And There You Are
Many years ago when we still had a television and even still when we watched television, one of the shows we watched was a tri-monthly show, McCloud.
There were three detective shows that alternated through the month one was MacMillan and Wife, one was Columbo, and the other was McCloud. It was a show about a western cowboy cop who found himself stationed in New York City. If that wasn’t outlandish enough in one show he was sent to Australia for a show.
There were several characteristics that were part and parcel of this series, one of which was McCloud’s catchphrase, ‘There ya’ go!’.
It is funny what sticks with a person. I still remember the Australian show whenever he used his catchphrase the other people in the scene would all look around in confusion and say who—or—where, or some other confused remark.
I sometimes find myself on both sides of these catchphrases. Phrases like there ya’ go, there you are, and such like seem to draw a conclusion and we are being instructed to draw a conclusion with the speaker. Sometimes we do and sometimes we look around and wonder, how did the bird just fly over my head and I missed it?
Communication isn’t as easy as it should be mostly because we come from different backgrounds and experiences. Many years ago in a conversation with my sister, she said, “I believe in life after death. I don’t know if you believe in that or not.”
“Yes, of course, I believe in life after death.” I was puzzled by her statement because most Christian faiths believe in the Resurrection and Second coming when we will be alive with Jesus. Some don’t but most believe in life after death.
My sister and I were not raised in any Christian faith so she might not have known this and that added to my questioning of her statement but…
What I was talking about and what my sister was talking about were miles and a universe apart. What she called ‘life after death’ was reincarnation. Coming back as something else in a next life. What I called life after death was that when we die here on this earth we leave our fleshly temple, this body, behind and move into the eternal spiritual life beyond.
After all of my experience, I still don’t always clarify my communication and it does cause me to wonder why it is so easy to assume I’m on the same page as someone else.
Then there are the times when I know I’m in one world and the person I’m talking with is somewhere else. And as it’s said somewhere by someone wiser than myself, Ne’er the twain shall meet.
Spiritual people lately have been talking about the ‘rapture. Ever tried to talk one of those believers out of that belief? Or any number of doctrines that aren’t supported scripturally without picking things out of context and working them over in our image.
There are many of these doctrines as there have been many through the ages. The Catholic church believes it was the church from which all other churches came. Not so, there was an original simple church before the Catholics took over and warped the teachings of the New Testament.
What is needed in order to be true to the original church and its teachings is the scriptures and what the Apostles taught. And we must be careful to follow those teachings not throwing in commandments and doctrines of men with their human errors lest we become part of the problem spoken against. And there you are…
1 John 2:
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
