At the University of Chicago Divinity School each year, they have what is called “Baptist Day”.  On this day, each one is to bring a lunch to be eaten outdoors in a grassy picnic area.  Every “Baptist Day”, the school would invite one of the greatest minds to lecture in the Theological Education Center.  One year, they invited Dr. Paul Tillich.  Dr. Tillich spoke for two and one-half hours proving that the resurrection of Jesus was false.  He quoted scholar after scholar and book after book.  He concluded that since there was no such thing as the historical resurrection, the religious tradition of the church was groundless, emotional mumbo-jumbo, because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, never rose from the dead in any literal sense.

He then asked if there were any questions.  After about 30 seconds, an old, dark skinned preacher with a head of short-cropped, woolly white hair stood up in the back of the auditorium.  “Docta Tillich, I got one question,” he said as all eyes turned toward him.  He reached into his sack lunch and pulled out an apple and began eating it.  “Docta Tillich…” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”My question is a simple question….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”and I can’t recite the Scriptures in the original Greek….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….”I don’t know nothin’ about Niebuhr and Heidegger….” CRUNCH, MUNCH….He finished the apple….”All I wanna know is: This apple I just ate….Was it bitter or sweet?”  Dr. Tillich paused for a moment and answered in exemplary scholarly fashion: “I cannot possibly answer that question, for I haven’t tasted your apple.”  The white-haired preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, looked up at Dr. Tillich and said calmly, “Neither have you tasted my Jesus.”

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be a ghost, and, for some reason, I just can’t grasp the idea in my brain good enough to figure out what I would like to do…hang around and haunt people, I guess.  Make them think they are going crazy by hiding things on them and then putting them in some place they have already looked in about 15 times.  Hey, I have that happen at my house regularly!!!  I wonder if a REAL ghost had the same idea I did?

This is a poem that Dad brought home awhile back.  I have NO idea of it’s origin, but I thought it was pretty cool!!!

Make a right onto Believeth Blvd.

Keept straight and go through the Green Light, which is Jesus Christ.

There, you must turn onto the Bridge of Faith, which is over troubled water.

When you get off the bridge, make a right turn and keep straight.

You are on the King’s Highway - Heaven-bound.

Keept going for three miles: One for the Father, One for the Son, and One for the Holy Ghost.

Then exit off onto Grace Blvd.

From there, make a right turn on Gospel Lane.

Keep straight and then make another right on Prayer Road.

As you go on your way, yield not to the traffic on Temptation Ave.

Also, avoid SIN STREET because it is a DEAD END.

Pass up Envy Drive, and Hate Avenue.

Also, pass Hypocrisy Street, Gossiping Lane, and Backbiting Blvd.

However, you have to go down Long-Suffering Lane, Persecution Blvd., and Trials and Tribulations Ave.

But that’s all right, because VICTORY Street is straight ahead!!!

As I sat outside, and watched the brilliant show of colors that God put on the horizon for the sunset tonight, I found myself thinking…about ALOT of different things.  I thought about how peaceful it was in our neighborhood at that moment…just the sound of the locusts in the trees…the song birds finding themselves some place to rest for the night…the bullfrog down on our neighborhood pond….the sound of the cats pouncing on each other as they played in the tallish grass in my front yard….yep, VERY peaceful!!!  I also thought about what has been going on in our lives lately….the steps we’ve already taken towards bettering ourselves and several situations…and the ones that are soon to come.  I thought about the day that my son and I spent together….playing, and talking about just about EVERYTHING under the sun….and just generally spending time together.  Don’t get me wrong…we usually spend the day together, doing various things, but today was different somehow….Maybe it was because the sun was actually shining today…I’m not sure.  I thought about the fact that it was a SUPER, WONDERFUL, VERY productive day.  No, not everything went as planned….but it was still a GREAT day!!!

More later about it, maybe…..

Some people say “Rain, rain, go away….come again another day”.  Other people welcome the rain, especially in the Summer.  Which one are you?  Are you the type that growls and wants to go back to bed when you see the rain?  Do you try to avoid going outside in it because it makes you depressed?  Or are you the type that loves walking in a nice rain?  Do you go out in it JUST to be out in it?  Rain, they say, can be relaxing.  Do you find it so?  If not, what DO you find relaxing?

…the way we, as society, has changed over the last few decades?  There was a time when society didn’t mind it if your clothes had dirt and sweat and such on them, because they knew, by those “signs” on your clothes, that you’d been doing something.  Nowadays, I have met people that basically consider having dirt and sweat and such on your clothes something that makes you undesireable to be around.  Of course, society seems to have changed the way it thinks about work too, over the years.  It’s hard to find someone who is willing to get out in the heat or the cold and do a job until it’s done.  Why is society, as a whole, changing the way it thinks about these things?  Is it what we are being taught in the schools?  Is something in the water or the air doing it?  Just WHAT is causing this?  Is there a way to reverse it?  Maybe society wouldn’t seem so messed up if we DID find a way to reverse it?

I guess that’s your “food for thought” bit for today.  Enjoy!!!