Jack’s Winning Words 12/6/07
“Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven” (Another Yiddish Proverb) Ain’t it the truth? There is so much that’s the same with us; why do we persist in looking at the comparatively little that is different? I like the variety of friends and acquaintances that I have. I appreciate, too, the backgrounds that have made us who we are. ;-) Jack

FROM GOOD DEBT JON IN OHIO: Would different ovens explain many of the half-baked ideas in the world? In Good Debt, Bad Debt, I wrote:
The father says to the son, “I’m concerned about you being
at the bottom of your class.” The son replies, “Don’t worry,
Dad. They teach the same things at both ends.” Within a classroom,
this might be true. But within neighborhoods throughout
America, the lessons can be very different (p. 92).
Even when we are in the same oven we don’t always rise to our potential, some come out undercooked/half-baked, some are baked too hard, some are old and crusty, some are warm and inviting, and most are just right, it is true we all come from the same dough. Perhaps it is up to us to seek the yeast.

FROM S.H. IN MICHIGAN: Your Winning Words today are making me recall the dream you told us about in one of your sermons. Remember the time you dreamed the priest was offering communion and you needed to take your own bread out of your pocket? That was just hilarious to me, coming as I do from a background where the Catholics and the Church of Christ Protestants were trying to go forward in the faith in our family. There is so much on the Channel 2 Catholic TV station here in Detroit that I appreciate but also so much that I also put little stock in. One time some guy was explaining how wrong Martin Luther was in his theology and leaving the Catholic Church. They don't seem to teach that Martin Luther was ex-communicated but that he left. On the other hand, I appreciate very deeply Henri Nouwen's meditations that come to me here each morning on the computer too along with your Winning Words and also Miriam Woolbert's daily scripture. I do believe we are all kneaded out of the same dough
and need to accept that we are not baked in the same oven,
how very true,
busy being baked here in Michigan.

FROM MOLINER, C.F.: Cookie cutters are for cookies.

FROM J.L. IN MICHIGAN: Whenver the subject comes up, and we talked about changing the things in our lives...especially the rough spots my answer is always the same....they made me who I am. I'm different in so many ways from everyone around me, but I'm just the same too.
How boring it would bes
To have to live with a bunch of mes!
Poem especially written for my different friend, Pastor Freed!
Any requests for written permission to use it must come to me personally! :-) :-)

FROM E.A. IN MICHIGAN: > Here is another yiddish saying: With one tokus (butt) you can't dance at two
weddings. Think about this one.
I DID THINK AND ASKED FOR A HINT. HERE IT IS: Don't try to be everything to everyone---or don't commit yourself to too many obligations that you cannot give your best to each one .And so on.