Horse

ByHal Hammons

The great Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”  That concept is difficult for us to understand in a world that has never not known automobiles.  But we read about a world (there may even be a few souls left who remember one) in which the quality of your horse or horses determined the quality of your journey.  Knowing a better way now, it seems silly to yearn for yesteryear.

We have limited knowledge of what is in our best interests.  And the vision of one with more knowledge than we can be frightening.  We might prefer to stay where we are than go where he is taking us.  But when we embrace the greater reality, we come to realize how foolish we were to resist for so long.

If it is true for transportation, it is far more so for life itself.  When Jesus offers to turn our world upside-down, we likely will balk.  The promise of Matthew 11:28-30 sounds intriguing, but stepping away from everything we have ever known and loved (Matthew 16:25) terrifies us.  Being incapable of sharing God’s vision grounds us in a reality that need not be.

But when we have enough faith to embrace what we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1), and we immerse ourselves — both literally and figuratively — in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:27), we come to realize what a wonderful bargain we have struck.  Or we can reject faith and keep hoping to get more performance out of the same old horse.  Not much of a choice, is it?  

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Gym

ByHal Hammons

I confess, morbid curiosity sometimes gets the better of me.  So I clicked on a link that promised to tell me about the people who should not be allowed to “gym.”  (And that’s the way it used the word — as a verb, not a noun.  So back off, grammar Nazis!)

I saw one picture and closed the page.

Nervous

ByHal Hammons

Coach Gene Stallings (who was a Texas Aggie long before he hooked up with the University of Alabama) likes to tell the story of a young kicker who was struggling in practice.  “Coach, you make me nervous,” he said.

“Son,” Coach Stallings replied, “I’m going to be at every game.  If you’re nervous now, you’re really going to be nervous on Saturday.”

 

Scores

ByHal Hammons

You may have seen the reports about actresses Lori Laughlin (“Full House”) and Felicity Huffman (“Desperate Housewives”) being caught up in a standardized test scandal.  At the time of this writing, Huffman had actually been arrested.  It seems (and as much as I criticize those who leap to conclusions in this space, I hasten to add — innocent until proven guilty) some people were paying for special consideration so their children could get good grades on their ACT or SAT.

Honey

ByHal Hammons

Raise bees in your home!  “BEEcosystems” are completely enclosed units that hang on your interior walls and provide access to the outdoors for the bees and access to honey for you.  The bad news is, they’re $599 apiece; however, I am promised, “for the amount of honey you will eat, they practically pay for themselves!”

The good news is, they don’t come with any bees.  That makes them a bit more workable in Tracie’s mind.