Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 11 – No. 0309 January 17, 2009
Thought for the week: "I have never been a millionaire. But I have enjoyed a crackling fire, a glorious sunset, a walk with a friend and a hug from a child. There are plenty of life's tiny delights for all of us." – Jack Anthony
Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting dead?
Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough money?
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use, the bubbles are always white?
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?
Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?
How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?
Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table, you always manage to knock something else over?
In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
Bob Butler lost his legs in a 1965 land mine explosion in Vietnam. He returned home a war hero. Twenty years later, he proved once again that heroism comes from the heart.
Butler was working in his garage in a small town in Arizona on a hot summer day when he heard a woman's screams coming from a nearby house. He began rolling his wheelchair toward the house but the dense shrubbery wouldn't allow him access to the back door. So he got out of his chair and started to crawl through the dirt and bushes.
"I had to get there," he said. "It didn't matter how much it hurt." When Butler arrived at the pool, there was a three-year-old girl named Stephanie Hanes lying at the bottom. She had been born without arms and had fallen in the water and couldn't swim. Her mother stood over her baby screaming frantically. Butler dove to the bottom of the pool and brought little Stephanie up to the deck. Her face was blue, she had no pulse and was not breathing.
Butler immediately went to work performing CPR to revive her while Stephanie's mother telephoned the fire department. She was told the paramedics were already out on a call.
Helplessly, she sobbed and hugged Butler's shoulder.
As Butler continued with his CPR, he calmly reassured her. "Don't worry," he said. "I was her arms to get out of the pool. It'll be okay. I am now her lungs. Together we can make it."
Seconds later the little girl coughed, regained consciousness, and began to cry.
As they hugged and rejoiced together, the mother asked Butler how he knew it would be okay. "The truth is, I didn't know," he told her. "But when my legs were blown off in the war, I was all alone in a field. No one was there to help except a little Vietnamese girl. As she struggled to drag me into her village, she whispered in broken English, 'It okay. You can live. I be your legs. Together we make it.'" Her kind words brought hope to my soul and I wanted to do the same for Stephanie.
There are simply those times when we cannot stand alone. There are those times when we need someone to be our legs, our arms, our friend. Author Unknown
If you can't feed a billion people, then feed just one.
If you can't hire twenty million unemployed, then hire just one.
If you can't support an army, then pray for one soldier.
If you can't cure disease, then visit one person in the hospital. One smile provides healing.
If you can't save the world, then improve your community; and if you can't improve your community, then help your next-door neighbor.
We can't save the world, but we can save those within hugging distance.
Don't give up. Don't become overwhelmed. We are responsible only for the people in our breathing space.
Charity begins with the next person you see. Charity begins with just you and just me. If everyone on earth felt this way, what kind of planet would it be?
"A MountainWings Original" by A. Lisa Lindsey,
Cincinnati, OH
If you were hiring a new CEO, what are the most important qualities you'd look for?
Surely you'd want a high level of demonstrated competence—knowledge, experience, intelligence, vision, communication, and relationship skills and the ability to motivate, manage, and solve problems. But what about qualities such as honesty, moral courage, accountability, and fairness?
Despite bold rhetoric about the indispensability of good character, many hard-driving organizations are willing to be flexible on character to get an exceptionally competent person.
Thus, many current scandals—in business, the church, and sports—have occurred because organizations compromised their principles by recruiting, retaining, or tolerating leaders with serious character flaws who generated costly accusations of wrongdoing and undermined trust, morale, teamwork, and loyalty.
I used to tell clients that competence and character were two separate aspects of intelligent employment decisions. Now I think it's a mistake to disconnect them. Good character is an essential aspect of competence.
Long ago Samuel Johnson said, "Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, but knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." Warren Buffet updated that notion: "In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you."
Since it's easier to train a person of good character to do a job well than to develop character in a skilled but unprincipled employee, if you have to choose, hire for character and train for skills.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."1
"A peach tree stands in our back yard," wrote K. Marshall Strom. "Unpruned, the tree grew big and leafy. It was loaded with peaches, although the fruit was disappointingly small and tasteless.
"The year my husband, Larry, was out of work, he went to work on the tree. When I came home from school one day and saw how far back he had pruned it, I stared in shock. 'You've killed it,' I cried. 'Now we won't have any peaches at all.'
"I was wrong. That spring the pruned branches burst forth with a beautiful blanketing of pink blossoms. Some little green peaches replaced the blossoms. 'Leave them alone,' I begged. Larry ignored me and thinned the fruit.
"By the end of summer the branches were so heavily laden with fruit they had to be propped up. And the peaches—how large, sweet and juicy they were! There was no denying it: the tree was far better off from the painful cutting it endured."2
I like to constantly emphasize that God's goal is not to make us good, but to make us whole. The result will be that genuine goodness will be the outcome of being made whole. But to be made whole usually takes a lot of "pruning" (discipline) by God. Speaking personally, the only time I ever take a look at myself and break through some defense I have been using to hide some sin or fault is when I am hurting bad enough. I mean, who wants to change when everything is going great. Not me! I may not like the "pruning" process but I certainly appreciate the result ... fruit!
So, if you are going through a rough time right now, ask God to help you see if there is some lesson he is teaching you, some issue he is wanting you to deal with, or some change he sees you need to make.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that your goal is to make me whole. Please help me to accept and submit to your pruning and discipline and, because of them, please make me a better, more whole person. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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