Jack’s Winning Words 1/23/15
“Don’t let yourself forget what it’s like to be sixteen.”  (Tyler Ward)  George Burns sang, “I wish I was 18 again.”  Do you remember what it was like to be 18? or 16?  I recall it vividly, because it was a life-changing time.  Sometimes we write off the teen years, thinking that the important years come later.  Maybe they do.  But think back…What happened during those teen years that set you on the path that you were to travel?   Memory is a great gift!    ;-)  Jack 

FROM PH IN MICHIGAN:  Joan and I were talking about you tonight. It was in 1989 I first met you at BSLC for our bible study.  I was 46 ( but felt like 16).  Now with my bone marrow I am 4.  It is true I am both  71 I am 4.  By God’s grace.  You are a blessing.  Good to be up early with another follower of Christ====JACK:  God is good.  Every day (year) presents its changes.  I like the hymn...Lord, Take My Hand and Lead Me Along Life's Way.

FROM EM:  I had an AP Biology teacher at WBHS that changed my life - Olga Gadzala. Encouraged me to pursue a career in medicine. She was awesome.  Do you wake up everyday at the same time and have a morning routine? I'm working on getting to a point where I wake up earlier and meditate/pray/exercise.  The challenge is that I love to stay up late and work on stuff/read/watch movies.  Not conducive to getting up at 5 am!  Hope you're well Jack. I love reading your stuff. ====JACK:  A Winning Words reader commented that some of us are larks and some are owls.  Has the medical world figured out...why?  I wake up each morning at 4:30, usually without an alarm clock.  Is that a sign of OCD?  If OG is still around, today might be the time to send her a note, thanking her for the difference she has made in your life.====EM:  I will write OG a letter today to say thanks :)====JACK:  Let me know when/if she responds.

FROM LBP IN PLYMOUTH:  At 17 I met my now husband of 15+ years. Funny looking back at how very young I was as a freshman in college!====JACK:  ...and a couple of children who will be 17 before you know it.  Parents who can remember tend to be more understanding.====LBP:  A silly side note... my office team is starting our meetings now with a new non-office discussion question. My boss just asked me to come up with Monday's question, so I sent her today's WW. We have a range of generations in the team so this will be interesting.

FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  I remember someone said that the answer to most all questions is, "It depends." I find that statement applicable here. There is much I regret and there is much for which I am grateful. I think the best things of our youthfulness include not only our exuberance and seemingly unending energy; but our innocent manner and hopeful perspective. I still hang on to my "youthfulness" whenever possible...it is just with much less success as I remember, and often with a lot more physical soreness.====JACK:  "It depends" is a handy response to have when people want black and white answers to questions.  It's not being evasive...It's just facing the reality that we don't live in a black and white world.  Perhaps my response is the result of my interest and study of philosophy.====RAY:  Mine, too!

FROM HONEST JOHN:  When I was sixteen, I was struggling with the thought of growing up.   Otherwise, things were going swimmingly....in sports, forensics, academics, etc.   but I really didn't want to be an adult.    Not sure that feeling ever totally left and retirement has allowed me to triumph over "adulthood"!====JACK:  I suppose we could easily substitute sixty for sixteen, for those trying to remember what it was like preparing for retirement...apprehension or exciting anticipation?  What was it for you?====JOHN:  I only prepared financially in case I would be forced to retire for bad health....otherwise, didn't plan to retire....loved what I did.   The minute I retired, I began to enjoy it.   I am kind of an odd ball that way...and I admit it. ====JACK:  What I did not anticipate...The first 10 years of retirement were equal in "pastoral" satisfaction to any other 10-year period of ministry.

FROM TARMART REV:  Life came "alive" during those years . . . driving around over Wichita, KS like I owned the city . . . bowling with the best bowlers around that part of the country . . . more energy than I knew what to do with . . . girls started looking very attractive . . . no thought about tomorrow's, just what was happening that present day . . . wished now I had the foresight of throwing that abundant energy toward more of what I am about today . . . but truthfully would not trade those earlier experiences as they are what has made my life to be what it is today.====JACK:  I question the saying..."If I knew then what I know now."  Each period of life has its experiences which make us who we are.  At 16, I'd hate to hang around with an adult-16-yr-old who was a know-it -all.

FROM PASTOR JM:  Yes, memory is a great gift.  Just spend some time with someone you love whose memory is fading in and out due to age and disease and you'll soon appreciate the gift of memory.  And yes, the continuing support of my parents for being "in the church", at youth events and in weekly worship and learning, had a huge impact on my choice of college and the rest of my life.====JACK:  I hope that the thousands of ELCA youth who will attend the Youth Gathering in Detroit this summer will appreciate the memories that they will be making.  It would be interesting to be talk to them about it in their later adult years.

FROM BB IN ILLINOIS:  I would not go back. For a minute.  16-18 was a time of great striving and growth, and loss.  I would rather travel back to 30.====JACK:  My father-in-law used to say, I am who I am."  We are who we are (for better or worse) because of each of the years that we have lived.  I like the concept of an omnipresent God.  "I yam whats I yam," because of the presence of God.
 All the way my Savior leads me;
 What have I to ask beside?
 Can I doubt His tender mercy,
 Who through life has been my Guide?
 Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
 Here by faith in Him to dwell!
 For I know, whate’er befall me,
 Jesus doeth all things well;
 For I know, whate’er befall me,
 Jesus doeth all things well.

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Margaret Becker, choral music teacher at MHS, selected me to be student director of our Spring concert in '48 which helped to make my decision to major in Music Ed. and Mrs Ray Honeywell, pastor's wife of Moline 1st Methodist Church inspired me to want to be a pastor's wife....Important influences at 17-18! I wrote to both in later years to share that with them. Seeing how devastating it was for my twin Jan, to lose memory due to a stroke, made me aware of how precious memory is!! Cherish those memories and your family history!====JACK:  At age 16, I lived about a block away from 1st Methodist.  If you can remember, the church had a stone ledge, maybe 10 feet off of the ground, which circled the building.  Somehow, I climbed up there, and clinging to the bricks, I walked all the way around.  I don't think I could do it today. 

FROM ST PAUL WINTERING IN MESA: and we were privileged to grow up in a very tranquil decade of the 1950s and early 1960s.====JACK:  Tranquil decades?  McCarthy Witch Hunts, Korean, Viet Nam and Cold Wars, Cuban Missile Crisis, Civil Rights Movement, Assassinations of Kennedys and M.L. King Jr, Detroit Riot.  But, yes, there was good stuff, too.