Monday Morning Scattershooting

Monday Morning Scatter shooting while wondering why people who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think

    Ok, everybody calm down!  I feel the need to say that fairly often.  People get so worked up about everything anymore.  Any action, decision, or event must be debated in the public arena.  And all the indignation that comes to those that didn’t do things the way in hindsight I seems how they should have been done.  We have to have an opinion on everything that happens in the world.  Well, I’m done.  I only going to care about the things, I can shape and control.  Luckily for me I serve a God that knows all and sees all, so instead of getting worked up about everything, I’ll let him take care of it.  All these national crises and world cataclysms(Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria) that we all get bent out of shape over; I’ll know are in his hands.  Even if this world falls apart, I be secure in the knowledge he was something better prepared for me.  So I will wait until he puts something in my hands to fix and then I will work on it as his humble servant.  Focus on today and let tomorrow take care of itself.

    One of my favorite tombstones says “He always made the right enemies”.  You know, we talk to kids about the friend they keep and how we need to keep good company but I think it might be important to tell them they also need to make the right enemies.  I see how many times kids think their enemies are just their rivals, a person that they might find themselves in competition with.  A true enemy is someone you oppose because to not do so would be wrong.  Our culture doesn’t want us to have any enemies, but doesn’t a good man have to have some?  If we don’t, doesn’t that tells us we never fought for something right, stood up for the good.  A true enemy can only become our friend unless one of us changes?  Are we not making any enemies because we are the one compromising?

     Ok ministry friends help me you’re my only hope! I faced this situation several times before and I never felt like I did the right thing.  A person calls the church and tells you they have a child, cousin, grandchild that is in your area that they are concerned about them.  They don’t go to church and the caller wants you to visit them and get them to come but they don’t want you to let the person to be visited know they told you to do it.  Nine times out of ten the person to be visited has no connection to the church and isn’t that receptive to a random preacher at their door.  How do you handle it?  I’ve showed up at the door and dealt with the awkward ‘who are you and why are you here stare’ without saying anything? (I know they were thinking I was a psycho stalker), I done the “we heard you were new to the area” (turns out they were not) and the “someone asked me to visit you” can of worms ( Who? um a person. What person? Umm not your grandma). What is the best way to do these visits?

    Finally, a cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.  The driver, a young man in a fancy suit and sunglasses, leans out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many animals you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"  The cowboy looks at the man and then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?"  The young man proceeds to pull out his smartphone, uses it to access a satellite and takes a hi res photo of the herd.  He then sends the picture to his office, where it is run thru an image scanner.  After the image is processed, he consults several experts than then send him an email report.  He turns to the cowboy and says, you have 1,538 animals in your herd.  The cowboy answers, “That sounds about right”  “Well, I guess I can take one of your calves then,” the young man replies.  The cowboy watches as the young man selects one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.  Then the cowboy remarks to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"  The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"  "You work for the U.S. Government", says the cowboy.  "Wow! That's correct," says the young man, "but how did you guess that?"  “No guessing required." answered the cowboy, "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked.  You used millions of dollars’ worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you listened to experts that don't know anything about ranching or cows for that matter.  This is a herd of sheep.  Now give me back my dog.”