Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 16 – No. 3214 August 09, 2014
Thought for the week: "Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it comes due." – William Ralph Inge
An elderly gentleman had serious hearing problems for a number of years. He went to the doctor who was able to fit for a set of hearing aids that allowed the gentleman to hear 100%.
The elderly gentleman went back in a month to the doctor and the doctor said, "Your hearing is perfect. Your family must be really pleased that you can hear again."
The gentleman replied, "Oh, I haven't told my family yet. I just sit around and listen to the conversations. I've changed my will three times!"
It was in the USA in Chicago that a group of us who were studying together, pledged ourselves to a weekend of fasting so we would experience something of the feelings of hunger which so many people around the world experienced too often.
Each day from Friday to Sunday, we ate only one slice of bread and drank water. Sunday lunch-time came, and five of the original group decided they'd had enough. OK. We'd agreed that anyone who wished could break their fast at any time. We'd only asked them to advise us of their decision.
They announced their decision by bringing into the room where we were all meeting together, take-away food: hot chicken, hot chips, hot dogs, cream cakes and mugs of coffee. They set them down on the table, and ate them in front of us.
One member of the group simply got up and walked away to the other side of the room. It was too much or him. Some were furious, and said so. But another said, simply, "You know, this is for real. The poor DO starve in the very presence of the rich, who eat before their very eyes."
Even though I am a certified non-musician, I reign as the number one consumer of music in the family. My daily diet begins with early morning P.B.S. radio, continues with the same or "golden oldies" in the car, and then classical music again in my office. Music nourishes my soul, soothes my spirit.
Honestly, I know nothing about music. But decades of sitting in church, listening to records, tapes, and radio has saturated me with good stuff. At night as I plop my head on the pillow, I always sing my last thoughts: "Oh Jesus, joy of loving hearts, I turn unfilled to Thee again." I don't know why it floats into my consciousness, but it does. Just that much. No more. A prayer. A sigh. And I'm asleep.
Teaching our children
Filling the hearts and minds of our children with good music works best when planned and intentional like regular meals. Children should be bathed in music from early infancy, maybe even prenatally. Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Stravinsky, as well as Christian hymns and Psalms, are as vital to health as orange juice and oatmeal.
Adult people, too, are mellowed, or charged up, by music. Music may touch us most in that part of the human anatomy now called the right brain. The left brain deals with reasoning, order, and logical thinking. Ordinary classroom teaching aims at the skills of the left brain. The right brain has to do with creativity, emotion, spontaneity, feelings. I suppose joy and excitement spring from right brain stimulation while left brain reasonableness responds in its own way to the orderliness of rhythms and harmonies. Music massages the whole person, bypassing brain cells, tickling, electrifying, quieting, healing, deep inside where little else can reach.
Regular church attendance remains as one way young people get fed music. Souls are being caressed there with right brain melodies and left brain inspirations and information simultaneously. But more is needed. Homes should consciously create a musical ambiance by thoughtful use of radio and recordings, beginning when children are in very early infancy. Christian music should be mixed well with the classics for sure. Jazz, rock and other popular sounds, selectively, have a place, too.
Someone has said, "God gave us music so we can pray without words." That's part of it. Creatures of God have a soul hunger only satisfied by music. When Jesus said, "Man cannot live by bread alone," He was claiming for us our essential spirituality, which must be fed. Living without music is spiritual malnutrition. Good music stimulates the mind, improves circulation, eases pain, relaxes muscles, raises immunity, heals broken hearts, quiets fears, and brings people together.
"In the middle of Parable Land lived a donkey of medium age. He looked like a donkey ... acted like a donkey ... and sounded like a donkey. The unusual thing about him was that he wore a pair of bright green glasses, which he found while grazing, and thought they suited him very well. His behavior was very normal, except for when he met one of the other animals. The reaction was alarming; he went into a state of sheer panic and demanded they seek urgent medical help.
"Faced with such alarm, they usually did and always received a clean bill of health. It seemed that the trouble was those sunglasses. Everyone who was seen by the donkey looked very sick indeed."1
In a similar way we all wear tinted lenses that have been formed and shaped by negative past experiences that, if not resolved, cause us to see things "not the way they are but the way we are."
1. Jeff Daly, Encounter magazine (ACTS Australia),
Issue No 4, 2005. www.actsweb.org/au
According to legend, a young man roaming the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher.
After a four-day journey, he presented the water to the old man, who took a deep drink, smiled warmly, and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a happy heart.
Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He spat it out, saying it was awful. It apparently had become stale because of the old leather container. The student challenged his teacher: "Master, the water was foul. Why did you pretend to like it?"
The teacher replied, "You only tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of loving kindness and nothing could be sweeter. Heartfelt gifts deserve the return gift of gratitude."
I think we understand this lesson best when we receive innocent gifts of love from young children. Whether it's a ceramic tray or a macaroni bracelet, the natural and proper response is appreciation and expressed thankfulness because we love the idea within the gift.
Gratitude doesn't always come naturally. Unfortunately, most children and many adults value only the thing given rather than the feeling embodied in it. We should remind ourselves and teach our children about the beauty and purity of feelings and expressions of gratitude. After all, gifts from the heart are really gifts of the heart.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"In all your ways acknowledge God, and he will direct your path (or make your paths straight)."1
A NASA official involved in space exploration was talking to a reporter about humans landing on Mars. The reporter was concerned about how they would be able to return to earth.
"That involves a highly complex plan," the space official said. "It begins with the words, 'Our Father who art in Heaven.'"
Jokes aside, the reality is that most people do pray at some time or another. Even those who rarely pray often do when they are in trouble. How much better to daily commit and trust our life to God and seek his guidance in all that we do at all times—regardless of our circumstances.
Sometimes it's difficult to see how God is directing us or making our path straight—especially when we've been going through a series of rough times. In time, however, if we have daily trusted our life to God and look back, we will see how God has led us all the way. It is true, "In all things God works for the good of those who love him"2—even if it is eventually!
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to remember to daily commit and trust my life and way to You for every decision I will be called on to make and for everything I need to do each day. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus's name, amen."
1. King Solomon, in Proverbs 3:6.
2. Romans 8:28 (NIV).
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