Winning Words 10/9/09
“It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.” (Tom Brokaw) One of my first jobs was to deliver newspapers everyday for a friend, so he could play football. He did the collections (including tips) on Saturday and paid me a buck. Later in life someone suggested that I become a pastor in order to make a difference…and “that has made all the difference,” as Robert Frost wrote. Can you remember your first buck,
and someone who has made a difference in your life? ;-) Jack

FROM SH IN MICHIGAN: I didn't get a whole buck; got 65 cents/hour detassling corn. The boys got 75 cents/hour. The first people who made all the difference--my Dad who got rebaptized in a different church because he loved a woman, my mother, who was inconsolable over the death of her unbaptized baby. It's amazing to me that, in a world filled with inequities and imbalances, God is constantly at work to turn things right side up and bring in His heavenly Kingdom, if we can only see it.

FROM MOLINER CF: Now that's weird. I went through the same experience but I was the football player. So I guess I made a buck and a difference in his life by providing work. Different people make different differences differently. FROM JACK: I made the buck; the football player (not you) raked in the rest. I learned a lesson which was worth more than a buck. MORE FROM CF: For whom did you pass? Actually, there were no tips during the weekly paper route collection...Only at church. Tom Getz passed for me...155 papers. No Sunday issue in those days. Sorry you didn't get more out of it than A buck, I got chased by a lot of dogs. MORE FROM JACK: Not Tom, either....Carlos Woodward.

FROM TS IN MICHIGAN: We are certainly glad that a friend suggested that you become a pastor. You certainly have made a difference! My wife and I are in Naperville right now, babysitting for our daughter's family (two little girls) while mom and dad are headed to Wisconsin for a weekend remebrance of a
classmate of our daughter's who died suddenly at age 24 of a heart condition. It was one of those things that no one knew about, and was simply fatal. She and 6 other girls shared an apartment at Purdue and they all became very good friends. They and about 100 others will be there for a memorial weekend which will include a special walk/run fund raiser for the heart association. She was only 24 when she died, but was one who made a difference in the lives she touched. Have a great day, and continue making a difference.

FROM RI IN BOSTON: There have been more bucks, and more people who have made a difference in my life, than I ever imagined. I credit the hymn I learned as a child..."Praise God from whom all blessings flow." FROM JACK: It amazing how God uses people to work his will.

FROM DP IN MINNESOTA: I can't possibly enumerate all the character and practical traits I learned from my husband, but one or two come immediately to me. "Plan your work and work your plan", basic common sense, but at age 19, it was news to me! Also, whenever an issue like making a phone call was needed, he consistently did it, not like me, who puts it off until later or maybe not at all! I can't remember my first buck!!!