Three Disparate Entries

Occasionally we chose between clear-cut good and evil, right or wrong; but most often, our choices lie between the good and the best.

Good seems good and demands less of us.

Jesse Ball DuPont, a local philanthropist, once said, “It is good to do good because good is good to do”.

Jesus calls us to the best.

And sometimes that means bypassing things that seem like a good idea at the time.

For instance, I think it would be good to have this fire history book written, edited, printed and done with. I push to get it finished. I want it off my desk and out of my mind.

I want to rush it.

But recently I’ve realized that the Lord has called me to slow down, to be more thorough, to backtrack and correct discrepancies instead of bulling through them. He’s in no hurry to see this book in print.

It would be good to have the book finished; it is best to take my time.

Being a Christian is saying one big “Yes, Lord” followed by a lot of little “yeses” through all the following days.

It would feel good to have a systematic theological system printed on a card I could carry in my pocket to consult now and them. That way I could order my life around it and get done the stuff I want to get done.

Instead, we have a Living Lord who butts in with specific instructions, who does not settle for any good idea that happens along, who leads us along the best path — at least when we cooperate.

Thus, yesterday I added only three lines to the text of the fire history book. But I feel they were the right three lines. They corrected a mistake I’d glossed over earlier in the text…

And, more important, they were three lines I would not have thought of had I not stopped, delayed work and re-evaluated what I’ve been doing.

God says, “To obey is better than to sacrifice”.

Sacrifice is good.

Obedience is best.

After a trip to the library last night Ginny and I ate supper at Famous Amos where we read our new library books over the meal while ignoring eachother in intimate companionable silence.

When you’re deeply in love, you can do that.

Each library trip, along with our favorite murder mysteries and such, we each try to check out one book about some unfamiliar subject unrelated to anything we’re normally interested in. For instance, I’m reading a book on contract negotiations — not my normal fare — this week. It helps me be aware of a broader world than the one I’m usually exposed to.

Speaking of broadening! We stopped at the grocery store to buy a fruitcake for Ginny to take to her office party today and the two young people at the checkout counter came from a different culture from ours -- neither one knew what a fruitcake was!

I was flabbergasted.

Who in the world does not know and love fruitcake?

Anyhow, after supper at the restaurant, as we sat on a brick wall outside smoking, I remembered a method of giving to the poor without making them bellycrawl for your help.

When you see someone in obvious need, crumple up a couple of dollars into the palm of your hand. Approach the person and reach down right at their feet saying, “Excuse me, Buddy, looks like you dropped your dollar”. As you rise up, hand them the money and keep on walking. That way they have not had to bellycrawl and they have no one but God to thank for His assistance.

The Apostle John asked, "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him"?

Just an idea.

Here’s a clipping for the kid in the attic from Reuters News Service at http://www.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUSL18866730

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The eight suspect human bird flu cases in Pakistan are likely a combination of infections from poultry and limited person to person transmission due to close contact, a top World Health Organisation expert said on Tuesday….

Eight people have tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus in North West Frontier Province since late October, and one of the confirmed cases has died. A brother of the dead man also died, but was never tested, so is not counted among them.

H5N1 is mainly an animal disease, but experts fear it could mutate into a form that could spread easily between people, causing a pandemic which could kill millions of people.