My oldest daughter, Pat, has always loved to read.  When she was in the fourth grade, her teacher called me in for a conference and told me that Pat was putting a book behind the workbook that the class was doing at the time.  "Has she done the math that she is supposed to do?" I asked.  "Well, yes, but she shouldn't be reading something else while we are doing math," the teacher answered.

"Why?" I asked her.  "If she has finished the assignment, what is it that you want her to do?"  The question just flustered the teacher.  She couldn't tell me why.  It just didn't seem right to her that Pat was reading while everyone else was doing math--even though her math problems were done.

I wonder sometimes if I am rigid in some areas of my life that are just as stupid.  Where do I need to rethink the way I am entrenched.  Do I always have to have mashed potatoes and gravy when I have roast beef?

For instance, I am a haphazard Bible reader.  I have no plan.  I admire people who do, but I don't follow one of those "Read the Bible through in a year" guides.  Do I need to rethink that?  I just read whatever I feel like.  I know where everything is, so I just turn to what I am currently thinking about.  I really, really, really, don't like rigidity of the mind.  But sometimes, I get mentally rigid.

Revelation ends with 22:13-14, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."  So we started this book with a blessing if we read it, and we end with a blessing if we obey him.  And we started the book of Genesis with a description of the tree of life.  And we end with it.

Rev. 22:17,20 "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is thirsty, Come...Surely I come quickly...even so, Come Lord Jesus.

Come on.