I Shed a Tear as I Pondered Poor Bruton Smith's Misfortune

At our Tuesday morning Free Store conversation our friend Gary joined us and told us he was going to give us three mini-seminars.  He promised they would be short and we promised to listen if they were.  Gary told us that seminars are designed to give us information that we can put into practical use in our lives.

The first seminar was titled, "How To Lose a Fortune."  Gary said there were three ways to do this.  1.)  Neglect it in some way.  He said that if you leave it laying around it just might disappear.  Someone said that sounded like the free store which made us laugh.  2.)  Throw it away or waste it in some way.  3.)  Use it unwisely in some way.  Maybe by investing it in the wrong place.  Gary also said this might include buying stuff that you don't need.  Someone told us that he read an article in the Charlotte Observer a few years ago about how Bruton Smith, the owner of Charlotte Motor Speedway, had lost a huge amount of money in a single day when the stock market dropped.  While running his finger from his eye down his cheek he said, "I shed a tear as I pondered poor Bruton Smith's misfortune" which made us laugh.

The second seminar was titled, "How To Lose Your Best Friend."  Again Gary said that there were three ways to do this.  1.)  Ignore them.  Rick gave us a good laugh when he suggested that another way to lose a friend was to "loan em money."  2.)  Disagree with them all the time.  Gary said that the prophet Amos had asked the question, "Can two walk together unless they agree?"  Somoene wondered if Amos had been married which made us laugh.  Gary said that Amos was a farmer so maybe he spent a good bit of time by himself;  3.)  Two-time or cheat on them.  He said this was a sure way to kill a friendship because this erodes trust and draws people apart over time.

The third seminar was titled, "How to Lose Jesus as a Friend."  Gary said that Jesus wants to be our friend but that friendship is a two-way street.  He suggested there are three ways to do this.  1.)  Ignore him by neglecting to pray and read the bible.  Gary said that when we don't focus on God that other stuff effectively pushes our spiritual desire out.  2.)  Disagree all the time.  He said that if we always do what self wants and never what God wants that we will eventually lose our connection with God.  Gary also suggested that love should be the key to all our actions.  3.)  Two-time him.  Gary said that we do this by acting one way around our christian friends and differently when around others.  He said this is like trying to be a part time christian.  Our friend Donna said that this was like wanting to "walk with God and run with the devil."  Marney said that she had learned the hard way that it was difficult for her to stay focused on God when hanging out with her "drinkin, partyin friends."  Someone asked if we had ever done aerobics and pointed out that there are "high impact" and "low impact" types of aerobics.  He said the low impact aerobics was the easy version.  We laughed as he told us that many people want a "low impact spirituality" because they think the other type is too hard.

As the conversation moved to a conclusion Gary said that he had learned as a young man that "I could't run my life very well."  He told us that one of his favorite texts was Jeremiah 10:23, "I know O Lord that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps."  Gary said, "This is my text.  You can have it but it's still mine" which we thought was very generous even at it made us laugh.