WISDOM...HUMILITY...AND "OTHER WORDLINESS"

Hey y'all, I got a computer letter from my Mommas' cousin. (I guess he would be my second cousin, or 1st cousin once removed, or something...I never could figure all that out). He's not a Redneck at all, he's real smart, he's a teacher at a college...real smart fellow...he's "on loan" from up north to Texas.

But it was really (let me get my word book...) (heck, my word book doesn't have a good word for it).

Now, I want to say that I don't begrudge anyone making alot of money. Heck, I wish I could get to that spot myself. I mean, I play the lottery every week, and try to get hit by truckers for insurance settlements...I think everybody ought to have a taste of wealth...so there is not "judgmentalism" at all in this. I am just always "blown away" by people that can see past the materialism of this world, and "want" for others more for themselves.

The wisdom in the computer letter really helped me out today. I'll just glue the computer letter in this post, and glue my response after that.

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a
duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill
it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a
struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an
adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is life, fight for it!
- Mother Teresa

My response:

Yo xxxx (name withheld to protect Walt),

Good stuff. Mother Teresa had simplistic wisdom. I just love it when people don't try to puff themselves up with "great pearls"...just lay out things simply for dolts like me.

I will never forget this. Pam and I were in Manhattan, and went to Times Square Church. David Wilkerson (the Cross & The Switchblade guy) was preaching that morning. He told the story of meeting Mother Teresa. She had come to New York for something or another...don't remember that part real well.

Wilkerson is a humble man. But he felt like an arrogant s.o.b. (my words, not his) after meeting her. She was taken to a fine hotel in Manhattan, and finally had to be moved. The surroundings were so opulent that she could not even sleep. All she could think about was how much money had been spent to house her, and what that could do for "her babies" in India.

I experienced something close to that once. When I was in the ministry in Durango I invited Dmitri Duduman to come for an area-wide speaking engagement. Dmitri was a Romanian exile that was just that humble. He had experienced terrible torture as a Christian pastor in Romania. Poor old Dmitri always wore house shoes, because his feet had been beaten to pieces by the police as torture for his proclamation of Christ. I had a local businessman offer to pay for his accommodations, and the fellow reserved him a room at the Red Lion Hotel...a very, very nice place...the best in town.

When I picked Dmitri and his interpreter up at the airport (he paid for his own airplane ticket from California...would not let me take care of it), and took him to The Red Lion, he didn't want to stay there. He told me that the cost must be far too high. When I explained to him that a local businessman had paid the cost, and that there was no way we could find other accommodations on short notice in Durango during the Summer, he relented.

After we got them settled, I asked him about dinner. It was late afternoon. I ended up taking them a few blocks away to a grocery store (City Market, I think). He went to the bakery, and bought a loaf of bread for $1. After the conference (which packed out the largest arena in town) I wanted to take him and his interpreter to dinner. They settled on the "Western Sizzlin' buffet" (the cheapest place I suggested).

Yea, those real righteous folks have simple ways...simple tastes...and great, simple wisdom.

Later, Andy