When I Feel Like Such a Loser,...

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    With rationalizing thanks to Acts 1:26, I buy a lottery ticket every now and then.

    That's what happens when you haven't had a raise in four years, don't have a rich uncle, and haven't threatened the book sales of Joel, Rick, or Joyce.

    When I criticized my dad for buying 'em when considering the odds of winning, he retorted, "Consider the odds if you never buy any."

    Anyway, a pejorative pathology has been seizing my spirit because a little phrase keeps popping up on the screen when I put my tickets into the machine that verifies success or failure: "Sorry, Not a Winner."

    Geez.

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    I was hydrating my mule the other day when a guy came up to me and said how much he liked I Just Wanna Ride (FTW).

    Then he asked how sales are going.

    "Well," I said, "it usually takes up to two years before a..."

    "That bad," he interjected.

    "Uh, yeah," I muttered.

    "You didn't write it for the money, did you?" he asked.

    "Good thing," I responded, "...but it would have been nice to make a few bucks to help others, pay some old bills, and maybe have enough left over to get that 110th anniversary edition of the FLHTCU or FLHTK that I doubt's coming during PAM."

    "If people just get it in their hands," he ended while walking into the station, "they'll really like it.  Just get the word out!"

    Sigh.

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    I'm writing a new one.

    If you've been reading KDs, you know it's about scratching the surface of Bible books as I scratch the surface of my relationship with Jesus.

    I've completed about 15% of it; expecting to finish sometime next spring unless the Mayans were right.

    I hope I Just Wanna Ride (FTW) goes viral before then so my publisher will publish it and I can go to Woodstock H-D to...

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    I was sitting with a really famous Presbyterian pulpiteer who became our Senate's chaplain in a coffee shop near San Francisco Theological Seminary about 25 years ago.

    That's when I was pretty famous myself and making more $ than anyone in my business deserves to make while claiming to serve you know who who said it's hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom for you know why.

    I gave away what I didn't squander which is why...

    Be that as it was/is, I asked how I could get pewsitters to focus on Jesus and filter the church's life and ministry through Him.

    He said, "I faced that problem when I was called to ___.  The church was in disarray and most relationships in the church - staff and officers and members - were dysfunctional.  So I suggested we take Holy Communion before every board meeting and make it available every Sunday; and it wasn't long before relationships were healed and the church started to grow as it let God love it and started loving each other like He loved them."

    It reminded me of old Dr. Mac back in seminary who responded this way when asked what happens during HC: "You get Christ better and then serve Him better."

    I never understood what that meant until I stopped the unBiblical practice of quarterly or monthly observance and went/go to the table as often as we got/get together for worship or board meetings.

    I don't know how I missed it/Him before that: "Do this in remembrance of Me."

    Admittedly, as someone paid to be holy, I missed a lot of stuff/Him in a Matthew 23 kinda way.

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    Our elders have been on the same page at First ever since we started preceding our meetings with the sacrament.

    Our congregation has been on the same page at First ever since we started including the sacrament in every worship service.

    Hmm.

    There is something to it/Him.

    Or as I've learned while scratching the surface, the biggest of the big themes of the Bible is, simply if sincerely, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to..."

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    The editor of one of the PCUSA's best publications sent a tease about the October edition.

    PAM.

    I wrote back, "I'm glad you're adding humor to your rag."

    Selah.

    Putting it another way juxtaposed to the preceding, only intimacy with Jesus overcomes feeling like a loser.

    The table is one of His best ways to overcome...in a Psalm 131 kinda way.

    Don't depend on book sales or PAM.

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Blessings and Love!