May 08, 2013
A Guy Thing
Who can resist popping
plastic bubble wrap? Recently Bill took out a package of salad from the
refrigerator and unable to resist the temptation that was right in front of
him, he put the bag between his hands and popped the air-filled package.
Exploding from the pressure the bag spewed salad greens throughout the
refrigerator and all over the floor. It appears that being 65 years-old does
not dim a man’s excitement for a mini-explosion. I’m thinking our church
leadership programs should be offering re-fresher classes from the book of
Proverbs, which states, “…for attaining
wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for
acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and
fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion
to the young.” (Proverbs 1:2-4 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----How can one read Proverbs without reading Ecclesiastes? “I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time…I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;” (Eccl 3:10, 11a and 12) Occasionally I’ll get hooked into popping bubble wrap or stomping ketchup packets laying in restaurant parking lots. But when I was a kid my thrills were given to zip-guns, pipe bombs, and dynamite. The beauty of those days was chased away by today’s foolish legal philosophers.
-----1968 rather draws a line after which neighborly respect began to detach from what envious distrust began to attach. Before then, the law measured the effects of what a man had done and treated him accordingly. I dynamited stuff. But I did it on my Dad’s property. And I dynamited my stuff (except for a certain snow saucer.) On that previous side of the line, the law punished for damaging others. It wasn’t things done, stuff owned, or thoughts expressed which broke the law, but rather the detriment of their effects. The same thing could be good in one situation and bad in another. The fact that you were left to discern the one combination from the other was your call to individual responsibility and wisdom.
-----This side of the line will have nothing of that. The law trusts nobody except those who inflate the power and egos of its brokers. Instead of outlawing the effect of actions, certain activities themselves are outlawed, like speaking spiritual truths about homosexuality. And certain things are banned, like fully automatic weapons and DDT. We don’t get to learn what’s good to say and when from what’s bad to say otherwise. We don’t get the security of arming ourselves as well as any tyrant or thug. Nor can we enjoy the sanitation of safely delousing. Of course everything has a detrimental use! But the law bans tools for how they can be used by the very criminals it smooches on the lips to send off with a pat on their butts. We must then not only live with the law’s beloved perverts, criminals, and lice roaming our streets in droves, but we must live without good and useful tools for protecting our own interests. Having no opportunity to handle those tools, we gain no wisdom for discerning their use. It is like the law becomes the tool for our vulnerability and the criminals become the government.
-----America was the innocent child taught trust for one’s fellow man, allowing him to think what he would and own what he could. America’s law swung that man from a rope when he broke trust by harming another. Lovers of European style contempt and envy for their fellow men refocused our attention upon the outlaw’s gun and the county’s gallows alike, letting the thief ride into the dark, where we are expected to sleep with a bead of sweat upon the brow. A useful bead of sweat it is, too! For the uneasiness of the populace fertilizes statism to the repression of personal responsibility. Thereafter, childishness breads more unease.
-----Gee. Bill popped a bag and spilt some greens. Look at the mess I’ve made! But then realize, I growed up playin’ with dynamite.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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