Winning Words 9/9/09
“Everything you do in life has a consequence. When you do things without thinking, then you ain’t makin’ the choice, the choice is makin’ you.” (Mark Steven Johnson) I’ve found that the Winning Words I choose are better when I have a reason in mind, instead of just filling the computer screen. Isn’t it interesting how our choices make things happen in our life…on and on? ;-) Jack

FROM MOLINER G.S.: Good WW. And we have to take responsibility for those decisions. FROM JACK: Do-overs aren't a part of life. Is that good or bad? I suppose that it depends....

FROM ML IN ILLINOIS: sometimes it's the spontaneous decisions that put us on our path. over thinking can be too restrictive. do something spontaneous today, with abandonment! MORE FROM ML: most usually i have found reason to celebrate when i listen to the wind.

FROM JS IN MICHIGAN: The choice that the ELCA made at its convention this summer will have enormous consequences in ways that we can't even imagine now....some may be good and some not so good. We are old so it won't effect us a great deal but for those who are now being ordained, etc. there are now some big choices for them. I think for many the choice will be to just slowly drift away from the ELCA and into no man's land or into an evangelical congregation. I doubt if there will be a large new church formed out of
this struggle. I hear about it but don't believe it. Interesting. FROM JACK: Consequences? Yes. Enormus? Time will tell. We all have choices, as it was with Adam and Eve.

FROM GOOD DEBT JON: Nice FROM JACK: Nice answer!

FROM MOLINER CF: Everything you don't do In life also has a consequence. FROM JACK: Ergo, everything we do has a consequence.

FROM SG IN TAMPA: That is an interesting thought. Do you think that we make decisions without thinking? How can that be? Sometimes the decisions might be the wrong ones, but we always learn something from them -good or bad. FROM JACK: Do reflex actions require thought? Is brain activity, thought? For example, was Maddon's decision to go with his relief pitcher when Inge was at bat, thoughtful?

FROM FM IN WISCONSIN: It is frightening, but so true. But the other side of the coin - if we get so involved in our choices - so that we fail to make choices or decisions - tied up with indecision - the failure to make a choice results in a choice without our intentional input. I know of a few people who have so much trouble making decisions and their lives are hell on earth. FROM JACK: Did you know that Rodin's sculpture, The Thinker, is part of a larger sculpture showing man (the Thinker) looking down upon Dante's Inferno and pondering what hell is like (people not being able to make decisions???).

FROM SH IN MICHIGAN: Our daughter sent a CD set back with us while we were driving home from Iowa. "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High." It seems that people can have real dialogue or choose silence or choose violence. Some good ideas--I'm going to try to aim for/choose more real dialogue in--my marriage, my work, my church, my community and my daughter's probably hoping--my relationship with her. Heart, respect, love, real dialogue, understanding of each other's stories. She got the CDs from her work, a seminar at her company. The kids are working on the problems along with us old fogeys.

FROM DS IN SAN DIEGO: makes one think. We are in Romans now and in our group we discuss redestination and "free will". Your Wining Words reflects that kind of discussion. It's when we don't have choices that can make things tough. FROM JACK: I guess there can be times when there is no choice.

FROM PC IN MICHIGAN: Good Morning. I enjoy this one. My "saying" if you will, since childhood, was that "God loves everyone, so why is man particular?" I came up with that in 2nd grade when I decided I was going to be a nun.