Before you have done it

"The Bible will tell you what is wrong before you have done it."

~ D.L. Moody

Enjoy your bitterness?

from Obama, Clinton reach deal to limit roll-call vote
Philadelphia Inquirer, Tuesday, August 26, 2008

"Townsend, a Maryland delegate, was a strong Clinton supporter but now is fully behind Obama. She said she understood why some of her colleagues had not joined her yet.
'There's a moment that you want to enjoy your bitterness,' she said."

God will help me

A man stayed in his house as a flood engulfed his town. Two men in a rowboat came to his house and offered to take him to safety.
"No thank you", the man said, "G-d will help me".
As the waters rose, the man retreated to the second story of his house. Now, two men in a motorboat came by and offered to rescue him.
Again, the man declined, saying, "No thank you, G-d will help me."
As the waters rose still higher, the man retreated again to the rooftop of his house. A helicopter came by, and someone inside it threw down a rope, urging the man to grab it and be pulled up into the helicopter.
Once more, the man declined and said, "No thank you, G-d will help me."
Whereupon a mighty voice called out to the man, "You idiot! I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat, and now a helicopter. What more do you want me to do?"

Martha Beck's Joy Diet

Feasting on Food
"Though the Joy Diet isn't a typical food regimen, it does have two strict rules about eating. They are:

1. You must eat only what you really enjoy.
2. You must really enjoy everything you eat."

http://www.oprah.com/article/spirit/omag_200305_beck/3
from O, the Oprah Magazine

Abraham Lincoln on the Bible

"Read this book for what on reason you can accept and take the rest on faith, and you will live and die a better man."

~ Abraham Lincoln

Jesus Christ is more than a man

"I know men, and Jesus Christ is more than a man."

~ Napoleon Bonapart

He Saved Her Life

It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rain in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. The creeks and streams were long gone back into the earth. It was a dry season that would bankrupt several farmers before it was through.
Every day, my husband and his brothers would go about the arduous process of trying to get water to the fields. Lately this process had involved taking a truck to the local water rendering plant and filling it up with water. But severe rationing had cut everyone off. If we didn't see some rain soon, we would lose everything.
It was on this day that I learned the true lesson of sharing and witnessed the only miracle I had seen with my own eyes.
I was in the kitchen making lunch for my husband and his brothers when I saw my six-year old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. He wasn't walking with the usual carefree abandon of youth, but with serious purpose. I could only see his back. He was obviously walking with great effort, trying to be as still as possible. Minutes after he disappeared into the woods, he came running out again, toward the house.
I went back to making sandwiches, thinking that whatever task he had been doing was completed. Moments later, however, he was once again walking in that slow, purposeful stride toward the woods. This activity went on for an hour: walking carefully to the woods, running back to the house.
Finally I couldn't take it any longer and I crept out of the house and followed him on his journey (being very careful not to be seen . . . he was obviously doing important work and didn't need his Mommy checking up on him.) He was cupping both hands in front of him as he walked, being very careful not to spill the water he held in them, maybe two or three tablespoons were held in his tiny hands.
I snuck up close as he went into the woods. Branches and thorns slapped his little face, but he did not try to avoid them. He had a much higher purpose. As I leaned in to spy on him, I saw the most amazing sight.
Several large deer loomed in front of him. Billy walked right up to them. I almost screamed for him to get away. A huge buck with elaborate antlers was dangerously close. But the buck did not threaten him, he didn't even move as Billy knelt down.
Then I saw a tiny fawn, lying on the ground, obviously suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion, lift its head with great effort to lap up the water cupped in my beautiful boy's hand. When the water was gone, Billy jumped up to run back to the house and I hid behind a tree.
I followed him back to a spigot on the side of the house. Billy opened it and slowly filled his makeshift "cup," as the sun beat down on his little back. When he stood up and began the trek back, I was there in front of him.
As he began his walk, I joined him with a small pot of water from the kitchen. I let him tend to the fawn. I stayed away. It was his job. I stood at the edge of the woods, watching the most beautiful heart I had ever known working so hard to save another life.
As the tears that rolled down my face began to hit the ground, other drops, and more drops, and more, suddenly joined them. I looked up at the sky. It was as if God, Himself was weeping with pride.
Some will probably say this was all a huge coincidence. Those miracles don't really exist. That it was bound to rain some time. I can't argue with that. I'm not going to try.
All I can say is that the rain that came that day saved our farm just like the actions of one little boy saved another life.

~ Author Unknown

The importance of laughter

"Laughter is America's most important export."

~ Walt Disney

Thinking of ourselves less

"Humility does not cause us to think less of ourselves; it allows us to think of ourselves less."

~ author unknown

I love you so much!

One day, a well-meaning husband wanted to do something special for his wife so he left work early and bought his wife some flowers, candy and a card. When he arrived home, with great pride, he presented the gifts and exclaimed, "Hi honey! I love you so much!"

Immediately his wife started crying. "Everything's gone wrong today," she explained sobbing. "The baby's grouchy, the dishwasher won't work, and now you come home drunk!"

Where was God?

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning:

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Katrina)
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

The God Zone

"Olympic athletes try to stay in the Olympic zone to win a gold medal.
I try to stay in the God zone to win a gold crown in the kingdom of heaven."

~ Truthful Grace

Leading

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

~ Laurence J. Peter

What was John Edwards thinking?

He said in a statement:
"I started to believe that I was special and I became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."

The Future

"The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different."

~ Peter Drucker

anything I can do?

"Is there anything I can do to make this better for you?"

~ Bill Golderer, 8-10-2008, BMPC

Love, Accept, and Forgive

"There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me."

~ C.S. Lewis

Christianity has an image problem

UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters (Hardcover) Oct 1, 2007 (book)
David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons

"hypocritical, sheltered, insulated, homophobic, judgmental"

"Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like “hypocritical,” “insensitive,” and “judgmental,” young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of . . . unChristian.

Groundbreaking research into the perceptions of sixteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds reveals that Christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. The surprising details of the study, commissioned by Fermi Project and conducted by The Barna Group, are presented with uncompromising honesty in unChristian.

Find out why these negative perceptions exist, learn how to reverse them in a Christlike manner, and discover practical examples of how Christians can positively contribute to culture."

------------------------------------------------------
Blog review:
http://tungstenfluff.typepad.com/tungsten_fluff/books/

April 22, 2008
unChristian: Judgmental

"I think the Judgmental chapter moved me to self-examination more than any other in the book. To summarize: unChristian is an analysis of polling data from the 16-to-41-year-old age groups regarding their views of Christians and the church. Six “impressions” stood out from the noise: hypocritical, anti-homosexual, sheltered, too political, overly focused on conversion and judgmental.

"A definition, “To be judgmental is to point out something that is wrong in someone else’s life, making the person feel put down, excluded, and marginalized. [It] is fueled by self-righteousness, the misguided inner motivation to make our own life look better by comparing it to the lives of others.” (p182) If this definition knocks us off-guard, the authors immediately follow-up with the statistic that 87% of non-Christian young people polled used the term judgmental to describe Christians. This becomes a prejudice and a challenge we face when introducing ourselves as Christ-followers to unchurched people (p183).
...
"As a post-script, Jud Wilhite quotes CS Lewis’ encouragement to give each other the same kind of slack we give ourselves (p198). Enjoy and think:

"There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me."

Posted at 02:32 PM in Books | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Love, Duty and Grace

"When love and duty are one, then grace is within you."

~ Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil

Always at their best

"Only the mediocre are always at their best."

~ Jean Giraudoux

The past is never dead

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

~ William Faulkner

Life well used

"As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death."

~ Leonardo da Vinci

"Hope's about making sense of it all - making it calm for everybody"

Dr. Oz talks to Randy Pausch

Dr. Oz on terminal illness:

Dr. Oz says it's impossible to determine precisely how long someone with a terminal illness will survive. "We also have the phenomenon of a 'no-cebo effect,'" Dr. Oz says. "Everyone knows what a placebo is, right? When people tell you stuff is going to be good and you do better than you're supposed to. When we tell you you're going to die, you cooperate."

While they obviously want to heal their patients, in many cases, Dr. Oz says the physician's role is simply to help bring a sense of calm to the family. "The fascinating thing about the medical profession is the ancient healing rite was not to save lives. We couldn't do that that well until this century. It wasn't about doing a lot more than just bringing order to the situation," he says. "I unfortunately deal with this a fair amount as a heart surgeon. A lot of times, you're just making it calm for everybody to break that chaos apart. I do get that we have to offer hope, but hope's not about having a good outcome. Hope's about making sense of it all."

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/
slideshow1_ss_oz_20071022_350/8

Randy Pausch on dying:

Randy says he can't change the cards he's been dealt, but he can control how he plays them. "If you are hopeful, if you are optimistic, other people want to help you. And if you are down in the dumps, other people may still help you, but I've noticed that they're walking, not running, over to you," he says. "In the lecture, I talk about you've got to decide pretty early in life whether you're going to be a Tigger or an Eeyore. What I found is if you're an upbeat person, people will flock to help you, and suddenly everything gets easier."

Randy sees life as being 10 percent white, 10 percent black and 80 percent gray. "You can go through life and say, 'Gee, that 80 percent gray part, that's black, and life is a bad thing,'" he says. "Or you can say that 80 percent gray part's part of the white, and it's the goodness and the light. I want to view life that way. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. That 80 percent in the middle really can go either way, and if you decide you want to make it go good, not bad, you have a lot more power to make that happen than you might think."

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/
slideshow1_ss_oz_20071022_350/10