Wanderings – Page 55 – The Life and Times of Joe Suttle

Thoughtful Sign

joe August 4, 2008 Faith, General

At least it got me thinking. Posted outside a local church was this “There is no right way to do a wrong.” It got my little logic cells computing. Do they also mean that there is no wrong way to do a right? After all, that would be the second side of the coin so to speak. In coin terms, that would be the “obverse side”. My mind is already wandering…

Then my mind got to thinking – actually asking myself if that was really true.

At some point, I would have probably said “it depends”. I guess if someone wanted to steal, and they talked to someone who steals for a living (now that’s a thought to ponder), the professional thief would probably give them pointers on the “right way” to steal. It would still be doing a wrong, but according to the expert, you would be doing it the right way.

Applying that kind of thinking to the “wrong way to do a right” picture, could really mess with one’s mind. I’m not so sure, but you see where the logic and illogic can take you when you get started down the wrong path (There was that word again!)

Oh well, perhaps it got your brain going and you are asking yourself “what in the world is he talking about?” My only point here is that a wrong done is still a “wrong” even if we don’t think it is/was. Makes you want to go find and argue definitions for “right” and “wrong”. Well, don’t call me…

Where Was I?

joe July 30, 2008 Faith

Oh, yes, still in 1 John 2. Found John sounding a little like Peter (see 1 Pet 2:2) when he repeats the “growing old – getting better” paradigm. At first glance, verses 12-14 look like a stutter in hand writing – you know, like when you forget you already wrote something, and do it again.

But that is not what John is saying. His thrust in these three verses is to emphasize how we grow.

I don’t know of anyone who, when born could do anything other than “baby” things. Everything else we do took us some time to develope the skills, muscle tone, “eye”, “ear” or whatever else makes you great in some area of life. Willie Mays spent many hours practicing hitting that little white ball – developing the muscle control and “eye” to match the sweet spot on the bat with the ball.

Every great person we have heard of got that way because they learned from their mistakes, and got back up and tried a different way. And if we can’t do that, then we definitely won’t get any better! John wants us to know that as we grow in our walk as Christ followers, we get better (stronger). Peter says that we grow by starting with milk and progressing to meat – and he is right. Have not seen any babies who can demolish a steak. They and we grow into the big people’s food.

Each of us will grow at a different rate, but the goal is not to keep up with one another, but to keep up with what the “Teacher” is teaching us. It begins with His words and my listening.

Pardon My Politics…BUT

joe July 29, 2008 Political

Someone is not telling the truth, or something. See if your mind works like mine. They say that producing more oil in the U.S. won’t lower the price of a barrel of oil. Then why has the price of a barrel gone down over $25 since GW rescinded an off-shore drilling ban (while Congress and Arnold work on making sure it does not resume)? We have not produced any more oil – it looks like just the fact that we (the U.S.) could start drilling off-shore had some impact.

I will agree that we need to use less oil – find ways to conserve or better use a resource. That makes sense. When others think they have us over the barrel (no pun intended), they will continue to bully us.

The thinking here is that we need to do our own investigations rather than believe everything the politicians we elect or the major news sources.

Then too, there’s ANWR and ethanol and CFL and “Hybrid” vehicles. Questions flood my mind, but my thoughts can be put on hold – have you spent the time investigating how your energy can be saved? After all, we are the caretakers of what HE gave us (whether we want to be or not).