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<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019m thinking of putting up a sign like this in front of my house, except the reverse\u2014 House Not for Sale. Haunted!!\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you but I am now almighty tired of endless phone calls by huxters and hustlers from all over the world trying to get me to buy more medical insurance, or invest in their scam, or worse\u2014 they are offering to buy my house for cash.\u00a0 There have been phone calls, letters in the mail, people knocking at my front door and trying to get me to decide on the spot about large matters, and I\u2019ve even been trolled by firemen and policemen on the phone. In regard to the latter, they want an instant pledge to support some cause they are sponsoring,\u00a0 and they will not simply send me information, let my wife and I discuss the matter and pray about it and then make a decision.\u00a0 Oh no, they want an instant pledge over the phone.\u00a0 As Hall and Oates once said\u2013\u201cI can\u2019t go for that,\u00a0 NOOOOOO, no can do!\u201d (sing along with me).<\/p>\n
Many of these sales persons have crossed so many lines its pathetic\u2014 the line of politeness, courteous discussion, identifying who they are and what their credentials are, leaving the decision up to me without getting irate, or incredibly pushy and insulting.\u00a0 \u00a0So all you spam risk people so identified by my phone who keep showing up\u2014-give it a rest. I\u2019m not now or ever playing along with your little game.\u00a0 And by the way, to the many of you who are assuming I\u2019m retired, I\u2019m not.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need supplemental income, supplemental health or property or car insurance.\u00a0 I\u2019m still working full time.\u00a0 And as the President of my school has recently reminded me\u2014 retirement is not in the Bible!\u00a0 Rest is in the Bible, retirement is not.\u00a0 \u00a0I once put up a cartoon on my door at school that read as follows\u2014<\/p>\n
It shows a professor behind a desk piled high with papers to read and grade and says \u2018I\u2019m quite sure God will not let me die anytime soon, as I still have so much still to do\u2019.<\/p>\n
And then there is this.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often participated in Duke\u2019s clergy health initiative survey.\u00a0 It has various sections, but what is alarming is not so much the survey, but the regular results of the survey.\u00a0 \u00a0A staggering number of ministers, a high percentage in fact, are dead within five years of their retirement.\u00a0 Yes, some are just worn out preachers, but one of the results of the survey shows that so often ministers have so defined who they are by what they\u2019ve been doing for the Gospel, that when they stop doing those things, they completely lose their sense of purpose or usefulness, and give way to despair, even asking if it was all worthwhile.\u00a0 And then they died\u2026\u2026\u00a0 \u00a0Not me baby.\u00a0 \u00a0\u2018Do not go gentle into that good night\u2019, said Dylan Thomas\u2026..<\/p>\n
Enough said.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m thinking of putting up a sign like this in front of my house, except the reverse\u2014 House Not for Sale. Haunted!!\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you but I am now almighty tired of endless phone calls by huxters and hustlers from all over the world trying to get me to buy more medical insurance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":60758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13955],"class_list":["post-60755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-stop-calling"],"yoast_head":"\n
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