Sunday, July 19, 2009

Bobbin' Into a Little Bit of Bob

One of the things I love most about The Salvation Army is the multitudinous connections you can make with others. I mentioned this quite a while back, when I wrote a post about meeting a New Zealand couple in England and then randomly bumping into them again in the United States at my brother's SA corps in Kentucky. But, really these kinds of things happen all the time, when you belong to (or have belonged to The SA).

Another example, would have to be the fun connection I made with Bob Hostetler. When I was growing up, I knew a great guy named Larry Hostetler (he even toured with our Northern Illinois Youth Band at one point, if my memory is correct). But, long after I had married and left the Army, I attended a writer's conference at my alma mater, Wheaton College. As I sat in Bob Hostetler's class, I did briefly think to myself, "Hey, I know somebody with the last name of Hostetler," but I didn't really think it would be a connection.

So, at one point, I headed to the front to ask a question about our assignment (I believe it was to write a back cover for our intended book). Bob Hostetler has written several books with the apologist, Josh McDowell, including one I may give to my ES (despite his dread of books), called Don't Check Your Brains at the Door. He took a look at my biographical clip, where I had mentioned published articles in both the British and American War Cry. He began to explain that I didn't need to identify the two countries. I began to attempt to explain to him that they were two different publications.

He replied, "I know. I was the editor once."

The connection became immediately clear and I wanted to know more about Bob. Alas, I also felt obligated to abide by the general rule of conduct which 3rd grade teacher, Miss Sharon McKee emblazoned upon my memory, "Your fair share of time, space and attention." There were numerous conference attendees and they all had questions for Bob. We did eventually find seats near one another at a meal, but ended up plumbing our connections more fully through a brief correspondence.

Now, I get to milk that connection and eat the scraps of this great man's table all the time because he is on Facebook and he has several blogs. Here's the scrap I wanted to share this evening. He recently wrote a thought-provoking blurb for his status line on Facebook. He wrote:

Unforgiveness is like slitting your wrists...and waiting for someone else to die.


How true! I recently dabbled in a bit of unforgiveness myself, with my hubby, sadly. However, thankfully, once you give in to forgiveness it negates the action of personal wrist slitting and you don't even need bandages. Indeed, forgiving my husband aided in healing for both of us. Just another paradoxical wisdom from God that I have to learn over and over again.

If you want to discover more about Bob, including some fantastic books (some he has read, some he has written), you can head here or here or here or here. He's all over the web isn't he. So, why not bob into a little bit of Bob for yourself?

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