Einstein's Insanity.

Albert Einstein once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Let me explain why I know this is not a good definition of insanity. All of us spend a lot of time doing the same thing over and over again not only hoping for a difference results but, wahla, getting it.

For an example I will tell this story of me changing the saw blade in my table saw. See I have a 12x12 piece of tile that needed to be 2 6x12s. So yesterday on my way home from Forest City I stopped by Harbor Freight and bout a $22 10 inch diamond saw blade to do the job. When I got home I took off the old wood blade and put on the new blade, and tighten the retaining nut. Unbeknownst to me the spacer that goes on the motor's shaft before the blade had fallen into the saw dust under the table saw.

In my desire to get the blade up tight against the saw motor's shaft I over tighten the retaining nut driving the nut past the last thread on the shaft getting it well and truly stock on the shaft. In order to loosen it I had to stick a small needle nose vise grip in the very narrow space, less than a half of an inch, between the table top and the space to the saw blade, and clamp in onto the flat ring that is on the drive shaft for the blade;s spacer to rest against after the blade is tighten into place. Then I had to put a wrench on the retaining nut and put pressure on it to break the nut loose.

Over and over again I had to re-position the vice grips on the shaft as it popped loose while I was applied pressure to the wrench. For about two hours I repeated this procedure hoping for a different results, it was either that or give up on the table saw and not have the use of it or buy another one, and I sure did not want to do either of those options. So I repeated over and over again the same thing over and over again and expecting a different results, and just a bit ago I got it, the vice grip held long enough for the wrench to push the nut off the un-threaded part of the shaft allowing me to remove the blade, find the spacer after reasoning that was what have had to be missing, and put the blade on right, and cut the tile.

Now I just have to put a wood blade back on for when I heed to cut wood next. I am glad to have the diamond tipped blade but do not expecting to be using it very much. So tell me. was I insane for repeated over and over again the same thing over and over again and expecting a different results?

Pride vr. Hubris

Today I want to talk about pride.  Not the pride of your hometown or your child’s success, but the pride that precedes the fall or as Proverbs 16:18 puts it, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”  How does this pride differ from be pride of what you have been able to achieve in life, or of a job well done?

The pride that comes before the fall means that you have becomes over confident and stops thinking sensibly or critically because of what you think you know or the abilities you have.  This is the source of the adage, “A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing”.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

and drinking largely sobers us again.

Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)

When success goes to one's head and which is a sure indication of the fact that that person is bound to suffer or face disappointment because of the wrong decisions that he or she might make.  

How does this adage and the Proverb ties together and become profitable for us as instructions?  Well remember what Reagan said, “Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.”  When you go to criticize another’s views make sure that you understand the subject you are spouting off about.  To be so completely convinced that you have the correct view when in fact all you have is a small understanding is a manifestation of the pride that precedes the fall. 

This pride can sneak into our minds in any number of ways, on how best to train a horse to how best to interpret the scriptures.  While this pride can bring us to embarrassment at its mildest form of rebuke to death and destruction at its harshest, it does not rise to hubris unless you refuse to learn from the instruction that holding this type of pride provides.    

“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”  Hebrews 12:5-6

Now as far as interpreting scriptures I take the Baptist approach that no one stand between man and god.  No preacher, no elder, or deacon, but through faith, interacting with others, through listening, conversations, reading and reflection. One should also engage not only those who share their worldview but others who are quite different from you. You will find that sometimes your conversations will help another person, but more often I have found that by talking with others I have come to a better understanding of the scriptures.

I will not tell another person this is the way you should understand the Bible, I will tell how I understand it.  I believe that God is a God of revelation, if He does not reveal Himself to you you cannot find Him.  

“And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;   (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.   What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.  Romans” 9: 10-17