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I Don't Understand


 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.... (Proverbs 3:5) 

          Some people have looks. Some have talent. Some have skills. Some, money. Others, power. A few, compassion. I suspect lots of people have more than one of these or others and often in abundance. Me? In my own very biased mind, all I have to offer anyone is my mind...my thoughts...my understanding. I know it's probably not true, but in my mind, my mind is the means by which I love because it's all I have to give anyone. When someone says "check your brain at the door," that person can expect either a fight from me or my disappearance.
          Is it a surprise that this oft-quoted verse drives me a little crazy? "God," I say, "I don't understand!"
          "You don't need to," He says.
          "No, You don't understand, I don't understand."
          I think at this point He rolls His eyes.
          I'm trying so hard to be good, to be what I expect Him to expect. You just can't do that without understanding. It's like trying to make bricks without straw, candy without sweetener, a bank deposit without money. Of course, if I had the understanding I claim I need, I wouldn't need Him. So it's not so much that I don't understand as that understanding is what I lack in order to be in control.
          So He does understand that I need to not understand. I don't need to understand what is happening. What I do need to understand is that He understands what is happening and that is enough.

 

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On The Calendar

American Creed Day (1917)

I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.

–Written 1917, accepted by the United States House of Representatives on April 3, 1918.

Birthday of

Edward Everett Hale (Man without a Country), Washington Irving, Pony Express

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