Grace Agenda Main Conference Talks
New Reformed Basics: Chestertonian Calvinism
CRF Guys Having Fun
Open Road, at Least on the Ground
And, as per our usual custom, more can be found here.
Jokes I Like to Tell
Once there were two men who were good friends, although it was hard to tell how that had happened because one of them never had anything positive to say about anybody or anything. You may believe that you have encountered people with a critical spirit, but I am afraid to say that, compared to this gent, you have not.
His friend took it all in a good spirit, but he had been pondering for a long time how he might help his friend. He finally decided that he should try to find just one thing that his friend would be compelled to praise. To simply praise, and with no negative spin.
The two men were avid duck hunters—which is how they had met, actually—and the opportunity for a possible solution arose when the man without a critical spirit answered an ad for a good retrieving dog. When he went to pick the dog up, he had to go to a spooky little cabin, inhabited by a weird little man at the end of a long dirt road. But the dog looked normal and healthy, and so he bought it for ready cash.
When he took the dog out for the first time, to see what it could do, he discovered that the weird little man had sold him a dog that knew how to run over the surface of the water. In that morning alone, he did it three separate times. When the man finally persuaded himself that he was not seeing things, the first thing that came into his mind was that here was something beyond all praise. His negative friend would have to say something positive, wouldn’t he? He rubbed his hands together in anticipation—he really loved his friend and wanted to get through to him.
The next weekend they went out together, the two men and the dog. They had a good spot where ducks would regularly come, and so the moment of truth didn’t take long. Both men fired together, and across the way a fallen duck splashed into the water. The dog bolted down to the lake, ran across the surface, and came back with the duck. The critical man just sat there, saying nothing.
Maybe he didn’t see, the friend thought. But about twenty minutes later, it happened again, and still the critical man said nothing. His friend was starting to get exasperated. And again, the third time the dog brought back a duck, having run across the lake to get it, and the critical friend was silent.
And so the man with the dog finally burst out, “Well? Didn’t you notice anything?” “Well, yeah, I did,” his friend said, “but I didn’t want to say anything.” “And why not?” his friend retorted. “Well, you have been telling me not to be so critical, and so I was trying not to say anything. But since you brought it up, your stupid dog can’t swim.”
Hey, I Have a Bumper Sticker With the Same Idea
They Need to Pass a Law that Requires the Water to Behave Better
Kind of hard to do something like that . . .
Is there supposed to be, like, content here on these last few items? 🤔
Nate Wilson nailed it.
I might not be able to think about anything else today…