Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 10 – No. 1308 March 29, 2008
Thought for the week: "Prayer that changes things changes us." – Tod Bolsinger
A new company, feeling it was time for a shake-up, hires a new CEO. The new boss is determined to rid the company of all the slackers. On a tour of the facilities, the CEO notices a guy leaning against the wall. The room is full of workers and he thinks this is the chance to show everyone he means business!
The CEO walks up to the guy and asks, "And how much money do you make a week?" Undaunted, the young fellow looks at him and replies, "I make $200 a week, why?"
The CEO then hands the guy $200 in cash and yells, "Here's a week's pay, now GET OUT and don't come back!"
Feeling pretty good about his first firing, the CEO looks around the room and asks, "Does anyone want to tell me what the slacker did here?"
With a sheepish grin, one of the other workers mutters, "That was the pizza delivery guy!"
Source: Smile a Day, a ministry of
Net 153 Publications http://net153.com
"Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Few have excellence thrust upon them—they achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by doing what comes naturally and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.'"
By John William Gardner, 1912-2002, Psychologist, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
"No more convincing evidence of the absence of parental affection exists than that compiled by Rene Spitz. In a South American orphanage, Spitz observed and recorded what happened to 97 children who were deprived of emotional and physical contact with others. Because of a lack of funds, there was not enough staff to adequately care for these children, ages 3 months to 3 years old. Nurses changed diapers and fed and bathed the children. But there was little time to hold, cuddle, and talk to them as a mother would. After three months many of them showed signs of abnormality. Besides a loss of appetite and being unable to sleep well, many of the children lay with a vacant expression in their eyes. After five months, serious deterioration set in.
"They lay whimpering, with troubled and twisted faces. Often, when a doctor or nurse would pick up an infant, it would scream in terror. Twenty-seven, almost one third, of the children died the first year, but not from lack of food or health care. They died of a lack of touch and emotional nurture. Because of this, seven more died the second year. Only twenty one of the 97 survived with most suffering serious psychological damage."
Charles Sell, "Unfinished Business."
Cited on Preaching Now Vol. 5, No. 23 July 25, 2006 www.preaching.com
A university cleaner has become a concert pianist after a web cam caught him having a go on a grand piano. Aleksander Kudajczyk put down his mop and gave a spellbinding performance of Chopin compositions to an empty room.
Mr. Kudajczyk, 28, who arrived in Britain six months ago, had landed a job cleaning Glasgow University's law department. He saw no need to mention the fact he had studied at one of Poland's finest music academies, reports the Daily Mail. But the unwitting public performance in Glasgow University chapel so enraptured his on-line audience that he is now playing packed venues.
Joan Keenan, a secretary in the Glasgow University chaplaincy, said: "Aleksander is a lovely but shy lad. He works as a cleaner but nobody knew what a talent he had.
"He asked the university chaplain Stuart MacQuarrie if he might have a go on the grand piano.
"I knew he was playing and logged on to the internet, to a webcam we have set up in the chapel to watch weddings and other events held there. I couldn't believe what I was hearing as he played exquisite Chopin.
"Right away I started emailing the music librarian who is a member of an orchestra, and friends and colleagues around the university."
Soon Mr. Kudajczyk was offered the chance to play concerts at the chapel and he has also been entertaining crowds at Glasgow's West End Festival.
Miss Keenan said: "He was nervous playing his first concert in the chapel, but the crowd were stunned. He was incredible and deserves his chance to play on a bigger stage. His hands are far too precious to continue cleaning for long, as the chemicals affect them."
I've mentioned before that, despite my great admiration for people who are instinctively and consistently nice, kindness does not come naturally to me. Yet the older I get, the more I agree with theologian Abraham Heschel who said, "When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people." Author Henry James was more emphatic: "Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind."
In 1994, Dr. Chuck Wall, a professor of human relations and management at Bakersfield College in California, came up with a concept that turned into an influential movement. Weary of hearing about "senseless acts of violence," he began to teach and talk about "random and senseless acts of kindness." The idea was simple: The best response to a world coarsened by selfishness and cruelty is individual acts of kindness.
In 1999, Catherine Ryan Hyde wrote a novel called Pay It Forward (later turned into a movie) that built on Dr. Wall's initial inspiration. It starts with a teacher's assignment to her class: THINK OF AN IDEA FOR WORLD CHANGE AND PUT IT INTO ACTION.
Trevor, the 12-year-old hero, comes up with an idea. Do something "real good" for three people and ask in return that instead of paying him back, they "pay it forward" by doing a good deed for three other people. They, in turn, are asked to pay it forward to three others. The math quickly shows how such a concept could change the world.
Whether acts of kindness are spontaneous as advocated by Dr. Wall or premeditated as proposed by Ms. Hyde, they are certainly not senseless. To the contrary, they're the best possible proof of good sense. Every single person can send forth ripples of kindness and compassion simply by being nice.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."1
Medical science, numerous self-help and recovery programs, and personal experience indicate that emotional, as well as spiritual growth is an essential and often lacking ingredient of physical health, inner peace, and meaningful relationships.
Jesus said, "Do you want to be made well/whole?"2 His purpose was not only to save us from our sins and give us the gift of eternal life, but also to bring us healing and wholeness—not only spiritually, but also physically, emotionally and relationally.
Sadly, many of us, even those of us who are committed to the Christian faith, still have some physical ills that could be healed. Many carry around unresolved feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, depression, guilt and shame. Some struggle with addictions, and many have never found the loving relationships the human heart craves. These are the issues/stresses that either cause or greatly aggravate many of our physical ills and relational conflicts.
As God's Word points out, in order to be healed of some, if not many, diseases we need to confess our sins—this includes our sins of the spirit such as unresolved anger, resentment, grudges, unforgiveness, bitterness, grief, guilt, fears, lack of trust in God and so on.
Speaking personally, when I resolved a lot of buried grief by getting in touch with it and sobbing it out, I was healed of hay-fever that plagued me for years. And when I got in touch with a lot of buried anger from childhood days and expressed it creatively and got it off my chest, I was healed of painful bursitis in both of my shoulders. When we bury our emotions, where do they go? We never bury them dead but very much alive and, what we fail to talk or weep out creatively, we will inevitably act out in one way or another destructively.
I'm not implying that if we confess all our sins that we will be cured of all ills such as being bitten by a malaria mosquito, eating bad food, or of problems that come from aging. However, if we put into practice and live by the principles found in God's Word, many of us would be a whole lot healthier, happier and more fulfilled than we presently are.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for the guidelines that are found in your Word that, if adhered to diligently, will greatly improve my physical, mental and emotional health and lead to a more fulfilled life and loving relationships. Please help me to so live. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
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