they walked back up the hill to the home Steven's grandfather built for him and his wife 20 years earlier, his grandfather took hold of his Little Buddy's hand and stated the last piece of wisdom Steven would ever hear him provide.
"You'll be at the pitcher's mound next season and I'll be there Lord willing. When you're on that mound, I want you to repeat to yourself what I'm about to tell you when you start to throw each ball. Are you listening son?"
He glanced at his grandfather and boldly stated, "Yes Sir!"
"Okay then, I want you to repeat this right after me. 'When I feel down, I know God will lift me up'!"
His grandson repeated it three times before they finally reached the front porch.
The next season came and Steven looked into the stands searching for his grandfather's always eager and proud face. "Mom, I don't see grandpa anywhere! Where is he?" he anxiously asked his mother of very strong faith.
"Steven, grandpa won't be here today because God called him to be with him last night." she flatly replied.
Steven began to cry as his mother consoled him with a firm and comforting hug. "Steven, grandpa told me last night before he passed away to be sure to tell you that he loves you and to repeat what he told you to when you get up to that mound." Steven's dark brown eye's steadied as he wiped his tears away with his baseball shirt's sleeve.
Steven's tears wiped away, he immediately looked up and stated, "When I feel down, I know God will lift me up." His mother's eyes began to water as she patted him on the back and directed his eyes towards the pitcher's mound. As he walked to the mound, his mother continued to hear him repeat what his grandpa instructed him to repeat.
With two strikes and three balls thrown awry in the bottom of the ninth inning, the crowd watched as Steven paused, knelt to one knee, muttered something and stood upright and proudly. He gazed into the eyes of the batter and shouted loud enough for the entire crowd to hear, "When I feel down, I know God will lift me up." Oddly, he held the ball like the stones his grandfather had watched him throw that sunny day only one year ago.
Steven poised himself with his gaze remaining in the batter's eyes. Before the pitch was released, he remembered his grandpa's other words of wisdom--"If you think someone is better than you, always remember that you are the only one who is thinking the other guy is."
He released the ball with a furious and awkward sidearm pitch that the "more-than-a little-bit" intimidated batter never seemingly saw curve over the middle of the plate. "You're out!" the umpire shouted and to Steven's surprise, the crowd mostly comprised of the parents of both teams, stood up and gave Steven a roaring applause. His team and the opposing team both rushed the field and carried him off the field.
Things had settled down after all of the pomp and circumstance and Steven noticed an old man walking his way. "That was a heck of a pitch you threw son," the old man stated with the same look of pride his grandpa often had shown on his face. "Sir, thanks a lot." Steven appeared confused and asked, "Sir, do I know you from somewhere?" The old man grinned, touched Steven gently on his shoulder before uttering, "No son, you don't but your grandfather did."
Steven excitingly exclaimed, "You know my grandpa?"
The old man's eyes began to fill with tears as he told Steven, "Your grandfather struck me out just like you did that boy when we were about your age. He told me something I'll never forget just before I got signed on with National Baseball League."
Steven's eyes lit up as he waited for what the old man would say next.
"Your grandfather told me that my greatest asset in the Big League wouldn't be my throwing or batting. He told me that if I ever thought someone was better than me, to always remember that I was the only one who thought the other guy was. What he never told me was what you shouted while standing out there on that mound. Your mother called me long distance late last night and asked that I come on down. I was feeling down on the trip to get here, but thanks to you son, God has lifted me up!"
12/4/08
Father / Son Acceptance
5 Tips on Expectations | Printer Friendly Version |
What do you expect when it comes to your kids? I've often heard comments like these from grown sons and daughters: | |
Comments
| 1. | Brian Jett |
Similarly, I can relate painfully well. The first inclination is, often, to blame as well as continue to seek out approval of a father who was "critical" as this article depicts. It is everywhere and working on this approval addiction requires the actual letting go process. Working for approval or to prove something to anyone has only created strife, anger, and ultimately a calculation without God series of events. I am just now finally realizing that my father's love is conditional to extent he is, like me, a man, not God-man or Jesus Christ. He has helped me and I can only focus on me getting over my ego and not blaming or any further attempted to prove something to my father, my older brother, or any one (boss, etc..) to be truly filled. I lose peace by needing to be right and make sense of all of the "Why didn't you do better...?" questions from years ago. I find that when I recognize that I will never forgive my father even close to how much God has already forgiven me, it puts things in a better perspective. My dad or older brother aren't to blame although I have spent years judging them. I never realized I was judging them; just justified it as venting off my anger for my own lack of missing my path. Herein is maybe part of the answer for me as I feel God has nudged my heart: I was not born to make my dad proud or compete with my brother. I am here for God's good and perfect plan (Roman 12:2) There is a Heavenly Father that accepts us fully - PERIOD. No performance required. That's is a good first step for me to continue to wrap my mind and soul and spirit around. Staying away from the blame game or catching self doing this is helpful (or taking thoughts captive). Excellent topic that us men do not discuss and it will only better as we do not repeat the ego needing to be fed routine. Let's even write about it. That is what I've been doing for a good while. This is a huge topic for guys and the women and children affected by our willingness to address this father/son "thing". | |
| 2. | Anthony Ekong |
I can relate to some of the above comments because being the last born of seven kids and my two older brothers with over a decade in age I always felt like I had three dads; my father and my two older brothers and I was always pressured to think that I have to perform better than anybody else instead of just being me and doing the best that is in me so I promise my three boys that I will be their father and friend where they don't have to feel pressured as I use to feel which led to me losing communcation with my dad and my brothers. | |
Blogged with the Flock Browser
12/3/08
PAPER PLANE RIDE - (A Child's Sage, Faith, Fearlessness)
-PAPER PLANE RIDE-
As Kim’s parents sat musingly in the waiting room of Saint Elizabeth Hospital, they wondered if their 16 year-old daughter could possibly make it through yet another unbearable day. Kim, the oldest daughter of their three blessings, had been holding on to life by a hope and many prayers as her degenerative heart was failing rapidly. "Sandy, I just don’t think Kim’s going to make it much longer," Kim’s father agonizingly mumbled to his wife. She looked at him firmly and replied, "Bob, you must have greater faith than this! Where did your dreams of Kim’s receiving a donor heart go?" she questioned with almost a tone of rebuke in her voice. He said nothing and grasped her hand and leaned forward in what appeared to be intense reflection.
On the way home she asked him what he was doing when he’d leaned forward pensively in the hospital’s waiting room. "Honey, I asked God to give me wisdom and strength. That’s all--just more wisdom and strength." As they arrived home, they entered the front door of their suburban home surrounded by the White Maples Kim had helped him plant on her ninth birthday. "Daddy!" his youngest daughter, Maddie, who was now nine year’s old exclaimed, "I had a dream and I know God told me how we could get Kimmie a good heart!" He ushered her over to the kitchen table and asked her what God told her. "Mr. Rule showed us how to make paper planes in ‘kindiclass’ yesterday!"
Mr. Rule was a kind older gentleman with a graybeard, her kindergarten teacher and also an associate pastor at their church in Cincinnati, Ohio. "Well honey, I think paper planes are wonderful but how can a paper plane give your sister a healthy heart?" he pleasantly inquired. "You see daddy; all we have to do is get a bunch of paper and make planes and then put notes in them telling someone to give Kimmie a good heart! We just have to be sure to put our phone buttons on the notes so people can call us with the good heart! Then we throw them and someone will read the notes and give Kimmie a good heart!" she stated with much vigor. "That’s a good idea honey, but let daddy think about this a little while, okay?" Maddie got up while nodding her head affirmatively--headed straight to the stack of computer paper her father had beside his desk.
He watched her little hands begin to create perfectly wrought glider fashioned paper planes. He dismissed this as a cathartic thing for Maddie to do and only wished he had something equally as cathartic to occupy his mind during this hurly-burly filled time in his life. Memories flooded back to when Kim was born. He remembered all too well being there beside his wife, stroking her forehead and soon after, cutting the umbilical cord that separated nine months of a mother’s love and devotion. He did what he always would do when distressed over any given situation as he began to put his running gear on for a five mile run. He grabbed his Walkman as he exited quietly out the back door. He prayed as he walked down the gravel driveway that God would give him an answer. As he began to slowly stride down the tree-lined street lit up by neighborhood lights, he tuned in his favorite smooth jazz station. Roughly three miles into his circuitous route he was captivated by the lyrics of an Oleda Adams’ remake of a song entitled, "Get Here" which was very popular during the Gulf war. As Oleda blended soul and lyrics, suddenly a particular line sharply affected him.
She sang... "You can make it in a big balloon, but you better make it soon...."
He walked into the house exhausted but with a renewed sense of focal point. Bob, having served in the Gulf war, had several connections as a distinguished F-16 pilot. He hurriedly picked up the phone and called Richard "Mad Dog" Mansfield who was his life-long friend and too, flew many missions as his wingman some nine years earlier.
"Hey Rich!" still breathing heavily from his run, "You still fly hot air balloons don’t you?" he asked with less than an expectant attitude. "Yeah Bob, I still get her up about twice a month when I can find the time. Why do you ask?" Bob caught his breath and continued, "Can you possibly take Maddie and me up as soon as possible?" he apprehensively asked.
"Well, I suppose I can Bob, but what is soon to you?" Without hesitation he blurted out, "Tomorrow!? Please Rich?!" he desperately begged.
"I don’t know what’s going on Bob, but I’ll be out in the field with my balloon--the one near Hyde Park tomorrow morning at seven."
"God bless you brother! We’ll be there my friend!" Bob replied with much thankfulness.
The next morning, Bob told his wife that he and Maddie had some things that must be done, and to go to the hospital and further asked that she be sure to take along her cell phone. "Bob?" her interest overpoweringly piqued, "What in the world are you two up to now?!" she inquiringly asked. As he reached down to pick up the box full of paper planes with the contact information notes lightly stapled to the middle of each one for greater camber, thus creating more lift for longer glide time, he asked that she simply remember his earlier dreams of finding a healthy heart for Kim. Although confused, she shook her head befuddled, as she was used to his compulsive nature having been a fighter pilot’s wife. "Good luck you two!" she vivaciously remarked with a snooping grin. Maddie skipped into the foyer and whispered in her mother’s ear, "We don’t need luck, ‘cause we’ve got God." Her mother kissed her nose and urged them both out the door.
Copyright © 2001 Brian G. Jett
As Kim’s parents sat musingly in the waiting room of Saint Elizabeth Hospital, they wondered if their 16 year-old daughter could possibly make it through yet another unbearable day. Kim, the oldest daughter of their three blessings, had been holding on to life by a hope and many prayers as her degenerative heart was failing rapidly. "Sandy, I just don’t think Kim’s going to make it much longer," Kim’s father agonizingly mumbled to his wife. She looked at him firmly and replied, "Bob, you must have greater faith than this! Where did your dreams of Kim’s receiving a donor heart go?" she questioned with almost a tone of rebuke in her voice. He said nothing and grasped her hand and leaned forward in what appeared to be intense reflection.
On the way home she asked him what he was doing when he’d leaned forward pensively in the hospital’s waiting room. "Honey, I asked God to give me wisdom and strength. That’s all--just more wisdom and strength." As they arrived home, they entered the front door of their suburban home surrounded by the White Maples Kim had helped him plant on her ninth birthday. "Daddy!" his youngest daughter, Maddie, who was now nine year’s old exclaimed, "I had a dream and I know God told me how we could get Kimmie a good heart!" He ushered her over to the kitchen table and asked her what God told her. "Mr. Rule showed us how to make paper planes in ‘kindiclass’ yesterday!"
Mr. Rule was a kind older gentleman with a graybeard, her kindergarten teacher and also an associate pastor at their church in Cincinnati, Ohio. "Well honey, I think paper planes are wonderful but how can a paper plane give your sister a healthy heart?" he pleasantly inquired. "You see daddy; all we have to do is get a bunch of paper and make planes and then put notes in them telling someone to give Kimmie a good heart! We just have to be sure to put our phone buttons on the notes so people can call us with the good heart! Then we throw them and someone will read the notes and give Kimmie a good heart!" she stated with much vigor. "That’s a good idea honey, but let daddy think about this a little while, okay?" Maddie got up while nodding her head affirmatively--headed straight to the stack of computer paper her father had beside his desk.
He watched her little hands begin to create perfectly wrought glider fashioned paper planes. He dismissed this as a cathartic thing for Maddie to do and only wished he had something equally as cathartic to occupy his mind during this hurly-burly filled time in his life. Memories flooded back to when Kim was born. He remembered all too well being there beside his wife, stroking her forehead and soon after, cutting the umbilical cord that separated nine months of a mother’s love and devotion. He did what he always would do when distressed over any given situation as he began to put his running gear on for a five mile run. He grabbed his Walkman as he exited quietly out the back door. He prayed as he walked down the gravel driveway that God would give him an answer. As he began to slowly stride down the tree-lined street lit up by neighborhood lights, he tuned in his favorite smooth jazz station. Roughly three miles into his circuitous route he was captivated by the lyrics of an Oleda Adams’ remake of a song entitled, "Get Here" which was very popular during the Gulf war. As Oleda blended soul and lyrics, suddenly a particular line sharply affected him.
She sang... "You can make it in a big balloon, but you better make it soon...."
He walked into the house exhausted but with a renewed sense of focal point. Bob, having served in the Gulf war, had several connections as a distinguished F-16 pilot. He hurriedly picked up the phone and called Richard "Mad Dog" Mansfield who was his life-long friend and too, flew many missions as his wingman some nine years earlier.
"Hey Rich!" still breathing heavily from his run, "You still fly hot air balloons don’t you?" he asked with less than an expectant attitude. "Yeah Bob, I still get her up about twice a month when I can find the time. Why do you ask?" Bob caught his breath and continued, "Can you possibly take Maddie and me up as soon as possible?" he apprehensively asked.
"Well, I suppose I can Bob, but what is soon to you?" Without hesitation he blurted out, "Tomorrow!? Please Rich?!" he desperately begged.
"I don’t know what’s going on Bob, but I’ll be out in the field with my balloon--the one near Hyde Park tomorrow morning at seven."
"God bless you brother! We’ll be there my friend!" Bob replied with much thankfulness.
The next morning, Bob told his wife that he and Maddie had some things that must be done, and to go to the hospital and further asked that she be sure to take along her cell phone. "Bob?" her interest overpoweringly piqued, "What in the world are you two up to now?!" she inquiringly asked. As he reached down to pick up the box full of paper planes with the contact information notes lightly stapled to the middle of each one for greater camber, thus creating more lift for longer glide time, he asked that she simply remember his earlier dreams of finding a healthy heart for Kim. Although confused, she shook her head befuddled, as she was used to his compulsive nature having been a fighter pilot’s wife. "Good luck you two!" she vivaciously remarked with a snooping grin. Maddie skipped into the foyer and whispered in her mother’s ear, "We don’t need luck, ‘cause we’ve got God." Her mother kissed her nose and urged them both out the door.
"I’ll have the cell phone and be at the hospital in an hour or less!" she shouted as they made their way to the mini-van with box in hand.
When they arrived at the open field that Rich leased to launch his balloon into the air, typically for leisure time spent over the skies of southern Ohio, Maddie and Bob noticed the balloon was almost ready for flight. "I’ll take the box honey, and you run over there and stand by Mr. Mansfield."
"Okay daddy!" she belted out as though she was being asked to unwrap a Christmas gift.
"Bob, she’s ready to take off so hand me Maddie and then hand me the box and hop on in."
All settled into the hot air balloon’s basket, Rich fired up the gas and the big bastion of flight slowly began to rise. "How high do you want to go Bob?" Rich asked decorously. "As high as you can get this thing up, if that’s okay with you Rich." Rich glanced at the box and asked Bob where he wanted to stabilize the craft after they’d reached ultimate altitude. Before Bob could respond, Maddie broke in and stated, "God will let us know where to stop!" More than curious, Rich used the same navigational discernment he used when he flew fighters. "The box has to do with Kim, doesn’t it Bob?" he pryingly asked. "I can guide the balloon long enough for you to open the box, Rich. Go ahead and open it and that should answer your question." Rich’s eyes said it all but he went further verbally. "I knew it!" he asserted proudly. "Daddy, I think it’s time to throw out the planes we made last night!", Maddie stated with uncanny confidence. Rich stabilized the balloon as best he could with the considerable wind sheer they were experiencing which was most unusual at their current altitude. The three of them began to gently toss the balanced paper planes in three different directions. With each toss of the paper planes, Maddie would say, "God, please find Kimmie a good heart!" After all of the roughly 250 paper planes had been released in hopes to find their mark and find a healthy heart, Rich eased off the gas and navigated his big balloon back to the 10 acre spread of land he’d leased. They got out of the balloon upon landing and Bob and Maddie hugged Rich, said their salutations, and got back into the mini-van--headed straight to the hospital. When Bob entered the waiting room with Maddie on his coattail, he saw his wife, Sandy in tears with one hand held close to her quivering lips, and her other hand tightly gripping her cell phone. He hurried over to her and asked what was wrong. Wiping her tears away, she informed him that nothing was wrong, but that all was miraculously going to be all right. "Mommy!" Maddie exclaimed, "Kimmie got a good heart! She did, didn’t she?!" Her mother hugged Maddie tightly, kissed her on both of her rosy angelic cheeks, and tearfully stated, "Yes sweetheart, Kimmie is in surgery now with her new heart being transplanted so that she can live a long time so that you two can keep laughing and playing together." As Maddie’s mother regained her composure, she explained to her husband and daughter that someone had discovered one of the paper planes and called her about 35 minutes before they had arrived.
"Sandy, who called you and from where?" her husband asked softly as he sat down next to her.
Through an uncontrollable stream of tears again, Sandy gratefully responded by saying, "The paper plane was found at the scene of a car crash near Hanover College in southern Indiana." Maddie injected, "Who had the good heart to give my sister, Mommy?"
"Honey, a policeman called me but didn’t tell me the person’s name."
The following Monday, Maddie’s mother walked her into her kindergarten class so as to thank Mr. Rule for showing her little girl how to make the life saving paper planes. Sandy quickly noticed that Mr. Rule must have taken a day off or the like, as a substitute teacher had clearly taken his place for the day. The pretty blue-eyed woman observed them enter into the class, and asked if she could be of any help.
"Hi, this is my daughter Madelyn, and my name is Sandy Owen. I had some news I wanted to share with him and was wondering if, by chance, you knew where I could find him or even call him." she restlessly asked.
"It’s a pleasure to meet you Sandy, and my name is Dawn. I normally love to substitute for a child your daughter’s age, but regarding Mr. Rule’s circumstances, it makes it very hard for me to teach effectively." she forlornly replied.
Maddie’s mother asked a teacher walking by the classroom if she would watch her little girl for a moment so that she could talk with Dawn for a little while. Kindly, the teacher agreed and took Maddie by the hand and led her to her small office made up of cubicles. "Okay Dawn, could you please tell me what is going on with Mr. Rule?" she softly uttered. "Mrs. Owen, all I can tell you is that Mr. Rule had to attend his grandson’s funeral." Sandy asked Dawn if she knew any specifics regarding how this happened. "Mr. Rule’s grandson died in a terrible car accident a couple of days ago just a few miles from Hanover College in Indiana. Mr. Rule was his grandson’s legal guardian and has such a good heart. From what the kindergarten’s Principle told me this morning, Mr. Rule allowed his grandson’s heart to be donated because of his awareness that a teen-age girl here in Cincinnati really needed it to survive." she concluded with tears in her eyes and a voice weakened with emotion.
Sandy began to weep and left the classroom and Dawn followed her out into the hallway. Sandy cried on Dawn’s shoulder for a few minutes, and asked her what the core curriculum would be for the day.
"Mrs. Owen, as odd as this may sound to you, Mr. Rule left a note on his desk and asked that I let the children practice what they learned early last week. I’m not really up emotionally to do much teaching, so I suppose making paper planes all day long won’t hurt anyone."
Copyright © 2001 Brian G. Jett
The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." -Isaiah 29:13-14
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