Day 89 – Tuesday deep thoughts
Day 89 – Tuesday deep thoughts
I love Jack Handey’s deep thoughts from the old Saturday Night Live show and from the books he has since written and I highly recommend them to anyone who needs a laugh or two or a hundred. But my deep thoughts are not as funny – They come from my Ecclesiastes meditation for the day. I read half of the first chapter before going to swim and something in there really stuck with me as I threw myself into the relatively warm waters of my “short term furnished apartments” pool. As my body worked hard so did my mind and it was refreshing. I think I will meditate on something before swimming every day.
What stuck out to me? In my version it says, “the more knowledge, the more grief.” Basically I took this to mean that if you commit yourself to knowing more, you will be filled with more mourning. Like the saying, “Ignorance is bliss.” Like if I had no idea that people were being slaughtered in the Sudan, I would not be grieved by it. If I didn’t know that there was a very active sex trade, I would not be grieved by it either. If I keep myself in ignorance, I can just walk around as a happy-go-lucky person moving around as if nothing is wrong in our world. Now, I’m not saying that this is the right way to approach life. I think that the author of Ecclesiastes was just saying that you will become knowledgeable about the world around you and you should be prepared to grieve some of it. I count myself as someone who keeps their knowledge very local and thus don’t feel too much grief. But, I think that since God made the whole world, I need to move beyond the Lubbock newspaper to the New York Times so I can be aware of more – even if it makes me feel worse. There is power and depth in dealing with sad things – I think it will make me not take for granted the very limited troubles I experience. Anyway, it is interesting to me that one simple phrase in a book can turn my whole worldview around. That’s one of the coolest things about the Bible. If you want to be challenged to see things as they really are, it provides you that opportunity.
Beyond those depths, I worked a lot on church architects and Lubbock Pre-K accounts. Both of them are steady, but I just have this thought that I need to do more to keep them rising. I’m not being lazy with my efforts on their behalf but I do feel that there is a need to do more for them – despite my not knowing what that is exactly.
As for Melissa, her recovery is incredible. She still has some physical therapy, but her resiliency has been extraordinary. She gives God the credit for that. I do too.
Okay, that’s all I have for today – a good Tuesday – May you have deep thoughts that deepen you but don’t crush you with grief. And as usual, please let me know your thoughts on my thoughts. Thanks.
