Friends: An old connection comes back with joy and opportunity to talk about Jesus in a three-part series. - Bob

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Spirituality Column #864

June 6, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Bread Upon the Waters, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” Ecclesiastes 11:1

If I may share, I had a new experience last week; I was the guest on a podcast.

The “Finding Genius with Richard Jacobs” podcast (I know … the “Genius” thing makes me a bit queasy, too) reached out recently on a tip from long-ago church buddy Greg Rohler. Ten or more years past, Greg attended Dr. George Bebawi’s Wednesday night classes I coordinated at East 91^st Street Christian Church (2004-2017).  Turns out Greg still receives this “Common Christianity” column/blog via weekly email.

Richard lives in Rochester, N.Y., while Greg (with wife Deb) still lives here in the Indianapolis area. After they met randomly at a marketing conference years ago, Greg and Richard became friends and eventually Greg became Richard’s accountant.

While I blast-email this column/blog on Mondays to 580-plus direct recipients – many of whom, like Greg, are alums of George’s class – and post it on Twitter and Facebook, I’ve never promoted it heavily nor paid much attention to who exactly reads it.  I write the piece as an encouragement to believers, as a welcome faith and theology “release” for my busy brain, and as an excuse not to “journal” (not my thing).

Then … I send out “commonchristianity.blogspot.com” weekly as bread on the waters, confident someone will find it, praying they find encouragement, and hoping it sparks a thought or two about their faith, Jesus, God, their church, or life in general.

I receive some feedback, usually positive, but mostly, readers are on their own.

So it happens that Greg – talking with friend and client Richard who by the way grew up Jewish – dropped my name as a potential guest.  Richard contacted me in late April and after speaking with him on the phone and in a couple of follow-up texts, I knew I would enjoy chatting with him on the record fielding questions about my background and faith, and more than a little of addressing his own curiosity about Jesus and God.

We recorded the session Friday afternoon.  About an hour long, it will be post-produced and “up” at “FindingGeniusPodcast.com” possibly later this week.  In next week’s column I’ll share how to access it once I know the podcast is available.

The interview went well but I was surprised I stumbled when Richard asked me to list some of George Bebawi’s “blow your mind” teachings.  Folks from George’s class can likely relate. G.K. Chesterton in his book Orthodoxy noted, “that which we know best can often be the most difficult for us to explain.”  True…I didn’t know where to start. 

Next week’s column will get into “what I should have said” in response to the George question, and the following week we’ll review the podcast after I’ve listened to the final product. I am sure there will be other cases of “staircase wisdom,” or, the thing you wish you would have said but don’t think of until you’re “on the staircase leaving.”

It is surprising what returns, what we find, and what finds us “after many days.”

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), often amazed at where the bread floats, thanks Greg and had no idea he still reads this blog. Wonderful! Anyone is welcome to receive the blog email upon request (email Bob), no charge, and anyone with a notion to share the link CommonChristianity.blogspot.com is welcome to do so.  Walters has been writing the column, which began as a newspaper feature, weekly since November 2006.