Thought Processes

10/14/2018

Sitting in the dining room of a Holiday Inn Express (it has made me very smart), bible  and computer on the table with me, has prompted a conversation with a saint (her testimony) from Minnesota/Arizona, a retired couple on the road to new adventures. She wanted to talk bible so we did. I suggested to help her understand Scripture she read Rom.5:1-11, standing up and out loud. It is a solid technique that I’ve suggested for years. She thought about it for a moment, then noticed I was looking at something on the computer so she picked up my bible and asked, “Can I look that up now?” I said, you bet. When she finished she said, “That is so clear! Now I know why they call Romans the foundation of our faith.” And, so it is, so be it. (that’s like saying, “Amen!”)

Boy! My first thoughts this morning were about why I’m here in Newport, preaching at BBCC—Bible Believers Cowboy Church—for Brother Sam Gerhardt. But, no sooner had those thoughts faded than the SIMH came through the cloudy mind and is still running around in there: “Sunday Morning, Coming Down”  by Kris Kristofferson. Written in 1970 and recorded by many, Johnny Cash being the biggest. I think Johnny probably knew what the day was like. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced one of those kinds of Sunday mornings, but the song told the story of many people’s lives. And that sells records.

Many times plans unfold differently than the original thoughts as though another’s hands were guiding them and sometimes one might become convinced of that. Taking stock of how or why plans change is an extremely important aspect of what gets called “fate” or “providential care” or “the hand of God” or “kismet” or “serendipity.”

Whatever it gets called it does seems to occur to all of us from time to time. So, rather than concentrating on a name for plans-getting-shifted events, we should always examine the change thoroughly to see whether we should continue in the new vein, backtrack to the old path, or drop the whole thing. Looking back over the years I could write examples of all three possible actions which, of course, I now know which route should have been taken. Seeing the results of the actual proceedings gives the perfect picture of the right and wrong—“hindsight is 20/20.”

“What if we had done this—-“ is not automatically either good or bad in examination. It takes falling back to an absolute truth foundation for the dissecting of either success or failure. When we trust in the “living word of God” as our standard, we have a better chance of understanding both sides of the equation. 

The Blue Jug decisions over the next 3-5 months are going to be very important to its future. Maybe all growing companies face these sort of capsulized thought processes all the time, I don’t know. But, I do know they are necessary and very important. Progress may be reported here.

A quick “Mo” story: MO could talk, I mean talk. Boy, he could talk! He knew more about music and the human voice than anyone I’ve ever been around. He said, “The piano has 88 keys, that’s all the tones it can play; the guitar has 6 strings and frets and can make about 2,000 tones. But, the human voice is infinite because it can hit all those and everything in between!” Hmm.

Thanks for reading, the Elder