Scripture
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
~Luke 9:2, NRSV
Quote
“Everyone needs to look forward to something.”
~Ya’akov
I am currently reading the Message and Luke 9 ends like this…Then another said, “I’m ready to follow you, Master, but first excuse me while I get things straightened out at home.” Jesus said, “No procrastination. No backward looks. You can’t put God’s kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day.” First of all, the quote above will probably be the only one coming from me that you remember: for one reason, I have said it at least a hundred times. I remember my old office days which are now in the rear view and I think about Mandy sitting at her desk day after day [an the cloud cast rainy ones were hard on her] doing her work. It didn’t take me long to realize what kept her going: it was thinking and planning her annual trip to the beach and her annual cruise. If you had taken those two things from her, she would have gotten deeply depressed. Guess what, we are all like Mandy in this sense, we need to be looking forward to something.
Let me point out the wisdom in looking forward: you cannot look two directions at the same time and if you are looking forward, you are not looking backward. Regret is like anxiety and pride, we can’t totally eradicate them but we don’t have to allow them to become our master. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we make bad mistakes and they prove costly. Few things hurt as deeply as a broken heart. It is always a deep disappointment to discover that you are not as important to another person as you assumed. The balance of love is not there: perhaps you loved them more than they loved you. These things happen. Rebellious children happen. Business deals going sour happen. The stock market is volatile and so is life: C.S. Lewis calls these ups and downs undulations. Call them whatever you want, they happen.
Sometimes we have to tie off the past and then cut the tie and turn to face the future. We have to wrap it up and move on. Tim Keenum was not that much greater at basketball than I was: but I admit he was better and his performance on the court was supremely better than mine and I’ll tell you why. He and I were playing on the same team during the gut and groan league days and Tim said, “Bro. Jack, you’ve stopped shooting…shoot the ball.” I said, “Tim, I have missed the last six shoots I’ve taken.” He horse laughed and said, “I don’t ever remember missing a shot.” You see, I was looking backward to the missed shots and Tim never did that–he always looked forward and that what made him a great basketball player. As long as we are whining and complaining about the past and lamenting our mistakes, we will most certainly not seize the day.
New work for the day is hermitize. I got it from Earnest T. Bass off of the Andy Griffin show. Earnest T. was discouraged because he couldn’t get a date. He told Andy, “I’m going to find me a cave and hermitize myself.”
TV, which has gone to the dogs, will never make comedy to match the episodes with Earnest T. and Odis. Matter of fact, they can’t come close.
I don’t know how to interpret Bernie Sanders landslide victory in Nevada where he got 46% of the vote, more than doubling his closest contender Super Slow Joe who got only 19.6 %. Sanders is an avowed socialist. Of course all democrats are socialist but most are dishonest in presenting themselves. I didn’t think this country was dumb enought to elect Clinton and Obama but I just can’t see Bernie winning or even being a threat. He is nutteir than a fruit cake.
Ontology Trumps Autonomy means reality always trumps man’s self-determination. The transgenders are in a collision with the feminist. There is a lawsuit in the Northeast as we speak; parents of girls suing the school for letting transgenders compete in girls sports. God created male and female and most of us have enough sense to recognize the remarkable difference. God created males with XL chromosomes and females with XX. Genetically, we are coded and there is nothing man can do to change it. Yes a man can have himself mutilated and take horomones to enlarge his breast but neither he, nor any team of surgeons or scientist can change his genetic coding. When the transgender dies and rots in the grace and someone unearths his body and they do DNA, he is going to be recognized as a male. The Chromosomes never change, they cannot be changed by man. A transgender will always have a man bone and muscle mass which gives him a distinct advantage in many sports. It would be suicide for one of these idiots {females} to change genders to play in the NFL. When is the crazy world going to wake up. Man and women are not the same and they are not equal and I am thankful for it. It is a common fact that June and I are not equal: she has a superior memory, greater, far greater self-control. I think all women excel in this area. So get over this equal crap. In a fist fight, she wouldn’t have change. I could take her out with one blow. I can’t even tap her on the shoulder without it hurting her. No two people are equal: one may be stronger physically while the other may be stronger mentally. Jason is stronger than Mandy but she is a lot smarter. People are like snow-flakes: there are no two alike. When Jefferson talked about equality; he was referring to our rights under the law and that is all.