Creative Solutions

Ideas can come from the strangest places. Creative genius comes to people who are open to new ideas and seeing different ways of doing things.

For example, in 1964 the freighter Al Kuwait, which was carrying 6,000 live sheep capsized and sank in Kuwait's harbor. The sunken ship with its decomposing cargo was presenting a serious threat to the country's water supply through its desalination processing plant.

To overcome the problem the ship had to be raised and moved to a safe place without falling apart and dumping its poisonous contents into the nation's water supply.

Karl Kroyer, a Danish engineer working in Kuwait came up with a novel idea. He pumped 27 million ping-pong balls into the freighter's hull which slowly raised it to the surface.

And where did he get this idea? From a Donald Duck comic book. Somebody sank Donald's boat and he and his feathered friends raised it by filling it with ping-pong balls!

When it comes to creative and meaningful living, the most valuable resources are found in the Word of God (not always in a comic book), It pays to know what it teaches and hide its truths in one's heart.

Do Your Best

When Leonardo da Vinci was still a pupil, his elderly, well-known teacher asked him to finish a painting that he, the teacher, had begun.

Young da Vinci stood in such awe of his master's skill that at first he respectfully declined. But his teacher would accept no excuse. He simply said, 'Do your best.'

Trembling, da Vinci took his brush and began. With each stroke, his hand grew steadier as the genius within him awoke. Soon he was so caught up in his work that he forgot his timidity. When the painting was finished, the frail and weak master was carried into the studio to see it. Embracing his student, he exclaimed, 'My son, I paint no more!'"

Not everyone has the kind of talent and genius that Leonardo da Vinci had, but every one of us has God-given talents that he wants us to develop and use. So use what talents you possess. Do your best and leave the rest to God. As Henry van Dyke said, "The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

Faith Without Action

Napoleon Hill said, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe can be achieved."

While this statement sounds rather grandiose, there is certainly a measure of truth in it. It's somewhat similar to "without action faith is useless".

As the old saying goes, you can't steer a ship or a bicycle to go anywhere until they're moving. Zig Ziglar in his book, See You at the Top, put it this way: "The largest locomotive in the world can be held in its tracks while standing still simply by placing a single one-inch block of wood in front of each of the eight drive wheels. The same locomotive moving at 100 miles per hour can crash through a wall of steel reinforced concrete five feet thick."

The important thing is that we get moving!

"Faith without works is dead."

Some people are sitting around waiting for some kind of special call or revelation from God before they get involved in His work. It's not likely to happen because God has already given us lots of instructions in his Word regarding what to do. All we need to do is read these instructions … and start moving into action!

Being Connected

Unfortunately, many people are taught to ignore their negative emotions. As John T. Raffa wrote in Psychology for Living magazine: "They believe you should hide such feelings--deny, deny, deny--and become nothing but a robot instead of what God made us, beings with feelings."

I have always emphasized the need to be honest, to be open-faced, to walk in the light, and to love one another. Repressed people are closed people and are unable to fully love and fully live. Neither can they have any kind of emotional intimacy in close relationships.

Only as we walk in the light, that is, in honesty and openness, are we able to have true fellowship and connection with both God and others. Furthermore, only then are we able to be open channels through which God's love can flow to others, and in so doing will we be able to fully live and fully love.

Dear God
please reveal to me
any and every barrier in my life
that blocks my feeling close to you
and to others
so that I can know true intimacy with you
and the ones I love the most
--and be a vibrant channel
through which
your love to others can flow.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.