Opinions

I start noticing the planes overhead when it’s nearing the time to go. Planes don’t fly low over this small Mexican city. San Miguel de Allende doesn’t have its own airport, so the few planes flying overhead are high in the sky, headed off to somewhere else. I rarely notice them at all -- until it’s time to leave.

For those of you that read this column, I hope the insights and considerations are worth your time. I have political and social speculations like all of you, but I would much rather stay focused on how awesome God is. I’m just a student desiring to understand what I believe, while also trying to listen carefully and be discerning about the convictions of others. Everyone has their own opinions about everything, and when we become involved in endless criticisms and accusations, it accomplishes nothing. In fact, it makes things worse and we have enough of that already. It’s important to me that I know why I believe my views and this can only be accomplished through prayer and study. If we desire to present Christ to a confused world, He pleads with us to surrender our will and learn how to live in the awareness of His presence.

I would rather have a gun in my hand than a cop on the phone. Exactly. When our great country was young and forming as an independent nation, they were smart enough to write the U.S. Constitution and then add 10 amendments, all on the same day in 1791. The ten remain our Bill of Rights.

My mother never watched soap operas. She was more likely to turn the television off, than on. She hummed while she ironed in the afternoon heat, or read a little bit when she finished, but she didn’t rely on a television set for daytime drama.

Is there ever a line to a certain song that makes you do a doubletake? In an old hymn that I love, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” there is a line that I didn’t understand the first time I heard it. That line was “Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’m come.” What in the world does that mean?!

We were frightened after 9-11, but we were quickly unified. Blind-sided attacks to New York and Washington revealed our vulnerability. Our nation hadn’t been exposed like that since Pearl Harbor in 1941.

As the discussion of brands dominated the lunch conversation, a friend admitted over chicken salad, “I no longer use dryer sheets. Instead, I just put a wad of aluminum foil in the automatic clothes dryer and it works great.”