Pastor's Corner: What hat do you wear?
My greatest decade as a child was the 1950s. In 1950, I turned seven. By the end of that decade I was a senior in high school. What a 10-year period! I began the decade as a little child and finished it as a young adult.
A big part of my life as a child in the 1950s was the movies. It cost 12 cents to get in. I remember my first date in the fifth grade. My dad gave me 50 cents, that left a quarter for candy which got us five boxes! Popcorn was a dime. I didn’t buy pop at the theater then … or now!
Cowboys were a big part of the 50s movies, particularly at the Saturday matinee double feature. Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, Lash Larue, Whip Wilson, Hoppalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, all heroes of mine.
Life was simple in the movies. The good guys wore white hats, the bad guys wore black hats. The good guys defended women and children, the bad guys cared only about themselves. The good guys did good stuff, the bad guys robbed banks and rustled cattle. The good guys fought against evil, the bad guys did the evil. The good guys always won out in the end, the bad guys were always thrown in the hoosegow (jail.) Nobody ever got killed.
Of course, real life isn’t that simple is it? I try to be a good guy, and most of the time I am. But sometimes I am a bad guy, particularly when I give in to my human nature.
It is very natural for most of us to be a bit lazy, a bit selfish, sometimes stubborn, unwilling to change, and stuck in our bad habits. Wait you say, these are bad things a good guy in a white hat shouldn’t do, be, or feel! That’s right.
In the Bible, in Philippians 4:9, the apostle Paul says this about our approach to life:
“Finally brothers (and sisters) whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable … if anything is excellent or praiseworthy … think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me, put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
What is easier for you when you wake up to start your day, dwelling on the true, noble, right, pure lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, or, the lazy, selfish, stubborn, unwilling to learn or change, discouraged, or negative?
Now, hopefully it’s at least a combination of both good and bad, white hat feelings and black hat feelings, with the white hat winning out in the end, most of the time. But if you find yourselves trapped wearing your black hat too frequently, you need to change hats!
What hat do you wear most of the time, your white hat or your black hat? We all have “black hat days” but none of us should have a “black hat life." That is not good, that is not right, that is not what God wants for you.
“You (God) will show me the path of life: in Your presence is perfect joy: on Your right hand are pleasures forever.” Psalms 16:11
Try to put on your white hat every day.
Major John Morison of The Salvation Army Cheboygan.
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Pastor's Corner: What hat do you wear?
