Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* Decisions
* Scripture: Philip said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"And he (the eunuch) said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" Acts 8:30-31a, NKJV

"Ignorance can be cured; stupid is forever!"
I can't help but chuckle at this bit of philosophical wisdom by a teacher friend of mine. It is one thing to be lacking in knowledge or comprehension about something, but some people seem prone to making bad (stupid) choices in spite of adequate knowledge of the probable outcome.
True wisdom is not found in merely accumulating knowledge, but in the ability to make correct decisions from the possible choices.
I imagine most of us learned pretty quickly that it is quite painful to touch a hot object, like a stove. That experience should impart knowledge about hot things. "Hot! Hot! Don't touch hot things." It shouldn't take too long before someone associates "hot" with probable pain. Knowledge accomplishes little if a person persists in choosing to touch hot things anyway.
"Thou shalt not steal." Seems pretty plain; if it belongs to somebody else, it is not yours. Taking it anyway is stealing! Except for maybe two-year olds, who work by a different standard. Hopefully, two-year olds grow up, and learn that many things belong to someone else. That standard bit of knowledge should be readily understood by all adults, but theft of the highest and lowest degree is rampant in society, judging by the news reports. Breaking the law is just plain stupid, in my book, yet many make bad decisions in spite of knowledge of the consequences.
Knowledge of the differences between good and evil does not by itself lead people to choose good over evil.
Philip was prompted by God to share the gift of instruction and enlightenment. The eunuch was open to guidance and willing to learn. As a result, he heard, and accepted, the good news of Jesus Christ, believed, was baptized, and went on his way rejoicing.
Contrast that with the rich young man who met with the Savior Himself, and went away sorrowful. (Luke 18:23) Or the many other people in the Bible who heard The Word, and chose not to believe.
Be ever open to instruction, always willing to share.
And pray that The Lord will spare us from making unwise decisions.
May 7, 2006

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* It Might Have Been
* Scripture: Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul.” Mark 8:36, NKJV

Baseball catcher Yogi Berra is reputed to have said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
Well, I suppose one could just sit there, in a state of stultification, or turn around and go back. Chances are, though, one fork or the other will be taken. Choices, decisions, alternatives. If this, then - What? What will the answer be?

John Greenleaf Whittier brought two people to such a fork in the road in his poem, “Maud Muller.” Maud was a farm girl, “Of simple beauty and rustic health,”raking hay in the meadow on a summer’s day, when a Judge stopped his horse to rest in the shade of a tree, and asked the maid for a drink of water. While he tarried, they:

“talked of the haying, and wondered whether
The cloud in the west would bring foul weather.”

When he at last rode away, Maud’s thoughts wandered to what it would be like that she the Judge’s bride might be.

“He would dress me up in silks so fine. . . ”

The Judge looked back at Maud and considered her pastoral world - the

“low of cattle and song of birds,
And health and quiet and loving words.
But he thought of his sisters, proud and cold,
And his mother, vain of her rank and gold.
So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on,
And Maud was left in the field alone.“

The years pass, and their roads diverge:

“He wedded a wife of richest dower,
Who lived for fashion, as he for power . . . .”

“She wedded a man unlearned and poor,
And many children played round her door.”
Often over the years each thought back to that summer day:
“In the shade of the apple-tree again
She saw a rider draw his rein;
And, gazing down with timid grace,
She felt his pleased eyes read her face.”

while he wished to be

“Free as when I rode that day,
Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay.”

Oh! For the fork in the road not taken.
Choices, decisions, alternatives.

“Alas for maiden, alas for Judge,
For rich repiner and household drudge!
God pity them both! and pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall.”

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: `It might have been!`”

As Jesus observed, many take the fork that promises the “riches” of the the world, only to find that it leads to a soul lost for eternity. Too late, too late, one can then only look back and sigh, “It might have been.”
May 8, 2005

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Jesus said, “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.” Mt. 11:18-19, NKJV

An incident that happened to me while growing up on the farm brought home the full meaning of the maxim “Look before you leap.”
We had a lane, an unpaved path, connecting several fields with the buildings in the farmyard. One low spot was a perennial mud hole, stirred up into a gooey slop from vehicle and livestock traffic. As I rode my bicycle down the lane to fetch the cows in for the evening milking, I noted a pile of gravel that Dad had apparently brought in to fill the mud hole. Wow! A launch pad, just waiting to shoot me into the wild blue yonder.
Peddling furiously, I strove for takeoff speed. Up, up, up, perfect form! From my elevated viewpoint, I now had a full view of my landing point. Alas! Bicycles have neither air brakes nor wings. I quickly understood why Dad had not yet spread the gravel; he had dug a ditch to install a drainage pipe in the wet area, which now lay open before me. The laws of physics and gravity kicked in big time. Bicycle, boy, and bold aspirations of flight reached the lowest common denominator.
A quick survey from the bottom of the ditch determined that the major damage was to my dignity, but my collective wisdom clicked up another notch.
Add this thought to your maxim collection: “If in doubt, check it out.” My pride would not have taken such a tumble, for example, had I simply checked out both sides of that gravel pile.
What does this have to do with the chosen scripture passage? Well, hopefully it will serve to illustrate that leaping to conclusions can result in bad decisions, just like blindly jumping a gravel pile.
Jesus was likening his contemporary generation to children at play, comparing their refusal to join either a mock funeral or a mock marriage in the marketplace to the people’s refusal to accept either John the Baptist or Jesus. Instead, they stood aloof from both, making excuses based on wrong conclusions about them (vss. 16, 17.)
Seen from the proper perspective, neither John nor Jesus were in error. John was following the tenets of the Nazarite vow, as established in the Laws of Moses, and was not to eat nor drink anything from the grapevine. Matthew, Chapter 11, affirms that John’s behavior was consistent with prophecy and scripture, and their conclusions about him illustrated their lack of knowledge.
Likewise, their conclusions about Jesus were in error. Jesus points out that the well have no need of the physician, and that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. (Mt. 9:12, 13)
True wisdom is not found in the “children” who stand aloof, but in those who accept Jesus and John.
Yes, jumping to conclusions is indeed a tricky business.
July 10, 2005