Okay . . . there you stand, getting introduced to someone. How are you going to remember the person’s name? Well, you’re already of the mind-set that this meeting and the person are very important. You remember that from yesterday, right? Okay, so now zero in first on one major thing—the name, nothing else, for a few seconds. Ignore all distractions and peripheral activity. Listen for one thing, the name. That is your goal, after all.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Love
Remembering Names, Part One
Remembering is a skill. Sure, there are those who have been blessed with a good memory. But they are exceptions. For most of us, remembering is a skill, like speaking in public, singing, reading, thinking, or swimming. We improve at a skill by hard work—direct effort applied with a good deal of concentration, mixed with proper know-how.
Read MoreWho Cares?
Who really cared? His was a routine admission to busy Bellevue Hospital. A charity case, one among hundreds. A bum from the Bowery with a slashed throat. The Bowery . . . last stop before the morgue. Synonym of filth, loneliness, cheap booze, drugs, and disease. The details of what had happened in the predawn of that chilly winter’s morning were fuzzy. The nurse probably shrugged it off.
Read MoreSowers of Dissension
The last two abominations break from the pattern of using body parts as illustrations. The Lord finds these activities detestable, and they are linked together because they have similar effects on the community of God’s people. 6. A false witness who utters lies: Rare are the truth tellers, and many are those who deliberately misrepresent the facts.
Read MoreHelpfulness
As we consider Agur’s fourth and final animal illustration, we must wrestle with an unusually enigmatic proverb. We typically encounter this problem whenever a statement depends heavily upon a shared cultural experience that no longer exists. For example, the American expression “He came to me with his hat in his hand” depends heavily upon the shared experience of the Great Depression.
Read MoreCooperation
Great civilizations often achieve great things because they have a great leader who casts a vision, marshals their resources, organizes their members, inspires their action, and of course, goes before them. People generally fare better when they have a leader, when someone helps them cooperate and accomplish what can only be achieved with a coordinated effort. But what if there is no leader?
Read MoreGod’s Deliverance
The final verse of Psalm 54 describes a sudden reversal. The first verses describe a dire situation, prompting David to plead for God’s help. By verse 7, his despondency has turned to triumph. His declaration, “He has delivered me from all trouble,” is past tense. Hebrew literature often uses the perfect tense to declare a future event “as good as done.”
Read MoreA Worthy Game Plan
AN OLD YEAR HAS COMPLETED ITS COURSE. A new year is smiling at us, with twelve months of the unknown. I feel like we’re sitting on the beach, an entire ocean of possibilities, including both sun-drenched days and a few storms with howling winds and giant waves, stretched out across the uncharted waters. If you and I let ourselves, we could become so afraid of the potential dangers that we would miss the adventure.
Read MoreFood for the Soul
As we continue to consider the grind of discontentment, we have learned that the secret ingredient to a fabulous meal is love. The book of Proverbs continues this culinary theme with another comparative couplet: Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it than a house full of feasting with strife (17:1) The image of a “dry crust” (NIV1984) is a word picture any ancient traveler could appreciate.
Read MoreWould You Like Hatred with That?
I am so pleased that Solomon did not overlook discontentment. On three separate occasions he offered wisdom for all of us, especially for those times when we are tempted to feel sorry for ourselves. You may have already noticed that all three of this week’s verses are comparative couplets, proverbs in which one thing is declared superior to another.
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