Jack’s Winning words 10/19/16
“Sometimes the shortest path between two points is serpentine.”  (Christopher Penfey)  Siri sometimes reconfigures a route to give a driver the best way to a destination, and it isn’t always the shortest way…It’s the BEST way.  Sometimes we have a particular life goal in mind, and our Siri (God) send us on detours.  With the passage of time, I’ve learned to trust my Siri.  I’ve come to realize that the detours can be the best part of the journey.  Has it happened for you?    ;-)  Jack

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  for sure it has.  I was told for my entire last year at the sem that I was going to someplace in southern Wisconsin, likely Madison.  in the last minute, we ended up at Sylvan Lake where I met Jack F. and a lot of other caring and thoughtful saints of the church.  our disappointment quickly turned to gratitude.  God works in mysterious ways...====JACK:  Some advizors say, "Never look back!  But, when I do, I do so with gratitude.  One of my favorite hymns is by William Cowper.  It begins..."God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform."

FROM TARMART REV:  I have always enjoyed being lost in large hospitals . . . an adventure of meeting new and most usually helpful folk along the way . . . sometimes discovering a shortcut or two for my next visit.====JACK:  A pastor friend of mine was making a hospital visit when he happened to meet a friend of his, a heart specialist.  As they they were talking together in the hall, my friend had a heart attack...right in front of the heart doctor.  Talk about being in the right place at the right time... ====REV:  I would call that a "heart to heart"grace collision.

FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  Sometimes on the way to the lumbermill you realize the project needs a little steel.====JACK:  I like to browse the hardware store.  I go in looking for a particular item and go out with stuff I hadn't even thought of buying.  Does that happen to you?====JON:  All the time.

FROM TRIHARDER:  That's why switchbacks were created.====JACK:  That's one of the problems with politicians today...the unwillingness to use the switchback and see the road from a different point of view.  You won't be able to get up the mountain without back and forth.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  Absolutely!  On traveling anywhere, with God on this life's journey or on a vacation, we always take the back roads.  God leads us.====JACK:  God took the Israelites on a serpentine path to the Promised Land.  Should it be any different for us?

FROM MT IN PENNSYLVANIA:  Oh…absolutely!  When I had to leave my ‘mission in life’ (artwork in glass - especially the spiritual work), I thought I would never recover — and indeed, I spent many years feeling rudderless.  Focus returned when I took the helm as CEO of a small software company, and that went on for 10 years, but still there was a sense of something missing. The gap closed when I connected with my new mission in life — which is really the same as the old one, but in a different medium and context. I once wanted to enlighten people with art. Now we are enlightening people with new understanding of each other!  As you may recall, Teamability® identifies and organizes the different ways that people seek to make a meaningful contribution to specific team needs. We’ve been focused on doing that in businesses, but the technology works for all kinds of relationships: personal, parent/child, teacher/students, and so on.  ‘Service to team needs’ happens in every kind of organization, and is analogous to ‘service to the greater good’ (as in, to God), which is why, sometime in 2017, there will be a ‘TeamSpirit’ version of Teamability, specifically for use in spiritual communities. A ‘beta’ version has already produced extraordinary positive results in church planting, in revitalizing church communities, and has been featured in the graduate program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  It’s been serpentine, to say the least, but I’m on the path.  Have a great day!====JACK:  I have enjoyed my pastoral work of establishing new congregations...That's the work of teamability.  I'm glad that a seminary has recognized it.  Even our meeting was a "teamability moment."  We had a problem.  We worked together to solve it.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Yes, we've experienced that in our call to Ministry. Our kids have had some similar experiences; As Siri does; not the shortest route, but the BEST way. :-) It was true on our trip to New York in Sept. too; We wandered some back lesser roads, wondering "Where in the world is she leading us?", only to learn when we reached our destination, that the more direct expressway was under construction, and VERY SLOW!  Good words to ponder!====JACK:  Did you know that Siri, in Norwegian, means "beautiful woman who leads you to victory?"  The guidance inventor was Norwegian.

FROM BB IN ILLINOIS:  Great thoughts; will put this one in my journal.  Yes, the path is serpentine more than it is straight.====JACK:  One of the first modern roller coasters in our part of the country is called The Corkscrew.  I've ridden it, and it does give you a thrill...just like life.  The Cubs are giving their fans a thrill, too.

FROM SBP IN FLORIDA:  Detours offer new and often, unexplored vistas. We used to call them a "bonus" experience. Life's road is not a straight line to the destination toward which we are aiming. And it either annoys or enhances the road to the intended goal. Serpentine progress affords, if not appreciated at the time, new vistas for a new goal entirely. There is a serpentine "drive" in the Colorado Rockies.====JACK:  I like this passage from Proverbs 30:18,19:  “There are three things that are too amazing for me,  four that I do not understand:  the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock,  the way of a ship on the high seas,  and the way of a man with a young woman."