Pack Animals




Jackie​, and I just love our dogs so much. You can tell the season is changing. All summer long our dogs were on the floor for most of the nights in front of a fan, seeking coolness. . . now with the recent change of cooler evenings, they are snuggled as close as possible to us. . . both gaining and providing warmth. . .

Thinking of it, there are great advantages to being a member of a pack. . . to having friends, and family around us for mutual warmth. . . support and companionship.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. (10) For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. (11) Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? (12) And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

I have known several in my live who by choice lived very alone lives. I do not say lonely, for by external appearances they have not seemed to suffer from their lack of companionship, but they also have not seemed to lead very happy lives. They have tended toward being eccentrics. . . whether by cause or effect, I cannot tell, but that eccentricism seemed to progress and enhance as their years of aloneness persisted.

Wondering. . .no real evidence, but still wondering in my mind. . . an audio speaker, if given as input, its own output, enters into a feedback loop, where the sound becomes increasingly distorted and painful to hear. . .quickly losing its usefulness as a tool to enhance clarity. . . It seems to me, that the human mind also, if left alone. . . generating thoughts which are used then as input for more self thoughts without modification and feedback from another person. . . this loop seems to result in increasingly strange if not totally bizarre outlooks upon life.

In short, all evidence is that, on several levels we truly need one another. We need others in our lives. . . We need the fellowship, and companionship, and brotherhood of others around us. Women being social beings to their core, seem to get this, more than most men. In my own life, I need my wife Jackie to keep me plugged into my family and other people. I very much think without her, that I could easily become a naval gazer. . . an eccentric living in a cave, with a long beard, and strange unkempt ways.

I need my family. . .I need friends. . . I need my pastor. . . I need my brothers and sisters in church to fellowship with. . . to travel this journey with me. . . to lift me up when I stumble. . . to offer advice and warnings of dangerous paths. . . to help me pass through trials. . . to celebrate with me in times of joy.

I thank you my Lord for my family and friends which you have place in my life. . .
I love you my God.

Dave

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mother's Day 2007

My mother had a stroke on May 1st. The doctors said that she would be a vegetable. . . I write these words a few days before Mother's Day 2007. This morning my sister and I met my Mom's doctor to discuss her future. I am appreciative of what he is trying to do. He wants us to begin thinking of things that we want to keep covered and out of sight. His experiences with similar cases, I am sure are valuable to him, but this is not a usually or a most often, this is not a past history, this is my Mom. She lies critically ill in a bed, unconscious, receiving her nourishment, and air through a tangled umbilical of hoses, lines and cords. We grasp at every positive hint. We make excuses for dark signs. This is our Mom. . . God made Eve from Adam's rib. I came from someplace deeper and much more intimate than a rib. I suspect (being an outsider to the mystery) that the tearing, the parting of birth is both physical and emotional. Birth being only the first wrenching separation in...
Read more

When Your Mother Dies. . .

Lessons learned when you were four become much more meaningful. . . The temperature of the whole world chills a little. . . Toll House cookies are no longer merely a snack, but a monument. . . Mothers day changes from an obligation to a craving. . . Sometimes the air thins and you gasp for breath just sitting in a chair. . . Crying for Mommy returns after a fifty year absence. . . You lose something vast and precious that you didn't even know you had. . . You crave being held and hugged all the time. . . The last time you spoke to her is now at the bottom of a big ache. . . Tears are found in totally unexpected places. . . Never again. . . her magical home made vegetable soup. . . wonderful green beans, potatoes, and ham that aren't falling apart and soupy. . .meat loaf with just the perfect amount of ketchup on top. . . those just right crispy fried potatoes. . . never again. . . for ever. . . Your chance to repay an enormous debt is lost. . . You lose ...
Read more

How to Find a Great Church. . .

Image
or Beetles and Bell Curves. . . The following is expanded from a talk that I gave at a men's meeting at the Elkhart County Jail March 11, 2009 Many years ago I heard on the radio, or read in a magazine or book, or saw on television. . . I just cannot remember even what medium I saw this on. . .anyway,  a scientist talked about what he could deduce about God from the design of the universe.  This man's response fascinated me and I have continued to ponder upon it for some twenty or twenty-five years after hearing it. This scientist said that he could tell two things about God from the design of the universe.  The first being that God has an inordinate love of beetles.  Zoologists have catalogued roughly 700,000 species of insects and almost half of those are various kinds of beetles.  Of all living plants and animals roughly 20% of that entire number are beetles.  That was the first thing that this scientist noticed about God's creation. The second thing was that God must gr...
Read more