Good day, nice people.
Suddenly, it is no longer morning!
Just to free myself up to get out there to engage in work that produces some urgently needed income, I’m choosing to stick on below a composition from 8 years ago. As I review some of these old messages, it really is like reading something new, or someone else’s mail. I lack a vivid memory of my thought travels from that far back.
I did my little run with Tazzy earlier—stopping along the way to toss two balls for him. He’s bored with just one. He carries two in his mouth. And whereas I called in at a tennis club in Portland last evening and picked up about 500 used tennis balls, it’s not like we are lacking in resources to feed his passion.
May your day be blessed. Ray.
I often find myself marveling at the craft and creative composition skills of the Creator. I don’t have to go further than examining one little hair to get myself all overwhelmed with awe. I remember once taking time to look closely at one such hair from the back of our dog, Daisy. I have a jeweler’s loupe that allows me to see things microscopically. That may not sound very impressive—but I was impressed—beholding how it was so precisely shaped and sized with gradients of color. How do the nutrients and molecules in her body know how and where to deposit themselves to manufacture such a perfect component? Examining a single scale from a fish when we lived in the South Pacific, like that of a colorful parrot fish, has also sent me into marvel mode—that easily progresses to worship mode. (I guess it doesn’t take much, does it? Is something wrong with me?)
Needless to say, you and I are composed of a lot more than hairs. There is bone, connective tissue, skin, glands, organs, brains, appendages, eyes, ears…ad infinitum. It’s for sure that I had nothing to do with making all that stuff—let alone with sustaining it. And it’s absurd to think it all just kind of accidentally happened on its own.
Jesus advises His followers to avoid popular presumptuous stupid talk by arrogantly making rash impulsive promises, then seeking to add credible weight to those promises by attaching to them things we didn’t make and can’t really control. Instead let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.” Even though this kind of “swearing” that Jesus addresses is common in our culture, the practical point is that you and I have no business being arrogant or overly confident concerning things we had nothing to do with, and over which we have almost no control. At least one of the bottom-lines is this: My promises and commitments are no better than my own integrity. And that is something I can and must control.