Be more concerned with making a life than making a living.
If you were busy
Note: This poem was a cut-out insert in the Bible of Kelli’s Aunt Edna Strickland.
If you were busy being kind
Before you knew it you would find
You’d soon forget to think ‘twas true
That someone was unkind to you.
If you were busy being glad,
And cheering people who are sad,
Although your heart might ache a bit,
You’d soon forget to notice it.
If you were busy being good,
And doing just the best you could,
You’d not have time to blame some man
Who’s doing just the best he can.
If you were busy being true
To what you know you ought to do,
You’d be so busy you’d forget
The blunders of the folks you’ve met.
If you were busy being right,
You’d find yourself to busy, right,
To criticize your neighbor long
Because he’s busy being wrong.
The Problem of Evil
(the following is a modified repost from the old blog, originally dated 08/19/2009
In the ongoing responsibilities of a minister, I deal with life and death often. In fact, it’s not unusual to address both ends of life’s continuum within the same day. Sometimes (thankfully rarely), it happens within the same family on the same day. As such, we ministers often become steeled to the loss of life even as we welcome precious new lives into the world. Even so, the reality of death is difficult to reconcile, particularly when death event is unexpected or tragic.
You see, I operate from a worldview that God is sovereign. He knows the end from the beginning. He alone knows when life will end, and under what circumstances it will come to a close. I believe that this foreknowledge is true for every person, everywhere, throughout history. And as a minister, I have the privilege of getting to see details of people’s lives that sometimes might otherwise be hidden, but that reveal an “ah!” understanding of why a person dies. For example, I might learn that a person who was by all appearances upstanding actually had a hidden life of alcoholism or addiction that explains a surprising terminal sickness or disease. When that happens, knowing these things helps bring understanding or reconciliation to the graceless event we call death.
