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Doing the right thing, in the right place, at the right time, in the right way is all there is to it, but. Who is to say what "right" is? We are! And, there is a catch: We have to be right about it. The trick is that "right" cannot be spelled out, defined, explained, said, told, even known before hand-- before the moment of its doing! Jesus said, "The spirit is like the wind blowing where it will." This means that not even the spirit knows what it will do next. "It all depends upon" the circumstances, the time and place, the situation, the here and now of the moment of decision. What is called for? Do that! In the moment of acting within the field of action everybody knows what is right and what is wrong-- but are they right about it? Only time will tell. In the meantime, we have to trust ourselves to the time that is at hand and make our best guess regarding what is called for and how to respond to it. The good part of this process is that we sometimes get the chance of redeeming what we do in this moment in the very next moment. And sometimes we don't. We have to live with that. The pitcher who makes the wrong pitch in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game of the World Series has to live with it forever. So does the first baseman who lets the would-be final out roll under his glove. Our lives have too many lost moments that changed everything, and we have to live with it-- hoping to do better in all the moments yet to be.
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01

People sometimes wonder if I am a Christian. Having retired after spending forty years and six months as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I'm ready for the question. My answer comes in two forms. 1) "Unconditionally!" 2) "In exactly the same way that Jesus was a Christian!" A third response would do as well: "Forest Gump might say, 'Christian is as Christian does!'" The test of anyone's faith in anything is the degree to which their faith is evident in their life. We do not Believe In anything we can live without. I believe completely, totally, fully, undoubtedly, absolutely, etc. that Jesus would join me in embracing the unequivocal truth of the statement: "Live to do the right thing in the right place at the right time in the right way moment-by-moment in each situation as it arises, all your life long, and let that be that." Jesus and I believe that if everyone believed and did that, the world would be transformed, and the fullness of life would be a blessing and a grace upon every living thing.
Well put. Well said. So easy, yet sometimes so difficult! Carry on Jim👍
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