Ecclesiastes 12:10

  If you struggled in geometry, you may not like the name Pythagoras. However, he is an interesting fellow. Now it is hard to separate the myths from the facts when it comes to the ancient Greek philosopher, but his influence, not only in math, but in science, music, ethics, and religion are remarkable.   Yet the oddest tale about him may be in his death. As one legend goes, a group of slighted individuals worried Pythagoras might become a tyranny set his residence afire to kill him. He was able to flee but was caught by the pursuers when he refused to cross a bean field.   You see Pythagoras really hated beans.   He had lots of reasons. He didn’t like their shape. He didn’t like what they did to his stomach. He said they caused one to have bad dreams. He didn’t like they were used by the oligarchy in voting. So, he forbade his followers from eating them. And when it meant his death, he refused to cross a field of them.    I guess it is sort of no...

  My son Calvin has coined a term for a feeling our family often experiences, Second Hand Embarrassment. It’s when another person is doing something that should be embarrassing to them but is not and you as the bystander are then forced to be embarrassed for them. It was first used as we sat across from an older couple at a restaurant who was having a cringe-worthy exchange with the waitress. We all were uncomfortable but the people making it that way were not. They were oblivious to the shame they were causing.   Like second-hand smoke, second-hand embarrassment is a selfish way to put others in an unwanted situation. People that fail to realize their bad ways affect more than those that immediately surround them. This is however the only way it happens   Our sins don’t just affect us. When a person goes about in a sinful way, the cloud it creates rains on many. People think that is how their church behaves, how their family thinks, and what their employer is all a...

   Idolatry is a big deal in the Old Testament. You can’t read very far into it without running into it.   The idea of thinking some stone figure or wood carving is an item to be worshiped is seemly absurd to us today. Truth be told it was to people back then as well. As Jeremiah put it, “ But they are altogether stupid and foolish In their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood ! (Jeremiah 10:8).   So why all the fuss?   Because idolatry still runs rampant today, even if we have just changed the figures. Idolatry is just an attempt to give meaning and control to what we can’t. Something we can fool ourselves into believing is meaningful, even when you should full well know it is not.   For some, it’s the influence and power of money. For others, it is the politician we fawn over when we shouldn’t trust him to hold our wallet much less the control of our country. For some, it’s our lineage or country.  For others, it’s our knowledge and s...

  Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21   When I read this passage, I often skip to the list. The behaviors that are ‘no-goes” for the person wanting to be part of the Kingdom. However, it recently clicked to me that the passage starts with a rather important point. These behaviors are obviously wrong. The word translated either as “evident” or “manifest” originates in the term for shining. It’s akin to the modern phrase “there is a flashing red light” saying NO, BAD, DO NOT DO!  Yet, how many of these behaviors are debated and justified? We try to make some form of them acceptable. We clean up the verbiage, we try to red...

 In the early 1900s, a dog in France became a local hero. A child playing on the river bank fell into the water and was in imminent danger of being drowned. The dog, hearing the cries and the splashing, leaped over a hedge, ran down the bank, and plunged into the stream just in time to rescue the little victim."     To reward the pup’s great action, they gave him   “ a succulent beefsteak ." The dog had learned a great lesson -- save a child, earn a steak dinner -- and that turned out to be immediately important, for not two days later, " another child fell into the water and was rescued by the dog ,". And again, the dog was rewarded, this time with " some caresses and another beefsteak ."   Then it happened again.   And again.      Almost every day, a child would mysteriously fall into the river near and, coincidentally, the heroic dog would be there to pull the child out of the water and to safety. And invariably, the dog would be h...