JUST SAYIN’

A BLOG by Pastor Ken Rickett

Some sentences are just loaded with insight…which has the capacity to jolt us and make us ponder its depths. Just sayin’. These very words can change one’s mood and sometimes the direction of life itself. You know, just sayin’. And such insight can speak poignantly to both life’s fullness and life’s fragility.

Just sayin’.

When I was a young teenager, I was with my grandmother when she visited a sister-in-law. Unexpectedly, when we arrived, there were three or four other up-in-years ladies visiting there, all septuagenarians or octogenarians, and one of them was a school classmate of my grandmother’s whom she had not seen in over 50 years. Eventually, these elderly folks began discussing the tendency of older folks to lose their mental capabilities. This newly found classmate said nothing during the discussion, and when it got quiet for a few seconds, she said, “Well, there is nothing but a fence between me and a fool and the gate’s wide open!”

After the laughter subsided, the conversation turned to other things. But on the way home, my grandmother re-told the conversation, and then added, “there’s a lot of truth in those words!”

The sober news is that people of any age live with an open-gated fence between them and a fool! On the other hand, a lousy memory creates a clear conscience. In other words, when the gate is wide open and it is so easy to make a fool of ourselves, the chances of a clear conscience might be more elusive than we think! Just sayin…!

“After a fellow makes his mark in the world, a lot of people show up with erasers!”

Surely those words were first uttered by a politician in a close campaign! But if the truth be told, most of us are probably born with big erasers in our hands rather than a silver spoon in our mouths! Sounds characteristic of humanity. Just sayin’…!

“One rule for friendship is to keep your heart a little softer than your head!” Heads are too prone to pick at one’s shortcomings and humanity, but the heart recognizes that friendship is sailing in the same boat and being rocked by the same waves. Just sayin’…!

“You can only go as far as your mind lets you.” True enough, but I think you can go much further…. when guided by the Spirit of God. Just sayin…!

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ongoing mastery of it.” That sounds like something that would be said by someone who has discovered that the perfect Love of God casts out fear. Just sayin’…!

“The next time you are feeling extra perfect, it’s time to try a few walks on water.” Just sayin’…!

“If a person tells you that nothing is impossible, then ask him to dribble a football!” With God nothing is impossible, but I have learned again and again that I am not God. Just sayin’…!

“Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.” Just sayin’…!

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace, one must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in peace, one must work at it.” Just sayin’…!

“English is a strange language. A fat chance and a slim chance mean the same thing,” Strange. A little white lie and a whopper are still a fib! Just sayin’…!

“The first proof that man has reached the planet Mars will come when he is notified that his suitcases went to Venus.” AH! We can’t stand to be separated from our possessions…. Just sayin’…!

‘Many promising reconciliations have broken down because, while both parties came prepared to forgive, neither came prepared to be forgiven.” Just sayin’…!

My source for the above quotes did not include the author or book. Nevertheless, with all your understanding, get wisdom (and live by it). That’s biblical. Just sayin’….!