Jack’s Winning Words 4/10/17
“Don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”  (Song by Cinderella)  Can you identity with this song title by the rock band, Cinderella?  While the song is about a lost love (some of you may have experienced that), there are…people, places, things…gone, but not forgotten.  What comes to your mind?  Someone, some place, something!  Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena had a final hockey game yesterday…and who was Joe Louis?   Sometimes we take too much for granted.    ;-)  Jack

FROM DEACON ROBERT:  Haha...  Joe Louis was cousin by marriage as my grandfathers brother married his mom not long after Joe was born.  My memory was of days past at the Olympia Stadium. ====JACK:  I like the huge Joe Louis Fist monument which is displayed in downtown Detroit.  To me it says, "Dee-troit!"  Most people don't know that Joe's last name was Barrow and that Louis was his middle name.====D R:  How about the Jewish Museum donation to the City?====I've often driven by that building and thought of it as an example of "Detroit" fleeing to the suburbs.  Now, I can look at it in a new and positive way.

FROM HONEST JOHN:  Hard to ever forget your Mom....is there a greater love ever than what she gives you?   Perhaps only with Christ.====JACK:  A Bible reading that I often use at the funeral of a "blessed" mother is from Proverbs 31..."A good wife who can find?  She is far more precious than jewels.  The heart of her husband trusts in her.  She does him good all the days of her life.  She works with willing hands.  She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out to the needy.  She opens her mouth with wisdom.  She does not eat the bread of idleness.  Her children rise up and call her blessed.  Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.  Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

FROM TARMART REV:  The older generation speak of the building or business once located there, while the younger generation is much more excited about the new one located in its place. ====JACK:  I often catch myself speaking in a language that a younger generation doesn't understand.  "When I was your age...."

FROM JOHNNY D: My wife of 61 plus years died on Feb. 2nd. I never knew how much I loved her until she was gone.====JACK:  How many times have you read these words as part of a wedding ceremony..."And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."?  They sound different when they apply to you, don't they?

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  We definitely take things for granted...Waking up every morning, heat and energy, good health, food, our loved ones coming home from work safely, and of course God, faith and mercy.    I do wonder if the younger generations know or care who Joe Louis was.  Several comedians have "on the street interviews" with random people and when asked the simplest questions about politics or history the answers are unbelievably outrageous!!!  They have no idea!!!  It's funny but extremely frightening!!====JACK:  I'm sure if the shoe were on the other foot and young people asked us questions having to do with "their world," our answers would be hilarious, too, but maybe not frightening.

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  memory is one of God's greatest gifts to us.  even when "it" is gone,  we can still remember...tho even memory seems to fade somewhat with age.  have a good Holy Week, Jack.  plh    p.s. we had a live donkey in church yesterday.  very well behaved too.  must have been a Lutheran donkey...====JACK:  I'm sure that you've experienced it as I have...We make a visit to a shut-in whose memory has lapsed, but as we quote a scripture or a hymn, the person is able to recite the words along with us.  "Gone, but not forgotten!"

FROM JB AT LSTC:  Is that a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”? I just looked up the lyrics and, well, all these years later they still hold true.====JACK:  I can see how the "Taxi" song might relate to missing things after they're gone.  It was interesting to read the how and why it was written.

FROM GARY IN TEXAS:  Really been enjoying your Winning Words. Last night I live streamed the closing of Joe Louis arena. The weekend before, the family made the pilgrimage to Detroit to see the last game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Wings. Daughter Hannah wanted her baby Charlotte to be at The Joe before it closed. As you can guess, we are more than a little nutty about the Wings and hockey in our family. Krista tolerates it and is bemused, but the rest of us live and die by it all.====JACK:  It seems that most of the fans wear a game jersey with the name of a player on the back.  Do you have one of those...or a wingnut cap?

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  Those of us who have lost beloved spouses or children, especially, know you more fully appreciate what you had when it is no longer with you.! Even when the relationship has been very good, and there aren't regrets, to speak of, we have a new and deeper value for what is now missing! Make today with your loved one count!!====JACK:  I have a file for all of my funeral sermons.  From time to time I go through them...and remember.