Jack’s Winning Words 2/17/17
“Time is free, but it’s priceless.  You can’t own it, but you can use it.  You can’t keep it, but you can spend it.  Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.”  (Harvey MacKay)  My all-time favorite song about time is Jim Croce’s autobiographical “Time in a Bottle.”  Day after day, we take time for granted.  “There’ll always be tomorrow.”  In reality, today is the only day we have.  There’s a famous Walter Payton quote: “Tomorrow is promised to no one.”    ;-)  Jack

FROM TARMART REV:  The present! It is indeed!!====JACK:  I've often used this poem by Robert Smith at funerals...
“The clock of life is wound but once,  And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop  At late or early hour.
The present only is our own,  So live, love, toil with a will,
Place no faith in "Tomorrow,"  For the Clock may then be still.”

FROM SHALOM JAN: Or, as Luther put it, "How soon not now becomes never."  I have that on a magnet piece on the front of my file cabinet.  Blessings on your day, Jack!====JACK:  That's a great Luther quote.  How come I haven't seen it (or can't remember seeing it) before?  I'm adding it to the others next to my computer screen.

FROM PASTOR PAUL:  Great message as usual…we just watched a video last night at our Stephen Ministry meeting by Andy Stanley about making “time deposits” in our lives that will bear fruit later on (exercise, time with family, spiritual disciplines, etc)…so this was a “timely” message!! Blessings and prayers to you, my friend!====JACK:  I'm reminded of this poem by Alida Woods, a North Carolina school teacher...
Time is our currency, so they say.  It spends in hours and hours of sand
and slips as water with the day.
Shadows in the twilight make away  receding on this black and silent land.
Time is tender, so they say.
Soft yellow slides across the bay.  The marshes in sun’s new light are fanned.
Light slips away like water into day.
By noon the light is in full play,  racing, slipping out of hand.
Time is our currency, they say.
Full circle at the end of day  light falters, chimeric, panned
and slips like water with the day.
How can we spend what cannot stay?  All gold, intangible, in our hand.
Time is like money, so they say.  It slips, it slips, it slips away.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Enjoy each day.  How do you keep up with all of the popular music? ====JACK:  "Eclectic" is my middle name when it comes to music.  After growing older, I've kept up with popular music through my children and, now, my grandchildren.  I've even come to appreciate Eminem's rap and Lady Gaga, too.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:   How about the song, "Time waits for no one, goes on endlessly, just like a river pouring out to the Sea...That used to be a popular song, back in the day!  Bill loved "Time in a  Bottle" and Jim Croce; our sweet Adeline group sang a beautiful arrangement of it.    After Bill survived his heart arrest on the YMCA handball court, and was miraculously revived, his theme was "Today is the Only Day you have..." and he preached it !====JACK:  Did you ever sing this song?
This is the day, this is the day.  That the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice, we will rejoice,  And be glad in it, and be glad in it.
This is the day that the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.
This is the day, this is the day  That the Lord has made.
====OAKS:  Yes, indeed, many, many times I've opened my AB Women's rallies, choir doings , kid's camp, etc. using that great, peppy song.  A good thing to remember every day. :-)

FROM CHESTER THE GOOD:  Why is there never enough time to do it right when there is always time to do it over?====JACK:  That sounds like "boss" talk.

FROM PR AL IN ILLINOIS:  Sometimes  when one of my kids ask what I want, I tell them only God can give me:  Time and health.====JACK:  The next best thing is for children to remember their parents, to spend time with them and to help them when they are ill.