11/19/2019
The SIMH today was a worthless old song, Popsicles and Icicles, by a one-hit-wonder group called the Mermaids. Early 60s music. If you have any clue as to why I would wake up singing that, let me know. It isn’t that they weren’t talented, they sang it rather well. As usual, I looked it up through Google-the-all-knowing and listened to it all the way through. If I didn’t, I would have been repeating the title line all day! Sheesh!! The group was 3 girls, young, talented and I hope they went on to have wonderful lives. Their genre was destined to be short lived, so if they every had another recording it became lost to the dustbin of regrets, I suppose.
Been pondering a thing which recently happened which had a disturbing affect on me and I’m not sure why. After two or three small talk times with a lady, we struck on a cord of bible questions and when I gave her answers to someone her questions, she very excitedly wanted to know where and when she and her husband could come to a bible class. So, I told her about the Sunday, 4PM class in our home and assured her we’d love to have them attend, not seeking anything except the fellowship around the word.
She told me which Sunday to expect them and so I did. They didn’t come and I wasn’t surprised, happens a lot. But, when I next saw her she said, “My husband said we go to enough bible classes and we don’t need yours for another one, sorry.” I asked what kind of bible classes do they now attend. She told me where and what they were studying (teachers who use a guide book about the bible aren’t particularly teaching the bible.) I reiterated to her that we just studied the word of God and we depend solely on that and she said, one of hers does, but not all and he doesn’t get much out of the ones to which he goes.
Somehow, that reply about our class seemed to trouble me. I wondered why they wouldn’t have considered the answers she got to their questions, which seemed so pertinent and fulfilling when we first talked, but now had no bearing on where they will go to hear more! Seems strange to me and reminded me of a couple things in the past which I’ll mention here. I didn’t respond harshly, though I thought to do so.
Once, in Texas, I was visiting a friend who on more than one occasion had told me of their intention to visit our church. So, I again welcomed them to come and assured them it would be enlightening and not be a harsh experience in any way. I asserted that the Bible is what is always right and trustworthy and I would only use it for the doctrines I would be teaching. He remarked that it seemed to him like I believed I was right and “had it all figured out!” My response to that was, “Bill, why would I teach something I wasn’t sure about? Don’t you see we’re talking about the absolute word of God here?” He looked at me with a look that said, I will not ever be at your class…..and he never did come. I was so sorry I said it like that. But, as you know, words don’t come back after you speak them.
Another time with similar results: I was with a group of Christian men of no particular group, just sitting around having coffee when one of them, a man of some note in town sidled over to me and said, “Say, I’d like to tell you about an idea I’ve had and see what you think.” I said you bet, fire away. He began enumerating all the different kinds of museums in our area, from native-American groups, to industrial revolution evolvements to sports, etc., etc. He said, “I want us to build a Christian museum. We have many things that we should gather up to show people our Christian heritage.” I said, “What? Why? Christ is alive, we’re spiritual people in Christ! Why relegate that to museum status?” He sat still just a moment with an embarrassed look his face and I knew in a flash, we would not ever have another conversation about the Lord or anything else. And we didn’t.
I hope I’ve learned to worry over my words a little bit before opening mouth and inserting foot. I don’t know, time will tell, I guess. The bible says “A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.” Maybe there’s still a chance for those folks in my anecdotes to hear the truth, even though to me, they are just another lost opportunity. After writing this, I guess I do know why the recent episode disturbed me.
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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