Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

FitBits are great little gadgets.   Among other things, they track how many steps you take and the distance you’ve covered.   They even estimate the number of calories you might have burned in taking all those steps.   In Proverbs, we find this interesting statement:   “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps” (14:15). I don’t think that the Proverb is referring to a FitBit and the information it typically gathers and makes available.   I think it’s referring to the direction that our steps take.   The psalmist wrote:   “Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”   (Ps 119:105).   While we may want to have the entire path well lit and the way clearly marked, God’s word provides enough light for the next step.   That sometimes seems so meager and even frustrating, but it’s actually just what we need.   Paul wrote “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wi...

The spa worker on the cruise ship was standing outside the spa area trying to get people to come in and sign up for spa treatments.   I wasn’t at all interested but I thought I’d still smile and greet her.   Cruise ship employees work in the service industry but that doesn’t mean they’re invisible.   My smile and greeting turned into a brief conversation.   As I turned to go to the gym area, she said:   “I like your energy”. In that context, “energy” might relate to some aspect of spa services.   It’s also possible that her comment was still part of the effort to get me to sign up for some treatments.   But I’d like to think that the comment actually had something to do with my willingness to engage in conversation and treat her as a real person.   I’m guessing that most people probably don’t even look her in the eye as they hurry past, probably demonstrating, in their minds, their lack of interest in the spa. But as I pondered her comme...

I recently turned on the radio and caught a show already in progress.   A listener called in and the announcer asked the caller: “how do you make your living?”   I have no idea what the context was, but the phrase stirred my thinking.   While I was pretty sure I knew what the phrase meant, I decided to look it up on the web. One web site indicated it is “to earn the money one needs to pay for housing, food, etc”.   Another put it this way:   “t o ear n enough income to support oneself and, if applicable, one's family”. Just as I thought, it is a generally understood phrase related to your work and how you support yourself.   But “make your living” shouldn’t be confused with other aspects of living such as “living the life” or “living life”.   According to the web, “living the life” usually means that you are living in comfort with few problems or worries.   While “living life” usually suggests that you are making full use of what life i...

Stupid spider! The one I am referring to had been spinning a web between the side view mirror of my car and the driver’s side window for most of the summer. Whenever I rolled down the window, the web collapsed.   Whenever I drove the car, the web would get shredded by the air flow alongside the car. Spiders eat the insects that get stuck in their web.   I kept wondering how in the world this one could survive?   After all, no web, no insects, no dinner! On top of that, why couldn’t the spider figure out the futility of spinning its web in such a bad place?   Ok, so spiders may not be stupid, but they probably can’t think or assess a situation to make it better.   If they could, this one should have figured it out long ago that it just wasn’t working.   Hmm, sounds a bit like me!   At times, I live in my own little world, oblivious to the bigger things going on around me… The Lord spoke to Job after he and his friends pontifica...

When our now adult children were young, our son, probably around four or five at the time, was telling a story to my wife.   At one point, he reached up and put his hands on both sides of her face and turned her head toward him so that she was looking right at him.   Evidently, he felt he didn’t have her full attention until she was looking right at him. The direction our faces are turned speaks volumes:   1.   What we turn our face toward shows where we think our needs can be met: “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3). 2.   What we turn our face toward shows what occupies our attention: “For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land.   For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him” (30:9). 3. ...