Cadillac Pickup?

Ok. I said "mostly spiritual", so here goes...

The other day I was driving up I-65 North and I saw something that was so inconsistent that I had to write about it. You know there must be something wrong in the universe when you have to combine the two words "Cadillac" and "pickup". It's just not suppose to be. Now "Chevy Pickup", "Ford Pickup", and even "Toyota Pickup"; those flow off the tongue. They are a natural part of the order of things. But can you imagine putting a gun rack in the back window of a Cadi---- I just can't say it. How about a load of dirt in the bed of a Caddy?

What type of person buys a Cadillac Pickup? I just can't imagine the personality. If you are a Cadillac Pickup owner, please introduce yourself. I, for one, would like to know what makes you tick.

What's Efficiency Got to Do With It?

Efficiency is technically defined as the ratio of the energy used to the work accomplished, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the commonly accepted idea that efficiency is "skillfulness in avoiding wasted time and effort".

I have lived most of my life bowing down before the efficiency idol. In fact I've spent so much time planning and even pondering efficiency that I've very seldom been efficient at all. Have you ever found yourself frozen by fear of inefficiency? I have.

Then... an epiphany came: If the gift of immortality has brought us into the realm of the eternal (i.e. timelessness) then what does a measure of output over time have to do with it? My immediate answer was "nothing". Efficiency and productivity have no meaning when viewed from an eternal perspective. So what if I waste an hour in eternity? I have wasted nothing because hours are an infinitely renewable resource in eternity.

If I view eternity as happening right now, then only direction and movement toward the Center are important. Speed and time are irrelevant?

I think we could use more people with an eternal perspective. What about you?

I'll meet you further on up the road.

Jim Hill

Gnothi Seauton and Know Love

The Ancient Greeks said "gnothi seauton", translated "know thyself", and sometimes expanded to:

"Know thyself - and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe."

Well, I don't know about that but what I do know is that knowing one's self comes before learning to love others. When I see myself as I am, with all my good and all my brokenness and inadequacies and I learn to love myself in spite of myself; then, and only then, can I begin to love others as the Unbroken Father loves me.

But if I will not see myself as the broken man that I am then I will continue to only love others for what they can offer me. I will find that I have wasted my life looking for another and another and another who is worthy of love as I think I am.

Jesus, the Master Teacher, put it this way, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22

Manual for Success or Survival Guide?

In a recent study of 1 Peter 3 that I was in, we were discussing the verses about wives submitting to husbands and husbands loving their wives. I got the distinct impression that the verses were being taken as a formula for a successful marriage. Is that really the context of the statements in 1 Peter? Does a successful marriage really need a formula? Does a "good" marriage need these instructions at all?

If you read carefully the first verses of 1 Peter 3, you will see that they refer us back to 1 Peter 2 which talks about the suffering of Jesus. Though he suffered, he loved to the end.

Since the "wives and husbands" discussion in chapter 3 refers back to the suffering of Jesus at the hands of others, isn't chapter 3 teaching how a wife should live with a husband who doesn't love as she loves him? Isn't Peter teaching a husband how to love his wife even though she doesn't submit to him as he submits to her?

I'll admit that a marriage is a lot more pleasant if both parties are submitting to and loving one another, but I doubt that it offers anywhere near the opportunities for growth that a marriage with suffering has to offer.

To suffer and still submit, to be persecuted and still love, this is the way of Jesus. Although this is a hard way to walk, we walk it with Jesus and we count it all joy just to be with him.