As an wannabe writer, I love language. I have always been impressed with the way real writers string words together in ways other people do not. Each writer has his or her own "style" which is unique, but the common thread is they write things in ways most of us do not. Perhaps it was a writer who coined the phrase, "Half a bubble shy of plumb" to refer to someone else who he considered to be a little off. Or maybe the saying became part of American, idiomatic, rhetoric after it was overheard on a construction site. Either way the phrase has come to be a reference to some thought or action that is not quite right. It might refer to another person's perspective on the whole of life, or any specific part of it.
We have all known people who we consider to be half a bubble shy of plumb. Believe it or not, there are those who are convinced I am about half a bubble shy of plumb. Please take a little self-test. Re-read the second sentence of this paragraph and give your response a number from the list below:
1. That is silly. You are one of the few people I know who is thinking straight.
2. You may be half a bubble off, but I am right there with you.
3. Only half a bubble?
4. I have no opinion/the jury is still out.
Thank you for your participation in our survey today. Not being a psychologist, I cannot tell you what your response indicates except to say, it will give some indication of your motives for reading this blog.
No one is always wrong, just as no one is always right. In the good old U.S. of A. we officially do not believe that "Might makes right." I say "officially" because several people, with warped ideas of spiritual authority, have attempted to threaten, intimidate, cajole, coerce, or figuratively beat me into doing what they thought I should do. I found recently that I simply do not suffer bullies well. ("suffer" is from the old English which means to allow or tolerate. That is the way the thought came into my mind. What can I say?) There was a time when I thought anyone who disagreed with me was wrong. I am pretty much past that now. Disagreement is healthy. The problem is most of us do not know how to, "Disagree agreeably" as one of my college professors put it. So, when we have a disagreement, we often use whatever power we have to separate ourselves from the person with whom we do not agree. The bully's mantra is, "My way or the highway." Incidentally, the religious spirit works through that attitude to maintain its authority. The thing about being bullied is, God does not work that way. In fact the very least one can expect when being bullied is for the Lord to raise up a standard against the bully. (Isaiah 59:19) Remember we never fight against flesh and blood. (Ephesians 6:12) By the way, the best we can expect in those situations is for God to make us more than conquerors. (Romans 8:37)
I had a conflict with a former pastor. Well, I guess I should say he had a conflict with me. It took me a very long time to even realize there was a problem. I hold a Master's degree from a Seminary and he does not. This was a problem for him. He mentioned it, more than once in public settings. (I was going to elaborate on that, but you all are smart enough to know that proves my point, without any elaboration.) Toward the end of the time that was going on, a conflict developed with my supervisor at work. His problem seemed to be that more people liked me than liked him. I cannot give you concrete evidence on that one, but I could give you a few names of people who thought that was the case.
Jack Hayford wrote in, Prayer Is Invading the Impossible, "In every area of human endeavor, whether it be science or history or mathematics, the expertise of the professional is acknowledged, until it comes to Theology. Then everyone is an expert." (If anyone has an original edition of that book with that quote in it, I would appreciate having it. I know I am off by a few words there.) Untrained and uneducated experts in any field of human endeavor are often inclined to do whatever they need to in order to present themselves as adequate. Then again, is that not the way it is with anything human? I read just yesterday about a pre-teen boy who picked fights with boys older than himself just because he could. He did say he almost always lost.
I took a day off yesterday and drove out toward the desert alone. I do that sometimes. It gives me the ability to refocus, refresh, and re-evaluate. In this case it also gave me the opportunity go get away from the stress and the stifling affects of the religious spirit and be a little more free to hear what the Holy Spirit had to say to me. You just read part of the result. More to come. God bless.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
We pick 2. And then wrote down our reasons why on separate pieces of paper. I handed mine to him and he handed his to me. We opened them up. Then we read, not surprisingly, our answers were, barring verbiage, exactly the same as to why. Ok, we’ll share. If the world is in fact Satan’s domain, and the standard by which the world sees plumb, then it’s obvious as Christians, we would always look half a bubble off plumb from their perspective. From God’s perspective, we are truly on center. We were reminded of God’s clear statement in James 4:4, “Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” Jesus also said, in John 17:16, “They do not belong to this world any more than I do.” It seems to us that any true follower should always appear half a bubble shy of plumb. But just half a bubble…Of course that is just our opinion, we could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteHow was your trip to the desert? Any clouds? It’s been over a week, and you haven’t gotten back to me, so I’m just going to tell you because not a day goes by that the song, “Both Sides Now” is not pounding in my brain. I can only assume it’s God’s constant reminder to tell you what it means. Here it comes…First, re-read the lyrics. Then come back and read the rest of this comment. It’s important.
ReplyDeleteVerse 1 is everything spiritual and supernatural. It’s the beauty of God’s vision, in His terms; what could be and what isn’t limited by man or Satan. Verse 2 is a soulical, or earthly, view of the same exact thing or things that any one person is looking at or meditating on. This starts to stifle the spiritual view. Verse 3 is the ultimate surrender to Satan’s lies. Almost as though verse 1 never existed, and the complete questioning of yourself because now you don’t know anything at all. You question the natural and the supernatural views of 1 and 2, leaving yourself with just questions and doubt. This is exactly where Satan hopes to bring you. A vision dead; no purpose, no movement. Which brings us to the seed…
Of course this is my opinion, I could be wrong.
Jesus hands you a seed. Why do you suppose he did that? Because it’s planting time. You have prepped the land, you have toiled the soil. You now have this seed in your hand and you’ve just been staring at it wondering what you are supposed to do with it and what it is. You do not need to know what it’s going to produce in order to plant it. So plant it, and as it grows it will become evident. You’ve cultivated the land, and you’ve stopped moving forward. Just cultivating the land is not enough. The land is drying up. Put the seed in the ground, and by putting it in the ground, it means you need to form a Board, in order to move forward. The Sunrise Ministry is in a box, and until this seed is planted, the windows of Heaven cannot open up. He’s waiting for you to plant it. Actively pursuing His riches, which means trusting that the seed is something and it will produce much. But if you keep holding on to it, it will never produce anything.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is God’s opinion, and He’s never wrong.