The Time to Live is Today

Posted on April 4, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

When her sister died unexpectedly, Ann Wells helped her brother-in-law search through her wardrobe to find something special to bury her in. They discovered some exquisite silk lingerie still wrapped in tissue. Ann’s brother-in-law said she’d purchased this in New York shortly after they got married, but she’d never worn it because she wanted to keep it for a special occasion. They took it out of the drawer ready to take to the funeral director, and then he slammed the drawer shut and said to Ann: “Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you are alive is a special occasion.”
That reminds me of something the Bible says, “Don’t boast about tomorrow because you don’t know what a day will bring forth.” Wise people make provision for the future, but they don’t live in it. The time to live is today.

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An Empty Stage, But Alive In Our Hearts

Posted on March 28, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

Anna Pavlova was probably the greatest ballerina of all time. Her most memorable performance, however, took place after her death. She was to play the role she made famous, the Dying Swan, at the Apollo Theatre in London. Tragically, she caught pneumonia and died two days before the event. However, on opening night, a packed house watched the curtain rise and a spotlight bathe the stage in a pool of light where Anna should have been. And, as the light danced and the orchestra played, they could still see her, and when the music stopped, they gave her her greatest ovation ever. An empty stage with only a spotlight, but in their hearts she was alive.
But for people of faith, the remembrance of Jesus Christ is more than just that. He said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst.” And for twenty centuries, that’s how it’s been, and always will be.

Posted in Called and Chosen, Easter, Faith, God, inner peace, Inspirational, Joy, quietness, Religion, Resurrection, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Called and the Chosen

Posted on March 22, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

I read about a woman who, some years ago, booked the Hyatt Hotel in Boston for a thirteen thousand dollar wedding banquet. Unfortunately, her fiancée then decided he didn’t want to get married. Worse still, the Hyatt told her she was only eligible for a ten percent refund. So she went ahead with the banquet and changed the menu to boneless chicken – in honour of the groom – and instead of inviting Boston’s wealthy, she filled the Hyatt Hotel with homeless people and gave them the time of their lives. It became a modern-day version of the story Jesus told about how God calls the poor and the marginalized to His eternal banquet after the proud sophisticates have shown they are not interested.
‘Many are called,’ the Bible says, ‘But few are chosen.’ And the ‘few’ are those who recognize what they are being invited to.

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The Central Neurosis of our Time

Posted on March 16, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

One of the best known skeptics of the twentieth century was Bertrand Russell. Though born into Christian home he rejected faith and became an atheist. His daughter Katherine said of him, ‘Somewhere at the bottom of his heart, in the depths of his soul, there was an empty space that once had been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put in it.’
It reminds me that the great psychologist Carl Jung used to say that the central neurosis of our time is emptiness, and Victor Frankl talked about how clinics are crowded with people suffering from a new kind of neurosis – a sense of total and ultimate meaninglessness of life.
But I think it was Saint Augustine who summed it up best. Speaking of God he said, ‘You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

Posted in emptiness, Faith, God, inner peace, Inspirational, Journey, Joy, Neurosis, quietness, Religion, satisfaction, Spirituality | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Bread of Life

Posted on March 8, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

The best selling products in most bookstores these days are cookbooks and diet books. One teaches us how to cook food and the other how to avoid eating it. There’s no doubt that many of us have an uneasy relationship with our eating habits. One scientist in California has calculated that the average person eats fifteen times his or her bodyweight in a typical year. He has also worked out that horses eat only eight times their bodyweight in a year. This seems to suggest that if we want to lose weight we ought to eat like a horse.
However, the Bible has a few observations of its own about our attitude to food. ‘All the labour of man,’ it says, ‘is for his mouth, and yet he is never satisfied.’
That’s why Jesus taught us to concentrate on the one thing that does bring true inner satisfaction – himself, the bread of life.

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The Sound of the Trumpets

Posted on March 6, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

There’s an old Jewish story that when Lucifer was cast out of heaven he was asked in hell what he missed most out of his former life, and replied, ‘I miss most the sound of the trumpets in the morning.’ Turning our backs on God may seem to bring all sorts of benefits, but joy is not one of them. One of the great promises Jesus made was that those who embrace his teachings would find joy; ‘I have told you these things,’ he said, ‘that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.’
Robert Louis Stevenson said, ‘When a joyful person comes into a room it is as if another candle had been lighted.’ Joy enriches those who receive it, without making poorer those who give it. None are so rich that they can get along without it, and none are so poor but that they can be made rich by it.

Posted in Faith, God, inner peace, Inspirational, Joy, Lucifer, Religion, Satan, satisfaction, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Unspoken Prayers

Posted on March 1, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

Someone once said the stomach is the only part of us that can be fully satisfied. The rest is an appetite that cannot be appeased. But listen to these words written by a soldier facing battle: ‘I asked God for strength that I might achieve, and I was made weak that I might learn to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things, and I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy, and I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men, and I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, and I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing I asked for, but everything I hoped for; and despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.’

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We’ve Only Just Begun

Posted on February 23, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

Someone once said, ‘The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you’ll grow out of it.’ But it’s also true that by the time we get to fifty we have learned life’s most important lessons. We have found out that only a few things are really important. We have learned to take life seriously, but not ourselves. Despite society’s preoccupation with youth, there is at least one thing that mature age gives us that youth never could, and that is the potential to be at peace with ourselves. What makes youth unhappy is its need to be like everybody else; whereas maturity allows us to be ourselves. The Bible says; ‘Grey hair is a glorious crown worn by those who have lived right.’ Don’t waste your days mourning the passing of youth. In God’s eternal scheme of things, we’ve only just begun.

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The One Journey That Ultimately Matters

Posted on February 22, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

The wisest man I ever met taught me that the one journey that ultimately matters is the journey to that place of central silence deep within us. “To find it,” he said, “is to be home. To fail to find it is to be forever restless.” Being a restless type of person this advice spoke to me. Like you, I want to be at peace within myself and to escape the trap of ever looking for something that is always over the next horizon. What we need most is an outward focus for our lives that is sustained by an inner serenity. It’s what the Bible talks about when it says; “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” For our own sake, and the sake of those who have to live with us, our active outer lives need to be nourished by a rich inner life. We need to give ourselves time and permission to find that quiet centre, – our true home.

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It’s Not How Long You Hang Around That Counts

Posted on February 19, 2013 by vincentsmithauthor

Charles Steinmetz was the engineer who designed the massive generators that made General Electrics one of America’s greatest corporations. After he retired those generators broke down and no-one could get them going. So eventually they called Steinmetz back. He puttered around for a few hours, threw the switch and the turbines began to whirl. A few days later GE received his bill for ten thousand dollars. They thought it was excessive and returned it with a note saying: “Charlie, isn’t this bill just a little high for a few hours of tinkering around”? So Steinmetz changed the bill. This time it read: For tinkering around – one dollar. For knowing where to tinker – nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars.

It’s like life, the real value is not in how long you hang around, but in knowing what to do while you do it.

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