Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 9 – No. 2507 June 23, 2007
Thought for the week: "Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved." – William Jennings Bryan
"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning." – C.S. Lewis
"The further backward you look, the further forward you can see." – Winston Churchill
"If you want to know how to live your life, think about what you want people to say about you after you die—and live backward." – Author Unknown
"Pain is inevitable but misery is optional." – Barbara Johnson
"Good people are found, not changed. Recently I read a headline that said, 'We don't teach people to be nice. We simply hire nice people.' Wow! What a clever short cut." – Jim Rohn
"If you don't want anyone to know, don't do it." – Chinese Proverb
"You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving." – Unknown
A church bulletin blooper: "Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on June 9 in the church.
So ends a friendship that began in their school days."
"Would the person who lost a fat roll of hundred dollar bills,
wrapped in a rubber band, please report to the Lost and Found
Department. We found your rubber band."
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
A few days ago you wrote about being rich—not materially but spiritually. It brings back a conversation I had with an engineer on an offshore survey boat I was on. My dad had just passed away a couple weeks before. My mom had a memorial service right after his death, then planned his funeral for a month later when all the family would get together.
I had returned to my job when the engineer asked if my dad were rich. Without thinking I said "Yes."
His next question was "How much money did you get?"
I then told him none, my Dad was rich in the fact he was married 48 years to one woman, had 3 kids with successful careers and family. None of us got into any serious trouble, went to jail or committed crimes. I can't see being any richer than that. I remember this because the words were spoken through me as I had never pondered this question. It was then I had a better understanding about happiness and "riches." My wife and I appreciate what we have no matter how little it may seem. I felt God used me that day to not only to make him see truth but me as well.
Have you heard about the man who was feeling sorry for himself because he couldn't afford new shoes until he met a man with no shoes? And the man with no shoes was almost overcome with grief about his lot in life until he met a man with no feet?
Comparisons can help us put our lives in perspective and know what we ought to be grateful for. But they can also build barriers to happiness. For some, it's not enough to have something good. It's important that no one has anything better. So the man who was happy to have a warm place to sleep will become discontented when he meets a man who owns a house. Why is it that our happiness is diminished when we think someone else may be happier?
One way to deal with the seduction of comparisons is to develop the concept of enough by thinking more clearly about the difference between our wants and our needs. It's okay to want and enjoy comforts and pleasures beyond the necessities, but when we convince ourselves we need whatever we want, we mount a treadmill that can never take us to happiness.
When we confuse our wants with our needs, we diminish our ability to appreciate and enjoy our lives. And when we feel cheated in life, we're more likely to become cheaters and sacrifice integrity, the one thing we can all have in abundance. And when integrity goes, no amount of material success will make a difference.
Knowing what is enough need not sap ambition to get more than we have. It merely frees us from the sense of deprivation that could cause us to be less than we can be.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"God ... comforts us in all our trials so we can comfort others who are experiencing difficulties."1
In his book, Beginning Again, Terry Hershey writes, "God not only says that failure is never the final word, but that your area of weakness will become your area of strength. Where you were weak and learned grace will become a means whereby you can reach out and touch the lives of others who need the same good news.
"God is not only working to heal you, but to heal others through you, to make you what Henri Nouwen called a 'wounded healer.'
"Such healing doesn't happen through the man or woman who has all the answers. It happens through the man or woman who understands pain and grace. Nouwen explains, 'For a deep understanding of his own pain makes it possible for the [wounded healer] to convert his weaknesses into strength and to offer his experience as a source of healing to those who are often lost in the darkness of their own misunderstood suffering.'"
I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who first used the phrase, "Growing strong in the broken places." The idea behind these words is that where a bone is broken and heals, it becomes the strongest part of the bone.
The same is true of our broken places—where we have been hurt, have fallen or failed. When we bring these to Christ for his healing, his strength is then made perfect in and through our weaknesses. This is certainly true in ministering effectively to other people. They are helped, not through our brilliant logic or persuasive speech, but through the sharing of our struggles, and how, with God's help, we have overcome. It is a case of one beggar showing other beggars where to find bread.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please heal me in my many broken places and use me to be a wounded healer to many others who have fallen, been wounded, hurt, or broken-hearted. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
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Books:
Books by Dick Innes, Editor of Weekend Encounter You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing How to Mend a Broken Heart I Hate Witnessing—A Handbook for Effective Christian
Communications
Books by Bestseller and Popular Authors: The Miracle of Kindness His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Harley, Jr.
has topped the charts as the best marriage
book available. More than one million couples
have read it ... made their marriage sizzle. Fall in Love Stay in Love Just Hand Over the Chocolate ... Love, Sex, and Lasting Relationships Sex Starts in the Kitchen Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours Harried With Children Adolescence Is Not an Illness Show Time It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian
On Sale at: http://www.actscom.com/store
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Healing, Wholeness & Happiness by Dick Innes
Loving & Understanding People by Dick Innes
I Hate Witnessing by Dick Innes
God's Formula for Success by Dick Innes
Damaged Emotions by David Seamands Healing of the Memories by David Seamands...
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