Beech Tree News Network

Every now and then I like to share some thoughts--some from others and some I've contemplated my almost 79 years. Someone has said that all a man will ever really own are his own thoughts. Just as you can't roller-skate in a buffalo herd, it's hard to think worthy thoughts in one too. I speak of the clang and clatter and hubbub in which we live. I was talking to an older lady in a doctor's waiting room awhile back and a fire alarm test suddenly erupted - horns, whistles, etc. When it finally subsided, I said, "We sure do live in a noisy world." "Yes," she said, "I liked the one I lived in best."

May I share some of these cogitations with you?:

--There is nothing more forgiving than time.

--Our stay here is only a stop-over; we travel between eternities.

--There are some things that don't need explaining or analyzing. THEY JUST ARE. (Dennis Gaines, Turkey, Texas--cowboy poet.)

--Some folks can't stand being by themselves. Louie Lamour in one of his novels gave us this thought, "The solitary rider did not mind his aloneness, for he had the companionship of the mind."

--One senior airline captain was quoted as saying, "Two of the scariest things in the world are a brand new co-pilot, and a second lieutenant with a nap."

--Why do we sometimes applaud the bad and criticize the good?

--Man is most peculiarly human when he can't have his own way.

--Someone said, you never really know somebody until you see them lose.

--Even in the freest society, power is charged with the impulse of the powerful to turn men into precise, predictable, robot-like creatures: neutralize the independent voter, consumer, worker, owner, thinker, and to turn men into instruments of manipulation, whom Aristotle called a SLAVE. (Hoffer)

We learn from the Bible that God has a permissive will. although He knows that some things are not best for us, He in His wisdom, goes ahead and lets us do the thing anyway. Case in point: Up until the time of Biblical Kings, God appointed JUDGES. Fair judges. But the Israelites kept ding-donging for an earthly king, ("to rule over us and fight out battles"). Against God's better judgement, he instructed his prophet, Samuel, to tell them they could choose an earthly king. They chose Saul. (I Sam. 8).

This is like sometimes our own children want to do something we know is not the best for them, but we go ahead and accede to the request. God tried to tell His children that Saul was a cream-skimmer: "You people take the neck, I get the rest of the chicken," . . . or, "I get the whole chicken, you get the feathers." Still they would not listen.

If we can't have the original, we can never have enough of the substitute. God was the original; Saul was the substitute. Too I guess the Israelites thought that under Saul, they would have more "wiggle-room," maybe to engage in some questionable activities that God wouldn't approve of. Boy, they were wrong, they got the crumbs . . . and not much fun.

Sometimes when God says go ahead, we find out we really didn't want what we thought we did. Country singer, Billy Walker, had a song called "Charlie's Shoes." It was about this guy who wanted Charlie's girl: "I'd like to be in Charlie's shoes, that's where I'd like to be," he sang. He finally got Charlie's gifl, then he sang a different song: "These shoes that Charlie wore are killin' me!"

And I'm goin' to the wagon, THESE SHOES ARE KILLIN' ME.

Kindest regards . . .