Mental Musings

A few weeks back our college group was talking about the donuts that we usually have on Sundays. Mark mentioned that he likes the cronuts. What is a cronut? Is it a donut or is it a croissant? The cronut is a croissant-like dough that has been fried in oil and generally covered with donut cream. It is therefore, neither a donut nor a croissant, but some type of hybrid. It is a new pastry item that we have simply chosen to call a donut because we can buy them at donut shops. It turns out that it was invented by Dominique Ansel, a pastry chef in New York City in 2013. There are other chefs who claim to have invented the same item years earlier, but their version of the cronut was only known to locals. Ansel’s cronut became a national sensation within months. It was so popular that black market copies of his cronut started to sell for $5 each. It didn’t take long before donut shops around the country were making and selling their own rendition of cronuts. We like to label thing...

Lt. William James Poole, USN Ret. November 13, 1936 - January 19, 2017 One of my earliest memories of my dad is from the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk, Virginia. I was standing along a pier with my mom, my brother, and my sister watching a large ship as it was guided into port. On the deck of the ship were what looked like hundreds of men in uniform waving at the many people standing around the dock. The large metal gangplank was put into place and then we watched as man after man walked down from the ship. Many of these ran into the arms of someone waiting for them. Then one of these men came towards us. This is the first time I remember being with my dad. I have one memory that was earlier and that was listening to my dad’s voice on a reel to reel tape that he had recorded while onboard ship. I’m not sure that I understood who it was talking, but I was mesmerized by the strong, rich voice that was speaking to us. Months later I was standing on that d...

When I was 16, my friend Barry ran into me at school and said, “I got it running.” My eyes got big as I asked, “Can I come over after school and drive it?” Barry had been working for months to rebuild an old Ford that he bought at a junk yard. Now, you have to understand that Barry and I had already been driving legally for more than a year. Barry had a truck that he drove whenever he needed transportation. I had what I called the Blue Bomb, my old Plymouth Fury 3 with a 353 in it. The excitement of driving had already worn off, but the thought of driving a car that had once been left to die in an old junk yard, that was something else. After school I went over and he was already tinkering with the Ford. He motioned for me to get in the passenger side and he started it up. He put it into gear, released the clutch, and BOOM! We both fell backwards with our feet straight up in the air. Barry had the engine running, but he had forgotten to bolt the bucket seat to the floorboard...

Did you know that when you sign-up for a loan or a credit card you are signing a covenant between you and the bank? The bank agrees to let you use some money and you agree to pay it back. Covenants are nothing new. The Bible talks about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant of God. The New Covenant is salvation by faith through the grace of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. But to receive that salvation we must accept the covenant that God wants to make with us: to repent, believe in Jesus, and let Him become the boss of your life. Elevate Church practices covenant membership. What is covenant membership? It’s the idea that commitment in a local church is a two-way street. The believer commits to attend, pray for, uphold the doctrines of, and generally promote the mission of a particular congregation. Meanwhile, the congregation as a whole agrees to teach, pray for, encourage, and generally hold every member accountable to live a Christ-like life. Whi...

An elderly man moved into a Florida retirement community and immediately started making new friends. One of this new friends was a woman who, like him, had lost her spouse many years ago. Their friendship continued to grow until one evening he decided to propose to her. The next morning, he woke remembering that he had proposed to her, but he couldn’t remember how she had responded. He went to see her and said, “I am really embarrassed. Last night I asked you to marry me, but I can’t remember if you said yes or no.” “Thank goodness,” she replied, “I remembered saying yes, but I couldn’t remember who proposed to me.” Each year about 62% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions. Only 8% of them will successfully keep their resolutions. Some people give up on their resolutions, but most of us simply forget about them within the first few weeks until we realize that we are doing the thing we said we wouldn’t do or that we failed to do the thing we said we would. Back in high sch...