Where’s that man gone?

July 29, 2025

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent August 3, 2018. Reposts from the blog of the late Pastor Jack Freed.

Mark Twain

“Never lie to someone who trusts you and never trust someone who lies to you.” (Mark Twain) I read that 60% of people will lie at least once during a 10-minute conversation – little white lies, mostly. Whatever…truth is taking a beating these days. We used to believe: “A man’s as good as his word.” Where’s that man gone? If we’re to have a culture of believability, it has to start with us. Lying, as a norm, is unacceptable. We can do better than that. 😉  Jack

 We have lots of new terms to cover lying, especially in the current political environment – misinformation…disinformation…fake news…and more. Twain would have simplified them all as lies. Although often attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer, Twain is also credited with saying, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” We have certainly witnessed a lot of the ridicule and violent opposition stages in recent years.

I think the key takeaway from Jack’s post is that if we want the culture to change it has to start with us. We can and should be doing better in our own day-to-day loves by embracing and living in an honest and ruthful way. We must be honest not only with others but with ourselves, too. There are no “little white lies”, there are just lies, especially when we are lying to ourselves.

The lies that we tell ourselves are especially insidious because they encourage us to lie to others about things such as how we feel or what we believe. Many times, the lies that we tell ourselves are really just excuses – excuses for failures, excuses for things that we have done and for things that we have left undone.

In the prayers of confession that start our church service each week we pray for forgiveness for things that we ‘ve done and things that we’ve left undone. Perhaps we also need t forgive ourselves in order to move on with life. I wrote about forgiving yourself back in 2022 – see https://normsmilfordblog.com/2022/10/08/forgive-yourselffree-yourselfmove-on/

So, stop lying to yourself and to others. Forgive yourself for things that are in your past and move on. You will have no need for lies. The creation of a culture of believability starts with you. Jack asked where has that man gone? Answer by saying, “He is here, I am him”. We can do netter than that and it starts with us.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Believe in yourself…

June 15, 2025

Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent 5/16/19 – Reprints from pasts to his blog by the late Rev. Jack Freed.

“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on her own wings.  Always believe in yourself.”  (Unknown)  In the Bible Paul wrote to some friends of his…”I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”  As I look back on my life, I see times when God has entered life events and given me a kind of power to persevere.  As the bird trusts in its wings, I trust in God’s omnipresence.   😉  Jack

Unspoken in the quote about the bird and its ability to fly is that the ability to fly is a God given ability. So, too, is the ability to believe in yourself when the going gets tough and to persevere through adversity. There are many places in the bible that talk about God helping people, but nowhere does it say that he did it himself; rather it always talks about God giving the believer the strength, the courage and the self-belief to do it themselves. Believe in yourself.

Fear is the root cause of self-doubt and the major thing that holds us back from doing the things that we want to do. It may be fear of failure or fear of looking foolish or some other fear, but the bedrock upon which all fear is based is the fear of death. That is why a strong belief in God and the acceptance of God in your life can help you overcome those other fears. Acceptance of God through Jesus means that you accept that you will have eternal life beyond your physical death. You need not fear death and after that not fearing other things becomes easier. Believe in yourself.

Believing in yourself does not mean displaying bravado. Indeed, many people who display bravado do so as much to try to convince themselves as to convince others of their bravery. The term foolhardy often follows closely behind such displays. Believing in yourself will give you a quiet sense of confidence with which to proceed, no matter what the outcome. That belief allows you to try and it also encompasses the ability to deal with the adversity of a failure (when the branch breaks out from under you) and learn from it. Believe in yourself.

If you watch much sports on TV you will often see elite athletes who have just accomplished something (winning a race, scoring a goal or making a touchdown) pointing to heaven and thanking God. They also mention God in interviews after the event, often saying that God gave them the ability to do what they did. They may also say that they believed they could do it and that was the key for them. Believe in yourself.

Believing in yourself my sound like it is self-centered and egotistical and it would be if it were not centered around your belief in God. Romans 8:31 says “If God is with us, who can stand against us?”  So, in reality when you say that you believe in yourself you are saying I believe in God. Just do it. Believe in yourself.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Stop staring at your shoes…

April 21, 2025
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent April 20, 2021
“Always ask yourself what will happen if I say nothing.” (Kamand Kojouri) Each of us has probably been in a situation where we should have kept our mouth shut, or conversely, should have spoken up…but remained silent. One of my favorite Bible passages is Ecclesiastes 3. I like this interpretation: “There’s a time for everything. There’s a time to speak up…and a time to shut up.” One of my WW II heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who spoke out against Hitler and lost his life because of it. When something is right or wrong, it’s our responsibility to speak up or to be complicit. Bonhoeffer is worth emulating. 😉 Jack


The news shows this weekend had stories about the mass protests that occurred over the weekend in various locations around the country. The video accompanying the stores showed hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people out on the streets protesting the actions of the current administration on a variety of issues, all of which boiled down to doing things that are just wrong.


Not everyone is comfortable taking up a sign and joining the protests on the streets and a part of that uncomfortable feeling is the realization that saying nothing against wrongs that need to be righted is a form of compliance or agreement with those wrongs. It’s not that they don’t agree that it is wrong, it mainly is that they fear being identified and perhaps retaliated against for expressing those feelings.
It is that fear of retaliation that the administration is promoting and counting on to keep people inline – especially the people in their own political party. Some in the ruling party have even come out and stated that they fear retaliation if they take a stand in line with their own conscious or convictions. How sad for America.


Sad also is the timid response and lack of leadership of the opposition party. As Jack pointed out, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was willing to risk his life to speak out against the atrocities for the Nazi regime. Many, if not most, of our current day politicians are not willing to risk their political lives (careers) to speak out against what they know is wrong. Instead, they stare down at their shoes in hopes that they can wait this nightmare out.


Politicians on both sides are being pummeled in town hall meetings when they go back home, mainly for their cowardice. The importance of the demonstrations in those town hall meetings and in the streets cannot be overstated. It is only through creating greater fear in the politicians about being voted out of office that these political cowards will be forced to take action to correct what is happening. They must fear the anger of the voters more than they fear retaliation from the administration for doing what is right.


So, ask yourself the question that Kamand Kojouri posed – “What will happen if I say nothing?” The answer to Kojouri’s question is that nothing will change unless you say something. Jack would be out there if he were here today. Stop staring at your shoes and join the protest in support of doing the right things.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Look for the value in others…

March 5, 2025


The Best of Jack’s Winning Words – Originally sent March 1, 2017

“Your value does not decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.” (Unknown) One of the things I like about Jesus is how he sees value in what some see as worthless. “Come to me, all you who are poor and heavy-laden.” He was criticized for hanging out with the riff-raff, but he did that because he saw the value in all. Remember…you have value, even if others don’t see it. 😉 Jack

Jesus saw the value in others because he took the time to look beyond the superficial surface that others saw and saw into their hearts. Sometimes the most honest person you’ll meet is the one who seems to have the least. They have nothing to be pretentious about and most times are thankful for what little they have.


As a society, to often we tend to judge the value of others based upon their apparent wealth or their position – in what we can “see”. We equate their “worth” with what they are worth in monetary or power terms, instead of their value as a human being.


If we take the time to think about it, those whose wealth or power is on obvious display deserve our pity more than our admiration or envy. In Matthew 19:24 Jesus said, “I’ll say it again-it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” Why? Because the rich man is burdened and blinded by all his possessions, wealth and/or power.


So how is one to evaluate the “worth” of someone else; how can we see their value. You cannot stand off and see or understand the worth of another person. The term “mien” describes what the world sees in one’s face when they are at rest or neutral about things. Most of us are unaware of the mien that our face presents to the world.


We might be surprised to learn that other people think we are unhappy or even mad, based on how our face looks when we are not trying to have any look at all. To find out how your mien looks, have a friend or family member take a snapshot of you when you aren’t expecting it. Did your mien surprise you?

The only real way to try to evaluate someone’s worth is to engage with them in conversation. One can tell quite a bit about the values, beliefs and prejudices of someone else by engaging in a serious conversation. Keep in mind that there is worth finding out about differing opinions that others have on things and different frames of reference from which they draw conclusions. Perhaps that is the real value of them – their different view of things. How boring life would be if everyone had the same opinions on everything. You don’t have to agree with them, but you may be forced to reexamine your own point of view.


So, rather than avoiding those who have different points of view on life, one should engage them and try to understand their perspective on life. You might even learn a thing or two about yourself. Look for the value in others to better understand your own value to others.

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Posted by Norm Werner

Heaven Help US…

November 4, 2024

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words 11/4/24 – Originally sent October 17, 2016.
“Do not be afraid…for the Lord will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) Are you one who fears what will happen after Election Day? I ask you to reread the quote from Joshua. A new book by David Gushee has the sub-title, From Fear To Faith In Unsettled Times. Its purpose is to help the believer think through the societal changes of today and move from fear to faith. All sorts of fears can consume us. “Be not afraid…The Lord will be there after Election Day.” 😉 Jack

There is a large dose of irony to be found in the repost of the words that Jack wrote in 2016 on the eve of that year’s election. We find ourselves once again is the situation where Donald Trump is running against a female opponent, who would be the first woman to ever be elected to the Presidency. This year the first would also include that she would be the first female of color to be elected.

The world did not end after that election, but it certainly changed quite a bit. Your political preferences will dictate whether you view those changes as good or bad. The world will not end this year when the election results are in; however, it is likely to change significantly once again. What will not change is that God will still be there, no matter who wins. Perhaps times like this and the change like that which is to come that make the constant presence of God in our lives all the more important.

So, don’t panic this week if your candidate doesn’t win. Instead put your faith in God and remember that He is with you always. Turning to your faith is times like this helps put things into perspective. In Mark 12:17 Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Caesar represented the government back then. The political parties and the candidates make up government today. Just keep in mind that the things that are important –faith, love and family – come from God, not the government.

So, get out and vote; but remember “Do not be afraid…for the Lord will be with you wherever you go.”

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Posted by Norm Werner