Accomplishment

12/15/2018 

Since starting this blog and referring to the “song in my head” most

mornings I’m beginning to experience an odd thing: There is a song in my head each morning, but the frequency of a song I’ve already written about being the SIMH is greater. If I skip a day, have no song, it is likely because it was a recent song about which I’ve already written. That being said, today’s song is another Sinatra song (for a singer I was never a real fan of, he certainly gets into my head.) Today it is “Tender Trap” —which was the theme song of a movie by the same name. It was composed by Jimmy Van Heusen, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. It was written for the 1955 film. Debbie Reynolds and “ol’ Blue Eyes” starred in it. 

The “tender trap” is supposedly love in the movie & song dialogue. So, maybe there’s something redeemable about that. The bible says “love worth no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”—Rom.13:10. That being the case, the application of love is simple, yet it may be a difficult thing to accomplish. The Apostle Paul went on to say we should, “by love, serve one another” and “walk in love, even as Christ also hath loved us..” using the attitude of Christ’s trip to the cross for us(see Phi.2:5-8). Bringing this last passage into play to understand our being obedient to the admonition really brings to light how difficult this truly is.

As Paul described his own “wretched” flesh condition, it isn’t the idea of understanding how to obey, but more the very hard work it takes to get the wretched flesh put down and out of the way of loving as Christ loved. Just as sure as we conquer the flesh for a moment of truly loving in the perfect manner, the next instant we’ll decide how “we’ve” got it all under control, we’re doing it just right now! …and then another nemesis to us appears, and we have to start the same work over again. Jesus said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Amen.

There is a church in need of a pastor which is about 3 miles North of Plattville, AL, in case anyone knows of a grace-believing preacher looking for a church to pastor. Just get in touch with me. 

What makes one man be a driving force to get from start to finish and another man goes to the next task without enough chutzpah to even muster up the desire to finish? Mankind seems to be diverse in the strangest of ways. In the greater scheme of things, I don’t suppose any of this makes any difference, but it stirs me to frustration to watch someone use excuses to get out of doing something which he is the main one who will benefit the most by doing it! I’ve noticed the rather odd use of the word “reluctant” to be applicable to such as this. Is it a reluctance to be tried? Reluctance to chance failure? Reluctance to face a criticism about the process or the result? Maybe reluctance is the right word, after all. Most prevalent in this delay tactic for whatever reason is the other people who are affected. There is always a disruption for others; whether one, a team or a company. I guess then, the person putting off the task is better described as selfish rather than reluctant. What do you think?

The real driver, the force to be reckoned with is the one who says “we can do this and be finished by____!” Those guys may miss the mark by a little, but they will finish! The task, the project, the great big endeavor, or the nominal, success is realization of the goal. “The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.”— Look that up.

Thanks for reading, the Elder