The end of the beginning

Posted on October 23, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Victor Hugo, just before he died, wrote: ‘Within my soul I feel the evidence of my future life. I am like a forest that has been cut down more than once, yet the new growth has more life than ever. I am always rising toward the sky, with the sun shining down on my head. The earth provides abundant sap for me, but heaven lights my way to worlds unknown…Winter may be filling my head, but an eternal spring rises from my heart. At this late hour of my life, I smell the fragrance of lilacs, violets, and roses, just as I did when I was twenty. And the closer I come to the end of my journey, the more clearly I hear the immortal symphonies of eternal worlds inviting me to come…’
For people of faith, life’s sunset is not the beginning of the end, just the end of the beginning.

Posted in Assurance, Death, Faith, Hope, Hope of Glory, Life, Life's journey | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Involuntary whooping

Posted on October 23, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Tourette’s Syndrome is a mental disorder whose victims exhibit strange symptoms like twitches, beeps, whoops and even uncontrolled swearing. Neurologist Oliver Sachs described one sufferer who would constantly bow to the ground, shout and readjust his glasses. The strangest thing about him was that he is a skilled surgeon who, once he enters the operating theatre, loses all those symptoms until he has completed his task. Then the twitches, shouts and constant bowing return.
That man is a good example of what Jesus meant when he said: ‘If you insist on holding on to your life, you will lose it…self sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding your true self. real and eternal.’ Focusing on serving others is the surest way to overcoming those negative traits within us over which we seem powerless.

Posted in Overcoming, Self giving, Tourette's Syndrome | Tagged | Leave a comment

Keep calm and eat strawberries

Posted on October 23, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

There’s an old story about a monk fleeing from a hungry tiger. He comes to the edge of a cliff and begins to climb down a vine, out of the tiger’s reach. But then, to his dismay, he sees another tiger waiting at the bottom of the cliff. To make matters worse, he sees a mouse beginning to gnaw through the vine. Then, out of the corner of his eye, the monk sees a strawberry growing from the rock. So he picks it and eats it.
Priests used to tell that story to illustrate how life really is. Rarely is it easy. We live with the constant reality of danger and misfortune. But the answer is not to despair, nor to look for supernatural deliverance. The answer is to live bravely and enjoy the good things God has given while we have them, knowing that this life is finite and that there is another greater life beyond it.

Posted in Acceptance, Calmness, Danger, Faith, Fear, Life, Life's journey | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Little White Lies

Posted on October 23, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Professor Bella DePaulo, who specializes in the study of human deception, asked a group of ordinary people to keep a notebook of lies they told in one week. She discovered that they had lied at least once to between 30 and 38 percent of the people they came into contact with. Based on her research, DePaulo says that we all fall into one of two categories of liars: Some of us are ‘self-centred liars’ — we lie in order to make ourselves look better to others. The rest of us are ‘other-centred liars’ — we lie in order to avoid hurting someone else’s feelings. The experiment also found that people tend to tell ‘white lies’ more often to strangers; and deeper lies to those they loved most.
But there are, of course, two people we can never successfully lie to: ourselves and God.

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Anchored to hope

Posted on October 18, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Self-made millionaire Eugene Land, a few years ago, was asked to speak to a class of teenagers in a ghetto area of New York. He wondered what he could say to inspire those kids, most of whom intended to drop out of school. On the spur of the moment he decided to scrap his notes and speak to them straight from his heart. ‘Stay in school,’ he said, ‘and if you do I’ll help pay the college tuition for every one of you.’ At that moment something happened that changed those kids’ lives. For the first time ever they had hope, and nearly all of them went on to finish high school.
‘Hope,’ the Bible says, ‘is the great anchor for the soul.’ But hope, to be real, has to be based on a sure promise. For those kids it was the word of Eugene Land. For we who hope for eternal life, it is the promise of God.

Posted in Anchor, Hope, Hope of Glory, Priorities, Promise, Purpose in life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Believing is seeing

Posted on October 18, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

St Augustine said ‘Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.’ Another way of putting it is not to say, ‘seeing is believing,’ but rather ‘believing is seeing.’ C.S. Lewis said that the year he found faith in God was the same year he learned to dive. On reflection he thought that there was some significance in that. Plucking up the courage to launch yourself headfirst into water is an amazingly difficult thing to do, the first time you do it. Your brain tells you that there is no problem in it, but your fears hold you back. Finally, after numerous feet first jumps and then half-hearted belly flops, you pluck up the courage and you actually do it.
So it is with our faith. We take that first leap and then we need no proof; we just know.

Posted in Believing, Faith, Spiritual Insight, understanding | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Do what comes naturally

Posted on October 18, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Jean McMahon, writing in the Reader’s Digest, described a church service in Kentucky, where she watched an irate father carry a boisterous child out of the service, slung under his arm. No one so much as raised an eyebrow — until the child captured everyone’s attention by crying out in a very Southern accent: “Ya’ll pray for me now!” And they did.
Well, praying is the one thing human beings tend to do instinctively while wondering why on earth they are doing it intellectually. But, as Dr Samuel Johnson once said: “Prayer does not need proof outside itself because its proofs are within. It is in the nature and function of man, like breathing, eating and drinking, and he practices it as part of his very being.”
So, when you find yourself wanting to say a prayer, don’t fight it, just do what comes naturally.

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The Seven Wonders of the World

Posted on October 18, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

I love the story about the teacher who asked her students to list what they thought were the Seven Wonders of the World. Most of the votes were for things like: Egypt’s Great Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, the Panama Canal, the Empire State Building, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Great Wall of China. The teacher then noticed that one student had not turned in her paper yet. She asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, “Yes. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.” The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.” The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the Seven Wonders of the world are: to see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to feel, to laugh and to love.”
What an insight into true reality that is, because nothing has value if we can’t or don’t appreciate it.

Posted in Appreciation, love, Seven Wonders of the World, Wonder | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Choose your rut carefully

Posted on October 18, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Friends from America told me about driving through rural Iowa after heavy rains and suddenly finding themselves on a long stretch of unsealed road. Next to the official sign that announced that the road was under repair was another sign that someone had put up, which said: ‘choose your rut carefully; you’re going to be in it for a long time.’
That sounds almost biblical. It reminds me of the words Jesus used to conclude his Sermon on the Mount: ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’
As John Oxenham wrote: ‘To every man there openeth – a high way and a low; – And every man decideth – the way his soul shall go.’

Posted in Choices, Decisions, Life, Life's journey | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Envy rots the bones

Posted on October 8, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Researchers at the University of Atlanta recently conducted tests on a group of monkeys whereby each monkey had to pick up a small stone and bring it to the researcher. Each time they did it they’d receive a slice of cucumber. The scheme worked well as long as each monkey received the same reward, but then everything turned sour when they rewarded one monkey with a grape. The others then refused to participate any more, and in disgust began to throw away the slices of cucumber and the stones.
That’s almost human behaviour isn’t it? We are happy with our lot until we see someone in a similar situation who is better off. Then we cry foul and demand an end to such monkey business. Why do we so easily allow envy to ruin our happiness?
It’s like the Bible says: ‘A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.’

Posted in Attitude, Bitterness, Contentment, Disappointed, Envy, Moods | Tagged , , | Leave a comment