Silly Old Bear

[PART 1 OF 5]

“Do you believe in Santa Claus?”

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[PART 3 OF 3]

In my first Danny Boy post …

• I shared with you the fascinating history surrounding the tune to which the words of “Danny Boy” were set, back in the early 1900′s;
• I explored the possibility that this song may have played an important role in my own family’s history ;
• I shared my long-held desire to someday record a four-part harmony version of the song with my four brothers, in honor of my sweet Dad.

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When I was a little boy (with three brothers), one day we decided to play Cowboys and Indians. For some reason, I didn’t have a toy gun, so I improvised. I got a pair of blunt-ended elementary school scissors, unfolded them, and — voila! — a makeshift gun (what a smart little boy I was!).

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I had never prayed as hard in my life as I did the morning of March 16, 1997. It was a Sunday morning, about 6:30, and I was driving from Children’s Medical Center in Dallas back to our house about 35 minutes away. Four hours earlier, Susan and I had been told by a doctor at Children’s that our 9-year-old daughter Ashley had a brain tumor.

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So, we’re sitting in church tonight (my wife Susan and me), and our preacher (Dean) gets up to preach. Often, on Sunday nights, he will quote the first part of Philippians 4:4, and the congregation will respond with the last part.

Tonight, however, Susan’s response wasn’t quite the same as everyone else’s, and earns her the distinction of being the latest “Quote of the Moment”.

(The words below in black are preacher Dean’s; the words in blue are Susan’s.)

“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say …”

“… SCOOT UP!”

- Susan O’Rear

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In “Moral Courage (Part 1)“, we looked extensively at the meaning and origins of morals. Morality, in the external sense, is the standard of right and wrong as established ultimately by God and revealed in His word. My own personal moral code is shaped as I decide whether or not, and to what extent, I will follow His standards. And that’s where courage comes into play.

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What do you think of when you hear the words “moral courage”?

Webster defines “morals” as: “moral practices or teachings; modes of conduct; ethics”. [1]

“Ethics”, then, is defined as: “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; a set of moral principles; a theory or system of moral values; the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group; a guiding philosophy; a set of moral issues or aspects (as rightness)”. [2]

So your morals can be defined as “what you believe about what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what your moral duties and obligations are, and how you should conduct yourself”.

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[PART 12 OF 12]

Let’s review what we have discovered from the book of Ecclesiastes. What have we learned by following Solomon’s quest for meaning and purpose?

The first outside piece of the Oreo cookie, the first half of Solomon’s philosophy of life, is the idea that “everything is meaningless!”

The Double Stuff filling is all the stuff he waded through in his search for meaning and purpose, and the resulting conclusions concerning each endeavor:

• Money – meaningless;
• Wisdom – meaningless;
• Hard work – meaningless;
• Achievement – meaningless;
• Life is good;
• There is a time for everything;
• Injustice is all around us.

And now, finally, we come to the conclusion, the other outside piece of the Oreo, the other half of Solomon’s philosophy of life. After all his searching, after all his attempts to find meaning and purpose, after all the frustration of coming up empty-handed again and again, here is what it all boils down to.

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One week ago, the United States of America elected its 44th President, Barack Obama. He will be the first African-American in the history of our country to serve in that capacity. Election Day 2008 was truly a historic day in many ways … some good, some bad. Here are my thoughts.

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“He that tooteth not his own horn,
     the same shall not be tooted.“

- Horace Bratcher

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