Jack’s Winning Words 12/29/14
“Even with the best maps and instruments, we can never fully chart our journeys.”  (Gail Pool)  It’s great to have Siri in the car telling us the best roads to take and where to find certain eating places.  Would you like to have Siri give advice on life situations?  A bolt of lightning helped Martin Luther decide to become a monk.  How have you arrived at decisions?  BTW, Siri is short for Sigrid, the name of the daughter of the navigational system inventor.    ;-)  Jack

  FROM TARMART REV:  Interesting discovery with my recent trip to Bismarck ND with the railroad chaplaincy . . . my GPS directed me to the designated address of the deceased's home by taking me off Interstate 94 at the posted exit number onto an asphalted county road, then a gravel road and finally a minimal maintained rutted road before coming to a "T intersection" where I found a much better maintained road and a little one room schoolhouse . . . no residence. Fortunately the teacher new the location of the house, ask the assistant to take her place and I followed her to the house as she wanted to pay her respects as well . . . I would have never found my way as we drove off that road and took several turns before gunning it up a large hill where the house was hidden from the road.  Needless to say, I had a much easier road to take back to the interstate when I left. ====JACK:  Isn't it great when we meet up with a real, live "Siri?"  Your response reminds me of Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken."  As time passes, you will be able to look upon some of the experiences of railroad chaplaincy and see them as true ministry.

FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  Certainly some decisions have been based upon my own cognitive schematics; however, much of what enters my mind has "thrown" me into questioning where that particular thought originated. I get ideas that cannot possibly come from my own originatin!====JACK:  Yes, there are still mysteries out there.  As RLS wrote:  “The world is so full of a number of things, I ’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”

FROM BB IN ILLINOIS:  I didn’t know about the Sigrid name/connection.  Thanks for sharing.
Have you heard the NPR story about Siri and children with disabilities?====JACK:  NPR has lots of good stuff.  That's why we make a yearly contribution to help keep it on the air.  Have you ever listened to StoryCorps?  If not, you should go to their website and pull up an episode.

FROM CHESTER THE GOOD:  A friend of mine's mother always used to say, "You're never lost if you have gas in your tank."====JACK:  That saying has Winning Words in it somewhere.  I might use it one of these days.

FRON INDY GENIE:  Wow...didn't know about the origin of the name Siri. And yes it would be nice to have her answer life's navigational questions although she's not always right...we still need to rely on our "gut" instincts and watch/listen for the signs that are sent our way:)====JACK:  A little boy was surprised when his stomach began to growl.  "Mamma!  I think that God is trying to talk to me."  Gut-instincts could be God...trying to talk to us.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Yes, siri is a great invention. But somehow we  were able to get around the country and around the world before.  But it does make life easier.====JACK:  I find that I no longer refer to the dictionary and maps, like I used to.  I've given my set of World Books to an immigrant family.  I'm also using Google to look up Bible quotes and information about them.  I think that easier has caused me to become lazier.  Siri and her siblings have drawbacks.

FROM JT IN MICHIGAN:  I didn't know Siri's name was really Sigrid.  I have never spoken to her but when I got my i phone in August grandson Nathan (15)  spoke to her on my phone.   "Siri, will you marry me?"   Siri, do you love me?"'  It's pretty funny to hear her reply "I really can't answer that."====JACK:  That's the modern version of what kids would do in the olden days....Call up a grocery store and ask, "Do you have Prince Albert in the can?"

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  Our journey is much better planned by our Creator than by anything we plan out....thankfully.  We know where we end up and we couldn't get up there without His path for us.====JACK:  At times I'm conflicted.  I'd like to believe that God "knows" our path.  But the conflict arises when I believe that God has given us free-will to choose our own path.  Maybe that's when we need to pray, "Thy will be done."

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Good old mapquest.  I don't have GPS, but my kids and grandkids  do. Good old Mapquest saves the day when I have to drive to an unknown place. But the WW saying certainly holds the truth. Who could have envisioned one's "life journey" , except God almighty! ====JACK:  I wonder if AAA has noticed a dropoff in the number of requests for maps and TripTiks?  I wonder if there has been a noticeable dropoff in the number of people who research Biblical topics by using Google instead of by opening up the Book? 

FROM SBP IN FLORIDA:  So far, there haven't been cataclysmic occurrences, in my life, diverting me to different "roads". Rather, like my many attempts at the pottery wheel, a revised version of the intent was the outcome. When I had to "detour" my direction during my sophomore year at the U of I, (out of money), I explored several roads and ultimately went down the country road to teach in the last remaining one room school in the county. I remained on that path(education) . learning, enjoying as well as meeting my future husband. (He wasn't hitchhiking). God, I'm sure, providing the GPS.
Half hearing and seeing 60 Minutes, did the Pope really say something to the effect that if the big bang theory turns out to be a fact, God was the creator?  If so, I LIKE that!====JACK:  1 Kings 19:12 tells of God speaking in a gentle whisper....a story worth reading.

FROM GS IN MINNESOTA:  I think a bolt of lightening might just help me today.====JACK:  There are events in life that come "right out of the blue." just like lightening.  Could they be a God sent?