Scripture
I was so foolish and ignorant—
I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.
~Psalm 73:22, NLT
Quote
The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.
~Albert Einstein
The 18th century poet Thomas Gray is credited with the statement,“Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” Thomas Jefferson altered it a bit..“If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t more people happy?” I know we think of the ignorance of a small child or someone who is very challenged mentally as being bliss and there is some truth to our thinking. I remember Coash Stallings talking about his son John Mark who had Downs Syndrome, he said, “John Mark doesn’t keep score. He doesn’t know how to hold a grudge. He doesn’t know that we are not supposed to love and hug everyone.” I agree that folks like John Mark are not really retarded: they are ahead of us when it comes to loving people. But for myself, ignorance is not bliss, it is more like a blister. I am appalled by my ignorance.
There is rarely a day that I don’t discover through books or others, something that I have never heard of before. Something fresh and new. In reading I see words I’ve never seen before and yet they are in the dictionary. I am thinking, “How can I be so ignorant.” I stand in the pulpit and say things that I believe to be true and then hours later, I question the fact that I know anything at all. About the only thing I know for sure is that I don’t know for sure. I know so little, I must live by faith. It is not that I do not want to know; I am ashamed of my ignorance and want very much to become a learned man but I have wasted so much of my life pursuing the trivial and now that my desire to learn is more intense than ever, I have difficultly retaining what I read. I see a quote and I think, that is great and I will never forget this quote. Days later, I have forgotten most of the quote and I cannot even remember where I found it. Then I get frustrated trying to find the quote.
I do admit there are things I do not want to know. I do not want to know the day of my death or how I will die. I do not want to know who is in heaven and who is in hell. I do not want to know what is said on the evening news. In some ways, ignorance can be bliss.
Extra
Another cool morning. I love the weather. Donna Smith passed away yesterday. She had a heart attack. This was totally unexpected. I think she would have been 64 her next birthday. I think Johnny said they would make arrangements today. Donna’s grandparents were members of DBC. Her mother Helen is living and I will try to visit her today. Our sympathy to the Smith family.
I am assuming that all our Guatemala team is home. I have not see or heard from any of them but no news is good news or at least, I hope. They were scheduled to get in late last night.
Work day tomorrow at the POINT. Our leader is back so the break is over and it is back to the grind stone. We start at 8:00 a.m.
Our line up for Sunday worship is Deacon prayer, Briley Hollaway report from Guatemala, offering, Dale Windsor solo and communion.
Have a great day. Thanks for reading the blog.
I don’t look at stats much, but the blog which goes back more than ten years, has a little over 1.5 million views. If I had been blogging for a year, those stats would be impressive.