Jack’s Winning Words 6/20/19
“My mom used to say, ‘No one is worthless, Jonny, they can at least be a good bad example.”  (Jon Hanson)  “Jonny” is a friend of mine, an author, songwriter, commentator on life.  On his own he put together a collection of Jack’s Winning Words…and it was sold on Amazon.  Jon also introduced me to Michelangelo’s words, spoken at age 87, “Ancora imparo,” roughly translated, “I am still learning.”  Whatever our age, we can still be learning   ;-)  Jack

FROM JB IN OLV:  Isn't that the truth!  I have learned many reverse lessons from my extended family:)===JACK:  Hardly a day goes by without having a learning opportunity come my way.

FROM PRPT: Rev. Henry Jones – “You only grow old when you think you’re too old to grow…” ===JACK:  Among my quotes is this one..."If you did not know your age, how old would you be?"  I'd like to think that I'll never be too old to learn.  My grandchildren have become great teachers.  I've learned computer shortcuts from them...and to appreciate some rap, too..===PT:  Keep rappin’ on, Jack!!! ===JACK:  Google---Meet the Texas pastor who's rapping the Gospel | Fox News

.ROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  hope you at least got a cut...===JACK:  No cut expected, nor wanted.  I'm just pleased that someone went to all of the work of putting the book together and having it published.  I just ordered six copies. 

FROM LBP:  How about taking that a little more granular: No experience is worthless, it can at least be a good bad example? Last week I gave a training lecture that was poorly received. I wasn't at the top of my game and my learning objectives didn't seem to align with their learning expectations. Of course "teach me to do your job in 40 minutes" is a ridiculous expectation, but I HATE when that happens. Now the one impression of me that a couple dozen people have is of the woman who gave the terrible lecture. BUT, I have spent quite a bit of time thinking of how to improve our training or how to better assess/refine the desired learning objectives of the groups requesting training. So, it was a bad experience but not a worthless one.===JACK:  Sometimes it works that way with sermons.

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  My dad used to say similar words when we talked of someone being terrible, or despicable: "Well he/she can always serve as a horrible example"...learn from it!  
I'll have to ck on that AMazon book; What a friend, to do that!  Every single person enriches the world around them, or is a negative force.  The amazing stories of many who overcome dire circumstances to do good in the world inspire us! I forget who made the comment that "most of the world's greatest work was done by people who didn't feel very well"!  But it is often true. I'm sure we can learn something new until the day we pass on; WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD....:-) ===JACK:  What "new thing" have you learned today?  I watched the plumber fix a leaky faucet. 

 FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  We learn more and more everyday!  Especially how not to be a good bad example!===JACK:  Some people see the President as a good bad example, while "the base" see him as a good good example.

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  How true!

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  I actually stumbled upon your book on amazon.com a couple of years ago and have it here in our house.  Think I have already read in this book of journal entries of Pope Leo X's that Michelangelo was one of the artists which Pope Leo X was supporting and the Pope felt that these artists and musicians' influence and reputations would go down in history as truly being formidable talents whereas he couldn't speak so much of his own impact on history.  Am only third of the way through but frankly doesn't seem like such an Anti-Christ as one would imagine and now, after having experienced the liturgy and homilies and I believe Christ-centered loving hearts of the Priests at Transfiguration and trying to work through the theological problems described in the book Shared Spiritual Journey:  Lutherans and Catholics Traveling Toward Unity by Wood and Timothy Wengert and also seeing on You-Tube that joint 500 anniversary worship in Lund, Sweden a couple of years ago now, and actually having read somewhere that some Pope and guess the Catholic theologians made a decision that people aren't in an excommunicated state after they die or something, which says something about how they perceive Luther and other reformers with some growing humility and ability to forgive misunderstandings, quarrels, arguments, differences, old hatreds and antagonisms and maybe even more fully realizing our human conditions of being so limited--maybe it can even be conceivable at this point in human history that both Luther and Pope Leo X were good bad examples??????  To me, the challenge of us current Christians is to try to live in some way that we aren't current bad examples and that's actually quite a challenge when some times it seems like our current religious institutions (actually recognizing that pretty nearly every congregation is simply fighting for survival and trying somehow to attract members) seem likely to pander to sort of trivial needs of Christians for entertaining music, light-hearted sermons, sort of some almost new-Ageish theological babble such as a Joel Olsteen provides, and so forth and so forth.  Or worse the black and white theology of the evangelists who try to provide simple answers to all of our moral questions.  I appreciate most the Christians who are genuinely seeking after coming closer to Jesus and truly wanting to be His disciples and placing church growth second in priority--but that's just my opinion and undoubtedly might be more scarey to do because it could be insecure in being able to pay the bills for maintaining the church building.  Anyway, thunk enough.  Enjoyed your WW this morning===JACK:  You always (most ot the time) hit the nail on the head.

FROM EMT SINGS IN TC:  I am currently writing my memoirs. " A collection of poems, random essays, inspired epiphanies and some really profound thoughts for the day!"  It is called Uniquely Eunice.  It is a legacy for my family. A big section of it is a year by year memories of places and people that have influenced my life. That section is entitled "This is my story and I'm sticking to it!" You may be mentioned in it!===JACK:  You do have some unique stories.  "Gardie" is one of them.