"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?" - Scott Adams

Sue sent me this last week when I was assembling Ikea furniture ad nauseum and I kept forgetting to include it here.
Josh & Aubri just bought a while kitchen's worth of Ikea cabinets. He's going to have mental health issues.

While eating lunch today Pam and I watched the original B&W version (1939) of Hunch Back of Notre Dame starring Charles Laughton on TCM. Excellent! And one of the greatest final lines in all of movie making. The broken-hearted Quasimodo looks at one of the gargoyles at the top of the cathedral and says, "I wish that I were made of stone like thee."
Is that story the archetype for all the tales like The Beauty and the Beast, Shrek, et al.?

Tomorrow is our garage sale. Pam has to attend a mandatory meeting at work, which leaves me here flying solo.
This is not going to be pretty. I HATE shopping. Can you see me running a garage sale...in Sun City??
Pity the fool who complains about the price on something.

Did some reading for my sermon this morning, and completely changed my plan. But it's still early, so we could be looking at another three iterations before we get to actually preaching it.

While eating lunch and watching that movie I did some research on Ilsa. Everything imaginable is available online, including details about a 1962 VW Beetle. Based on her VIN (a 7-digit number) I can tell she was built in October of 1961, was Gulf Blue (Golfblau in German), came with silver beige upholstery, had 2-tone wheels that were King's Blue and Misty Grey, and the gearshift and handbrake levers were Anthracite Grey. Each of those paint colors is reproducible because the paint codes are also available. Interior knobs were ivory.
Can you tell I'm eager to get to work on her?

I have a sermon series rattling around in my head.
Laying out my preaching and teaching calendar is a challenging task. Not because there aren't lots of things to preach and teach, but because I want to provide a well-rounded spiritual diet. I need to strike a balance between expository, topical, life-situation, biographical, OT, NT, exhortation, comfort, instruction, motivation, evangelistic....
Preachers can get in ruts without realizing it. They can fall into sermon after sermon that adopts a negative, harsh tone, calling their people to be and do more. Or preach sermons that consistently tell them it'll all be OK, God loves them and is taking care of them no matter what. "Suck it up" or "Just breathe." Or do nothing but dry teaching. Or preach the very simple truths of salvation week after week after week.
And that's just the preaching part. What about the adult class during second hour?
Then there's the need to have a balance between the two, so that you're not preaching a series of doctrinal sermons the same time you're teaching about important NT words.

I wonder how many people are aware their pastor works on making his preaching & teaching schedule balanced.