A Tree by a River

Write It in Pencil by Lenny Cacchio

Franklin then describes a conversation he had with a Dunker, a descriptive nickname that described the mode of baptism of that denomination. When Franklin asked why they refused to commit to writing their set of beliefs, the Dunker replied, "When we were first drawn together as a society, it pleased God to enlighten our minds so far as to see that some doctrines, which we once assumed truths, to be errors; and that others which we once esteemed errors, were real truths. From time to time He has been pleased to afford us farther light, and our principles have been improving, and our errors diminishing. Now we are not sure that we have arrived at the end of our progression, and at the perfection of spiritual or theological knowledge; and we fear that, if we should once print our confession of faith, we should feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it, and perhaps be unwilling to receive further improvement, and our successors still more so, as conceiving we their elders and founders had done, to be something sacred, never to be departed from."

I like how they thought, and I've had the same experience Lenny has had. I've never been one to write in my Bible, not that there is anything wrong with doing that, just never could bring myself to do it. I always thought, in the back of my mind, I might have to go back and change it and I didn't want to mess it up. I'd rather write in a notebook or something. Sure enough, much has changed over the years, although usually a refinement rather than a complete reversal. And I know I'm not done.