Common sense...

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."  ~ Matthew 7:24-25

I grew up in the country.  When I say country, I mean "Kuntry," as they pronounce it back home.  Two communities shaped my life as a young person.  The first, Rattlesnake Holler, which is located in Morgan County, Indiana, just outside of Martinsville.  

The other being just south of Carp, Indiana, in Owen County, just outside of Spencer.

Both of these communities taught me a lot about common sense.

I have to laugh, these "common sense" lessons were really life-application, and kept a person from getting hurt, or damaging farm equipment that you used to make your living.

Oh, there was that time that I tried to pull a piece of equipment literally "through a concrete bridge."  The equipment was just a little too wide to navigate across an old concrete bridge.  The last time I visited the area, the two, scratches (okay, so they are lines cut about a quarter inch into each side where I pulled the piece through the bridge with the tractor) still exist.

Since we heated our home with a wood stove in both communities, we spent nearly every weekend during the summer when we weren't "busy," cutting wood that would keep us warm during the long winter.

Watching for nails, old pieces of fence, and various other objects, when cutting the trees with a chain saw became habit.  Both areas that we lived had been settled previously, and old fence rows had been created, and sometimes you would simply find an object that someone had tacked onto the tree years ago, and the tree absorbed the object into it's trunk.

The reason you watched for these things is because you didn't want the chainsaw to "kick back" and cause injury, get caught in the object which would waste time trying to free from the situation, or simply dull the blades.

It became "common sense" practices.  

I don't always know why some people insist on doing things the way they do.  A hurricane on the Gulf comes and strips an entire community off the map, and the next thing you know, new homes built on higher columns appear.

After wildfires rage through a community, multiple times, log cabins are built back.

Common sense.

Christianity is full of moments when we have to stop and ask ourselves, "What was he or she thinking?"

I guess it's human nature.  It is the reason why God is God.  Talk about common sense.  

God knows the hidden dangers, like a nail in a tree that you are about to cut for wood.

There are often signs that are provided.  Sometimes it's that small voice that whispers in your ear, "I have another plan."

The question is do we listen?  Do we stop and look truly at the situation?

Whatever it is that you are doing this day, may the sense of the Lord be present with you always!

Stay in God's grip!

​G. Todd Williams (c) 2017