"The Secret of Life" (As Stated by Curly)

Do you remember the 1991 movie “City Slickers”?   That's only 20 years ago.
"Mitch" is a 39 year old city Slicker, played by Billy Crystal.
"Curly" is an old guy, played by Jack Palance. 
In a scene where both were on horseback, moving along slowly, herding cattle, they had this conversation:
Curly    “Do you know what the secret of life is?”
Mitch   “No, what?”
Curly    “This.”  Curly holds up his index finger, representing one thing.
Mitch   “One finger?”
Curly    “One thing, just one thing.  You stick to that and the rest don’t mean nothin’.”
Mitch   “That’s great, but what’s the one thing.”
Curly    “That’s what you gotta figure out.”
Here is a version of the scene on you tube: 
"The Secret of Life" 
In February 1998, as I was going though some difficult times, I wrote down these thoughts (but let's pretend that Curly said them in the movie):
 Curly   You count everything. 
You count how much money is coming in. 
You count your bills and the money that goes out. 
The income and the bills do not match. 
You count your time and it is not enough. 
You count your broken relationships and you get depressed. 
You count your sins and you become overwhelmed. 
You count your weight and say that it's too much or it's not enough. 
You count your years as you grow older and you feel old, even though you are not.
When you comb your hair, you see some gray and you see some strands left in your comb.  You see a receding hair line.  If you could count your hair, you would, because you would want to know how much hair you have, how much you've lost, and how much you have left.  Then you would go look for a potion to grow hair back.  And when you've used your potion, you would watch your sparse spots to see how much hair has returned.  Then you would spend your time and track all this on computer so that you could see the results and monitor your progress.
You track your finances on computer and paper.
How much you owe.
How much you spend.
How much you save.
How much you give.
How much you don't have.
How much you need.
At the end of the year, you end up with totals of everything, but all you need is a few facts for your income tax.  So, why have you spent all that time and concern to track all that stuff?
All my counting has been misguided and for naught.  Why do I count everything when I only need to “Count on Him?”   
Then Mitch could have said, 
   "Hey Curly, I figured it out, the secret of life.  The secret is not a thing, but a person, and it's Him."

THIS BLOG WAS "INSPIRED" BY LISTENING TO A MESSAGE PREACHED BY ANDREW SHEARMAN CALLED "GET RID OF THE HYPHEN".   YOU CAN FIND THE AUDIO ON THE PAGE AT THIS LINK: Blog by Andrew Shearman

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Does God Do E-Mail? Does God Have An E-Mail List? E-Mail. What did some of us do before E-Mail?  Paper, envelope, and stamps - now called snail mail because it took days.  E-Mail is "instant", consistent with the way we live today. E-Mail: "Electronic mail, most commonly referred to as email or e-mail since approximately 1993, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks". [Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email] E-Mail has been around since approximately 1993 , 20 years ago.  So, now is an anniversary.  About that time, I remember someone talking about how they could instantly communicate with a daughter who went off to college.  That was before I even had a home computer.  I never forgot that story by that father.  I wanted to be able to E-Mail. What's the one thing that we expect to receive from sending our an E-Mail?  
Read more

FRANK M. BARBUSH, The Grandfather I Never Knew

Image
Frank M. Barbush FRANK M. BARBUSH, The Grandfather I Never Knew I never met my father's father, my grandfather, Frank M. Barbush.  Suddenly, out of the blue, seeing his picture, I had the thought that, "If I could speak to my Grandfather, Frank M. Barbush, whom I never knew, what would I say?"  Well, let me say this . . . Hello Pop I never met you and never got to know you , because you left this life before I was born. I did know your wife, Elizabeth Walmer Barbush. The entire family called her Mom Barbush or just Mom - whether sons, daughters, grandchildren, or other. Mom Barbush was the king pin of our family , the pivotal point, the focus point in our family. Penn Harris Taxi Cabs in Harrisburg, P A I never heard much about you, only that you started Penn Harris Taxi , which lasted for many years (decades) and supported many family members for decades. The taxi business became part of the entire Barbush Family . . . . to the exten
Read more

"To The 42nd Floor" - A Short Story

The link is a short story based on a teaching by Andrew Shearman considering the text of the Book of Matthew Chapter 1.   First the story is presented, followed by a summary of the teaching of the 42nd Generation as written by Seth Barnes.    "To The 42nd Floor" with "The 42nd Generation"
Read more