My Wife Thinks I'm Very Undependable

Carlos started the free store conversation on Wednesday morning by asking the group to pick sides in an imaginary arm wrestling contest between Paul (that's me the blog's author) and a new friend that joined us for the first time.  Sheila picked me (who she affectionately calls her "boss" when she's not pissed at me) and Jack picked the other guy (for which he has been banished from the free store for an undetermined period of time or until we need him for something).  Carlos then said that the person that had picked the winner would be right and that this was the primary meaning of the word righteous in the bible.  It simply means to be right about something.  Jack said he thought there was more to it but after a little back and forth we agreed to move forward with Carlos' definition.

With this background Carlos moved us into our continuing discussion of the book of Romans.  He read a passage in Romans 4 that talked about how Abraham believed that God could fulfill his promises and that Abraham was right about it so the bible says that he is "righteous."  At this Carlos asked us if there were things God had promised us?  Someone said that God promised to give us eternal life.  Joelle said that God promised never to leave us.  And Sheila said that God had promised to always love us.  Jack said he thought that was about all that we could possibly need.  However, Joelle wasn't so sure if that was enough and suggested that things like health and security were important as well.

Carlos told us that God had promised to give Abraham children and yet when Abraham was 100 years old he still didn't have a child with his wife Sarah (and she was 90).  So we thought it was pretty bold and maybe even a bit crazy and yet Abraham believed that God was right and could do what was promised.  Carlos made us laugh when he said, "If you bet against God you're gonna lose."

At this point Carlos asked us how we were doing on our promises?  He estimated that he kept his promises about 40% of the time.  He told us that "my wife thinks I'm very undependable" which made us laugh.  Joelle told us that we can really disappoint people when we don't follow through on our promises.  She also said that she felt good about keeping her promise to help Sheila get ready to move to her new apartment next week.  Jack said, "I don't promise unless I can fulfill it."  We applauded our friends for following through on their promises.

As the discussion moved to a conclusion we talked about how we make and break promises all the time and might not even realize it.  Rick said that people will often say, "I'll get back to you" when you know they have no intention of ever calling you again.  Jack said that was because people are "superficially polite in the south" which made us laugh.  Carlos encouraged us to recognize that ultimately God didn't bless Abraham because Abraham was good at keeping his promises but rather because God was good at keeping God's promises.