A One-Armed Man

Sure it’s no big deal to you. You didn’t dislocate your shoulder. I know, I know, I’m whining. But you must remember the French Proverb

Everyone thinks his own burden heavy

It lacks a little punch, I know.

Over the past 2 weeks I have been adjusting. Figuring out how to fasten belt buckles one-handed. Figuring out how to eat with my wrong hand. It has gotten easier since I lost the sling for sure. Still it was a lesson in what happens when a vital part of the body is not at peak performance.

Many friends have suggested that this is an illustration of not giving in to “Peer Pressure”.

(Allow me to insert a sidenote
at this point. Most of you
don’t know that I got hurt on
a slip and slide that I had no
intention of going on until I
was “urged” to by others.)

An argument could be made in that direction.Personally, my preference has been to see it from a different vantage point.

Local churches are called to be the “body of Christ”. Literally, we are called to be His hands, His feet, etc. Paul’s epistle to Corinth says:

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

He proceeds to make application:

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

If you are a member of a church, a part of a local body, the question you need to ask is “Am I doing my part?”
Am I fully engaged in the body or has my sinful habits put me into a spiritual sling?

Now, please allow me the luxury of going back and nursing the injury that I received in the “service”

.

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God Brews The Coffee

My E-mentor Sumner Wemp has this great illustration posted on his site:

God Brews the Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this… Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.

God brews the coffee, not the cups………. Enjoy your coffee! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.  Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

I trust that this focus has been helpful to you today.

Where are we going?

 

“If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.” -Professor Irwin Corey

Now to be honest I know nothing about this “Professor”. From a quick google search I am sure I would not enjoy his act. But he got this idea dead on.

As a matter of fact in some ways he is merely rewording Solomon’s words from Proverbs 4:26

” Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.”

Course corrections are a part of life. And it should be added, a vital part. If we don’t stop to ponder our direction though, we will, in all probability, end up at an entirely undesired location. Bonhoeffer brings the whole topic into focus when he said:

 

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction”

After tomorrow I will have the privilege of being on a week’s vacation. Over these next 7 days I trust that before the Lord I will once again have the opportunity to “Ponder the Path of my feet”. Let me encourage you to do the same.

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One Moment Please

Houston, we have a problem. Except, no one in Houston is reading this. Besides that, no one in Houston cares about the particular problem I seem to be having with my wordpress site. On top of that Houston might be a nice city but it’s not in Maine (Peru, Mexico, China, their all in Maine but not Houston). The problem is that I can’t seem to keep all of the words in sight. Some appear to go off the screen. Please exuse the appearance of that and for the short term, just guess what I am trying to say.

Thanks Friends,

Trent

Remember how dumb you are…..

Don’t even start.

If you have been influenced by the politically correct among us, you probably object to this title.  The contention is that this type of statement damages ones “self-esteem”.  I couldn’t disagree with you more.

Dumbness [def:lacking intelligence]is the word that best describes my ability, or inability, as the case might be.

The goal of making this space readable and worthwhile  will take effort on my part.  That effort will be short circuited unless I admit “how dumb I am”.

It’s the same with life.

Isaac Asmiov and I agree on very little.  But I do like the following quote:

 “People who think they know everything are

a great annoyance to those of us who do.”

 Perhaps it is assuming too much to say that this is a tongue in cheek statement.  But I don’t think so.  As president of the Mensa society I am sure he understood how little he knew, from a terrestrial perspective at least.

A quote from a well-known basketball coach better captures the thought:

 “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

The goal of this site is to instruct.  But the goal of the site administrator is to learn.  Questions from those of you who stop by here will be used in that process.  Criticism from some of you may lead to “higher learning” for me.  The only thing I ask is that you consider the above quote before you pounce.

Welcome

As a student, a blank pad of paper has always held a great deal of excitement.  
It seems as though there is no end of things that could be created if only the proper time were taken.  Hope springs eternal.  Confessedly, that same feeling surges through me now.  This is not my first “pad of paper” but it matters little, it is the freshest pad.

My only hope is that others will join me on this journey and that my Lord, Jesus Christ will be pleased with this endeavor.