Successful Failures

Today's society places tremendous emphasis on physical appearance not only for women, but also (even if to a lesser degree) for men. If, for example, two men of equal qualifications apply for the same job, the tallest man is most likely to be chosen for the position.

Because of his amazing courage in the Battle of Lodi in 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte became known as "the little corporal." He was only five-feet-two-inches tall !

William Wilberforce was another small man who apparently never enjoyed good health. For twenty years he was under a doctor's care. More than any other person he was responsible for stopping the British slave trade. He was known for his eloquence and in 1780 entered the British Parliament at age 21. Six years later he joined Thomas Clarkson, the anti-slave campaigner, and began his fight against slavery even though the bill to end the slave trade didn't become law until 1807—twenty-one years later.

On one occasion James Boswell, the great Scottish author went to hear Wilberforce speak. Afterward he said, "I saw what seemed to be a mere shrimp …  but as I listened, he grew and grew till the shrimp became a whale."

Often in life, many of the greatest achievements have been accomplished by persons who have had a serious setback, a major limitation or handicap, or a significant failure of one kind or another, but have overcome their defect to rise above their circumstances.

If you feel you have a shortcoming, be encouraged, the people God uses are ordinary people who make themselves available.

Dear God

thank you

that you use

ordinary people

to accomplish

your work on earth

 

I am available.

 

Please make me usable,

and use me to be a part

of what you are doing

in the world today.

 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

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."

Repressed people are closed people and are unable to fully love and fully live. Neither can they have any kind of emotional intimacy in marriage and 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

On Guard

Roger Perkins wrote how he "once encountered a ruffled grouse in the woods of Montana. She was close and feigned having a broken wing and unable to fly. She would run ahead of me and look back to make sure I followed. Her purpose was to lead me away from her chicks who were somewhere nearby, although I couldn't see them. This is a common ploy among mother wild game birds. I am capable of the same thing in my life and have done it on occasion. I have to keep on constant guard."  

What Roger is saying is that it is very easy to be led astray by rationalizing tempting thoughts and allowing them to lead us astray, and then justifying our actions when we chose to do something that we know in our heart is wrong.

We need to be constantly on guard against our own deceptive thoughts, rationalizations, and actions because Satan will never give up on seeking to lead us away from God. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

F.R.I.E.N.D.Z

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. He never expects from us what he hasn't gifted us to do. And he has already equipped us to do what He wants us to do. 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."

Dear God

thank you

for the talents

you have given to me.

 

Please help me

to see what they are,

develop them fully,

and use them

to the best of my ability

 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

Outrunning Who ?

It's an old story but worth repeating: Two friends are hiking in the woods when they come upon a menacing-looking bear walking directly toward them. When one fellow starts to slowly remove his backpack, the other whispers, "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to run for it," was his reply.

"But you can't outrun a bear," his pal protested.

"I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you."

As Michael Josephson said in his weekly column, "Everywhere we see people living their lives according to this Darwinian law of the jungle. They see everything as a competition just to find the most extreme tactics to assure their own survival. You've heard the rationales: 'It's a dog-eat-dog world,' 'Eat or be eaten,' 'You've got to look out for Number One.'"

Wrong! These people end up only outrunning themselves—even if it is eventually!

People who believe in and live by this dog-eat-dog philosophy will die by this philosophy. As it has been said, "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword." And what is the point of being the richest or most successful person in the grave ? The reality is that we can't take what we gained with us when we die.

But if we honor others, we can send ahead all that we have legitimately gained—as an investment in eternity—and therein store up riches in heaven.

Dear God

please deliver me

from ever participating

in this 'dog-eat-dog' mentality and practice.

 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer.

Where Are the Nine ?

"You probably read about Paddy who was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place.

"Looking up to heaven he said, 'Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish whiskey.'

"Miraculously, a parking place appeared.

"Paddy looked up again and said, 'Never mind, I found one.'"

While we make jokes about such things, I wonder how often I pray, God answers, and I forget to say thank you … or fail to even see that God has answered my prayer because it wasn't in the way that I expected it to be.

The fact is, when my prayer is sincere from the heart, God always hears and answers it. Sometimes the answer is "Yes," sometimes it is "No," and sometimes it is "Wait a while." And sometimes it is in a way that is totally different from what I expected.

The important thing is that we always thank God for hearing and answering our prayers regardless of the way in which they are answered, because God always knows what is best for us.

Dear God
thank you
that you always hear
and answer my prayers
in one way or another.
May I always have a grateful heart
and learn to thank you regardless of the way
in which you answer my prayer.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

The Power of Tears

Walter Wangerin in his book, The Manger Is Empty, "has a wonderful story, called 'Matthew, Seven, Eight, and Nine' about how he tried to stop his son Matthew from stealing comic books. He tried various uses of the law over several years and continued to fail. Finally, he resorted to something he rarely used: a spanking. He did it deliberately, almost ritualistically, and he was so upset when he finished that he left the room and wept. After pulling himself back together, he went in to Matthew and hugged him. 

"A number of years later, Matthew and his mother were doing some general reminiscing, and Matthew happened to bring up the time when he kept stealing comic books. 'And you know why I finally stopped?' he asked. 'Sure,' she said, 'because Dad finally spanked you.' 'No!' replied Matthew, 'No, because Dad cried.'

Dear God

thank you 

that you know 

and understand me 

more than anyone else ever could, 

and that you care deeply for me. 

Please help me 

to grasp the fullness 

of your love and concern 

and learn to trust in you 

implicitly no matter what. 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

Discipline vs. Punishment

Nine-year-old Al had disobeyed his father who, as a strict disciplinarian, sent him with a note to a police station in London. When Al came in late after curfew, his father met him at the door and handed him a note and said, "Take it to the jailhouse."

Al was terrified.

"The officer, a friend of his father, opens the note, reads it, and nods,. 'Follow me.' He leads the wide-eyed youngster to a jail cell, opens the door, and tells him to enter. The officer clangs the door shut. 'This is what we do to naughty boys,' he explains and walks away ... The jail sentence lasts only five minutes. But those five minutes felt like five months. Al never forgot that day. The sound of the clanging door, he often told people, stayed with him the rest of his life.

"The fear of losing a father's love exacts a high toll. Al spent the rest of his life hearing the clanging door. That early taste of terror contributed to his lifelong devotion to creating the same in others. For Al—Alfred Hitchcock—made a career out of scaring people."

True, discipline is important, but it always needs to fit the crime. Some children are impaired for life because of severe punishment as a child. Others are left terrified if they were beaten severely or abused. It is imperative that parents never discipline out of anger because that is punishment, not discipline. Discipline always needs to be in love. 

Those whom God loves, he disciplines in love—not punishes in anger. We need to do the same with our children.

Dear God
thank you that when you discipline me
it is always out of your love for me and for my good

Help me
to do the same
when disciplining my children.
May it always be in love and never out of anger.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

Three Great Abilities

Three of life's greatest abilities are dependability, responsibility, and availability.

First: Dependability, among many things, is keeping one's word. It's doing what we say we are going to do. It's keeping the commitments we make. It is being authentic; for instance, sometimes, instead of saying what we truly feel and want, we say what we think others want to hear to be "nice," and then we do the opposite, which is far from being nice. It's being dishonest. Such a person cannot be trusted or depended on.

Second: Responsibility; that is, realizing that I am totally responsible for what I say, for what I want, for what I feel, for what I do or don't do, for getting my needs met in healthy ways, and for every area of my life.

Unless I am handicapped, no matter what happened to me in the past relationally, if it were negative, I am responsible for what I do about it and for what I become. As another has wisely said, "I may have been a victim in the past, but if I remain a victim, I am now a willing volunteer."

As long as I fail to accept personal responsibility for my life and blame anybody else for the difficulties I have, I will never overcome them. That is, if I keep playing the blame-game, I will B-LAME!

Third: Availability. If I want my life to be fulfilling and meaningful, I need to be available for my family, for having a part in worthwhile causes (without being obsessive), and for being available to participate in God's work here on earth. As I have shared on a number of occasions, when it comes to being involved in God's work, every morning I pray the following prayer of commitment: "Dear God, again today I'm available, please make me usable." I encourage you to also pray this prayer at the beginning of every day.

Dear God
please help me
to become the person
you want me to be,
to always be dependable,
responsible, and available for you
to use to have a part in what you are doing in the world today

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz

The Power of Courage

When she was only nineteen months of age, Helen Keller suffered an illness that left her blind and deaf. Soon she was unable to speak. By the age of seven she was extremely frustrated by her inability to communicate. Fortunately, her parents were able to hire a 20-year-old teacher to come and live with them.

The teacher, Anne Sullivan, was a very capable and loving individual and was able to put courage into Helen by teaching her to communicate with the use of her fingers. Helen was greatly encouraged, learned to read by Braille and then read everything she could lay her hands on.

She desperately wanted to earn a university degree and, passing the entrance exams to Radcliffe, pleaded with officials to allow her to attend and bring Anne Sullivan with her to translate the lectures into her manual code. The following is part of what she wrote to the admissions office:

"I realize that the obstacles in the way of my receiving a college education are very great—to others they may seem insurmountable; but, dear Sir, a true soldier does not acknowledge defeat before the battle."

Helen was admitted and graduated with high honors. She then spent the rest of her life helping to improve the lot of and put courage into other handicapped people at home and around the world.

Indeed, "A true soldier does not acknowledge defeat before the battle!" A good word for today.

Dear God

please give me 

the courage 

to face any and all battles 

that may come my way 

knowing that you are with me 

and will never leave me or forsake me. 

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz