112 Sermon Illustrations on Attitude

Now, I'm a passenger on airplanes, not a pilot. And that's a good thing. But I have a lot of friends who are pilots - and they've taught me a lot about my attitude. They tell me that "attitude" is actually a pilots' word. As they've explained it to me, the attitude of your plane has to do with its relationship to the horizon. Other things are variable - terrain, weather, even the pilot's perceptions. But the horizon is the one thing that doesn't move. So you want the nose of your plane properly aligned with that horizon. When it isn't, problems can develop - like friction, for example.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stabilizing Your Aircraft."

OK, enough about airplanes. Let's get down to what really matters to you and me today. How's my attitude? How's your attitude? It probably depends on how well you're lined up with the horizon. That's "horizon" as in the God you belong to - the fixed point in the midst of all the variables in your life.

In our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 73, we can literally watch the psalmist's flight going into a tailspin - and then suddenly stabilizing as he corrects his attitude. In the first half of the psalm, the writer says, "My feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold." Later, he says, "All day long I had been plagued; I have been punished every morning." He's feeling like a victim, like he's going down. He's focused on himself, his hurt, his frustrations, his vacillating feelings.

With everything spinning in his cockpit, he finally corrects his downward spiral. Notice the dramatic turnaround - you're about to hear the secret of stabilizing a sinking attitude. In Psalm 73:16, the psalmist says of his struggles, "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me until I entered the sanctuary of God."

Now listen to his renewed perspective. "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant ... Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart."

How do you pull out of the tailspin that you're in? How do you avoid a tailspin in the first place? Make sure your eyes are focused on the horizon of your anchor relationship with Almighty God. Hope is ultimately a matter of focus - as is hopelessness. When your attitude is focused on anyone or anything other than your awesome Lord, you start to forget the big picture of all the good things you've got and you start to magnify out of proportion the negatives. And as your attitude slips from God-centered alignment, friction starts developing - people and circumstances just start getting to you.

So, in your earliest waking moments of the day, consciously start praising God right away, first thing, for good things that He is and for good things that He's doing. Focus your heart on Jesus as the only One you're doing things for, as the source of your joy, as your reason for living. And aggressively look for Him all over, all through your day. As long as your attitude is lined up with the holy horizon of the God who has your life, your flight will weather any storm and arrive home safely.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

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It's something like what Coach John McKay of USC said to his team after they had been humiliated 51-0 by Notre Dame. McKay came into the locker room and saw a group of beaten worn-out and thoroughly depressed young football players who were not accustomed to losing. He stood up on a bench and said, "Men, let's keep this in perspective. There are 800 million Chinese who don't even know this game was played." That's what you call perspective.

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Steve Farrar, Family Survival in the American Jungle, p. 40 Published by Multnomah Pub (Sept 1, 1991)

Attitude or Pessimism

A man read an ad in the newspaper, "Hunting dog for sale, $2500.00, but well worth it." He called the number and the man told him that he had to see the dog in action. The next morning they met and went hunting early. The dog flushed two birds from a clump of bushes and when they fell into the water, he walked on top of the water, grabbed the birds, and walked back on top of the water. The man was amazed, and bought the dog on the spot. The next day he persuaded his brother to go hunting with him. They flushed a couple of birds and the dog again walked on top of the water, retrieved the birds, and walked back to their boat on top of the water. He asked his brother what he thought of the dog and the brother replied, "So, you bought a dog who can't swim."

ATTITUDE

A man whom many believe was the greatest American president is a good example. When he was 7 years of age, his family was forced out of their home, and he went to work. When he was 9, his mother died. He lost his job as a store clerk when he was 20. He wanted to go to law school, but he didn't have the education. At age 23 he went into debt to be a partner in a small store. Three years later the business partner died, and the resulting debt took years to repay.

When he was 28, after courting a girl for four years, he asked her to marry him, and she turned him down. On his third try he was elected to Congress, at age 37, but then failed to be re-elected. His son died at 4 years of age. When this man was 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. At age 47 he ran for the vice-presidency and lost. But at age 51 he was elected president of the United States.

The man was Abraham Lincoln, a man who learned to face discouragement and move beyond it. Did you know that it was Abraham Lincoln who, in the midst of the Civil War, in 1863, established the annual celebration of Thanksgiving? Lincoln had learned how important it is to stop and thank God in the midst of great difficulties.

Preaching Today

ATTITUDE

According to an October 29, 1994, story from the Reuters news agency, a Chinese woman named Zhang Meihua began to suffer mysterious symptoms when she turned twenty. She was losing the ability to nimbly move her legs and arms. Doctors could not find the cause, and the symptoms continued.

Two decades passed, and Zhang began to also suffer from chronic headaches. Again she sought help from the doctors. This time a CAT scan and an X ray found the source of the woman's mysterious symptoms. A rusty pin was lodged in her head. The head of the pin was outside the skull, and the shaft penetrated into her brain. Doctors performed surgery and successfully extracted the pin.

The Xinhua news agency reported the doctors expressed amazement that the woman "could live for so long a time with a rusty pin stuck in her brain." After noting the position of the pin in her skull, they speculated that the pin had entered her skull sometime soon after birth and before her skull had hardened. Zhang, now fully recovered, said she "had no memory of being pierced by a pin in the head."

Like the rusty pin in that woman's brain, unwholesome thoughts, bad attitudes, and painful memories can lodge in our minds and cause chronic problems. God tells us to renew our minds.

Attitudes, Health, Thoughts

Rom. 12:1-2; Phil. 4:8-9

Contemporary Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers, & Writers

Editor Craig Brian Larson, Baker Books, p. 154.

Baseball pitcher Dan Quisenberry was a three-time All-Star reliever in the 1980s. In the winter of '96-'97 an aggressive form of brain cancer brought him low. Even so, he always emphasized the goodness of God. Following surgery to remove a tumor, Mr. Quisenberry spoke of his gratitude: "Every day I find things to be thankful for.... Sometimes it's just seeing a little boy on a bicycle. Sometimes it's the taste of water. It's hard to explain."

He died in the fall of 1997 at age 45.

Mr. Quisenberry's minister, Ted Nissen of Colonial Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, recalled a post-surgery visit. "He was on such a high, talking about how good God had been to him," he told the Kansas City Star. "He blessed me on that visit."

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Leadership Journal

[originally this illustration contained another story on Sammy Sosa, which was moved to #34178]

In evangelism, a major concern should be ourselves.

All of us who name the name of Jesus as Savior and Lord have a common assignment: Communicate God's saving truth. Communicate it in one-to-one testimony. Communicate it in church services. Communicate it individually, locally, nationally, and globally. Communicate it by radio and television. Communicate it by tracts and magazines and books.

Yet in carrying out this all-inclusive imperative, our major concern is not with means and methods and media, the technology and techniques of our day. Our major concern is with ourselves - the motives we have as we communicate the Word, the principles we follow, the goals we keep in view, and especially the attitudes that control us. Of course we must preach the Word and tell the old, old story. But how? I suggest five controlling attitudes.

COMMUNICATING CONFIDENTLY

We must share the good news with conviction and authority. We must bear in our hearts and minds 1 Thessalonians 2:13: "And we also thank God continually because, when You received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is at work in you who believe" (NIV).

Do we believe, personally and profoundly, that the message we are communicating is the Word of God? Perhaps our witness is stumbling, hesitant, tongue-tied, naive, and simple. Are we dead sure, nevertheless, that it is God's truth we are sharing, backed by all of God's authority and power? If we have this faith, then we can witness with confidence even though our witness may be weak and wobbly. For the power lies not in our words but in God's Word.

David Hume, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, was the father of modern skepticism. With irony and logic he attacked the existence of God and the possibility of miracles. But quite regularly on Sundays he went to hear a dogmatic Presbyterian minister in Edinburgh. When his cynical friends chided him for his inconsistency, Hume replied, "I don't believe what he preaches, but he believes it; and once a week I like to hear a man say what he believes."

COMMUNICATING HONESTLY

To communicate the Word effectively we must also communicate it HONESTLY. Notice the focus on simple honesty in 2 Corinthians 2:17: "Unlike so many, we do not peddle the Word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God"(NIV; see also 2 Cor. 4:2 and 2 Tim. 2:15).

Why does Scripture focus on honesty? The reason, alas, is rather plain. As sinners, we carry on a constant battle against an inborn tendency to take over God's job-only, as regenerate sinners, we play God in subtle ways. Instead of indulging in the violent megalomania of an Adolf Hitler, we prefer to pose as experts on Scripture and claim that God is speaking through our pronouncements-when as a matter of fact, we are merely ventilating our own prejudices.

We claim God's awesome authority for our own fallible opinions, insisting, "Thus said the Lord," when we should be confessing, "This is my guess." As proud sinners, we fail to heed John Calvin's stern admonition, "Let us be silent when God has shut his holy mouth."

Thus, some Christians have dogmatically claimed God's authority for racial segregation, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism. Other Christians have dogmatically claimed God's authority for witch burning and snake handling; the divine right of kings to govern wrongly; slavery and polygamy; and for every conceivable heresy and absurdity.

In honesty, we must refuse to treat the Bible as a ventriloquist's dummy through which we mouth our own hunches. If we force Scripture to say what we prefer to have it say, we are no longer obedient believers. We are false witnesses in danger of palming off human lies as God's truth.

COMMUNICATING PRAYERFULLY

We must communicate the Word PRAYERFULLY. We could just as well say we communicate the Word pneumatically. That looks like a complicated term, but in Greek it simply means air, wind, or spirit. To communicate the Word pneumatically is to communicate it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer and the Holy Spirit are as inseparable as the inside and the outside of a cup. The Holy Spirit enables us to communicate God's Word effectively. It enlightens, regenerates, and converts through Scripture. But we cannot share the truth pneumatically unless we do it prayerfully.

I grasp more firmly the interconnectedness of human prayer and the divine Spirit of the Word. Listen to 1 Corinthians 2:4-5: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (NIV).

The people to whom we witness are lost and blind, deaf, bound, and dead. They are incapable of receiving the truth until, in response to believing prayer, the Holy Spirit works a miracle of enlightenment, regeneration, and conversion. Without supernatural action, all our witnessing is in vain. THE SPIRIT WORKS AS WE PRAY.

We must witness; but before we witness, we pray. While we witness, we pray, After we witness, we pray. We do our human utmost to communicate the gospel effectively, but we master one indispensable lesson if we have never mastered it before. To communicate the gospel pneumatically - that is, in demonstration of the Spirit and power - we must communicate it prayerfully.

COMMUNICATING COMPASSIONATELY

1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, a moving piece of autobiography, discloses the tenderness of the apostle Paul, that great-souled witness, who stands without peer in the effective communication of God's message.

"As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you," Paul writes to the community at Thessalonica, "but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well because you had become so dear to us" (NIV).

This passage lays bare the secret of Paul's witness: he was a compassionate communicator. Undoubtedly he knew from oral tradition that his Master before him had wept outside the grave of Lazarus and had also wept as he sat overlooking the self-doomed city of Jerusalem. Compassion is a master principle of effective communication - tender compassion, burdened compassion, loving compassion, yes, even tearful compassion.

COMMUNICATING INCARNATIONALLY

A single text will be enough on this score, that great statement in John 1:14: "The Word became flesh." Central to Christianity is the incredible act of divine condescension by which the everlasting Father became Mary's baby,

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail th'incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with men to dwell,

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Together with the Atonement and the Resurrection, the Incarnation is the heart of the gospel, the divine Creator identifying himself with his human creature, immortal love lived out in mortal protoplasm, subject to growth and pain and death. "The Word became flesh."

Physicist Robert Oppenheimer once remarked, "If you want to send an idea, wrap it up in a person." God did just that. He wrapped himself up in the person of Jesus Christ, and, because the Word became flesh, we now know what truth is; we know what forgiveness is; we know what grace is; we know what love is; we know who God is.

If people today are to know truth and forgiveness and grace and love and God, the Word must again become flesh, not in a repetition of the Virgin Birth, but in that miracle by which Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit lives out his life in our lives day after day.

What a radiant person Marilyn Edwards Madsen was, filled with God's love, exuding sunshine, cheerfulness, and joy. With her husband, Dick, she witnessed in Africa after they both graduated from Denver Seminary. Then, in her early thirties, during the birth of her fourth child, Marilyn died.

Her death was a heartbreaking tragedy for her parents, a stunning blow from which they have never fully recovered. Yet, in those days of agonizing sorrow they bore their loss with quiet dignity, strength, and submission, refusing to question God's wisdom and goodness, never revealing any trace of resentment or bitterness. Morning after morning her father, Dr. Edwards, who taught Old Testament at Denver Seminary, met with his class on the Book of Job and continued to explain the need for faith in the face of life's mysterious suffering.

Some time later when Dr. Edwards retired, the seminary held a testimonial banquet in his honor. One of his former students, now a pastor, spoke on behalf of all the alumni. He made a few of the usual remarks, then recalled the death of Marilyn Edwards Madsen. He described how in the weeks immediately afterward her bereaved father taught the Book of Job morning after morning, discussing the testing of faith in the crucible of suffering and emphasizing the need for trust in the face of loss and tragedy. That alumnus said, "In those mornings, we saw the Word become flesh."

For the effective communication of redemptive truth, the Word must become flesh. Confidence, honesty, prayer, and compassion are not enough. The Word must be communicated incarnationally. May God help us, then, to be living words who flesh out his saving grace!

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Vernon C. Grounds, a contributing editor of this magazine, is president emeritus of Denver Seminary. His books include Revolution and the Christian Faith and Evangelicalism and Social Responsibility.

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SIN

(Attitude)

The story is told of a little girl whose mother planned to celebrate her fifth birthday by impressing all the relatives. The mother dressed her daughter in fine clothes and said, "Now, here's what I want you to do. You're going to sing a song."

When it was time for the little girl to sing, her mother says, "Honey, what are you going to do?"

The child says, "Nothing."

The mother finds a convenient spot to pinch her and says, "Weren't you going to sing?"

The child says, "No."

The angry mother takes the child upstairs and shuts her in a closet. About half an hour later, the mother goes up and says, "What are you doing up here?"

The child says, "I've been having a great time. I've been spitting on your clothes. I've been spitting in your shoes. I've been spitting on your walls. I've been spitting on the carpet. Now I'm waiting for some more spit."

That attitude of waiting for some more spit is what sin is all about. For man, sin is not just an act. Sin is an attitude. Man is not a sinner because he is a transgressor. He is a transgressor because he is already a sinner. The offense is not only in the transgression but in the intention. Sin is not merely the violation of law but in the disposition of the heart.

Preaching Today

56,000 Hours

Read: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26

Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. --Ecclesiastes 2:24

By age 50, a person who has worked fulltime since college will have put in about 56,000 hours of work. Whether you're teaching school, working as a nurse, running a press, or whatever else you do, that's a lot of time.

Keep that in mind and look at what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 2:17. "I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity."

Think of 56,000 hours of worthless activity. That's 28 years of a career spent "grasping for the wind."

But wait. There's more. Keep reading in chapter 2. Hope shines through the otherwise dull efforts of the workplace--there can be satisfaction in work. Joy comes when work is done to please God (Eccl. 2:24-26; Col. 3:23-25). So all of our work, when done as a service to our Lord, has significance.

An airline employee who was struggling through a long delay in a flight's departure kept her composure as the passengers grew angrier. When someone asked her name so he could write a letter of commendation, she replied, "Oh, I don't work for this airline. I work for Jesus Christ."

Imagine the value of 56,000 hours of work done with that attitude! There's nothing better! --JDB

O what can I give to the Master,

The One who from sin set me free?

I'll give Him a lifetime of service

To thank Him for dying for me. --K. De Haan

Daily work takes on eternal value when it is done for God.

Attitude

Cheerful people resist disease better than glum ones. In other words, the surly bird catches the germ.

-Hope Health Letter (4/96)

Authenticity

In Becoming a Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg tell this story:

A newly promoted colonel had moved into a makeshift office during the Gulf War. He was just getting unpacked when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a private with a toolbox coming his way.

Wanting to seem important, he grabbed the phone: "Yes, General Schwarzkopf. Of course, I think that's an excellent plan." He continued: "You've got my support on it. Thanks for checking with me. Let's touch base again soon, Norm. Goodbye."

"And what can I do for you?" he asked the private.

"Uhhh, I'm just here to hook up your phone."

-Ron Willoughby

Augusta, Georgia

Marriage

A young bride complained to her friend, "My husband and I are getting along together fairly well, but he simply can't bear children."

"Oh well," a friend consoled her. "You can't expect men to do everything."

Men

In 1492, Columbus set out for the Orient and ended up in the Caribbean, thus setting a pattern that has continued for more than 500 years: Men still won't stop and ask for directions.

Patience

"Great message on patience, Pastor. I loved the way you illustrated by telling those kids to sit down and shut up."

Priorities

A woman bought a parrot to keep her company but returned it the next day. "This bird doesn't talk," she told the owner.

"Does he have a mirror in his cage?" he asked. "Parrots love mirrors. They see their reflection and start a conversation." The woman bought a mirror and left.

The next day she returned; the bird still wasn't talking. "How about a ladder? Parrots love ladders. A happy parrot is a talkative parrot." The woman bought a ladder and left.

But the next day, she was back. "Does your parrot have a swing? No? Well, that's the problem. Once he starts swinging, he'll talk up a storm." The woman reluctantly bought a swing and left.

When she walked into the store the next day, her countenance had changed. "The parrot died," she said. The pet store owner was shocked.

"I'm so sorry. Tell me, did he ever say a word?" he asked.

"Yes, right before he died," the woman replied. "In a weak voice, he asked me, 'Don't they sell any food at that pet store?'"

Sometimes people forget the main thing.

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Copyright(c) 1996 by Christianity Today, Inc/LEADERSHIP, journal.

Fall 1996, Vol. XVII, No. 4, Page 75

We can learn from the dark moments on our journey to the Celestial City.

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"Gordon, you and Gail are going through one of the darkest moments you will ever face, and you have a choice: Will you deny the pain and run from it or will you embrace the pain and squeeze out of it everything God has for you?"

The man who spoke those words changed our lives.

His words echo the theology that often gets lost in the shadows of dark moments: God can play tricks on evil, if we let him, and pull from the darkness light and beauty.

Dark moments are not the exception, even in a life God blesses.

I would not have said that in my youth. I considered pain and suffering in the life of a Christian minister as gross anomalies or the result of sin.

But I've come to see the dark moments of life as precious moments, times to ask, "Is this a moment God can speak to me?"

As I look over my almost sixty years, I feel like the traveler in PILGRIM'S PROGRESS: I can spot dark moments in which I've seen God at work in my life in a clear way. In each I heard a message in the midst of pain. I offer you six:

1. ESCAPE IS NEVER AN ANSWER

I quit my first job at 24.

I was a youth pastor on the south side of Denver and a senior at the University of Colorado. For the first fourteen months of my ministry, I was dearly loved. It seemed I could do no wrong. The senior pastor even offered me his pulpit on occasion, and everybody marveled that someone so young and without seminary training could preach so well.

Then for reasons I can't remember (or don't want to remember), things soured. I went from "He can do no wrong" to "He can do no right." The teenagers stopped showing up and began criticizing the youth program.

One afternoon, while walking through the church, I noticed a crumbled ball of paper on the floor. Instinctively, I bent down, picked it up, and opened it. One teenager had written to another these words: "If MacDonald doesn't quit this youth-pastor job soon, this whole program is going to go up in smoke."

I saw in my mind my great future of serving the Lord go up in flames. Numb, I marched to my office, called Gail, who, being discouraged at the time, didn't persuade me otherwise, and typed a letter of resignation. Fifteen minutes after reading that crumpled note, I handed my letter of resignation to the senior pastor.

For the next nine months, I worked in a trucking company to support my wife and newborn son, wondering if I'd ever get another shot at ministry. During those months I experienced what I call "a dark moment," the first of a series during the course of my life. Looking back, I can say my resignation was rather inconsequential, but I felt frightened at the time.

Many men will tell you that in their keenest moments of despair, they brooded about taking their life. I don't think they were suicidal so much as they just wanted to escape the pain. They wanted to lie down and not awake. Many people in ministry also fantasize about escaping when conflict or hard times come. Consider Simon Peter, who after the resurrection went fishing. Or the apostle Paul who, in Second Corinthians, was so crushed that he despaired of life itself. I hear in the stories of Peter and Paul the message "I want to quit."

Looking back, I wish someone would have taken me aside and said, "Wait, Gordon, not so fast. Let's take three weeks to do what the U.S. Navy did when several planes crashed - a seventy-two hour 'stand-down.' Nothing flies. Let's evaluate every procedure. What's gone on over the last three months? Let's get some of your critics to talk to you face to face."

But I had no advisers; I had to learn the lesson through quitting. I discovered that inside me was an internal relay that triggered a quitting response whenever the going got tough. I had to reset the relay. This dark moment taught me an important lesson about life and ministry: when the going gets rough, quitting is never the first option.

2. CONFLICT CANNOT BE LEFT UNRESOLVED

The word HATE is a strong word; I don't use it easily. But if ever I experienced this feeling, I did so many years ago toward someone in a church I served. I can't reveal much of the circumstances, but this individual made promises to me that weren't kept. Over the months, my resentment smoldered into hate.

My feelings about this person affected virtually every dimension of my life. I had no interest in praying. Every time this person came to mind, I fantasized about ways I could embarrass and humiliate this individual. My hate poisoned even my relationship with Gail. When she said, "You've got to talk to this person and make it right," I became irritated with her for telling me what I knew-but didn't have the guts to do. The root of bitterness descended deep in my soul and wrapped itself around my motivation for pastoral work.

Tormented, I cried out loud to God one afternoon, "Give me relief from this. Help me to forgive." What followed during the next fifteen minutes can only be described as a mystical experience, the first in my life. It was a little like a vision, but I had a physical sensation of a hole being cut into my chest cavity. After the hole was cut, I felt something oozing out, like a thick molasses. The substance flowed and flowed. It was my hatred, which God was removing through surgery. After the flow had stopped, I felt as if I had lost fifty pounds; my hatred was gone.

I struggle to explain why God intervened so dramatically, but I learned from that dark moment never again to allow a relationship to stray that far off course. I learned that, like Paul and Barnabas, some people just can't work together, that separation is better than hate, and that the engines of healing are forgiveness and grace.

3. EMOTIONS MUST BE ATTENDED TO

Early in my pastoral career, I read THE SECULAR CITY by Harvey Cox, a Harvard theologian. It was the first I'd read a book by an author who knew the fundamentalist mindset so well. Cox had grown up in fundamentalism, which in THE SECULAR CITY he attacked and deconstructed. Reading the book tore open my belief systems.

At that same time, during a two-week span, I conducted the funerals of two homeless people. In the southern Illinois town where I served, the funeral director asked for my services for $30 a pop. In both cases, I walked into the funeral home to see a cheap, cloth-covered casket with an older man lying in state with all the marks of a hard life. Nobody showed for the first funeral. The only person who came for the second was a woman who looked almost as bad as the corpse. She had shared life with him on the streets. Her plight overwhelmed me as much as the person's for whom I was conducting the funeral. I was struck with the absolute meaninglessness of their lives.

Also during this time, I was extremely busy, physically exhausted, with no time for spiritual activity.

One Saturday morning at breakfast, Gail innocently said to me, "You haven't spent any time with the family this month." I burst into tears. The book I'd read, the two funerals, my over-busyness-all combined to unravel my emotions. I cried until noon, until I was exhausted. In the midst of my breakdown, I wondered, IS THIS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO GO CRAZY? I'd never had a moment when I couldn't control my feelings. Yet this was a Niagara of tears.

During this dark moment, I discovered that unresolved feelings do not flutter away in the wind. They deposit themselves in the strata of our souls and lie waiting to escape. They're all there: the resentments, the despair, the anxieties, the worries, the fears. When we're young, we have enough energy to keep them from geysering, but as the years accumulate, we lose our ability to push them underground.

I resolved to keep a record of my feelings. Journaling is not fail-safe, but it has forced me once a day to take inventory of the last twenty-four hours. It has helped me to tend to emotions rather than let them accumulate until they cause problems.

4. PAIN REDUCES US TO OUR TRUE SIZE

For the first time in my life, in my early thirties, I was experiencing physical pain, a spate of migraine headaches that came close to unbearable. I worried they were caused by a brain tumor and feared I would live with pain the rest of my life.

This may sound unbelievable, but I could almost set my calendar and watch to the onset of the migraines: They came during the month of May of every even-numbered year. They generally hit about one o'clock in the morning every other night for about three weeks, and then they stopped. I had four sequences of these.

I finally went to a headache specialist. "Ninety percent of my patients remind me of you," he said. "They are young men, heads of organizations or wanting to be heads of organizations. They're not at peace with themselves; they've got some people in their lives with whom they have unresolved relationships."

He had never met me and didn't know what I did for a living, but he described me perfectly. I knew exactly the unresolved relationships to which the doctor was referring. Let me just say that I don't advocate assigning blame to our parents for all that ails us. If they hurt us, it's likely their parents hurt them. Families tend to pass on their politic from generation to generation. Each of us is living out the consequences of how our family related to one another. Also, I don't think that every pain is psychosomatic, but mine, it turned out, was.

Down through history, some of the greatest moments of kingdom production have come during physical pain. Amy Carmichael, for example, was one of the greatest spirituality writers of the twentieth century, but everything she wrote was written on a bed of pain. The question then becomes, "What does God want to teach me while I'm in the theater of pain?" Pain humbles us, forcing us to recognize our reliance on others and God. It reduces us to our true size.

It was during this dark moment that Gail and I, ten years into our marriage, first learned to pray together. It was one way I worked through my unresolved relationships. Over the next nine months, Gail and I pursued God together in prayer, in more than just a perfunctory way, and it changed our lives. I discovered the importance of saying to her, "I need you to pray for me," and that was something I had not done before. Years later, when Gail and I faced the blackest of my dark moments, the discipline of prayer we had learned during my physical pain was in place.

5. GOD CANNOT BE BOXED

About fourteen years ago, I was asked if I'd be willing to be a candidate for the presidency of a major Christian organization (not InterVarsity). I was advised by wise people not to turn it down, since God, they said, may be calling me to leadership at a world level. I had grown up in a tradition where finding the will of God was the most important pursuit of the Christian life. My mother would say, "If God calls you to do something and you say no, you'll be miserable for the rest of your life." I took finding God's will seriously.

As the process moved along, I learned that other leaders were being considered for the position. While I had agreed to submit my name as a candidate, Gail and I did not expect much to come of it. The other candidates, in my estimation, had far superior qualifications.

But then the headhunter called, asking if he could come to Boston to visit us. Our hopes spiked. We knew the former president had destroyed his marriage because of the job, so Gail and I remained wary. But we slowly warmed to the idea, and since we had a long vacation coming from the church, we decided to seclude ourselves for five weeks in our New Hampshire home to pray. Neither Gail nor I has ever asked God for omens or signs to determine future direction, but during these weeks, the dots seemed to line up. The books we read, the conversations we held, the prayers we prayed, the voice of God we heard in our souls-everything pointed to my getting this position. We felt God was saying, "This is going to happen."

As the search process reached its zenith, the final two candidates - I was one - were asked by the organization's board to come for a final interview. Gail and I met with the board on Friday morning and then flew back to Boston. Gail told me, "They're going to ask you to be the next president." That surprised me, because Gail is not prone to such pronouncements.

On Saturday, knowing the decision would be made Sunday afternoon, I told the staff at Grace Chapel, "I'd like to meet with you Sunday night after church." I didn't tell them why, but I planned to announce my resignation to them, for by then the chairman of the board of the organization was to have called me with the decision.

Sunday afternoon came and went, but the phone did not ring, so by the time the staff gathered that evening at our place, I was in agony. I didn't know what to do. Finally, I told them, "I need to tell you why you are here. It's a story that, as of right now, doesn't have an ending."

So for twenty-five minutes, Gail and I told them about what had unfolded the past four months, how we felt God was leading us in this new direction, though we still hadn't heard the final decision. Everybody was in a state of shock. No sooner had we finished, then the phone rang. It was the chairman of the board of this organization. The other candidate had been chosen.

I stumbled into the living room to tell the staff the news. I said stoically, "You've been with Gail and me on many occasions when God has said yes. Now you'll get to see how we handle things when God says no."

After the staff left, I canceled the church elders meeting I had scheduled for the next morning (I had planned to resign), canceled my plane reservations to meet with what I thought would be my new board, and went to bed. The next morning, I was back at work at 8:00 a.m., as if nothing happened.

Ten days later the full force of what happened crushed me. I submarined into the depths of disillusionment. At a subterranean level, I told God, "You've made a perfect fool out of me. You drew me to the finish line and said, 'I'm sorry.' I no longer know your language. You speak a different language than I've been trained to understand." I was questioning God, something I had never really done. I doubted whether it was possible to hear God speak.

During this period, I resigned from Grace Chapel out of exhaustion, disillusionment, and bewilderment. By candidating for that position, I had lost trust with the leaders of Grace Chapel. That was 1984. My world had fallen apart.

I can say this only now, with more than a decade of distance from those dark moments, but I had to surrender to a much deeper and more mysterious God than I had known up to that moment. I had to surrender all of my prejudices and preconditions of knowing God. That takes time. God wasn't in a hurry with Moses (I often wonder what was on his mind for forty years in the desert), and God certainly wasn't in a hurry with me.

In retrospect, I can say that if the board of that organization had picked me, I would have failed. I wasn't mature enough. The job required characteristics I don't have. Even so, there's a memory of those days that has stayed with me: Don't expect everything to be cozy with God, for he is a big God and his ways are beyond us.

6. ENTHUSIASM IS A CHOICE

My fifth dark moment no doubt contributed to my sixth. Most dark benchmarks have the potential of destroying one's life. And in the blackness of the earlier one, I made a choice that led to moral failure, which resulted in the loss of my life's work.

After I resigned as president of InterVarsity, Gail and I moved to our New Hampshire home for almost two years. One Sunday morning, sitting on the edge of our bed, I flipped the television to Robert Schuller, who said, "Today I'm going to talk about enthusiasm."

WHAT ELSE DO YOU TALK ABOUT? I growled to myself.

But as I listened to Schuller, I realized how unenthusiastic I had become. I had lost my zest for life. Schuller said enthusiasm was a choice, not the result of good circumstances around us. It was the energy created when God is in us.

As Schuller's words sank in, I asked God, "Is it possible for me to get my enthusiasm and vision back once I've lost it?"

Unshaven, I walked into the living room, with my worn-out bathrobe and hair standing on end, and said to Gail, "I have an apology to make."

"What's that?"

"It occurred to me this morning that for the past couple of years, if there has been any enthusiasm in my life, it has been coming from you. I'm telling you before God that this morning, I've resolved to become an enthusiastic man again. You'll see it."

I dedicated the next several days to beginning my quest, and the enduring question that emerged was "If God allows me to live for thirty-five more years, what kind of man do I want to be in my seventies and eighties?"

I remember saying to God, "Whether I return to ministry again is not important. What's important is that I live my life for the next thirty years before you in integrity and enthusiasm."

About the same time Gail and I stumbled across a line from Oswald Chambers: "If God allows you to be stripped of the exterior portions of your life, he means for you to cultivate the interior." After reading that, we made a decision to pray consciously for our friends. Today, rarely do we get up in the morning and not pray for the friends we've been given.

My quest for enthusiasm, my decision to be an old man with integrity, and our decision to pray for our friends -- these became the steps out of failure. They laid a track for our future.

Perhaps the darkest moment taught me that even my worst moment had latent within it the hope of liberation. I'd been given a fresh opportunity to reframe my faith in Christ, to renew my marriage, and to discover my real friends.

When I add up all the dark moments of my life, I see in every one that God had a message for me. I can now say as Pilgrim did as he crossed the river: "I've touched the bottom, and it is sound."

____________________

Gordon MacDonald is pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Copyright © 1997 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal. Summer, vol. XVIII, no. 3, page 78

A girl who received a book from a young man, read it and said, "What a tiresome book!" The young man said, "Did you notice who wrote it?" She looked at the front page and saw that her lover was the author. She began to read it again, and at the end she said, "I never read a greater book." What made the difference? Her relationship to the writer. Look at God. Is He good or evil? It all depends on whether you are single in heart or evil in heart. If you look at Jesus, you may see Him either as a deceiver or as a Savior. What makes the difference? Your attitude, your eye.

Charles Swindoll said: "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string that we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes."

In William Barclay's daily devotional Daily Celebration, appears this little story:

"There was a little Indian girl at school today," announced my son proudly.

"Does she speak English?" I asked.

"No," came the quick reply, "but it doesn't matter because she laughs in English!" Laughter is the universal language. You can laugh in any language and it will be understood. Keep laughing!

If you can laugh at it, you can live with it. Laughter is to life what salt is to an egg. Laughter is the cheapest luxury man has. It stirs up the blood, expands the chest, electrifies the nerves, clears away the cobwebs from the brain, and gives the whole system a cleaning rehabilitation.

Someone said, "My past is gone; my present is passing; my future is arriving."

The best thing about the future is that it comes upon us by degrees, a day at a time. We can manage that! Whatever it holds, my future is mine: if it be fair weather, let me bask in the sun; if it be storms, let me bend with the wind.

The future belongs to those who can make adjustments.

"Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow" (Numbers 11:18).

For many months, our ministry team joined thousands of believers around the world in praying for the release of missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham. Philippine rebels had kidnapped them from a resort where they were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary and held them for ransom for more than a year. Well, when a Philippine army unit moved in to rescue the hostages, Martin Burnham was killed by a stray bullet and Mrs. Burnham was wounded. For both of them, a terrible ordeal ended in the jungle that night. Gracia went home to America, and Martin went home to heaven. At his memorial service, it was reported that the last thing the couple did before the raid was to pray together. Mr. Burnham told his wife, "We might not leave this jungle alive, but at least we can leave this world serving the Lord with gladness. We can serve Him right here, where we are, and with gladness." Wow!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Joy In The Jungle."

Other hostages testified to how Martin Burnham had lived that out. Chained each night to a tree by a guard, he made it a point to thank the guard and wish him a good night. He offered to carry belongings ... not only for other hostages, but for his captors. And he initiated many discussions with the rebels, including their leader, about Christian faith and principles.

You know, we all have things in our environment that are unpleasant - people that irritate or hurt us, circumstances that get us down, little injustices, stubborn problems. But when we look at the grace that God gave Martin Burnham - and we know we have access to that same grace - I have to ask, "What's our excuse for a bad attitude?"

In Genesis 39, beginning in verse 20, our word for today from the Word of God, we see a Biblical model of capturing your environment instead of letting your environment capture you. Joseph has been sold into slavery by his own brothers and bought by a major Egyptian military leader. Joseph does such a good job in that household that he is put in charge of everything there, but then he's accused by his master's wife of something he did not do and he's thrown into the king's prison. The Bible says, "But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him." Again, he is so responsible in that prison now that he is again put in charge.

And when two of the prisoners, former officials of the king, are troubled by prophetic dreams, the Bible says, "When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked, 'Why are your faces so sad today?'" Notice - he's in prison for something he hasn't done. But he's not all grumpy and pity-partying - he's looking for people he can help. Just like a missionary hostage who made up his mind he was going to make that jungle the best place it could possibly be - that he was going to be all about other people instead of being all about himself and he would serve the Lord with gladness until the day he died.

Well, it's that kind of attitude that's going to enable you to have joy in the jungle that you're in right now - being all about your Lord and all about other people. If you belong to Jesus, there is nothing in your situation that can ever justify or excuse a negative attitude! If a missionary hostage could serve the Lord with gladness where he was, surely you can serve the Lord with gladness where you are. There are always people who need you. There's always a word for Jesus to be spoken. There's always a difference to be made - no matter what the circumstances!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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[A motivational speaker's views on optimism]

I have been giving some thought lately to optimism and pessimism. Basically, these are attitudes. Attitudes that shape and formulate our entire existence. I mean, have you ever met a happy pessimist? Of course not.

In short, our optimism or pessimism is this:

The way we interpret the past

The way we experience and view the present

The way we imagine the future

Have you given much thought about how your attitude, whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, affects you business, organization or school? Have you thought about how it affects you personally? And what about the team you are a part of?

What is optimism? It is a belief that things in our past were good for us, even if that means they were hard and taught us lessons. It is also the belief that things will be better in the future.

Here are some contrasts between optimism and pessimism and how they affect us:

Optimism breathes life into you each day

Pessimism drains you

Optimism helps you to take needed risks

Pessimism plays it safe and never accomplishes much

Optimism improves those around you

Pessimism drags them down

Optimism inspires people to great heights

Pessimism deflates people to new lows

There is only one way that optimism and pessimism are the same and that is that they are both self-fulfilling. If you are an optimist, you will generally find that good things happen to you. And if you are a pessimist, you will find yourself in the not-so-good situations more often than not.

So can a person just become an optimist? Yes! We can choose to look at the world any way we want to. We can choose to look at the world and think the worst, or we can tell ourselves the good things about each situation. As you find yourself looking at your enterprise, begin to view it through the eyes of an optimist, and you will reap the rewards listed above, and so will the people around you.

There are tremendous benefits to being an optimist, as stated above. But there are some pessimists out there who will say, "But that isn't realistic." I say, "Who cares?" If things go awry, at least I have spent my time beforehand enjoying life and not worrying about it. And, being an optimist, I would view the "negative" situation as an opportunity to grow and learn. So I can even look forward to my failures because they will be stepping stones, and learning tools to be applied to my future success.

Have you ever met a successful pessimist? Become an optimist and see your world change before your eyes!

I go to the barber shop to have my hairs cut - both of them. And I don't go expecting to glean some gem of philosophical wisdom. But I did during my most recent visit. An elderly gentleman was the victim - I mean, the customer - just ahead of me. He was telling why he wasn't able to go hunting this year as he had in past years, basically because of a barrage of aches and pains and some medical problems. But he wasn't really complaining. You could tell that by his conclusion: "Yup, my body is wearing out, I guess - but I'm just grateful I'm here for it."

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Major Gifts, Minor Glitches."

I walked away from the barber shop that morning with more than a haircut - I walked away with fresh perspective on the things in our lives that bother us - thanks to a man who saw beyond his aches and pains to the blessing of at least being alive to feel them. Here's how he weighs it out: Physical problems - small stuff. Being alive - big stuff.

That load-lightening perspective is evident in our word for today from the Word of God. Proverbs 14:4 is really an unusual, and even slightly amusing, piece of divine wisdom. It's one that may help you rise above some of the heavy stuff you're trying to lift right now. Here goes: "Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest." I like the way the King James Version puts it: "Where no oxen are, the crib is clean."

Now, here's the picture - a farmer is complaining about the mess his oxen make in the barn. "If I didn't have those stupid oxen, I wouldn't have all this manure." Then somebody reminds him - "If you didn't have those oxen, you wouldn't have a harvest!" You've got a little mess because you've got a big blessing!

Hello! That might be what God is trying to remind you of right now. You've been frustrated by, maybe complaining about things that aren't working, things that are hurting, things that need fixing, problems that need solving, or jobs that need doing. Maybe you've forgotten that the reason you've got a problem is because you've got a gift from God! You've been given blessings, opportunities, years, people who love you, people who look to you, people who need you, and you've been given work to do.

On days when my list of problems and pressures is multiplying, I need to read Psalm 16:5-6 to help me restore my "big picture" perspective. "Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."

Now, you decide where you want to focus ... what you're going to let determine your attitude. You can complain about the manure or be glad you've got an ox. You can gripe about the glitches or you can give thanks for the gifts. You can be negative because there's a mess or positive because that mess is the result of progress - and, as any highway construction people know, you can't have progress without having a mess.

Where's your attitude coming from right now - your load or your Lord? Your burdens or your blessings? The mess from the wrapping paper or the gift from God that He wrapped? Take a step back ... look past the garbage that's right in front of you to see the goodness of God that's all around you!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

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What Does It Mean To Be 100% from a strictly mathematical viewpoint?

What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been in situations where someone wants you to give over 100%? How about achieving 101%? What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26,

then: H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But, A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E

1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

AND, look how far the love of God will take you...

L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that: While Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #1299]

When you woke up this morning, were your thoughts on what you've “got to do” or what you “get to do”?

If your thoughts were on what you've “got to do,” they can be either negative or positive. For example, if you've “got to go to work,” that's positive because it means you have a job and are gainfully employed. Not only that, you have a means of getting to your place of employment and you have the health and energy to do exactly that. So your “got to” is translated into positive steps toward performing what you “get to do” because at the end of the work period you “get to” cash your paycheck. Then you “get to” use that money to pay bills. Some of it will go to buy food, clothing and shelter and, ideally, a part of it will go to your church or favorite charity as well as to your retirement plan.

By and large, however, when we think of “got to,” we think of something that we are required to do whether we want to do it or not. For example, we've “got to” make those car and house payments; we've “got to” be on time or risk losing our job; we've “got to” perform satisfactorily or be dismissed; we've “got to” get home at a certain time to prepare the evening meal for our family; we've “got to” make those phone calls we've been neglecting; we've “got to” visit an elderly relative who is in a nursing home or hospital; we've “got to ... got to ... got to....”

If we concentrate on the particular line of thought of what we've “got to” do, we're probably going to have a stressful day and end it by being tired and perhaps even a little “out of sorts.”

I love the “get to” approach that Lesleigh Ann Schaefer describes. She shares with her Internet readers how at age 44 she went back to college and is now headed for graduation. She made a list of her “get to's,” which will give all of us something to think about:

-- I get to go to school to fulfill my dream.

-- I get to go to work when so many people can't.

-- I get to do the laundry, thankful for a washer and dryer.

-- I get to play with my cat who is so thankful for the attention.

-- I get to say a prayer; I have freedom of speech.

-- I get to remember the things that make me happy.

-- I get to spend time with a friend who needs my help.

-- I get to read a book; I still have my sight.

Lesleigh Ann's is a spirit and attitude that contributes not only to her physical and financial well-being but also to her emotional and social well-being.

Suggestions: Take out your pen and paper and begin to make a list, eliminating your “got to's” and concentrating entirely on your “get to's.” “I get to visit my mother in the nursing home,” “I get to make a phone call to cheer up a friend who is confined to her home,” “I get to write that thank you note to someone who sent me a nice remembrance on Valentine's Day,” “I get to read that book I've been wanting to read on how to get a raise,” “I get to clean out my garage and make it more attractive in case unexpected opportunities to sell my home develop, so that I can reduce my costs of living and get to enjoy life more.”

Let your imagination run full bore. List all of the things you are grateful you get to do. It is amazing how much more excitement will be generated when you concentrate on the “get to's” of life.

*

I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes midnight.

• My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

• Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

• Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money or I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

• Today I can grumble about my health or I can rejoice that I am alive.

• Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

• Today I can cry because roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

• Today I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

• Today I can whine because I have to go to work or I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.

• Today I can complain because I have to go to school or eagerly open my mind and fill it with knowledge and adventure.

• Today I can dejectedly murmur because I have housework to do or I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul.

• Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping. What today will be like is up to me.

And I shall decide what kind of day I shall have!

Let not thy left hand’ know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret. — Matthew 6:3, 4.

From the days of the Ulster Revival in 1859 the following story has been handed down : “One day a servant girl, who also had been recently converted, said to a relation of mine, ‘It’s plain to be seen, John F___ is a true Christian now.’ When asked why she thought so, the girl replied: ‘Och, sure now, Mrs. M___ , when John used to do a kind deed, he acted as though a brass band should parade it for him, but that’s all changed now. He’s so busy just serving the Lord for love of Him, that he wants nobody’s praise.’” — Sunday School Times.

Before the eyes of men let duly shine thy light,

But ever let thy life’s best part be out of sight. — R. C. Trench.

A little street girl fell ill one Christmas and was taken to the hospital. While there she heard the story of Jesus' coming into the world to save us. One day the nurse came around at the usual hour, and "Little Broomstick" (that was her street name) held her by the hand and whispered, "I am having real good times here, ever such good times. S'pose I'll have to go 'way from here just as soon as I get well; but I'll take the good time along-some of it, anyhow. Did you know about Jesus being born?"

"Yes," replied the nurse, "I know. But you must not talk any more."

"You did? I thought you looked as if you didn't, and I was going to tell you."

"Why, how did I look?" asked the nurse, forgetting her orders in her curiosity.

"Oh, just like most o' folks-kind o' glum. I shouldn't think you'd ever look glum if you knowed about Jesus being born."

An incident well worth noting is told of General Robert E. Lee, the Confederate officer during the American Civil War. Jefferson Davis once asked him what he thought of a certain officer in the army, as he had an important place he wanted filled by a trustworthy man. Lee gave the officer an excellent recommendation, and he was immediately promoted to the position. Some of Lee's friends told him that the officer had said some very bitter things against him, and were surprised at the General's recommendation. "I was not asked," said Lee, "for the officer's opinion of me, but my opinion of him." Only a noble heart could prompt such action. In praying we are told to love our enemies, but in our everyday life we too often love only those who love us.

Scientists have been discussing the question of happiness as an agent for the cure of disease, or of states of mind which favor the progress of certain diseases. Some very novel views have been advanced on the subject of happiness as a therapeutic, and the case was recalled of a victim of gout, who, on the approach of an attack, began dancing, not as if from a spasm of pain, but with the lightness of joy, and thus escaped the worst effects of the painful twitch. That sort of mirth seems quite artificial, though no doubt even that sort would be better than tamely submitting to the bondage of pain. The Bible proverb, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine" (Proverbs 17:22), has more logic in it. The healing beams of sunshine in a Christian's hope sustain many an invalid, and soothe the spirit, making the heart strong to bear if it cannot heal the disease.