"Mules........................"

It is inevitable that, if you stick me into a crowd of people, I’m either going to search out some isolated corner of the room and avoid conversation, or look for someone who also enjoys that which always occupies my thoughts. Realizing, however, that most believers are more inclined to discuss sports, motorcycles, indeed a wide range of topics that leave me looking ignorant, I try not to push my own preference on everyone and hopefully do not over assert myself with those few who find themselves on my list of “like-minded lovers of chewing on the Word”. So it was Saturday afternoon at the grandson’s graduation festivities. My assistant pastor, the same fellow who teaches the Wednesday evening class, was seated by himself. It seemed to me that his ear gets bent by this old man too much as it is. When Tony, my ministry buddy, took a seat nearby and I positioned myself in a chair beside him, though, Steve just drifted into our talk as it came forth. Nobody was splitting hairs over chapter and verse, simply speaking of life within the Body, church in general. Nevertheless, somewhere along the way, the preacher, with a grin on his face, told me that I was a stubborn man. “Bull-headed”, I replied, “might well be a better word for it.” We let it drop. There had been no ill will intended and none was taken, rooted and grounded in my faith plus walking by His inner anchor-line rather than simply “following the herd” being, to me, something that all members of the Body ought to embrace. Is there possible danger with such thinking? Of course! As long as one’s humanity is involved in the process, that divine tug on our reins will yet need an occasional reinforcement, bet it a boot in the butt or we, ourselves, falling flat on our face due to our own lack of judgment. One day, one step at a time, yet convinced as I go, not just swallowing everybody else’s theology……