A good friend of mine has an after-retirement job. Like some people, he prefers to keep working until his body gives completely out. This is a blessing for our country because we are deficient in individuals who are not allergic to work.

In any case, he works for the VA, traveling veterans to their various doctor appointments. He is the perfect employee because of his strength, intelligence and, especially, his sense of humor.

The other day he was transporting a blind vet. As he was putting him into the van, he asked a shocking question. He said to the veteran, “I’m sorry, but did I ask you if you would prefer to drive?”

The old man laughed and said, “I would like to, but I will tell you how to get where we are going.” This handicapped individual had every exit and distance recorded in his head and gave excellent directions.

My friend would tell people, “I had a blind man leading me today.”

Seriously though, what my friend did was not biblical:

Luke 6:39

And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?

Just out of curiosity, who is leading you?

Think about it.

Gary

The price of almost everything is going up almost astronomically. People are worried about not being able to continue with their present lifestyles. However, the possession of the greatest value is free.

Romans 8:32

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Things could get challenging but put your full weight on the promises:

 Matthew 6:26 

‘Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?’

God is perfectly capable of taking care of you.

Give it some thought.

Gary

The Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler was famous for beginning counseling sessions with new clients by asking, “What is your earliest memory?” No matter how his patient replied, Adler responded, “And so life is.” Adler believed that our earliest memories leave a profound imprint on our souls. For better or for worse, it can be very difficult to escape their gravitational pull. Our earliest memories have unusual staying power.

The most haunting and destructive thing about the children of Israel was a faulty memory. It was revealed, especially concerning the way in which He wove His presence around them as a people. Faulty memory can last a lifetime and be very destructive.

Exodus 32:1

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Give it some thought.

Gary

I heard about a man who was walking a Pit bull down the road. The dog got away and walked up to a preacher and bit him on the knee. Then the dog went across the street and bit a beautiful young woman. The owner was brought before a judge who asked, “Why did your dog bite the preacher?”

The man answered, “I don’t know! He’s never done anything like that before.”

Then the judge asked, “Well, why did he bite the young woman?”

The owner replied, “Oh that’s easy to answer! He wanted to get the taste of that preacher out of his mouth!”

Acts 8:28-30

 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

Be careful whom you’re listening to because, sometimes, it is necessary to take a bite out of crime.

Give it some thought.

Gary

“I Wonder as I Wander” is a Christmas hymn written by folklorist John Jacob Niles (1892-1980), based on a song fragment he heard while traveling in the southern Appalachians. A young girl was heard singing this over and over again.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
That Jesus my Savior did come for to die
For poor orn’ry people like you and like I
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

John Jacob Niles wrote this down and then added to it. However, at the time he asked where she got the song. She said from her mother who was taught it by her grandmother.

People in Appalachia didn’t have much of this world’s wealth or education, but they were rich in the things of God.

Proverbs 10:22

The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

Where do your riches lie?

Give it some thought.

Gary

Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980), the movie director, told a parable in Guideposts (1959) about the unknown. There once was a king who was granted two wishes. His first was to see the future. But when he saw all that lay ahead — the beauty and the pain — he immediately asked for his second wish; that the future be hidden. “I thank Heaven,” the master of suspense proclaimed, “that tomorrow does not belong to any man. It belongs to God.”

 Romans 8:38-39

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He writes in characters too grand
For our short sight to understand;
We catch but broken strokes, and try
To fathom all the mystery
Of withered hopes, of death, of life,
The endless war, the useless strife —
But there, with larger, clearer sight,
We shall see this — His way was right.

Give it some thought.

 Gary

I’m heading east on Rt. 161 in a 1965 Corvair. Evening is settling in and a first date is in sight with a girl I never thought I’d be able to date. What a feeling! It’s March of 1970 and I’m a senior in high school.

It’s fifty-two years later now, the month of March, and I’m traveling north on Rt. 11 and I experience that same feeling. She has just been released from the hospital and we’ll be returning home after a medical emergency.

Proverbs 31:10-12 

Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.

Proverbs 5:18

Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth.

The years go by and the cars get more high-tech, but those feelings of youth can still be stimulated.

Give it some thought.

Gary