I've wanted to tell this little story but needed a old post to go along with it and partially explain it. I found that old post and it follows the story. A couple of Saturdays ago we had a family get together which mostly consisted of playing cards. During a break, my brother-in-law wanted to show me a card trick. I usually use the breaks to brush up in my mind on something like our national debt or China's problematic economic growth rate but OK, let's see it.
He shuffled the deck and then laid out the trick by dealing three vertical rows of thirteen cards. "Pick a card. Don't tell me what it is but what row is it in." "First row." He picked the rows up in a certain order and laid down three more rows. "OK, what row is it in now?" "Uh.........I forgot the card." He half rolled his eyes and said "OK, let's do it again." So again he shuffled and laid down three rows of thirteen cards. "So, pick a card and tell me what row it's in." "OK...middle row." He once again picked up the rows in a certain order and laid down another three rows of thirteen cards. "OK, what row is the card in?"
Now, true, I'm 65 years old and memory lapses should be expected but.......I once again forgot what card I had picked! What to do? If I admit this, the card trick will be forgotten and everyone will be worried about me. I had to think fast! "Uh...third row." He picked up the cards in order once again and laid down three more rows. "Middle Row!" And a third and last time....."First row this time." He then just mixed the cards all together on the card table.....maybe this would have been a good card trick. He picked them up and shuffled them and then started laying one card face up at a time for about 15 or so cards. "OK...the next card I turn over will be your card!" He turned over one more....I can't remember what it was......"Is this it?" Have you ever tried to make your eyes light up when there really was no reason to? Well, I lit my eyes up and said...."Yeah, that's it all right!" I prefer to focus on the lightning-quick mental agility and cognitive control that got me out of that mess than forgetting the card twice!
Now for an attempt at an explanation:
Focused
While weed wacking in the yard yesterday, in a somewhat somber mood, I called for my wife to come over and said "If something were to happen to me, I should give directions on a few things that you're not familiar with..." and I proceeded to tell her how to use the electric weed wacker. She seemed interested and responded....."Come inside a little later and in case something would ever happen to me I'll show you how to load the dishwasher."
She likes little knick-knacks and often orders from those catalogs we all get in the mail. I was looking for my keys earlier today and she pointed to them hanging on the wall. I thanked her, grabbed the keys and began to walk away. She folded here arms with that look. "What?" She pointed. I looked to see a black wrought iron mouse on the wall whose tail I grabbed the keys from. "Oh that's nice!"
It's not easy living with Special Dog. We might be on a drive in the country where she is admiring the hills and the foliage while I'm reviewing in my mind the difference between a Menshevik and a Bolshevik......"Oh, look at that cute farmhouse over there!" "Uh-huh." Pause....."There's an elephant dancing on the roof."......."Uh-huh."
My mind is often focused on what is transpiring in America today and in the Christian church. Working in the electric power generating industry, I often find myself in awe at what I see that engineers can accomplish. I give them all the credit in the world for the hard work, studying and perseverance they employed to get where they are. The same can be said for medicine and many other sciences and crafts but there's a fly in the ointment of genius, for one cannot simply apply calculus to government or a PHD to saving faith, but that's what is often attempted, for the groundwork is not done in these areas, nor the studying, and perseverance to even contemplate them likely ends when the game.....any game.....begins. The intellect is there, it's just not being used beyond its service to our material or prideful desires. Politics and religion are the two subjects where one is automatically an expert!
In God's eyes the janitor is as honorable as the surgeon, the dirt farmer as the college professor, the 99 IQ as the member of Mensa, for He and He alone gave us our station in life and our abilities. To admire others with great abilities in the sciences is a reflection of God's grace to us as it is for the great lawyer to admire the physical toil of the hard working mechanic.
If our minds revolve around and take unspeakable joy in not only the designer of this universe and everything in it but in His very words to us in our Bibles, in His unimaginable love and undeserving longsuffering, and in His omniscience to know our thoughts even before we have them.....and if we therefore see that we truly are fallen creatures, fully deserving of condemnation but offered forgiveness in Jesus Christ, then love for one another will be there, it cannot help but be there, and respect for one another will bring more joy than pride in our own accomplishments; but we sit ignorantly and blissfully detached from so great a salvation and such a fullness of joy, and thus we exist in this culture of our own making, and thus... for me personally... my mind is so often focused on what is transpiring in America and in the Christian church, and on my own transgressions against a Holy God.... but also on the cross where 'mercy and truth are met together,
He shuffled the deck and then laid out the trick by dealing three vertical rows of thirteen cards. "Pick a card. Don't tell me what it is but what row is it in." "First row." He picked the rows up in a certain order and laid down three more rows. "OK, what row is it in now?" "Uh.........I forgot the card." He half rolled his eyes and said "OK, let's do it again." So again he shuffled and laid down three rows of thirteen cards. "So, pick a card and tell me what row it's in." "OK...middle row." He once again picked up the rows in a certain order and laid down another three rows of thirteen cards. "OK, what row is the card in?"
Now, true, I'm 65 years old and memory lapses should be expected but.......I once again forgot what card I had picked! What to do? If I admit this, the card trick will be forgotten and everyone will be worried about me. I had to think fast! "Uh...third row." He picked up the cards in order once again and laid down three more rows. "Middle Row!" And a third and last time....."First row this time." He then just mixed the cards all together on the card table.....maybe this would have been a good card trick. He picked them up and shuffled them and then started laying one card face up at a time for about 15 or so cards. "OK...the next card I turn over will be your card!" He turned over one more....I can't remember what it was......"Is this it?" Have you ever tried to make your eyes light up when there really was no reason to? Well, I lit my eyes up and said...."Yeah, that's it all right!" I prefer to focus on the lightning-quick mental agility and cognitive control that got me out of that mess than forgetting the card twice!
Now for an attempt at an explanation:
Focused
While weed wacking in the yard yesterday, in a somewhat somber mood, I called for my wife to come over and said "If something were to happen to me, I should give directions on a few things that you're not familiar with..." and I proceeded to tell her how to use the electric weed wacker. She seemed interested and responded....."Come inside a little later and in case something would ever happen to me I'll show you how to load the dishwasher."
She likes little knick-knacks and often orders from those catalogs we all get in the mail. I was looking for my keys earlier today and she pointed to them hanging on the wall. I thanked her, grabbed the keys and began to walk away. She folded here arms with that look. "What?" She pointed. I looked to see a black wrought iron mouse on the wall whose tail I grabbed the keys from. "Oh that's nice!"
It's not easy living with Special Dog. We might be on a drive in the country where she is admiring the hills and the foliage while I'm reviewing in my mind the difference between a Menshevik and a Bolshevik......"Oh, look at that cute farmhouse over there!" "Uh-huh." Pause....."There's an elephant dancing on the roof."......."Uh-huh."
My mind is often focused on what is transpiring in America today and in the Christian church. Working in the electric power generating industry, I often find myself in awe at what I see that engineers can accomplish. I give them all the credit in the world for the hard work, studying and perseverance they employed to get where they are. The same can be said for medicine and many other sciences and crafts but there's a fly in the ointment of genius, for one cannot simply apply calculus to government or a PHD to saving faith, but that's what is often attempted, for the groundwork is not done in these areas, nor the studying, and perseverance to even contemplate them likely ends when the game.....any game.....begins. The intellect is there, it's just not being used beyond its service to our material or prideful desires. Politics and religion are the two subjects where one is automatically an expert!
In God's eyes the janitor is as honorable as the surgeon, the dirt farmer as the college professor, the 99 IQ as the member of Mensa, for He and He alone gave us our station in life and our abilities. To admire others with great abilities in the sciences is a reflection of God's grace to us as it is for the great lawyer to admire the physical toil of the hard working mechanic.
If our minds revolve around and take unspeakable joy in not only the designer of this universe and everything in it but in His very words to us in our Bibles, in His unimaginable love and undeserving longsuffering, and in His omniscience to know our thoughts even before we have them.....and if we therefore see that we truly are fallen creatures, fully deserving of condemnation but offered forgiveness in Jesus Christ, then love for one another will be there, it cannot help but be there, and respect for one another will bring more joy than pride in our own accomplishments; but we sit ignorantly and blissfully detached from so great a salvation and such a fullness of joy, and thus we exist in this culture of our own making, and thus... for me personally... my mind is so often focused on what is transpiring in America and in the Christian church, and on my own transgressions against a Holy God.... but also on the cross where 'mercy and truth are met together,
