Jack’s Winning Words 9/20/18
“Will you look back on life and say, I wish I had, or I’m glad I did?”  (Zig Ziglar)  What sad  words: “woulda, coulda, shoulda”…when it comes to missed choices and opportunities.  A man told me recently how he had Apple stock “in the beginning,” but sold it, because it wasn’t going to go anywhere.  “If only…”  The one thing gained by looking back is the experience of learning
how to make better choices.  What is it that has enabled you to say, “I’m glad I did?”    ;-)  Jack

FROM CONRO:  Good morning.  Thanks for continuing to start our days off with things to ponder.
===JACK: It's always a GOOD morning when it starts by hearing from friends such as you and knowing that we are pondering similar thoughts.  "I'm glad I did" get to know the St. Stephen's people.

FROM EDUCATOR PAUL:  Great Quote!!!! Says so much with such few words.===JACK:  So it is with life...so much that can be done...so little time.  We have to pick and choose wisely   I'd like to think that you and I have chosen wisely.  I remember a poem that begins..."Only one life, 'twill soon be past..."

FROM JT IN ST JOE  How true.  Sometimes I don't motivate myself well   So much easier to stay home.  But when it's completed and I'm back home I'm glad I did it  Again today I have events competing. I have to leave one early to attend another Not good either !===JACK:  Looking back (after you've rested (and are in the remembering mode), I'm sure that you'll look back and say, "I'm glad I did."

FROM MY LAWYER:  Spending about $5 in postage inviting friends to come for breakfast to learn about an Optimist Club!!!===JACK:  I join with many who will say that we're glad that you did invest the time, energy (and stamp money) to begin the Optimist Club of WB.

,FROM WALMART REV:  Those realities that indicate I made a good choice . . . They, of course, go along with those others that I wish now I hadn’t made. However, we can learn too from those latter experiences where we say they were good experiences to learn from?!?!?! 0;-)===JACK:  Just think!  You could have become pro bowler and made the BIG bucks.  But, compare that with the memories you have now.  It's been a Wonderful Life, hasn't it?===REV:  Who would know today, instead of “big bucks I could have fallen right into the gutter along with the bowling ball. I would not want to trade the ministry nor the experience of the ministry for any other profession, even if it was just for the pleasure of meeting you, Jack Freed!! 0;-)===JACK:  Do you know this hymn?  It helped call me into the ministry.
God calling yet! shall I not hear?  Earth’s pleasures shall I still hold dear?
Shall life’s swift passing years all fly,  And still my soul in slumber lie?
Chorus:  God is calling, calling yet,  God is calling ,  Sinner, hear his pleading voice.
God calling yet! I cannot stay;  My heart I yield without delay;
Vain world, farewell! from thee I part;  The voice of God hath reach’d my heart.
Chorus"  God is calling, calling yet,  God is calling ,  Sinner, hear his pleading voice.
===REV:  I’m going to “Google” it ...I’ll bet I can find it and listen to it...”callings” are precious...I’ll always remember what I’ve felt is mine in the Fall of 1965...been going strong with it for just shy of 50 years!

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  great words for today!  thanks...===JACK:  Judging from the number of responses already received, the words seem to have hit a chord.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  I'm sure we will say both those things, but for the most part, mine will be "I'm Glad I Did!" I never dreamed as a child that I would travel so many places in the world, or have the rich family life I've had, or  the rewarding ministries and friendships.  "One day my life will end, and if some whim should prompt you to review it; Let her who knew the subject best, tell you the simple way to do it. Then say: Here lies one doubly blessed! Say: She was happy--Say: She knew it!" ===JACK:  It sounds as though you've "lived" Heaven on earth...but, then, the Bible says that "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of Marilyn The things which God has prepared for her who loves Him.”===OAKS:  Yes, I'm sure that if we could understand the details
of "Heaven", Jesus would have been more specific.  I think in our Mortal bodies, we don't have the capacity to envision what God's Kingdom is like!  Like Bill and I trying to picture what Chicago is like decorated for Christmas, to our bush country African friends in 1970...  They wouldn't have the background to understand that.  NOW, I suppose movies and TV have penetrated even remote areas of Congo with visual life in the U.S. They ALL had a dream of getting to America back then!

FROM GDJ IN WISCONSIN:  Morning Jack  I'm mostly in the "glad I did" category but at 72 with a chance to look back there are a couple "shoulda, couldas."  I turned down an offer to become a missionary on an island off the coast of Japan. I'd like to say it was because I understood Christian proselytizing as colonial and insulting to other religions ( which I believe it is) but it was really a lack of faith and will. I fantasize it and believe I wouldn't have brought anyone to Christ but would've learned how to fish the ocean and live a simple life and probably made some life time relationships.
There is always a shadow of failure, but there has always been a powerful witness to forgiveness and grace.   I tried to do no harm and make no excuses for the Gospel. So there's that and that's more than enough.  I love waking up your words and will always be grateful for your mentoring me.  Blessings to you,===JACK:  Just a comment on the "coulda."  Missionary work is what being a pastor is all about.  It does not necessarily mean to get people to choose one way of worshipping God over to another way.  I have seen my ministry as one of offering people a way to make their life more meaningful.  Whether it be on the "island," or FH, or WB, or in Dairyland, it's the same.  Bob Seger would sing, "It's all the same."  BTW, did you know that Bob Seger lives in Orchard Lake?===GDJ:  Did you see he announced his retirement yesterday? Not counting this last tour. Still the same.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  I  glad that I took that job at Eastern Airlines and got to learn about computers and to see the world.===JACK:  Taking that teaching job at John Deere wasn't such a bad choice, either.===SHIRL:  That was lucky too. I wanted to be able to help mother and dad with grandpa who had hardening of the arteries and couldn’t be left alone. I think they call it Alzheimer’s these days. He had it for nine years from 1940 til December 1949.     I'm also glad that I chose 20 years of being an at home mother and doing tons of volunteer work!That was lucky too.===JACK:    “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  I’m glad I had God in my life:===JACK:  An old Sunday School song:  "What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought  Since Jesus came into my heart;
I have light in my soul for which long I have sought,  Since Jesus came into my heart."