I am having some level of apprehension about posting to a blog. I feel a little like Adam with his fig leaf: if one is not careful, one says too much and something that should not "be out there," is, suddenly, out there. Feelings can be hurt, friendships hurt and relationships damaged as trust can be lost and the joy of openness is gone. Oh, and just by-the-way, one can spend a great deal of time with these things! Isn't this just a bit Narcissistic?

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; I always thought this was a Western expression, but I found out otherwise when we were living in Japan. High in the mountains of central Japan there is a city devoted to Buddhist and Shinto temples and shrines, on one of these is the original carving of the three "evil" monkeys. We visited there on a side trip during one of our many trips to Tokyo. This little side trip took all day! Oh, by-the-way, these three monkeys are our (adult) children.

I also suppose that a preacher should "ruminate" about something spiritual, so here it is. Last night I spent about 5 hours in the hospital (75 minutes each way) with one of our members who had a "mini-stroke;" I suppose that "mini" is a relative term. He is better, but stayed the night in the hospital.

In the next bed was a man who had thought that he had a badly upset stomach; what he really had was a severe aneurysm. What a difference: one man had wife, son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and pastor with him through it all, and the other had no one, he was alone. Alone, that is, until his son called on the phone, and I wheeled his bed close enough for the telephone cord to reach him. Alone until I asked if there was anything I could do for him. Alone until I prayed with him, and left my business card in his bag of personal things, and said good night.

Mt 25:40 - "The King will answer and say to them, `Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'
Mt 25:45 - "Then He will answer them, `Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

http://www.studylight.org/