“I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.”
~ Ecclesiastes 3:14
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like going to school? Do you like learning? Do you like doing things? Do you like to be in control of everything that is happening around you? Do you like telling your classmates what you think that they need to know more than learning from your teachers? Do you like to be always lazing around doing nothing more that always doing something? Do you think that your lives have been ordered or planned out in advance for how you are to live or for how you are living them? Do you feel like your lives are not in your control – that they are being controlled by an invisible entity? Do you sometimes feel like you are robots – with guys, gals and kids pushing your buttons to make you do what they want you to do, or puppets – with guys, gals and kids putting their hands inside you to make you do what they want you to do, or marionettes – with guys, gals and kids pulling your strings to make you do what they want you to do? Do you know who you are? Do you know what you are going to be doing tomorrow – or the next day – or the next day? Why do you think that there are times when it is light outside and at other times it is dark outside? Is life to you beautiful or ugly, secure or messy, fun or difficult?
Who is teaching you about life? What are you learning from your dad and ma? What are you learning from your teachers? What are you learning from watching television? What are you learning from reading books? What are you learning from computer interactive activities? A teacher once scribed that there will be a time for everything. This teacher scribed that there will be a season or a time for whatever a guy, gal or kid will do during his or her time living on planet Earth. This teacher scribed in his Ecclesiastes Book – in Ecclesiastes 3, that just as there was a time when you breathed your first breath, that there is going to be a time when you will breathe your last breath and your body will return to being just dust. This teacher also scribed in his book that just as there is a time when a plant is planted, that there will be a time when the plant is uprooted and becomes compost; that just as there is a time when killing a guy or gal may be appropriate, that there is a time when healing a guy or gal is appropriate; that just as there is a time to tear something down, that there is a time to build something; that just as there is a time to cry, that there is a time to laugh; that just as there is a time to mourn or to feel sad, that there is a time to dance; that just as there is a time to scatter stones, that there is a time to gather stones; that just as there is a time to hug, that there is a time not to hug; that just as there is a time to hunt, that there is a time to stop hunting; that just as there is time that is to be used, that there is time that does not need to be used; that just as there is a time to tear something apart, that there is a time to put something back together; that just as there is a time to speak; that there is a time to be quiet; that just as there is a time for a guy to love a gal or a gal to love a guy, that there is a time for a guy to hate a gal or a gal to hate a guy and that just as there is a time to be at war, that there is a time to be at peace. The teacher who wrote the Ecclesiastes Book was probably an official assembly orator. The teacher who wrote the Ecclesiastes Book was a pessimistic sort – even though the guy knew that there was a purpose value in everything that he and every other guy, gal or kid did and in everything that was around him and every other guy, gal and kid. The teacher who wrote the Ecclesiastes Book wondered why guys and gals had to work, why guys and gals had to carry burdens and what the fate of a guy or gal was when he or she died. The Ecclesiastes Book’s teacher scribed in verse 14, “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.” Are you giving God the credit for have made the universe, planet Earth and you? Are you sensing that it is God Who is pushing your buttons, manipulating you from inside you and pulling your strings? Are you leaving judgments, justices and inequities in God’s hands?
Your grandpaa can identify with the Ecclesiastes teacher. Your grandpaa tends to look at life through a cynical lens. Your grandpaa has to be careful not to think of the motives of other guys in suspicious ways. Your grandpaa is always thinking of a new way to say or do something that is different from the way that whatever it is has always been said and done even though there is nothing wrong with how whatever the something is has been said or done. Myers-Briggs is an inventory that helps a guy or gal find out how God has hardwired his or her character. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have several times taken the Myers-Briggs inventory. Introvert/extrovert, intuitive/sensing, feeling/thinking and judging/perceiving are the four sets of categories that Myers-Briggs inventories. Myers-Briggs has a series of questions that your grandmaa and grandpaa needed to answer – with the responses to the questions determining if your grandmaa and grandpaa is more introverted or more extroverted, more intuitive or more sensing, more of a feeler or more of a thinker and more apt to make a decision quicker – judging, or more apt to delay making a decision – perceiving. Your grandmaa and grandpaa always both come out as being introverts versus being extroverts and being more judging than being perceiving. Your grandmaa and grandpaa flip-flop on the remaining two sets – with your grandmaa being sensing while your grandpaa is intuitive and your grandmaa uses feelings to help her deal with what is taking place around her while your grandpaa uses thinking to help him deal with what is taking place around him. About two percent of the guys and gals who take Myers-Briggs answer the questions like your grandpaa does. Now you know why your grandpaa seems different than most guys and gals who you know.
Ecclesiastes 3 (466)