Jack’s Winning Words 6/21/21

“I am not woke.  I am just human.” (Abhijit Naskar)  I may not be as young as I once was, but I pride myself on being “woke” about things going on in the world around me.  I’m glad that being aware of things - specifically societal needs and perceived unfairness - now has its own word.  There’s been backlash as some try to make being “woke” a negative, but sleeping people get that way when they’re disturbed.  My calling as a pastor has been to help build a congregation of woke people who are aware and care.  God is the ultimate woke guy!  ;-)  Jack

FROM JU IN NC:  Good advice!  I find as I age it is beneficial to be ready to learn what I do not yet know.===JACK:  One of the problems in today's world...too many people have minds like a slab of concrete...all mixed up and permanently set.  A necessity for learning is to have a mind that is open to considering new ways of looking at things.

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  What is “woke,” exactly? espousing the party line bc it makes you feel like one of the cool kids… when in actuality you’re bullying society, beating “dissenters” into submission?===JACK:  Of course I know what it is to be awakened.  I see part of my role in society as being a communicator.  In that sense, I try to understand why certain people think and speak in a certain way.  That doesn't necessarily agree with what's being said, but I better understand the context.  Many of the Christian hymns encourage people to "be awake." ===LIZ:  i did not mean “you” personally… was referring to the woke, in general. ...As a writer, i seek to do the same… and i thank you for the opportunity to use your forum to discuss and be real.===JACK:  To learn means to understand and to accept or reject certain ideas.  I do not necessarily accept all that I read or hear.  I try to be be discriminating.  (OOPS< there's a word that needs to be understood). ===LIZ:  is there a master list of words we can no longer use… as dictated by the woke. OOPS. i said “master.”  i ♥️ our real chats!===JACK:  The Urban Dictionary is not a book.  If there is a book, it's called, Google.  I learn today in different ways that I learned yesterday.

FROM GUSTIE:    Jack, I will never be “woke” enough to be a “birthing person” or to say Amen and Awomen at the end of a prayer.  I fact, I don’t think I am “woke” at all.  I despise all the terms they use.  If this is what the world is really becoming, it is time for me to leave. ===JACK:   With your background in hymnology, I'm sure you're aware of the many Christian hymns (particularly in Advent) speak of being "awake."  When you were a young parent, it was helpful for you to under5stand "words" that your children were using...and the context in which they were being used.  It didn't hean that you necessarily agreed with them (sometimes you did...and sometimes you learned from them), but5 at least you understood better.  My brain allows me, not only to teach, but also to understand and to learn.  Enjoy your beautiful Minnesota day!===G:   So I should just give up on “church” and do my own thing?  I think I have outlived my usefulness.  Not much I do or believe is relevant anymore.===JACK:  No!  Don't give up.  The Church is ever changing, and we have to see that God's Word is the same yesterday, today and always.  The early Christian Church had its problems, too.  That's what Paul's letters to the Corinthians was all about.  Music has always been important to worship, but styles change.  I don't like "all' of the new hymns, but some are pretty good...like Borning Cry and On Eagles Wings.  But some of the oldies remain good.  I had a good friend who always said, "Keep the main thing the main thing."  "Be not dismayed whate-er betide."  Do you remember that one?

FROM INDY GENIE:  Jack’s Winning Words helps me to be woke. Just out of college, my daughter Emily interviewed for a teaching  job in Santa Fe. She called me and told me that while driving to the school, breathing the New Mexican air and looking at the “big sky” of Santa Fe, she never felt so awake in her life!  (Twenty years later, she still lives there with her beautiful family.)===JACK: Your mom was one of the first "older" person that I knew who was "woke."  We used to say that a person was "with it" when they were woke.

FROM SHALOM JAN:  Love this, Jack.  I agree and am much the same! ===JACK:  I like the Advent hymn, Wake, awake for night is flying.=-=JAN:  Love it!  When I was a teen the ass't. pastor preached one after Hallowe'en:  It's time to remove your false faith. I've remembered the title for about 65 years, but I've had to make up my own sermon to go with it.  :-)===JACK:  All Hallow's Eve is one of my favorite times for preaching.  So many of us wear "false" faces.  Yes, there comes a time for us to remove the masks.

FROM BB IN CHGO:  injustice, especially one they did not personally provoke or participate in – but – as we now know – generations of people shrugging off the past rather than addressing it in a meaningful way has fomented a serious problem.  One of the most interesting things for me about visiting Berlin are the dozens of monuments and art installations remembering the holocaust.  They do not celebrate or mark German leaders who participated or fought for what they at the time believed was right; instead, they only commemorate the victims and suffering endured.  They have competitions like a juried art exhibit where the applicants sculpture ideas and such are submitted “blind” so no one on the committee making the decision knows whether they are a German citizen or from elsewhere.  I had a tour with a very interesting man who has recently made it his goal to put information on all bus shelters regarding anything of note that took place on that block or street corner.  So many buildings have been razed and replaced since the war but he’s submitted photos of what existed prior to the holocaust with explanations about the history that took place on the spot.  I thought it was really interesting. Just imagine if our country would do something like this on Confederate battle sites or along the Underground Railroad or where lynchings and beatings took place.  Rather than attempt to erase or “eplain away” what took place, simply mark it with a name.  Berlin has brass bricks (stumbling stones) bearing the names of victims; small but powerful.===JACK:  Too many of today's Americans are still chanting..."School's out, school's out...No more books"  Statues can be used as teaching items...history...even art.  Frustrating!

FROM JUST PLAIN JO:  Jack—-I read your WW and your blog many times and realized I am “woke” only if a person agrees with me. Oh, I have work to do!===JACK:  Part of writing Winning Words is nto make a point without alienating friends...for I have friends, both liberal and consrvative.

FROM TAXMAN:  Every virtue carried to extreme is a vice.===JACK:  I'd have to clarify that by saying, "Almost every virtue."  However, every vice carried to the extreme is not a virtue, but remains a vice.

FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH:  And you do a very good job to the same end.  I also hope I understand how some sleeping people try to make woke a negative.  I have spent my professional life in a capitalist world, which is very much what Intellectual Property, especially patent rights are all about. I have also always believed that equal education for all is the best solution to all societal inequities; because I believed that educated people, sooner or hopefully, not too much later, will come to essentially the same solutions to societal inequities.  I also believe in the redistribution of wealth to a degree because when the disparities are too great, as they are today, societal problems increase. Because of my Midwest background and upbringing, I also believed that hard work should be, and is almost always rewarded monetarily and/or in self respect.  I say “to a degree” because I believe capitalism rewards hard work and that socialism does not necessarily do the dame because I believe it causes people to rely too much on others/the state to support them and lessen the inventive to work.  So let’s have a zoom sometime to discuss how we bridge this gap.  Currently beyond my abilities and understanding to resolve.===JACK:  I don't like using "socialiam" in a negative way.  Societal and economic socialism are not necessarily the same.     Education would be fine is "all" received the same kind of education...similar teachers, learning materials and home encouragement.  "Fairness" will only happen when we each appear before God "finally!"

FROM ST PAUL IN ST PAUL:  i am still not clear as to just what this word means.   can  you give me one very helpful synonym? ===JACK:  WOKE: understanding things...Now, I see!...I'm "up" on the latest use of words...In today's world, it's lingo from the "black" community mean aware of racism and inequities because of money and color.===SP:  got it.  thanks!    (may not be using it in a sermon any time soon:):):)  

FROM GUSTIE:  Our congresspeople must never have gone to Sunday School if they thing that saying Amen means we are honoring men.  Awomen has nothing to do with anything.  Even I know that Amen means “Yea, yea, it shall be so”.  I’m sorry, but I can’t condone that.  It is funny when a 3 yr. old says it, but not our congressmen who are certainly old enough to know better.