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The ladies of the Choir have just sung a thoughtful text, "Tis a gift to be simple...when we find ourselves in the place just right." But if we don't end up in life at that place for which we started, it is usually not because we were tempted away, but because we were distracted from it. It doesn't take a large wound to impede our progress, a swarm of mosquitoes will do. It is the trifles, the mere nothings, the inconsequential which deflect our attention from our most worthy goals and finally defeat us.
Recently, a little girl said to her father, “Daddy, I know the opposite of night.” “What is it?” he obligingly asked. "Day!" she proudly replied, smiling at her knowledge and accomplishment.
It is traditional to look upon this season as a time to begin anew, to rise above past mistakes. It is also a time when many individuals examine their priorities and lifetime objectives and feel the need to increase their spirituality and religious commitment.
It is good to be merry, for a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. It was Emerson who wrote about the wonderful expressiveness of the human body. "The face and eyes reveal what the spirit is doing," he said, "... [and announce] to the curious how it is with them."1
Today the New Year spreads before us open to our hopes, dedicated to our dreams. Certainly, there are problems ahead and always will be. But we, as no other people in the history of the world, have the resources with which to overcome our difficulties and achieve our aspirations.
This Christmas season is drawing to a close. The nativity scenes which have beautified the American landscape will be carefully boxed to safeguard their storage for another year.
Jesus, who created the world, could certainly have chosen any birthplace here. He must have come to a stable by design. Were there no palaces in Israel? Were there no halls decked with finery and smelling of perfume? Were there no comforts in the country, no soft beds or medical attendants? Almost surely there were, but that was not to be His beginning.
Home. Home is where our mother and our father are. Home is where our children play and think about the holiday season and wonder what bright and beautiful surprises lie ahead. Home is where we long to be and where we need to be—especially at this time of year, when the spirit of the season reminds us that we are members of a family, that we are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.
The holiday season is an excellent time to enjoy our families. Those who nurture strong family roots watch their efforts bear fruit year-round. But the harvest is at its peak during this season—beginning with Thanksgiving and extending through Christmas and New Year's Day.
If we saw a person who could not even hear sounds struggling to be a musician, or a lawyer so shy that he could not bring himself to speak up in the courtroom, or a cripple aspiring to be an Olympic racer, we might be tempted to pity these people and wonder why they didn't choose some profession for which they were better suited. We certainly would not suspect they would succeed, but in these three cases we would be wrong. For we would be looking at Ludwig Van Beethoven creating his immortal Ninth Symphony. Our shy lawyer would one day be the great Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi, and our crippled runner would be Glen Cunningham who dominated the mile run in the 1940's.
It seems woefully inadequate to set aside only one day out of the entire year for Thanksgiving. We are all recipients of countless blessings, enough to merit the designation of every day as a day of gratitude. The mere fact that we exist in a world of exquisite beauty, a world inhabited by others with whom to share our awareness is sufficient to evoke continuous and sincere appreciation.
The English dramatist, John Webster, observed that, "There is not in nature a thing that makes man so deformed, so beastly, as doth intemperate anger."
Marriage is perhaps the most vital of all the decisions we make in life. It is a union of minds as well as hearts, with far-reaching impact.
All creatures of the earth seem to be born with some natural instinct that makes them recoil from danger. Rabbits tremble, birds keep frantic watch, and even newborn human infants howl if they think they are about to fall. Fear is an alarm system which keeps us from danger and only a fool would never admit to occasionally feeling it. George Washington was quoted after a skirmish in 1754 with the French and Indians as saying that bullets whistling past had a "charming sound." When asked about it years later he said, "If I ever said so, I was young."1 And so, sometimes our youth or inexperience keeps us from knowing the good of a warning fear.
0, would that we had perfect peace. "Peace is a good so great," wrote Augustine, "that...there is no word we hear with such pleasure or find...more thoroughly gratifying."1 Indeed, we believe the hearts of all civilized people yearn for peace.
It seems incomprehensible to those who mourn the death of a loved one that the world keeps turning, that shops are open for business as usual, that newspapers and bills are still delivered, that neighbors and friends continue on their casual way. This is especially true for those who lose a partner in marriage, a companion through long decades of growing and changing. When death takes a spouse, much of our own life also dies, leaving us withered and unwilling to continue. Even with the healing hands of time, some are never able to fully overcome the traumatic and awesome effect of their spouse's passing. Theirs, unfortunately, is a world of pulled window shades and mementos from the past, a world where the present and the future are non-existent.
When we speak to others, we often send subtle messages—with meanings quite different from those we intend. It seems to be a growing problem. People have difficulty communicating with one another.
We live in a busy world. There are so many things to do, so many responsibilities pulling for our attention. Even our technologies do not seem able to make our lives less crowded; as soon as we invent a system to simplify one task, another responsibility moves in to consume whatever time we've saved.
If history can teach us anything, perhaps it is modesty about who we are and what we are. What seems permanent from the vantage of a single life caught in the present is as transient as the wind which erodes a desert city. Institutions and the people who create them burn bright for their moment and then flicker and fail.
"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," a beautiful work by Bach, is one of the most beloved in the literature of great music. It is so partly for its moving melody, and also because it captures and encompasses a thought and a hope that every human heart warm to the pursuit of joy.
Good emotions are the best prescription for good health that we know of. Emotions can work miracles. There are many examples of individuals who seem to get well, not because of any treatment by their physicians, but because of the effects of their own positive emotions—happiness and the enthusiasm that comes with it, humor with its ability to relieve worry.Good emotions are the best prescription for good health that we know of. Emotions can work miracles. There are many examples of individuals who seem to get well, not because of any treatment by their physicians, but because of the effects of their own positive emotions—happiness and the enthusiasm that comes with it, humor with its ability to relieve worry.
"How beautiful upon the mountains, " wrote Isaiah, "How beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good."
In a world where most of us are bombarded with thousands of commercial messages each year, we may begin to think the highest purpose for our existence is to consume. After all, we've been reminded of the many ways we can smell sweeter, drive faster, eat more conveniently, relax on newer furniture and save money by spending it now. Some of us have learned to believe what we have is never enough and in an economy where so many pocketbooks are growing thinner, the resulting tension between what we think we need and what we can afford may result in unhappiness.
We recognize many things in life as self-indulgent. A piece of pie when we are on a diet; fifteen minutes extra sleep after the alarm rings; blowing our budget on a vacation; a TV remote control unit so we don't have to move to change the channel.
One of the realities of this life is that everything is not as it appears; or more appropriately, everything is not as we perceive it. We filter what we see through our own imaginations, our own sentiments, through our own values and aspirations. We see, as Paul the Apostle noted, "through a glass darkly,"1 perceiving illusions as reality and at times reality as illusion.
Summer is an ideal season for mental, emotional and spiritual tune-ups. Just as a finely tuned engine needs adjustments to run most efficiently, so do our lives run more efficiently if we take time for needed adjustments and improvements.
The scriptures teach us that we are responsible to love one another, to care for one another, to be brothers and sisters to one another. For, as the Apostle John taught, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"1
One day as Jesus Christ roamed into a certain village, ten lepers approached him begging to be cleansed. Christ told them to pass in front of the priest and indeed when they did, they were healed. Nine rushed away, jubilant and self-centered, but one returned to the Lord to give thanks. And Jesus said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?"1 It was a plaintive question, typical of a lifetime of being used and then forgotten. But what is most interesting is that though Christ noticed the lepers' lack of appreciation, He did not remove the gift. How many others were healed who hurried off, forgetting the healer? How many beneficiaries of His kindness watched mutely while He was tried and crucified?
Not long ago a group of American college students arrived in an Eastern European city somewhat apprehensive. The country was not known for its political friendliness to America, and in addition, there were representatives from several other countries—some of which also were not particularly friendly to the United States.
The greatness of nations is made up of more than gross national products and technologies. So it is with this country. Behind the corporations, underlying the commerce and trade, supporting the stock markets—greatness is difficult to define, but an ever-present factor.