Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Kyle Idleman (2014-03-01) from his book, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything (p. 120). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now you might want to know what projection is, so Bill, what is it? Well, Kyle gives a good definition of it.   He says, “Projection is when we admit the reality of an unpleasant fact, but we deny responsibility. Denial is refusing to admit the reality of an unpleasant fact, but projection is admitting that the reality exists without taking responsibility for it. We just blame someone else.”  In other words we project our blame on someone else. Kyle says, “Instead of taking responsibility, we blame our spouse.” He goes on, “Imagine that every day you take a lunch with you to work, and every day it’s the same thing— chicken salad sandwiches. You continually complain to your coworkers that it’s always chicken salad sandwiches in your lunch. You are sick and tired of...

A thought by Kyle Idleman (2014-03-01) from his book, AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything (p. 85). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And we all know that is the truth.   It is so hard to be brutally honest with ourselves isn’t it? Kyle in this book is using the story of the Prodigal Son as the biblical basis for his thoughts.   Maybe you remember the story of this young son who came to his father and asked him to give him his inheritance before time and he then went out and blew it all.   Finely he finds himself in a pigpen feeding pigs and he says, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.” (Luke 15: 17– 19) Kyle says, “He was honest with himself abou...

A thought by Kyle Idleman (2014-03-01) from his book, A HA: The God Moment That Changes Everything (p. 78). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I’m not sure if we really want that to be true.   Even in our relationships I’m not sure we want to see the whole truth. Kyle says, “We have a tendency in our relationships— even our closest ones— to speak 95 percent of the truth. We don’t take it the full 100 percent. But that last 5 percent is what really needs to be said. More often than not, the startling realization takes place in the 5 percent of hard truth. All of us need a relationship with someone who has permission to flip the switch we missed.” He then says, “I recently read an article in the Montreal Gazette about a man named Pierre-Paul Thomas. He was born blind and could only imagine the world that was often described to him. For years he walked with a white cane to avoid obstacles in front of him. But at the...