July 10, 2024
Leadership Notes
Fun, Frivolity, Fire, and a Little Biblical Truth for Good Measure…
On your next road trip, however far your travel {could be Ann Arbor}, here’s a little game to play. Heck, you can even do it sitting around the house. Any song that has girl/girls in it, substitute with squirrel/squirrels. For example, “I wish they all could be California squirrels.” It’s a hoot. Who’d a thunk Van Morrison once sang of his brown-eyed squirrel?
Now that it’s summer, the media coverage of heat waves and other summer-weather-related events has reached a hyperbolic boiling point. The new thing is how summer heat waves {gasp…whoever heard of such a thing!} are affecting tens-of-millions of people. It’s sad and tragic, but is an alarmist headline, “Motorcyclist dead from heat exposure in national park as triple-digit temps affect millions” from the mainstream media really necessary? And for the record, it was Death Valley National Park. It is always hot there in the summer. Frankly, it should not come as a surprise that someone died from heat exposure in a place with “death” in its name.
While we’re on that topic, let the record show that I already oppose the climate-change lockdowns. Whilst I fell for another kind of lockdown in 2020, I won’t get fooled again.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor
between classes, nor between political parties either – but right
through every human heart.”
On a related note, Psalm 20:7:
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
I love our small little church here in our small little county in our medium-sized state. Our state is a beauty and a wonder. Our church is abundantly blessed by God so He gets the glory for changed lives. I can’t even begin to understand why any pastor or church would aspire to “mega” status.
As of late, scandal and controversy {rooted in false teaching} rises up out of large churches. I love what Paul Washer wrote:
“False teachers are God’s judgement on people who don’t want
God, but in the name of religion plan on getting everything their
carnal heart desires. That’s why a Joel Osteen is raised up! Those
people who sit under him are not victims of him, he is the
judgement of God upon them because they want exactly what he
wants and it’s not God!”
Paul Washer nails it. I would sit under his teaching all day long.
A wise person once said:
COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY.
Viktor Frankl, neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, observed:
“It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the
above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.”
An unwise person recently said:
“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the
race,’ I’d get out of the race, but the Lord Almighty’s not comin’
down.”
Setting aside the narcissism of such an observation, no matter how you slice it, it makes no sense. In 2024, you need a sense of humor! As a sign at one of the “Gobble Stop” convenience stores asked, “Is Your Refrigerator Running? I Might Vote For It.” Frankl was not wrong.
Which leads us to the most important thing of all. While living in a fractured and fallen world, there is joy in the offing. Contentment in life isn’t based on external situations or circumstances. It is an inside job. From “Renewing Your Mind,” July 4, 2024 edition:
“By describing regeneration as being born again, Jesus makes
clear that the initiative in salvation comes solely from God. No one
can obtain spiritual life by his or her own power or will.”
And now, your Moment of Spurrier:
“Cheating is cheating. Some coaches believe if you can get away
with it, cheating is smart. I have no respect for those guys.”
- Steve Spurrier, Son of Presbyterian Pastor J. Graham Spurrier and his
wife Marjorie, as Well as All-Around Great College Football Coach
With Much Love and Affection,
Richard
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