The Plumbline

Have you ever been just a little bit 'over-the-top' when it comes to your competitive spirit? I watch some guys play basketball in their 50's and 60's like they were in their teens and wonder just how great they are going to feel in the morning. Some will awaken with aches and pains in places they forgot even existed! They will find their 'enthusiasm' of the day before might have been a little overboard when they realize how foolish they were to drive for the basket as earnestly as they did in order to lay up that shot. We all have a bent toward enthusiastic competition in some form or another, although it may not be in the realm of sports, it still exists. What we do with our competitiveness matters, though. Too much can actually be our undoing - not enough can cause us to never try anything new. He sat down and summoned the Twelve. “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”  Mark 9:35 MSG I'd say the twelve disciples ma...

Robert Half is credited with reminding us, "When one teaches, two learn." I've said it before, we can 'learn' only so much until we match the 'learning' with 'doing'. The action of 'doing' puts into practice what we have been learning up until that point. In the 'doing' we often learn just a little bit more. Recently I decided to take up a new hobby. I finally had my workshop built and have been enjoying filling it with all manner of tools. Now, I am experimenting with this and that - until I become proficient with the tools. Let me be the first to admit - there are a few scraps in there that weren't created as 'scraps', but ended up there! I make mistakes and in the process learn a little by my 'doing' of some step that didn't work out as well as planned. The learning continues - not merely by reading, but by actually 'doing' some woodworking! But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned ...