MORGAN'S MOMENT...
Our financial advisor usually calls us…
    but one day I decided to call him.
 “I’m not calling about our account,”
    I told him.
He must be getting lots of calls these days
    from anxious clients seeking comfort.
He may also have been thinking…
    Then why are you calling me?
“I’m calling about you…
    how are you doing these days?”
Silence… 
    a long pause.
He was doing what our GPS does…
    I think he was “recalculating.”
I hoped I hadn’t said anything wrong…
    or probed into his private life.
“I’m actually doing fine,” he said
    “Thank you for asking.
“I had a moment of perspective…
    just yesterday,” he told me.
“I was following a lady
   out of the grocery store…
“She was severely disabled…
   struggling just to get to her car…
“Watching her I realized
   how few problems I actually have.
“Yes, Art. I’m fine.”
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
“The Outliers – The Story of Success,” by Malcom Gladwell. He takes on the common notion that success is mostly hard work and good genes. People are born talented. But the luck of when you are born and where, and to which parents is part of the success. Parents and teachers (and preachers) could learn a good deal from his insights.
“The Third Jesus – The Christ We Cannot Ignore,” by Deepak Chopra. It may be a good book for those who haven’t kept up on Jesus studies.
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MOMENT MINISTRIES
– February 10, 2009 –
    A MOMENT MINISTRIES production – Art Morgan a-morgan@peak.org
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to my brother Avery in Florida. How’s this for a cheap card? Quite a few relatives are among friends and colleagues on my list, so being personal isn’t out of line. Is it?
ON “VETTING”
After hearing how various cabinet appointees were being “vetted” (or not) I decided to look the word up. In my dictionary (old) the word has to do with veterinarians.
I asked my favorite veterinarian what “vetting” means to a veterinarian. She said, “You probably don’t want to know. It’s a barnyard term.” Then she proceeded to tell me that the work of vets includes messy inspections of both ends of the animal, especially to certify it healthy for auction.
It didn’t take me long to decide that maybe “vetting” of politicians is healthy for our government.
I thought of church liturgy. Those who have dissed (I’ll have to look that word up someday) church liturgy don’t need to read what follows.
One traditional part of church liturgy has “self-vetting” language. For instance a rather bland self-vetting:
    “We confess that we have sinned against you
     in thought, word and deed.”
No specifics, but you get the idea. If you can pass the “thought, word and deed” test, you’re OK..
Some politicians squeak by. Others not.
We all know that in our hearts church liturgy has it right.
    “We have all sinned and gone astray.”
We like to think this is old fundamentalist garbage that we have outgrown  But is it? Who among us could come through a thorough vetting pure as driven snow? Perhaps that is why some of the most able never seek public office.
I suspect that Jesus took a dim view of vetting. There is the story with the words: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” Or one similar, “Why do you see the speck in another’s eye and not the log that is in your own?”
If I understand my vet friend correctly, the act of vetting is messy, for the vet as well as the vetted ones. Mercy!

Thursday moment…
The next gathering of our Moment group will be
    Thursday, February 19
   One Corvallis Business that has not Closed
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WRITING SCRIPTURE
       I was riding the exercise bike at the gym about 80 rpm and watching news on the TV screen when a verse of scripture created itself in my mind.
       It’s not been settled where scripture comes from. Doubt rose in my mind when a theology professor in seminary tried to tell us that it was revelation, presumably from God.
       Here’s my take on it. We all write scripture now and then. Actually, like Bible scripture, most scripture doesn’t start out as writing. It pops into consciousness without warning. I suppose all of the Bible, except maybe for Paul’s letters, was spoken before it was written.
       How some of the Bible came to be taken as both inspired and divine revelation beats me. But some passages have qualified as worthy of the holy. They soar. Credit to God.
       In a humble mode I report how more than once I have looked at words printed under my authorship that nearly moved me to tears as well as wonder. I couldn’t think how I could possibly have written them. I must have been inspired. (I try to forget other words I have written that almost move me to tears for their carelessness).
       When I thought of those words at the gym it seemed important to remember them. It is rare, of course, that words I want to remember are words that anyone else wants to remember. In fact, most words people quote back to me as inspiring to them I don’t even remember. Alas. I doubt that even Jesus knew any of the things he said would end up quoted for 2000 years as scripture.
       My exercise bike riding only lasts 10 minutes. We are winding down from our gym work. We’ve already done our aerobic two-mile walk before coming to the gym. So there’s only a brief bit of news to watch when you take away the commercial breaks. The main news that day was about the financial market. It was all about depression. Each segment told another sad story of losses. Banks, investors, home-buyers, industries, workers. Heading for another Great Depression. It trumps the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It trumps everything.
       Except on occasion when the news is interrupted. Like the morning there was a picture of a passenger jet floating in the Hudson. People were on the wings. They weren’t thinking about the crash on Wall Street, and for a while, neither were we.
In such moments as these scripture gets written. As words formed in my mind, other pictures appeared on my screen. Pictures were of some who are reading these words at this moment – people whose life circumstances stir me to care and to prayer. I thought of so many others in the world who wished they could trade their present worry for worry about the economy.
When I got off my exercise bike and got to my pen, these words appeared:
“How fortunate are those whose biggest worry is the economic crisis.”
       I invite you to memorize the text and even put it on your refrigerator, especially if you are depressed by depression fears and woes. You might add it to your Bible.
─ Art Morgan, February 6, 2009