In the last minute of the 1971 Super Bowl, Craig Morton, the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, threw a pass that was intercepted by Mike Curtis of the Baltimore Colts. This subsequently led to a Baltimore field goal and Baltimore's winning the game 17 - 14. A week later, Craig Morton, went to a barbershop in Dallas for a haircut. After some small talk, the barber edged up to the discussion of the Super Bowl.
The barber said, "You know, I've been thinking about that last pass you threw all week. If I were you, I wouldn't have thrown it."
Morton answered, "If I had had all week to think about it, I wouldn't have thrown it either."
A lot of life is like that. Time is "like an ever-rolling stream." Sometimes events press in upon us, and we do not have as much time as we would like to weigh important decisions.
We receive a job offer. It's not really the job we wanted. A better offer may or may not come along. We are asked to decide quickly.
A child is stricken with leukemia. The child's parents must make some important decisions about the proposed courses of treatment. The answers to all their questions are not known, but they are told that they must decide now.
Often we are very much aware that we are looking "through a glass darkly." We may have little confidence that the decision we are about to make is the right one, but we must decide. In this life we often must make decisions based upon partial knowledge. We may delay arriving at a philosophy. We can always put off making up our minds, but we can't put off making up our lives. We cannot just say, "Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim..." Sometimes we must go ahead and fire with little time for aiming. May God be with us at those times.
©1997 C. David Hess
The barber said, "You know, I've been thinking about that last pass you threw all week. If I were you, I wouldn't have thrown it."
Morton answered, "If I had had all week to think about it, I wouldn't have thrown it either."
A lot of life is like that. Time is "like an ever-rolling stream." Sometimes events press in upon us, and we do not have as much time as we would like to weigh important decisions.
We receive a job offer. It's not really the job we wanted. A better offer may or may not come along. We are asked to decide quickly.
A child is stricken with leukemia. The child's parents must make some important decisions about the proposed courses of treatment. The answers to all their questions are not known, but they are told that they must decide now.
Often we are very much aware that we are looking "through a glass darkly." We may have little confidence that the decision we are about to make is the right one, but we must decide. In this life we often must make decisions based upon partial knowledge. We may delay arriving at a philosophy. We can always put off making up our minds, but we can't put off making up our lives. We cannot just say, "Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim..." Sometimes we must go ahead and fire with little time for aiming. May God be with us at those times.
©1997 C. David Hess
