Good coaching goes this way: “back to fundamentals boys, back to the basics.” The hidden word here is “foundation,” and any team going anywhere has to build from the bottom. When that group forgets what got them to their present successes; they need to go back and do a revisit now, (I mean Right Now!). Hey, if the Bettenhausen Lady-birds’ softball team drift too far, they lose sight of the nest, and the chickadees ain’t gettin no food! Its time to get back to business! This is a comic picture but true. “We need more unity, we gotta get together, we ain’t sticken together as a unit.” What happened? Well, it happened in the hearts of the individuals first, manifesting itself second in the “lean mean fighting machine.” The synchronized power-generator started disintegrating because of the parts breaking down. For the Mannheim Sheep Dogs, maybe, the wolf in sheep’s clothing…
Category: <span>Walk, for Christians</span>
Our church included a collection each Mass. Mom furnished us a dime, and we quickly put it in our envelope. We mindfully marked ‘ten cents’ on the line below our name. In the church bulletin each week was listed what everybody contributed the week before. Mr. Leonard offered the most each week. He owned Leonard’s motors and sold Mercury’s. Mr. George was often close behind, however; he owned George’s book store in Charleroi. Mr. George shook hands with people at church; we heard he converted from Protestantism. No one in our church shook hands but Mr. George. Collection was brilliantly handled with the long-baskets. These were wicker pannier types featuring a broom like pole attached. They stood probably 6-7 feet or more, top to bottom. The usher managed to skillfully navigate the basket down each pew, hand over hand, extending basket and then arm to reach the end group, as…
Do we have to have rules? External government or self-discipline, is that the question? Throw off restraints, or buckle under, poses the paradox? Cannot I just trust my own conscience? If so, where do I get one that guides trust-worthily? Ah, guidance; how do I stay on the right road, how about my hunches, my intuition? What is true liberty? How do I discern the right way? In the last days we will have “lawlessness” and it will be sourced in a godless philosophy. The Bible calls the spirit of the age a “lukewarm” one, neither hot nor cold. Characteristic of this time will be moral decline but also an apostasy from true meaning and departure of generationally established values and traditions. Totalitarianism gains feet when folks leave “true upper guidance” and go with the flow of their intuitions, senses, emotions and pleasure seeking. This spiritual and cultural phenomena,…
Life has jagged edges, abrasive surfaces, serrated openings, and corrugated backs. These help us to grip something, but how hard? They dull a sharp knife and make it a saw, they wipe out a pattern, and make things hard to follow. These crinkled grooves wear away at a habit and move us toward change. O happy day, we might say, but not to dismay. If we are annoyed about the rough and tumble, could it be that we matriculate toward the smooth side? Whatta you mean? I mean; are you partial, comfort-bent toward the safe living zone ? We all admit this, because we all grossly underestimate how drastic a metamorphosis beckons its operation within us. We find ourselves thinking in tiny adjustments’ terms, while God determines shifting paradigms, and entire value-systems’ revamps. See, we must be born again, then our “born again” must emerge from its safe cocoon. We…
God may do a new thing and can we follow it? Maybe the lesson of the last 20 years ended and now we move on. Maybe, like Moses it has been 40 years. Can we flex? Let me tell you why we don’t really want to but nevertheless are able. I came to some conclusions while watching a video of a quadriplegic who loved God so much that every day just brought more desire for His presence. I sadly realized, watching, that what little suffering my life consisted of did the same, however, it didn’t really give me a desire for more of the suffering. I really don’t want to suffer anymore even though it did lead me closer to my Savior —this, a rude awakening. So, in suffering, two things may eventuate; one, we grow tired of the adversity; two, we accumulate great discipline for a life-style of pain,…
Christmas is a time for goodies, cookies, candies, pies and cakes. Have you ever eaten humble pie? This happens when, at a moment of self-pampering, we painfully become cognizant of our animal-like-behavior. We were moving along entertained, painting the town with our free wheeling, till —oh my goodness! Suddenly, we are stunningly shamed! Humble pie exposes one’s pride. These two, pride and humility, taunt each other; they ebb and flow, tide high and low in soul’s ocean. They exist the in and out, introvert and extrovert, subjective and objective, above and below. One serves while the other reigns a god; one thrives self-consciously, the other one not so much. Pride thinks of itself more highly than it ought, or, more lowly than obliged. Humility considers never so much of it self. God giveth grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. Satan giveth favor to the proud, but resists…
Love – that capacity which enables him to grasp the other human being in his very uniqueness Conscience – that capacity which empowers him to grasp the meaning of a situation in its very uniqueness. Both are intuitive capacities. The uniqueness envisaged by love refers to the unique possibilities the loved person may have – – – the uniqueness envisaged by conscience refers to a unique necessity, to a unique need one may have to meet. Vicktor Frankl Frankl has discovered something very interesting about love. He calls it a capacity or an ability to absorb, finding its fulfillment by tenderly embracing another human being in their very one-of-a-kindness. Frankl goes on to say that this one-of-a-kindness, envisioned by love, refers to the special potentials the loved person may have. We could say then that love always “identifies” with another. Frankel also mentions the conscience. It, too, owns capacity…
He that dwells in the secret place of the most high God, shall abide, under the shadow of the Almighty. And I Will Say of the Lord, he is my refuge, my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely he will deliver me from the snare of the Fowler…” “I will abide in his tabernacle forever.” “Abide in Me, and I in you, and you shall bring forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing. If you abide in Me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it will be done unto you. If you continue in My word, then you are a learner indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” The above are verses from the Bible that we may know well, and maybe have memorized. But what makes up the thing…
We ought not to underestimate the psychological effect of the statistical world picture; it displaces the individual in favor of anonymous units that power up into mass formations. Anonymous …..cosmic loneliness tends to lead to one of four kinds of depression depending upon a person’s temperament. So what do these people do? They join the herd, and they forget. They begin to take drugs, alcohol, and become involved in immorality. When people join the herd to escape their problems, immediately they lose their identity and any possibility for proper potential development. Carl Stevens Humanism talks much of man with a capital “M” but hardly anything of the individual man. It has produced humanism out of the Enlightenment that has ended in ugliness. Francis Schaeffer. Apathy and lack of feeling are also defenses against anxiety. When a person continually faces dangers he is powerless to overcome, his final line of…
There is a song sung by Francisco Ortega called “Now that you’re Gone.” It’s a song about a brother lost, and of a mourning sibling; the world spins without meaning, now that he is gone. Spins without meaning, has this happened to you? It is amazing, how one’s worldview, one’s value system, forsake their meaning–providing function and betray our trust. It’s as if a mean trick has manipulated us, or has been fooling us all along. It wounds us, it strikes down our high place of safety and repose. It sabotages in a moment what has been built over many years perhaps. We spin, and spin. An essential element, a vital piece of the puzzle, an every day visitor suddenly is missing, and we have no answers. We turn to God. But shockingly we find this event has no prior reference in our conceptualized view of God. Our phony world…