Forgiveness for the asking

Posted on November 5, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

A few years ago, a group of ministers gathered outside the city hall in Boise, Idaho with cheque books in hand ready to write cheques to the city on behalf of people with unpaid parking tickets. To take advantage of the offer, people simply had to acknowledge their guilt by showing up and asking for the payment. The money was raised from local businesses and was made available on a first-come-first-served basis. The Reverend Montie Ralstin explained: ‘We wanted to help people understand, in a practical way, that even though we’ve all made mistakes, God’s grace and forgiveness is received, just by asking.’
It was an unusual but, I suspect, very effective way of communicating that great Biblical teaching that God’s forgiveness is always there for those who honestly ask for it.

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Humility is the key

Posted on November 5, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Jesus began his famous Sermon on the Mount by saying: ‘Humble men are very fortunate, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.’ Those words are the key to his teachings, especially those qualities we call the Beatitudes. You can’t mourn without appreciating how insufficient you are to handle life in your own strength. You can’t be meek unless you know you have needed gentleness yourself. You can’t hunger for righteousness if you think of yourself as already righteous. You can’t be merciful without recognizing your own need for mercy. You can’t be pure in heart if your heart is full of pride. You can’t be a peacemaker if you believe that you’re always right. All of these qualities are rooted in humility, recognizing our own spiritual need and opening our lives to God to fill them.

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Brezhnev should have listened to his wife

Posted on October 30, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

George Bush Senior, representing the United States at the funeral of the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, she reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest. There in the citadel of atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all stated before the watching world that her husband was wrong, and that there was another life – an eternal life represented by Jesus who died on the cross and rose nevermore to die. And in that action she demonstrated her hope that that same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband. Because, as the Bible says: ‘Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences.’

Posted in Atheism, Death, Faith, Judgement | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Setting ourselves up for depression

Posted on October 30, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Professor Martin Seligman, one of America’s top psychologists and an authority on depression, says that rich countries are facing an epidemic of depression. He says it’s clearly not ecological because the Amish people who live just outside his hometown drink the same water, breathe the same air and eat the same food as everyone else, but have one tenth the rate of depression. And it’s certainly not being poor, because depression is a disease of the affluent. Seligman places some of the blame on the rise of individualism and says ‘a life spent pursuing short cuts to happiness allows our strengths and virtues to wither, rather than develop, and sets us up for depression.’
It almost sounds like what Jesus said: ‘What profit is there if you gain the whole world and lose your soul.’

Posted in Affluence, Depression, Happiness, Individualism, inner peace, inner yearning | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Does the wind shake the trees or the shaking trees cause the wind?

Posted on October 30, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

GK Chesterton once said that there are two types of people in the world: those who believe that the wind causes trees to shake, and those that believe that it’s the trees shaking that causes the wind. He went on to say that in the past, everyone believed it was the wind that caused the trees to shake, but nowadays he wonders if it might be the other way round. He was commenting, perhaps a little facetiously, about the tendency of people today to assume that basic reality is only in what they see, hear and touch, rather than being the result of something greater that cannot be verified by the senses.
It reminds me of words attributed in the Bible to Saint Peter who said: ‘Remember this, in the last days mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their own puny feelings.’

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He can make something out of you

Posted on October 30, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Some years ago, Mohammed Ali, arguably the world’s greatest boxer, was asked by a kid from a city ghetto whether he should quit school and start a boxing career, since he had such bad grades. Ali smiled at the young man and said in his characteristic poetic fashion: ‘Stay in college and get the knowledge, And stay there! Til you’re through. Cause if God can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, He can make something out of you.’
Well that’s also the good news of the gospel. ‘This is how much God loved the world:’ the Bible says. ‘He gave his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.’ Or, in the words of Mohammed Ali; ‘If God can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, He can make something out of you.’

Posted in Faith, God, God in us, God with us, Life, Life's journey, New Life | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Keep faith plugged in

Posted on October 20, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Do you remember Gracie Allen, the scatterbrained wife in a comedy team with her husband George Burns? On one occasion, Gracie called in a repairman to fix her electric clock. The repairman fiddled with it and then said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with the clock, lady; you didn’t have it plugged in.’ Gracie replied, ‘Well, I don’t want to waste electricity, so I only plug it in when I want to know what time it is.’
That reminds me of those of us who have a kind of faith in God but don’t really live it, saving it for when we might suddenly need a bit of Divine assistance. We go through life unplugged from the source of life and wonder why our lives are so empty of meaning. Like Gracie Allen, it would be funny if it weren’t so sad, because faith is more than something to be plugged in when things go wrong.

Posted in Faith, Foolishness, God, Living Life | Tagged | Leave a comment

Definitions of love

Posted on October 20, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

How do you define love? Well this how a group of children did it. Karl, age five, says: “Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving lotion and they go out and smell each other.” Mary Ann, age four, says: “Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.” Tommy, age six, says: “Love is like a little old man and a little old woman who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” Bobby, age five, says: “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” Jenny, age seven, says: “There are two kinds of love: God’s love and our love. But God makes both kinds.”
Maybe we should listen to children more often. They see the world with fresh eyes, and instinctively know what is true.

Posted in children, love, Wisdom | Leave a comment

Never discount people you think can’t do anything for you.

Posted on October 20, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

An elderly couple once went to see the President of Harvard College, who begrudgingly gave them a few minutes of his time. They told him they wanted to erect a memorial to their son. He told them that Harvard didn’t erect statues. They replied that they were actually thinking of a building. He rolled his eyes and told them they had no idea what college buildings cost, pointing out that Harvard had seven and a half million dollars invested in its buildings. They looked surprised and said ‘If that’s all it costs we’ll start our own.’ And they did. The President of Harvard had just turned away Mr and Mrs Leland Stanford, who went on to found Stanford University.
The moral of the story is never discount people just because you think they are not the sort of people who can do anything for you.

Posted in Generous spirit, Respect, Seeing the best in people, Seeing the possibilities | Tagged | Leave a comment

Missing the things we want most, even when we already have them

Posted on October 20, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Russell H Conwell, in his famous lecture entitled Acres of Diamonds, tells the story of a Pennsylvania farmer who became obsessed with oil exploration, then sold his farm and went off to Canada to prospect for it. However, the man who purchased his farm one day noticed there was a foul scum on the surface of the brook where the cattle drank, and where the previous owner had placed a plank to keep it from spreading. The new owner looked at it, tasted it and then called in some geologists who told him it was coal oil. That farm became America’s first ever oil field and made a fortune. But the previous owner, who was obsessed about finding oil, had been damming it up for years.
It illustrates that tendency we all have to miss the things we want most, even when we already have them.

Posted in Blindness, Contentment, Disatisfaction, Life, Living Life, Seeing the possibilities, Seeking and Finding, Sight | Tagged , | Leave a comment