Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 11 – No. 5109 December 19, 2009
Thought for the week: "Right is right, even if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.' – William Penn
"One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered." – Michael J. Fox
"Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, as long as ever you can." – John Wesley
"Only those who constantly retool themselves stand a chance of staying employed in the years ahead." – Tom Peters
"If I have learned one thing in this life, it is that God will not tie my shoes without me." – Doug Boyd
"You are the way you are because that's the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now." – Fred Smith
"Money can buy the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness; days of joy, but not peace and happiness." – Henrik Ibsen 1828-1906
Most of us miss out on life's big prizes. The Pulitzer. The Nobel. Oscars. Tonys. Emmys. But we're all eligible for life's small pleasures: A pat on the back. A kiss behind the ear. A four-pound bass. A full moon. An empty parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious sunset. Hot soup. Cold beer. Don't fret about copping life's grand awards. Enjoy its tiny delights. There are plenty for all of us.
"Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years" (Genesis 18:11). "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young" (1 Timothy 4:12).
Age isn't related to important achievements. Maturity, yes. Attitude, absolutely. Skill and intelligence, of course. But not age. Benjamin Franklin, already a successful publisher, inventor, diplomat and signer of the Declaration of Independence, led the convention that drafted the Constitution of the United States. He was eighty-four. A few years earlier, about the time Franklin was signing the Declaration, Mozart was living in Salzburg, having just completed all five of his violin concertos, each one a masterpiece. He was twenty. Age had no bearing on that summer of significant moments.
Some time ago I interviewed a young man seeking a job. At nineteen he lacked spirit, the fire within-if there had ever been one-just an ember. The same day I spoke to a new friend, age eighty-seven, whose voice was alive, eyes shining, energy directed toward what was next. Age is irrelevant. Attitude is everything. Trying, not giving up, caring enough to use the resources we've been given-these are the things that matter.
So William Gladstone at eighty-five was prime minister of England and the world's leading statesman. At seventeen Elizabeth Barrett (Browning) published a volume of serious poetry. Galileo was dictating records of his latest discoveries about the rotation of planets (and hiding them in his mattress in order to avoid punishment as a heretic) when he was seventy-eight. Michelangelo began painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in his early thirties. Insight, determination and genius are not limited by age.
Martin Luther was thirty-four when he walked to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg, Germany and posted there the ideas for change he wanted to debate with Church leaders. Abraham, founder of the Hebrew nation at the age of one hundred, might have smiled at how one so young could do something so important while Timothy, at twenty-six the leader of one of the largest Christian churches of the first century, might have wondered what had taken Martin so long.
Beethoven had composed a prodigious quantity of music by the time of his death at fifty-six, while Grandma Moses, the famous 20th century folk artist, didn't take up painting until she was seventy-five. Golf prodigy Michelle Wie turned professional at fifteen, the same summer as my father-in-law, age ninety, made his first hole-in-one.
We're not too young to do something significant. And we're never too old.
Copyright 2009 Dr. Michael A. Halleen. Permission is granted to send this to others, with attribution, but not for commercial purposes. Source: Mickey's Funnies,www.mikeysFunnies.com
Mac Anderson said, "After a speech one day, Zig Ziglar was approached by someone in the audience who said: 'Zig, it was a great speech, but ... motivation doesn't last.' To this Zig replied, 'Bathing doesn't either. That's why I recommend it daily!'"
The same principle applies to spiritual motivation ... daily time spent with God in his Word, the Bible, and in prayer are also recommended for daily participation.
I've spent lots of time with some of the world's most successful coaches, and many think about character a lot, especially traits that are important to winning: self-discipline, perseverance, resiliency, and courage. They pay less attention to virtues that make a good person, citizen, spouse, or parent: honesty, integrity, responsibility, compassion, respect, and fairness.
The problem is, even at the amateur level, many coaches are hired and paid to win, not to build character. Unless it interferes with performance, worrying about the kind of people athletes are off the field is a waste of time.
Coaches who seek to hone the mental and physical skills of winning while ignoring moral virtues of honor and decency too often produce magnificent competitors who are menaces to society.
Perhaps coaches of elite athletes not connected with educational or youth-serving institutions can operate in this moral vacuum, but all others have a responsibility to teach, enforce, advocate, and model aspects of good character such as trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.
Whether it's sports, business, or politics, whenever we divorce issues of competence from character, we create a class of amoral professionals who think they're exempt from common standards of honor and decency. This discredits and demeans the moral standing of everyone involved.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD ... From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind ... [and] considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength...But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine."1
I recall having read in a college newspaper about a student who painted in big white letters right across the side of a garbage truck, "Where is God?" Perhaps he was thinking at some level, Why does God allow garbage to happen?
It's an age-old question, as old as Job and as fresh as today: "Where is God when tragedy strikes ... when a loved one dies and the heart is torn with grief ... when innocent children are kidnapped, sexually abused, and murdered? And where was he on September 11, 2001? And again, when terrorist bombs blasted a resort hotel in Bali? Or when a sniper in the Washington, D.C. area was shooting and killing innocent people at random?"
I don't want to sound callous by any means but we are asking the wrong question because God is where he always was and always is. The Apostle Paul said it best, in that God "is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'"2
So the question needs to be, "Where is man?"
Our problem lies in the fact that we as nations have left God—or are fast leaving him. As God's Word, the Bible, says, "Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord."3 And what of those nations whose God is not the Lord? Perhaps history can best answer that question.
But the great tragedy is, as Friedrich Hegel said, "The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please open our eyes and help us to see that when we leave you, forsake your Word and throw out your commandments, we open the door to evil. Grant that we will see in today's senseless acts of terror a wake up call to turn back to you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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