Conceive, believe, achieve

Posted on June 5, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

The famous Epcot Center in Disney World was completed shortly after Walt Disney’s death, so the Disney executives asked his wife to cut the ribbon and say a few words. When the MC introduced her he said: ‘I just wish Walt could have seen this!’ She just smiled and said, ‘He did.’
Visionaries are people who, in their own minds, see things that others only see after they’ve been accomplished. That’s true not only of great buildings and organisations. It is also true of great families and great souls. Jesus said, ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to them that believe.’ And the Bible says: ‘God is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.’
It all starts with the vision to conceive it, the faith to believe it, and the effort to achieve it.

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‘We could not afford to lose a voice like that’

Posted on June 5, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras were once on opposite sides of the political divide so much so that Carreras refused to appear on the same stage as Domingo. But then he contracted leukemia and almost went bankrupt paying for treatments. But the newly formed Hermosa Foundation came to his aid and eventually he was able to return to singing. Only then did he learn that the founder, and chief contributor was none other than Placido Domingo. And so, before a huge audience in Spain, Jose Carreras knelt before Placido, thanked him and asked his forgiveness. That was the beginning of a great friendship and the legendary Three Tenors. When asked why he had done this to help his political enemy and greatest competitor, Placido said: ‘We could not afford to lose a voice like that.’
But the real gift to the world was his example of what it is to be a truly great human being.

Posted in Actions, Acts of Kindness, Generous spirit, Gratitude, Greatness, humility, Nobility | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Somehow God has survived

Posted on June 5, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Over the past century many influential people have predicted the collapse of mass religious belief, especially among educated people. But it didn’t happen. Somehow, God survived and even flourished. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states. For most of the century the Soviet state was controlled by a totalitarian regime based on an atheistic philosophy and dedicated to the eradication of all forms of religious belief. But then, in the late nineteen eighties, international Communism imploded, while the faith it sought to destroy mushroomed in Russia and continues to do so. A similar thing has happened in China where, despite the almost unbelievable totalitarian oppression of the Maoist era and persecution on a grand scale, the number of practising Christian is now in the order of 100 million.
However there’s nothing new about this. People have always been predicting God’s demise. But eventually they all die and are forgotten, while the faith they dismissed lives on.

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Look up

Posted on May 27, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

If you put a buzzard in a small pen it will never fly out, even if the pen is open at the top. The reason is that buzzards always take off after running about three metres. Without space to run, it won’t attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life. Similarly, bats, despite their amazing agility in flight, need a slight drop to launch themselves and cannot take off from a spot that is level. And bumblebees, if dropped into an open glass, will stay there until they die, because they never see the means of escape at the top, but keep trying to escape through the sides near the bottom.
In many ways, we are like buzzards, bats and bumblebees. We struggle with life’s problems, never realizing that what we need to do is look up! ‘Look to God,’ the Bible says, ‘and be radiant. And your face shall never be ashamed.’

Posted in Failure, Faith, Freedom, Growth, Opportunities, perception, Prisoners | Tagged | Leave a comment

Eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear

Posted on May 27, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

A few years ago the Washington Post arranged for Joshua Bell, a world renowned musician, but dressed in jeans, T shirt and a baseball cap, to play a Stradivarius violin worth more than three million dollars outside the subway. Hundreds of people streamed by and took no notice. The interesting thing is that three days earlier he’d played the same violin and music to a capacity crowd in Boston, where the cheapest seat cost a hundred dollars. But on the street he got thirty two dollars from twenty seven people, none of whom actually stopped long enough to listen.
It reminds me of how God, in the Bible, laments our indifference to him. ‘Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?’ He says. God offers us unutterable spiritual beauty, but we just don’t stop long enough to see it.

Posted in Awareness, Beauty, Blessings, God, Indifference | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Dead souls

Posted on May 27, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Albert Einstein, who lived his life in the pursuit of scientific discovery, used to say: ‘He who can no longer pause to wonder, is as good as dead.’ Madeleine L’Engle, referring to this, said: ‘I share Einstein’s affirmation that anyone who is not lost on the rapturous awe at the power and glory of the mind behind the universe is as good as a burnt out candle.’
It’s also interesting to note that throughout his life Einstein had two portraits on the wall of his home – the great scientists Newton and Maxwell. They were his inspiration. However, towards the end of his life he took their pictures down and replaced them with two others – two great humanitarians, Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer. He’d decided that it was time to replace the image of success with the image of service.

Posted in God, Selflessness, Spiritual discernment, Success, Wonder | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Blessings that become burdens

Posted on May 27, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

There are many things in life that are supposed to bring happiness but actually become burdensome: like the proverbial mother of the bride, who takes what was supposed to be the most wonderful day of her daughter’s life and turns it into a tension-filled ordeal; or the initiation ceremonies which were supposed to give newcomers a sense of being received into an exclusive band of brothers, but which, with the passage of time, have become ordeals that humiliate the victims and brutalize the perpetrators.
In all the important milestones of life we need to ask ourselves whether what we are doing is going to be a blessing or a burden, and to remember those wise words from the Bible that tell us ‘not to conform to the pattern of this world, but to let God change the way we think.’

Posted in Burdens, Thoughtlessness, Transformation, Transformed mind | Tagged | Leave a comment

It helps when you carry someone with you

Posted on May 27, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

There’s a story about a tribe of Red Indians who lived alongside a dangerous river and got attacked by a hostile group of settlers. They found themselves outnumbered and with their backs against the river. Their only chance for escape was to risk crossing the river. So they huddled together and the strongest picked up the children, the sick, the old and the infirm, and carried them on the backs. They waded out into the current, and to their surprise they discovered that the extra weight on their shoulders helped them keep their footing and make it safely across.
It’s an illustration of what the Bible means when it says: ‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way fulfil the law of Christ.’ If you want to walk on secure ground in this world it helps when you make the effort to carry someone with you.

Posted in Compassion, Kindness, Life's journey, Living Life, love, Selflessness, supportive community | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Not a bad deal after all!

Posted on May 22, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Economists tell us that it now costs middle income families nearly half a million dollars to raise a child. To ease the pain it’s worth thinking about what you actually get for it. You get a hand to hold, usually covered with jam; a partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, and building sandcastles. You get to be a hero just for getting a Frisbee off the roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, and coaching a soccer team that never wins. You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first date, and first time behind the wheel. You have the power to heal a hurt, scare away monsters, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. Not a bad deal after all!

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Give yourself margin

Posted on May 22, 2015 by vincentsmithauthor

Dr Richard Swenson, in his book Margin, says that the answer to the problem of overload in life is to give yourself margin. Overload is being thirty minutes late to the doctor’s office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdressers because you were ten minutes late dropping the children off at school. Margin, on the other hand, is having breath left at the top of the stairs, money left at the end of the month, and sanity left at the end of adolescence.
But our capacity to organize margin in our busy lives has to come from within us. The ancient wisdom of the Bible reminds us that it is in quietness and confidence that we find our strength, and that quietness comes from the inner peace of those whose minds are focused on and are kept by the God of Peace.

Posted in Calmness, Peace, Peaceful Sleep, Stress filled life, Time management | Tagged , | Leave a comment