Over the Edge

Back in 1911 a stuntman named Bobby Leach went over Niagara Falls in a specially designed steel drum--and lived to tell about it.

Although he suffered minor injuries, he survived because he recognized the tremendous dangers involved in the feat, and he had done everything he could to protect himself from harm. Several years later, while walking down a street in New Zealand, Bobby slipped on an orange peel, fell, and badly fractured his leg. He was taken to a hospital where he died of complications from that fall. He received a greater injury walking down the street than he sustained in going over Niagara Falls. He was not prepared for danger in what he assumed to be a safe situation."

Niagara  Falls has the breath-taking beauty and the incredible power of the millions of gallons of water rushing over the falls every second. Visitors have to be extremely careful to view the falls from a very secure position. If you stood in an unsafe place, one slip and you'd be gone.

When it comes to life's temptations, we're very much aware of and are careful to avoid the ones that "roar around us like the rushing waters of Niagara." But like Bobby slipped on an orange peel, it is extremely easy for us to ignore the seemingly "little" temptations that slip up on us silently but don't appear to carry any threat. However, a tiny indulgence in lust, can lure us and ever so slowly, little by little, draw us closer to the edge … and we wake up and discover to our dismay that we have slipped over the line into an addiction that has us hopelessly trapped.

No wonder the Scriptures warn us to be on our guard … and "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!"

Dear God,
please help me realize
just how vulnerable I am
and susceptible to life's 'little' temptations,
and that daily I need to commit and trust
my life and way to you.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

Insignificant Goals

 

Some years ago a headline told of three hundred whales that suddenly died. The whales were pursuing sardines and found themselves marooned in a bay. Frederick Harris commented, 'The small fish lured the sea giants to their death. They came to their violent demise by chasing small ends, by prostituting vast powers for insignificant goals.'"

Over the years I've asked numerous people how many of them believe that God has a purpose for their life. Almost all hands raise in agreement. But when I ask what their God-given life-purpose is, very few have any idea. I get lots of vague generalities, but very few have a clearly defined life-purpose.

If we don't know specifically where we are headed in life, instead of making life happen, we allow life as it happens to make us. That is, instead of directing our life, we are directed by life's circumstances. We become like a rudderless ship with no real sense of direction, wasting our God-given potential on pursuing happiness, riches, or insignificant goals. Unless we know where we are headed, there is a danger that we, like the whales, may make shipwreck of our faith or even of our life.

Dear God,
thank you that you do have a God-given life-purpose for my life.

Please help me to discover what it is
and, with your help,
do all in my power to achieve that purpose.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

The Secret of Happiness

As said earlier , happiness is many things to many people. For one thing, it means we need to know and accept ourselves for who we are.

Happiness also means learning to accept my personal circumstances. Some of them can be changed. Others can't. And unless I accept the ones that can't be changed, I'll never be happy or content. As blind Helen Keller said, "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work, and my God."

Happiness is also having a worthwhile goal . . . a noble purpose for which to live . . . something of value to strive for.

I was once talking to a union representative. At the time he was also demonstrating for a cause that was popular back then. He told me he joined this group because it gave him something to live for. I don't know if this man is still demonstrating for a cause, but certainly everybody needs something to live for other than himself and his own happiness.

Happiness in itself is not a worthwhile goal to live for. To be happy all of the time is unreal, as happiness is only one of life's great emotions. To be in touch with all of one's feelings is more important than being happy all of the time. To feel sad, hurt, angry, afraid, and unhappy at the appropriate times is both normal and healthy. However, if one is unhappy most of the time, this is nature's way of telling him/ her that something is missing in his life or some conflict needs resolving.

To be happy, or at least fulfilled, one also needs to have worthwhile work (paid or volunteer) into which one can put one's best efforts. Note, too, that when our work is helping to meet others needs, this can be very fulfilling.

Everybody has some talents; so it is important that he/ she discover his/ her gifts, receive adequate training to sharpen them, and find a place to use them. This is equally true for both men and women.

It is a wise man who helps his wife find, develop, and use her special gifts. He will reap just rewards through his wife's increased fulfillment and happiness. And so it is for a wise woman for her husband.

Dear God,
please help me to realize
that happiness comes
much more through who I am
rather than what I do.

Help me to become the person
you want me to be
and then find further fulfillment
and happiness with what I do
with my life.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayerz.

The Secret of Happiness

Already pointed out that happiness is many things to many people. It means knowing and accepting ourselves for who we are; learning to live with circumstances we are not able to change; having a worthwhile and noble purpose for which to live; and having something of value to do.

"If you find a really happy man," states one author, "you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, or growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a button that has rolled under the wardrobe, he will not be striving for it as a goal in itself, he will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life to the full twenty-four hours of the day."

The happy person also has healthy relationships with other people. The person who lives only for himself is immature and usually miserable. Even the ancient Greeks had a word for the self-centered person. It was idios from which we get our word, "idiot." It means belonging to one's self.

To love and be loved is without question one of mankind's greatest needs for happiness. Without love all else in life is meaningless. Once again, however, love comes from within. If we give love we will receive love. That is a law of life. Unfortunately, many people, especially in childhood, were hurt because of a lack of love and as adults are afraid to love for fear of being hurt again. With effective counseling and the will to overcome, this fear can usually be conquered.

A well-integrated self is also needed for happiness. If the self is whole and mature, happiness will follow.

Finally, character and a clear conscience are critical for lasting happiness. To feel forgiven for all the wrongs one has done gives one a deep sense of freedom. Any wrongs, therefore, that we have done need to be put right and any impaired relationships resolved. Not only do we need our brother's forgiveness, but also God's (Toba). When we confess our sins and faults to Him (Allah), He always forgives us. We then need to forgive ourselves.

Remember, happiness is a process not an event. Diligently follow the process and happiness/contentment will be the rich reward.

Dear God,
thank you that you have given me
the principles in your Word
for finding lasting peace, contentment, and happiness.

Give me a love for your word
so that I will know how to live
and therein find the inner peace, contentment, and happiness
you promise to all who put you first
and follow your ways.

Thank you for hearing and answering
my prayers ..

The Secret of Happiness

The search for happiness is as old as mankind.

Hedonism, an ancient Greek philosophy, stated that the chief end of man was happiness. Democritus, who lived in 460 BC, said, "Happiness is the object of our conduct." And Aristipus, a pupil of Socrates, put it this way. "The most intense pleasure is the highest good and is the aim of life."

People today still long for happiness, but in spite of our greatly increased knowledge and achievements so many people still haven't learned its secret.

Some doctors estimate that over 80% of patients are suffering as a result of emotional distress. A world-famous psychiatrist claims that "the central neurosis of our time is emptiness." And according to the United Nations World Health Organization, depression is the world's number one health problem.

Marilyn Monroe had everything that many seem to think brings happiness--beauty, wealth, fame, and popularity--but she ended her life in suicide. I have read that actor Mel Gibson also had everything the world had to offer but he never felt happy or fulfilled. This is one reason he produced and paid to make the film, The Passion of the Christ.

And millionaire Jay Gould said when dying, "I suppose I am the most miserable devil on earth."

Actually, wealth, fame, power, or beauty don't make one happy or unhappy. They are externals. Happiness comes from within. It is a by-product of an inner condition. If one lives only for personal happiness, he will probably never find it. As one person said, "The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness."

In their mind happiness is many things to many people. It depends on one's particular needs, abilities, interests, and maturity. Happiness for one man is to be an accountant, for another a farmer. Happiness for one woman is not to have any more children, for another to have one. The reality is, however, that none of these in and of itself can make anyone happy.

For me, happiness begins with being honest with myself and learning to understand and accept myself for who and what I really am. This way I can utilize my strengths and work towards overcoming my weaknesses.

Life's Little Frustrations

Paul Dickson discovered that the size of the cut he inflicted on himself while shaving was directly proportionate to the importance of the event he was shaving for. That led him to an interest in other "universal laws" evident in daily life. The following are a few of the many he has collected:

"No books you lend are lost except those you particularly want to keep."

"There are three ways to get something done:

do it yourself, hire someone, or tell your kids not to do it."

"You can throw a burnt match out of the window of your car and start a forest fire easier than you can start one under dry logs in your fireplace with a box of matches and the complete edition of the Sunday newspaper."

Let's face it, more often than not it's life's little annoyances that get to trigger our "worry/ frustration button" and cause us to overreact in one way or another.

As one of my favorite ditties goes: "It's the little things that bother us / and put us on the rack / you can sit upon a mountain / but you can't sit on a tack."

Most of us have at least one worry frustration button--and as long as this button is active, it's a good reminder that I still have some growing to do--and will until I get to the place where I quit worrying and overreacting and learn to trust God for everything!

Hmm. I see I still have a ways to go!

Dear God,
please help me
to keep growing in 'faith and love
so I can get to the point
where I can accept life's frustrations
without getting my buttons pushed,
and trust you in every situation.

Thank you for hearing and answering my
prayers.

The Power of Vision

Author Marabel Morgan told how for three long months prior to the birth of her second daughter she was flat on her back in the hospital with no visitors allowed.

She was bored out of her mind and longed to have something constructive to do but was too drugged to even read, let alone write. Eventually her baby was born and she returned home. Her life now was filled with things to do, taking care, not only of the new baby, but another daughter as well, her husband, household chores, and innumerable other responsibilities--not the time to write a book. But she did!

She said, "Once you set your goal, then picture it done. Without this finished picture in your mind, you'll give up halfway. With it, there's no limit to what you might accomplish."

Somebody else said, "Faith is visualizing what God wants you to do." Good point. Once we see what that is, it is so much easier to start doing it!

Dear God,
please give me a vision
of what you are doing
in the world today,
the world in which I live,
and help me to see
how I can be
a part of that.
Let your vision for me
be my vision for you.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayers.

Busyness

 

I read about a very successful preacher, or so he and many others believed, but he was always busy, busy, busy.

In fact he was so busy with his work "for God" that he neglected the most important things in his life.

Late one November his wife caught him as he was racing out the door to go to preach to somebody else's kids. She asked, "Do you know, or do you even care that from the middle of September until today, you have not been home one night?"

She had a breakdown soon after. He contemplated suicide. He later confessed, "I was a man who existed in a shell."

Like many of us, his shell of busyness was his external protection--not from the outside world--but from his inner world of unresolved anxiety. His problem was that he was a busy-aholic.

As long as we keep on the run to avoid facing our inner anxieties, our busyness can get us addicted to our own adrenaline, which becomes nothing less than a cheap anesthetic to deaden the feelings of an empty or troubled life. In so doing we end up hiding from our own reality--a self-destructive path to follow.

To overcome, the first step is to admit the truth of what we are doing; that is, admit our addiction no matter how refined it appears to be. The second step is to get into a recovery/ support group to help stop the addictive/ avoidance behavior so we can feel the pain we are seeking to avoid. And third, where necessary we need to seek wise or professional counseling as well as God's help to resolve and overcome the cause or causes behind our avoidance behavior.

Dear God,
Please help me
to let go of the addictive over-control of my life,
find the help I need to overcome,

Thank you for hearing and answering my
prayer.

Tact

 

British statesman and financier Cecil Rhodes, whose fortune was used to endow the world-famous Rhodes Scholarships, was a stickler for correct dress--but apparently not at the expense of someone else's feelings. A young man invited to dine with Rhodes arrived by train and had to go directly to Rhodes's home in his travel-stained clothes. Once there, he was appalled to find the other guests already assembled, wearing full evening dress. After what seemed a long time Rhodes appeared, in a shabby old blue suit. Later the young man learned that his host had been dressed in evening clothes, but put on the old suit when he heard of his young guest's dilemma.

In the words of Dale Carnegie, if we are going to "win friends and influence people," it is important that we understand people and, as much as possible (within moral bounds of course), that we are sensitive to their situation and, as much as possible, identify with them.

As the old saying goes, "to win some we need to be winsome."

Dear God
please give me an understanding heart
and help me always to be sensitive
to the needs and situation of others
so that my life
will be a channel of your love
to every life I touch ..

Dark Night of the Soul

William Cowper, poet and hymn writer, who lived from 1731-1800 in England, apparently suffered from fits of melancholy and frequent attacks of spiritual despair which led to two suicide attempts.

On one of these occasions, during a time of deep despair and a dark night of the soul on a foggy night he set out from his home in London with the intention of jumping into the River Thames to end his life.

He got hopelessly lost in the fog and wandered blind for some time. Eventually, lost and confused, he walked into a home to get out of the fog. And the home he walked into? It was his own.

He sat down and penned the words of the beloved hymn:

    God moves in a mysterious way
    His wonders to perform;
    He plants his footsteps in the sea,
    And rides upon the storm.

    Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
    The clouds ye so much dread
    Are big with mercy, and shall break
    In blessings on your head.

If you are going through a dark night of the soul right now and it feels that God is far away, be assured He is standing in the shadows and He knows all about you and He cares.

When we commit and trust our life to God every day, "Weeping may endure for the night, but joy will come in the morning" -- even if it is eventually!

Dear God
In my despair
let me not grow weary in trusting you
but renew my faith
and use my present pain
to make me a better, stronger person
so I can comfort others
as they struggle
through their journey of despair and pain.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer ..

You Can Never Get Enough of What You Don’t Want

I read an interesting quote that said, "You can never get enough of what you don't want." I had to stop and think about this one. Why would I ever want what I don't want?

An over-simplification of what I believe this quote means is that if I have a craving for chocolate ice cream, no matter how much vanilla ice-cream I get, it would never satisfy my hunger for chocolate ice-cream.

To apply this principle to a higher cause means that sometimes we settle for less than what is best for us because of the challenge to achieve what we truly want to achieve if we are determined to do so.

God wants the very best for us. The question for each of us is, Do we want what God wants for us?

God wants us a healthy lifestyle, a worthwhile work into which we can put our best efforts, loving relationships, and for us to discover and fulfill His divine purpose for our life.

It is no "chocolate ice cream party" to achieve any of these goals let alone all of them. The half-hearted never make it. "Vanilla ice-cream living" is so much easier to achieve, but it has no “nutritional" (spiritual) value.

Are you and I settling for "vanilla ice-cream" when we could have the gold of God's "chocolate ice cream" life?

Dear God
please don't let me ever get satisfied with an abundance of what I don't want--anything less than all that you have planned and envisioned for me to become and do.

Please give me faith and determination, and with your help, to achieve all your goals for my life.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayers