Tagged for Seven Things

Pr. Hall over at This Side of the Pulpit has tagged me for seven things I have learned in life. Hmm. That is a bit of a challenge. Just understand that "learned" here means that I have come to realize their truth and blessing, not that I come close to achieving them. Well, here goes:

1. Before blowing the lid, ask honestly: "What will it matter ten years from now?" (Hijacked from O.P. Kretzmann - a great way of putting into practice the oft-heard "don't sweat the small stuff" - my brother Joseph's favorite saying)
2. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. (To look at death from God's perspective and not our own: the bringing home of a beloved child into the joys He has prepared through Christ for them)
3. The Bible means what it says. (Source of several a-ha's - such "stay awake and pray" means, well, um, "stay awake and pray." Likewise "pray without ceasing.")
4. We were created and have been redeemed to praise God. (I love how Melanchthon put it in his Loci: "We have been so created and then so redeemed that we as the image and temple of God might celebrate the praises of God. For God wills to be known and worshipped.")
5. You do not have to agree with someone to love them, to honor them, and to pray for them. (Too much of Lutheranism is all about chewing each other a new posterior exit.)
6. Nothing smells worse than pride or better than humility. (And all the deodorants and perfumes of the world can't cover the stench of the one; nor can any sufferings cloud the beauty of the other)
7. The hardest but most blessed part of the Catechism is to take to heart the explanation of the 8th commandment that we should always "explain everything in the kindest way." (Which is really a corollary of "Judge not")

I suppose I'm supposed to tag people now?

How about:

Ben Johnson (author of the very fine blog on Western Rite)
Dave Juhl (he of preachment fame)
Ed Reiss (New York Lutheran Extraordinaire)
Keith GeRue (fellow servant of the Word here at St. Paul's)

[No, I'm NOT going to do all that HTML. You can google their names! ;)]