I saw over the weekend that Don Knotts passed away.
Knotts created, in my opinion, the best TV character ever… Barney Fife. The Andy Griffith Show is by far my favorite TV show of all time. I can watch episodes I’ve seen dozens of times and still laugh.
Here are some classic Barney quotes:
Goodbye Barney, goodbye…
Grant English gave the sermon at Grace Church this morning and spoke on 2 Samuel 6 In short, David tries to bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, a guy touches it and dies. David gets ticked off at God, then sees the errors of his ways and dances practically naked in the street and then has to put up with his wife telling him why it was wrong to dance in the street.
Grant spent a little time on the guy dying from touching the ark and I thought he made some great points there. I want to explore those a little further.
So, David gets this great idea that he wants to move the Ark from the ?house of Abinadab? (where it had been since the 7th chapter of 1st Samuel) to Jerusalem. Sounds like a good idea. David got a cart loaded up the ark and took off for the big city. On the way one of the Oxen stumbled, the ark teetered and Uzzah reached out to steady it. Seems like a reasonable thing to do, but God struck him dead right there on the spot. Not only that, the Bible says “The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act.?
Wait a second! God?s anger burned against him? What did he do wrong? He was just keeping the Ark from falling in the mud. I?m sure God wouldn?t want the Ark to fall into the mud. Why would he kill a guy who was just trying to do the right thing? Why did he think it was an irreverent act? Come on, isn?t this a little harsh? Uzzah had good intentions, wasn?t that good enough?
Well? no. Good intentions don?t cut it, especially when ?good intentions? cross paths with ?God?s Will.? In those circumstances good intentions will always lose and apparently, so will the good intender.
Where did they go wrong? First, David didn?t listen to God. He went about doing what he thought God wanted without consulting God and His word. If we look at Exodus 25, God tells how he wants the Ark to be transported, by people. Not on a cart pulled by oxen. And God tells who he wants moving the Ark. Numbers 4 says the Kohathites were the ones that were to do the carrying, not Uzzah.
Out of ignorance or stupidity, David led Uzzah to his death. Had they gone back and read the instructions first, they would have known the proper way to transport the Ark and been alright. Their good intentions would have been balanced with God?s Will.
So, what do I do with this? I?ve been guilty of doing the same thing David and Uzzah did. I?ve gone off on my own to try and do God?s Will with the best of intentions and I?ve failed miserably. I need to go back to His word, to meditate on it and KNOW it so that when I attempt to do His will, my ?good intentions? will not crash headlong into the immovable force of God?s Will. And, as the leader of my household, keep my family from paying the price.
This sermon gave me several things to write about. More later?
As an engineer, I take great pride in being able to solve problems and figure out how things work. I love to proclaim my knowledge to Karen to show of my mental prowess. In my mind, she is impressed to the point of throwing herself into my arms and proclaiming her love and devotion to ?the smartest man she?s ever known.? The reality, on the other hand is usually cold and harsh coming in the form of a rolling of the eyes or a blank stare.
Since we moved to Little Rock a year ago, I?ve noticed little blue reflectors show up on the roads all over the place. They are like the little yellow markers that are embedded in the pavement to mark the center line. But these are seemingly placed arbitrarily, in the middle of the lane. Its as if someone placed them there haphazard, just to drive me nuts. Why were they there and who put them there? It?s a puzzle I?ve pondered for at least nine months.
Then, one day a couple of weeks ago Karen said, ?you know those blue markers? I figured out what they are for.? NO! How could she have figured it out? Impossible, she could not have possibly figured out such a complex and perplexing quandary before me, her problem solving minded husband.
?Ok, why are they there?? I asked smugly.
?They mark fire hydrants at the side of the road.?
Of course! Fire hydrants, why didn?t I think of that? It was so obvious. The answer was right there in front of me every time I saw a little blue marker.
That?s when I threw myself in her arms and declared my love and devotion to the smartest woman I?ve ever known.
(Well, not really but I was impressed that she figured it out.)
Our first Christmas in Little Rock, Arkansas. We were missing Indiana and snow. It was kind of hard to get into the Christmas feel of things with temperatures in the 60’s! At least it was really like a vacation for everyone who visited from Indiana.
Not sure yet what we will do with it but here it is. I’m also going to do a little redesign of our web site and add some more content.
Why the “The 2nd Mike.”
Because I’m the second “Mike Riley” in my family.
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