Blooming where you are planted

Posted on February 21, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

One of life’s joys is to find a small patch of beautiful, fragrant flowers, almost hidden by weeds, and yet still blooming amidst the ugliness. Sometimes you meet people like that who, in the most unlikely surroundings, live lives of beauty and fragrance. It reminds me of the young migrant, who was so grateful to his volunteer English teacher that he picked her a bunch of flowers and gave them to her with a note that said; “These flowers will fade and lose their fragrance; but you, dear teacher, will smell forever.”
Even though the colloquialism was wrong, the message was right. People like that teacher remind us that when the final account of our lives is given, the judgement will not be on where we lived or the position we held, but rather on how well we bloomed where we were planted.

Posted in Acts of Kindness, Attitude, Awareness, Contentment, Encouragement, Generous spirit, Inspiration, Life's journey, Living Life, Making the most of what you've got, Personal Growth, Spiritual Insight, Wisdom | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Let the Bees In

Posted on February 17, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Legend has it that when the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon to see if his fabled wisdom was really true, she took artificial flowers with her so perfectly formed that no human eye could tell them from real flowers. She had them placed in a vase in Solomon’s throne room next to some real flowers and when he entered the room she asked him to tell her, without touching the flowers, which were real and which were artificial. Solomon studied the flowers for a while and then ordered his servants to open the windows to let the bees in.
In this age of spin-doctoring it’s easy to confuse the real with the artificial, especially in the realm of spirituality. That’s why Jesus said ‘By their fruits you shall know them.’ Don’t just look at how well they present. Watch carefully and see who and what they attract.

Posted in Awareness, Discernment, Life's journey, Seeing Jesus, Self Deception, Spiritual Darkness, Spiritual Insight, Spiritual Leaders, True and False Religion | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Fear of Death

Posted on February 17, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

The most universal fear is the fear of death, and it comes because we focus on this world instead of the next. The reality is that nothing in this world is as solid and real as it appears. Everything is made of atoms and all atoms are eight thousand parts of nothing and only one part of something, and even that one part is not solid. If we want to really understand what life is all about, we need to turn our thinking upside down. We speak of this life as the world of the living when in truth it is the world of the dying! From the moment we are born we move towards our death. The real world of the living is that dimension beyond this mortal life, where, as the Bible says, there will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain, and ‘The old things will have have passed away and God will make all things new.’

Posted in Anxiety, Death, Faith, Futility, God, Heaven, Hope, inner peace, Life's journey, Peaceful Sleep, Spiritual Insight | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

God or Chance?

Posted on February 17, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Like a garden hose creating a jet of water or a fine mist, if the universe had expanded a little faster, the matter would have sprayed out into space like fine mist, so fast that a gazillion particles of dust would speed into infinity and never even form a single star. And if the universe had expanded just a little slower, the material would have dribbled out like big drops of water, then collapsed back where it came from by the force of gravity. The surprising thing is just how narrow the difference is. To strike the perfect balance between too fast and too slow, scientists calculate the force had to be accurate to a figure of one in ten followed by a hundred and twenty zeros – an unimaginable figure.
That’s why some people believe in God with a capital G, and some believe in Chance with a Capital C.

Posted in Atheism, creation, Faith, God, Intelligence behind the Universe, Religion, Spiritual Insight, supreme being, The God Delusion | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Quietness and Confidence

Posted on February 17, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Most of us will do anything to avoid being alone and confronting our own inner turmoil, which is why Pascal, the French philosopher, said “All men’s miseries come from their inability to sit quietly and alone.” The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard put it this way, “Everything which is good in man begins in silence.” But he also said: “Man’s greatest fear is boredom. Boredom is the root of all evil so every moment must be filled with something, some activity, some form of business.”
It’s been more than a century and a half since he wrote those words, but I think they really speak of our times and our frenetic addiction to noise and activity. Yet over against all this are those timeless words of scripture in which God says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” What we most avoid – stillness – is what we most need.

Posted in Awareness, Contentment, Futility, God, inner peace, Inspirational, Knowing God, Living Life, quietness, Seeing Jesus, Spiritual Insight, Wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I believe in the Sun even when it’s not shining

Posted on February 17, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

It seems hard to believe that someone like Mother Teresa in later life should have written to her spiritual confidants revealing that inwardly her sense of the presence of God, that she had previously found quite overwhelming, seemed absent. However, as Bryan Patterson, writing in the Sunday Herald, said: “In the end, this ‘dark night of the soul’ period led her to an acceptance that God was always with her, even when she didn’t feel it.” And that, essentially, is what faith is.
The Bible says that faith is “being sure of what we don’t see.” and sometimes it means holding on to what our innermost being tells us is true, even when we don’t feel it. It’s what enables us to say, “I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining. I believe in love even when I don’t feel it, and I believe in God even when I don’t see him.”

Posted in Awareness, Faith, God, Hope, hope and love, inner peace, Inspirational, Knowing God, Life's journey, Moods, pilgrimage, Spiritual Darkness, Spiritual Insight, Trials and testings, Trust in God | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cutting the Safety Line

Posted on February 14, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Some years ago a man set off alone on an overnight climb, convinced that his ability and a length of rope would keep him safe. Darkness had fallen and he was making his way up a sheer rock face when, suddenly, he lost his footing and found himself falling through the air. Eventually, his rope pulled him up short and he lay hanging in space, unsure how far he’d fallen, but too exhausted to pull himself up it. So he waited for dawn to come. Rescuers found him next morning, frozen to death, hanging two feet above the snow covered ground. If he’d cut the rope he’d been relying on for safety, he would have survived.
There are times when our source of security becomes our biggest problem. They are the times when we need to heed God’s call to let go of them, take the jump of faith, and trust Him.

Posted in Adventure, Anxiety, Awareness, Comfort Zone, Faith, Inspirational, Journey, Life's journey, Spiritual Insight, Trust in God, Wisdom | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Joy is in the Journey

Posted on February 14, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Frank Lloyd Wright, as a small boy, went for a walk across a snow-covered field with his serious, no-nonsense uncle. When they reached the far side, his uncle pointed to his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow’s flight, and then young Frank’s tracks meandering all over the field. ‘You see how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again,’ his uncle said. ‘But now look at mine and see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. Remember that because there’s an important lesson for you.’ Years later the world-famous architect, with a twinkle in his eye, used to say: ‘I determined right then not to miss the things in life, that my uncle had missed.’
The joy in life is not the goal but the journey on the way to the goal.

Posted in Adventure, Appreciation, Attitude, Awareness, direction, Inspiration, Journey, Joy, Life's journey, Living Life, satisfaction, Spiritual Insight, wealth, Wisdom | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting Rid of What’s in the Way

Posted on February 14, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

The word, ‘Leisure,’ come from a Latin word that means to be free. Leisure is anything that gives us a sense of freedom from the cares and demands of life, while we are doing it. But to build leisure into life we often have to disassemble something else. In Thomas Moore’s book Meditations, he tells of a pilgrim walking along a road and sees some monks working on a stone building. His first reaction was that it was good to see the monks improving the abbey building. But then he realised that they were actually tearing it down. So he went to the abbot and asked why. ‘My son,’ the abbott replied. ‘We are tearing it down so that we can see the sunrise at dawn.’
To live deeply we need to maintain a balance between activity and meaningful inactivity. To do that usually means getting rid of something

Posted in Appreciation, Awareness, Living Life, Making the most of what you've got, Religion, Removing Obstacles, satisfaction, Senses, Spiritual Insight, thankfulness, wealth, Wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t worry about things that are unlikely to happen

Posted on February 14, 2014 by vincentsmithauthor

Just before the start of a major concert, a member of the orchestra approached the great Toscanini with a panicked look on his face. ‘Maestro,’ he said, ‘my instrument is not working properly. I cannot reach the note of E-flat. What can I do? The concert begins in a few minutes?’ Toscanini said, ‘I smiled at him and placed an arm around his shoulders. “My friend,” I said, “Do not worry about it. The note E-flat does not appear anywhere in the music that you will be playing this evening.”’
It reminds me that ninety percent of what we worry about is unlikely to happen; and as for the other ten percent, we should remember what Jesus said: ‘Don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes’ – just as He’s always done.

Posted in Attitude, Awareness | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment