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Deal
with Self
Self-image
Some people
feel a need to cover up a lack of self-confidence by trying to make a big
impression. A newly promoted Army colonel moved into his new and impressive
office. As he sat behind his new big desk
a private knocked at his door. “Just
a minute
” the colonel said
“I’m on the phone.” He picked up the phone and
said loudly
“Yes
sir
General
I’ll call the President this afternoon. No
sir
I won’t forget.” Then he hung up the phone and told the private to come
in. “What can I help you with?” the colonel asked. “Well
sir
” the private
replied
“I’ve come to hook up your phone.”
Self-image
At twenty
we
worry about what people think about us.
At forty
we don’t care
what people think about us.
At sixty
we find out that
people haven’t been thinking about us at all.
Self-image
I have often
wondered how it is that every man sets less value on his own opinion of himself
than on the opinion of others. So much more respect have we to what our
neighbors think of us than to what we think of ourselves.—Marcus Aurelius
Self-image
The famous
actor Peter Sellers
who played in
the “Pink Panther” movies
once said he lacked a personality. “As far as
I’m aware
I’m nothing
” he once said. “I have no personality of my own
whatsoever. I have no character to offer the public. I have nothing to
project.” In spite of his notable professional image on the screen
Sellers saw
himself as a person without an identity of his own.
Self-pity
Self-pity
weeps on the devil’s shoulder
turning to Satan for comfort. His invitation is:
“Come unto me all you that are grieved
peeved
misused
and disgruntled
and I
will spread on the sympathy. You will find me a never-failing source of the
meanest attitudes and the most selfish sort of misery. At my altar you may feel
free to fail and fall
and there to sigh and fret. There I will feed you soul
on fears
and indulge your ego with envy and jealousy
bitterness and spite.
There I will excuse you from every cross
duty
and hardship
and permit you to
yield unto temptation.”
Self-reform
No matter how
much a man tries to reform himself
he can never achieve the newness of life
that God wants him to have in Christ. Although a man can make changes in his
life
even positive changes
he still remains the same person and often goes
from one kind of problem to another.
Sports broadcaster Harry
Kalas once introduced a Philadelphia Phillies baseball player
Garry Maddox
with the following words: “He has turned his life around. He used to be
depressed and miserable. Now he’s miserable and depressed.”
Self-reliance
Without
thinking about it
often our reasoning is this: “I-by my stupidity-got into
this mess; therefore I-by my stupidity-will get out of it.”
Self-reliance
The story is
told of a carpenter who was nailing shingles on the roof of a house. He lost
his footing and started to slide off. As he was sliding he began praying
“Lord
oh
Lord
help me!” Still he kept sliding. Again the man prayed
“Lord
oh
Lord
help me!” He kept sliding until he got to the edge and a nail
sticking up caught hold of his pants. After he came to a stop he said
“Never
mind
Lord. The nail’s got hold of me now.”
Self-righteousness
Self-righteousness
is like a bottomless cup: though you pour and pour
you will never be able to
fill it. Why? Because pouring yourself into yourself adds nothing to you.
Nothing plus nothing always equals nothing.
Instead
accept God’s
righteousness rather than trying to accumulate your own. You will find that the
righteousness he offers is real. And that is what fills the cup of
sanctification.
Self-sacrifice
A little
girl’s first-grade class held its “track and field” day. She won quite a few
ribbons
among them one blue ribbon for a first place. Later that day
when she
came home
the blue ribbon was missing
and her mother asked what had happened
to it. “Oh
” she said
“Bruce was crying because he didn’t win a first place
ribbon
so I gave it to him.” Her mother hugged her and told her she thought it
was very generous to give Bruce the ribbon. “Why not?” she asked. “After all
I
know that I won it.”
If only all of us
adults
included
had such a clear idea of what things are really important in life
and what things are just decorations!
Self-worth
We all
frequently compare ourselves favorably with someone else. We all think of
someone we consider to be less mature
less competent
or less able than we
are. That person is a great comfort to us because he or she enables us to keep
our self-image intact by saying
“Well
at least I’m not like so-and-so.” The
only problem with determining our self-worth by comparing ourselves with others
is that we are using the wrong measuring stick.
A little boy came up to
his mother one day and said to her
“Mother
guess what! I’m eight feet
four
inches tall!” His mother
greatly surprised
inquired into the matter and found
he was using a six-inch ruler to measure a “foot”. The boy was actually only a
few inches over four feet.
This is exactly what we
do
we measure ourselves by one another
an imperfect prototype
rather than by
the standard of the Word of God.
Self-worth
In his
autobiography
cellist Gregor Piatigorsky tells about a time he was soloist at
a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini: “The maestro paced the dressing room
in which I practiced
repeating
‘You are no good; I am no good.’ ‘please
Maestro
’ I begged
‘I will be a complete wreck.’ Then
as we walked on stage
he said
‘We are no good
but the others are worse. Come on
caro
let’s go.’”
To Toscanini
it did not
matter what he said about himself and the cellist. So long as he could compare
himself and the soloist with “the others” and say that the others were less
he
felt that they themselves could walk forward with great confidence
feeling
full of self-worth. But there is great danger here. For what happens when one
looks out and finds the others better? To use comparison with others as a
measure for self-worth and confidence is to use a false standard. It puts us at
the mercy of the external situation and the circumstances in which we find
ourselves. Our sufficiency must be in Christ alone. And our relationship with
him should be the sole determinant for our feelings of self-worth and
confidence.
Evaluation of Self-worth
Suppose that
during the past week a young wife gave birth to her first baby. Now suppose
that as she held her new baby in her arms and was enjoying the pleasure of
motherhood
someone came up to her and said
“How much do you want for the
child?” Of course she would show no interest in the offer and would be offended
at even a suggestion that her precious babe was for sale. But the stranger is
persistent and offers ten thousand dollars
then a hundred thousand dollars
and finally one million dollars. The offers are in vain because the mother will
simply press the baby closer to her and reply
“My baby is worth more to me
than all the world!”
Of course
if she didn’t
say that
we would question whether she had the proper attitude for motherhood.
But why does she say it? Because she looks forward to thousands of dirty diapers
sleepless nights with a sick child
and the costs of raising that child?
Because the child will bring her fame and fortune? Of course not. Rather
it is
because she has chosen to value this tiny person
to deem the small one to be
of worth
and to love that baby of hers. Such worth resides in the very
identity of a person
not in their performance. And such worth
coming from the
image of God in all of us
must be the basis for our concept of ourselves
too
if our self-portrait is to be durable and worthwhile.
Selfishness
Too many
people conduct their lives cafeteria-style: self-service only.
Selfishness
One-half of
our problems come from wanting our own way. The other half come from getting
it!
Selfishness
A little boy
and his younger sister were riding a hobby horse together. The boy said
“if
one of us would just get off this hobby horse
there would be more room for
me.”
Destructive Selfishness
The things
that will destroy America are peace at any price
prosperity at any cost
safety first instead of duty first
the love of soft living
and the
get-rich-quick theory of life.—Attributed to Theodore Roosevelt
At age 20 we worry about what others
think of us. At 40 we don't care what they think of us. At 60 we discover they
haven't been thinking of us at all.
Ann Landers
via Context
quoted in Signs
of the Times
March
1993
p. 6.
In this Age of Self
the language is
filled with phrases that glorify personal choice above all other values:
self-determination
self-knowledge
self-esteem
self-help even do-it-yourself.
In this climate
no doctrine is safe
no dictate accepted without
scrutiny....The touchstone of belief today is the individual
not the
institution. Priests.
like precinct captains
have lost authority. The same voters
who talk back to their political leaders on call-in shows and town meetings are
talking back to their religious leaders at parish council meetings and
Communion breakfasts. While 85 percent of American Catholics look up to the
pope as a moral leader
4 out of 5 say they follow their own conscience
rather
than papal authority
on moral questions...The phrase "cafeteria
Catholics" describes those who pick and choose among church teachings. But
in religion
as in politics
the more appropriate analogy for modern mores is
to fast food rather than to cafeterias; as the slogan for one hamburger chain
puts it: "Have it your way."...How do leaders lead when followers
don't want to be led?
Steven V. Roberts
"Leading the
Faithful in an Age of Dissent
" U.S. News and World Report
August
23
1993
p. 6.
Another poll sheds light on this
paradox of increased religiosity and decreased morality. According to
sociologist Robert Bellah
81 percent of the American people also say they
agree that "an individual should arrive at his or her own religious belief
independent of any church or synagogue." Thus the key to the paradox is
the fact that those who claim to be Christians are arriving at faith on their
own terms -- terms that make no demands on behavior. A woman named Sheila
interviewed for Bellah's Habits of the Heart
embodies this attitude. "I
believe in God
" she said. "I can't remember the last time I went to
church. But my faith has carried me a long way. It's 'Sheila-ism.' Just my own little
voice."
Charles Colson
Against the Night
p. 98.
Ralph L. Woods: An ambitious farmer
unhappy about the yield of his crops
heard of a highly recommended new seed
corn. He bought some and produced a crop that was so abundant his astonished
neighbors asked him to sell them a portion of the new seed. But the farmer
afraid that he would lose a profitable competitive advantage
refused.
The second year the new seed did not
produce as good a crop
and when the third-year crop was still worse it dawned
upon the farmer that his prize corn was being pollinated by the inferior grade
of corn from his neighbors' fields.
C.R. Gibson
Wellsprings of Wisdom.
You may have heard the story of two
friends who met for dinner in a restaurant. Each requested filet of sole
and
after a few minutes the waiter came back with their order. Two pieces of fish
a large and a small
were on the same platter. One of the men proceeded to
serve his friend. Placing the small piece on a plate
he handed it across the
table. "Well
you certainly do have nerve!" exclaimed his friend.
"What's troubling you?"
asked the other. "Look what you've done
" he answered. "You've
given me the little piece and kept the big one for yourself." "How
would you have done it?" the man asked. His friend replied
"If I
were serving
I would have given you the big piece." "Well
"
replied the man
"I've got it
haven't I?" At this
they both
laughed.
Daily Bread
August 11
1992.
In its January 25
l988 issue
TIME
provided an insight on selfishness and its corollary
sharing. Speaking about
the introduction of the videocassette recorder
the article said
"The
company had made a crucial mistake. While at first Sony kept its Beta
technology mostly to itself
JVC
the Japanese inventor of the VHS (format)
shared its secret with a raft of other firms. As a result
the market was
overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the VHS machines being produced."
This drastically undercut Sony's
market share. The first year
Sony lost 40 percent of the market
and by 1987
it controlled only 10 percent. So now Sony has jumped on the VHS bandwagon.
While it still continues to make Beta-format VCRs [interestingly a higher
quality technology] Sony's switch to VHS
according to TIME
will likely send
Beta machines to "the consumer-electronics graveyard." Even in a
cut-throat business
sharing has its rewards.
Phillip Gunter.
Elizabeth Elliot
in her book Let
Me Be a Woman
records the story of Gladys Aylward unable to accept the
looks God had given her. Ms. Aylward told how when she was a child she had two
great sorrows. One
that while all her friends had beautiful golden hair
hers
was black. The other
that while her friends were still growing
she had
stopped. She was about four feet ten inches tall. But when at last she reached
the country to which God had called her to be a missionary
she stood on the
wharf in Shanghai and looked around at the people to whom He had called her.
"Every single one of them" she said
"had black hair. And every
one of them had stopped growing when I did." She was able to look to God
and exclaim
"Lord God
You know what You're doing!"
Elizabeth Elliot
Let Me Be a Woman.
From an unknown source comes an
article titled
"How To Be Miserable." It says
"Think about
yourself. Talk about yourself. Use "I" as often as possible. Mirror
yourself continually in the opinion of others. Listen greedily to what people
say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious.
Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself.
Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on
everything. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for favors shown them. Never
forget a service you have rendered. Shirk your duties if you can. Do as little
as possible for others."
Daily Walk
June 29
1993.
British actor Michael Wilding was once
asked if actors had any traits which set them apart from other human beings.
"Without a doubt
" he replied. "You can pick out actors by the
glazed look that comes into their eyes when the conversation wanders away from
themselves."
Today in the Word
April 2
1993.
I gave a little tea party this
afternoon
at 3. "Twas very small
3 guests in all - I
myself
and me.
Myself ate all the sandwiches while I drank all the tea. "Twas also I who
ate the pie and passed the cake to me.
Traditional.
You may have heard the story of two
friends who met for dinner in a restaurant. Each requested filet of sole
and
after a few minutes the waiter came back with their order. Two pieces of fish
a large and a small
were on the same platter. One of the men proceeded to
serve his friend. Placing the small piece on a plate
he handed it across the
table.
"Well
you certainly do have
nerve!" exclaimed his friend. "
What's troubling you?" asked the
other. "Look what you've done
" he answered. "You've given me
the little piece and kept the big one for yourself." "How would you
have done it?" the man asked. His friend replied
"If I were serving
I would have given you the big piece." "Well
" replied the man
"I've got it
haven't I?" At this
they both laughed.
Daily Bread
August 11
1992.
The trouble with some self-made men is
that they worship their creator.
Bits & Pieces
October
1989
p. 9.
One cold winter's day a crowd of
people stood in front of a pet shop window and watched a litter of puppies
snuggling up to each other. One woman laughed and said
"What a delightful
picture of brotherhood! Look at how those puppies are keeping each other
warm!" A man next to her replied
"No
ma'am
they're not keeping
each other warm--they're keeping themselves warm."
Today in the Word
February
1991
p. 20.
When Roy DeLamotte was chaplain at
Paine College in Georgia
he preached the shortest sermon in the college's
history. However
he had a rather long topic: "What does Christ Answer
When We Ask
"Lord
What's in Religion for Me?" The complete content
of his sermon was in one word: "Nothing." He later explained that the
one-word sermon was meant for people brought up on the 'gimme-gimme' gospel.
When asked how long it took him to prepare the message
he said
"Twenty
years."
Resources
1990.
God sends no one away empty except
those who are full of themselves.
D. L. Moody.
Come over here and sit next to me
I'm
dying to tell you all about myself.
Oscar Wilde.
I have found within myself all I need
and all I ever shall need. I am a man of great faith
but my faith is in George
Gordon Liddy. I have never failed me.
Watergate conspirator George Gordon
Liddy quoted in The Christian Century
9-28-77
p. 836.
When Mother Teresa was passing through
a crowd in Detroit a woman remarked
"Her secret is that she is free to be
nothing. Therefore God can use her for anything."
Michael Glazier
Inc. catalog
advertising Free to be Nothing.
Julian Huxley was committed to an
evolutionary humanism. He believed: "Man's most sacred duty and at the
same time his most glorious opportunity
is to promote the maximum fulfillment
of the evolutionary process on this earth; and this includes the fullest
realization of his own inherent possibilities."
J. Huxley
Religion without
Revelation
p. 194.
The smallest package in the world is a
person wrapped up in himself.
Traditional.
Bart Starr
former quarterback of the
Green Bay Packers
was describing to a group of businessmen how his coach
Vince Lombardi
held absolute power. He stated that
as you entered Vince's
office
you noticed a huge mahogany desk with an impressive organization chart
behind it on the wall. The chart had a small block at the top in which was
printed: "Vince Lombardi
Head Coach and General Manager." A line
came down from it to a very large block in which was printed: "Everybody
Else!"
Unknown.
The most pleasurable journey you take
is through yourself...the only sustaining love involvement is with
yourself...When you look back on your life and try to figure out where you've
been and where you're going
when you look at your work
your love affairs
your marriages
your children
your pain
your happiness--when you examine all
that closely
what you really find out is that the only person you really go to
bed with is yourself...The only thing you have is working to the consummation
of your own identity. And that's what I've been trying to do all my life.
Shirley MacLaine.
It is vain
O men
that you seek
within yourselves the cure for your miseries. All your insight only leads you
to the knowledge that it is not in yourselves that you will discover the true
and the good.
Blaise Pascal.
Clifton Fadiman
in The Little
Brown Book of Anecdotes
tells a story about Vladimir Nabokov
the
Russian-born novelist who achieved popular success with his novels Lolita
(1955)
Pale Fire (1962) and Ada (1969).
One summer in the 1940s
Nabokov and
his family stayed with James Laughlin at Alta
Utah
where Nabokov took the
opportunity to enlarge his collection of butterflies and moths. Fadiman
relates: "Nabokov's fiction has never been praised for its compassion; he
was single-minded if nothing else. One evening at dusk he returned from his
day's excursion saying that during hot pursuit near Bear Gulch he had heard
someone groaning most piteously down by the stream. "'Did you stop'
Laughlin asked him. "'No
I had to get the butterfly.'" The next day
the corpse of an aged prospector was discovered in what has been renamed
in
Nabokov's honor
Dead Man's Gulch." While people around us are dying
how
often we chase butterflies!
Vernon Grounds.
At a party: "My husband and I
have managed to be happy together for 20 years. I guess this is because we're
both in love with the same man."
A school teacher lost her life savings
in a business scheme that had been elaborately explained by a swindler. When
her investment disappeared and her dream was shattered
she went to the Better
Business Bureau.
"Why on earth didn't you come to us first?" the official asked.
"Didn't you know about the Better Business Bureau?"
"Oh
yes
" said the lady sadly. "I've always known about you. But
I didn't come because I was afraid you'd tell me not to do it."
The folly of human nature is that even
though we know where the answers lie--God's Word--we don't turn there for fear
of what it will say.
Jerry Lambert.
Some early studies concerned with
prejudice show that we're quite capable of reordering our perceptions of the
world around us in order to maintain our conviction that we're right. A group
of white
middle-class New York City residents were presented with a picture of
people on a subway. Two men were in the foreground. One was white
one was
black. One wore a business suit
one was clothed in workman's overalls. One was
giving his money to the other who was threatening him with a knife. Now as a
matter of fact it was the black man who wore the suit
and it was he who was
being robbed by the white laborer. But such a picture didn't square with the
prejudices of the viewers. To them
white men were executives
black men were
blue collar workers. Blacks were the robbers
whites the victims. And so they
reported what their mind told them they saw--that a black laborer was
assaulting a white businessman. As human beings who desperately desire our
lives to be consistent and untroubled
we'll go to great lengths to reject a
message that implies we're wrong.
Em Griffin
The Mindchangers
Tyndale House
1976
pp. 48-9.
For fifteen years Jim Fixx
author of
the 1978 bestseller
The Complete Book of Running
ran eighty miles a
week. He appeared to be in tip-top shape. It didn't seem possible that a man
his age could be in better condition. Yet at age fifty-two Fixx died of a
massive heart attack while running alone on a Vermont road. His wife
Alice
later said she was certain that Fixx had no idea he suffered from a heart
problem. Why? Because he refused to get regular checkups. After Jim Fixx's
death
doctors speculated that his heart was so strong he may not have had the
telltale chest pains or shortness of breath that usually signal arterial heart
disease!
Today in the Word
May
1990
MBI
p. 7.
The C.S.S. Hunley
a confederate
submarine
was originally a boiler
which was made into a 60' long
cigar
shaped sub. Eight men turned a crank attached to a propeller to produce
movement
and the ship's weapon was on explosive charge on a 15-foot pole
attached to the bow. The Hunley was actually a deathtrap. More than a dozen
men
including H.L. Hunley
the inventor
drowned or suffocated in test dives
before the submarine was ready for battle. On February 17
1964
off the harbor
at Charleston
S.C.
the Hunley attacked the Union ship Housatonic
crippling
the enemy ship but going to the bottom with the victim.
Unknown.
Connie Mack
who managed the
Philadelphia Athletics from 1900 to 1950
once said
"I've seen boys on my
baseball team go into a slump and never come out of it
and I've seen others
snap right out and come back better than ever. I guess more players lick
themselves than are ever licked by an opposing team."
Unknown.
Back in the early 1930s
C.D.
"Bigboy" Blalock of Louisiana State University--a six-foot-six-inch
giant of a boxer--was taking on a stocky fellow from Mississippi State. In the
second round
Bigboy let lose a roundhouse. The Mississippi man stepped in
and
his head caught Bigboy's arm inside the elbow. With the opponent's head acting
as a lever
Bigboy's arm whipped around in almost full circle
connecting with
haymaker force on Bigboy's own chin. He staggered
grabbed the rope
walked
almost all the way around the ring
and then fell flat for the count--the only
prizefighter who ever knocked himself out with a right to his own jaw.
L.M. Boyd.
A recent news release told of a
Charlotte
North Carolina
woman who set a world record while playing a
convenience store video game. After standing in front of the game for fourteen
hours and scoring an unprecedented seven and a half million points on the game
called "Tapper
" the woman was pleased to see a TV crew arriving to
record her efforts for posterity. She continued to play while the crew
alerted
by her fianc? prepared to shoot. However
she was appalled to see the video
screen suddenly go blank. While setting up their lights
the camera team had
accidentally unplugged the game
thus bringing her bid for ten million points
to an untimely end! The effort to publicize her achievement became the agent of
her ultimate failure.
Unknown.
General Thomas "Stonewall"
Jackson was such a brilliant leader that many experts believe he could have led
the Confederacy to victory had he not died early in the Civil War. The irony of
Jackson's death is that he was shot accidentally by his own men. It seems he
had given them orders to fire if they heard anyone coming through the woods.
Jackson himself was returning to his own lines one night when he came crashing
through the underbrush; on horseback--and his troops obeyed his command!
Despite his wound
General Jackson still might have lived had he not caught
pneumonia and died about a week later.
Today in the Word
MBI
April
1990
p. 37.
In 1982
"ABC Evening News"
reported on an unusual work of modern art--a chair affixed to a shotgun. It was
to be viewed by sitting in the chair and looking directly into the gunbarrel.
The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at an undetermined moment within
the next hundred years. The amazing thing was that people waited in lines to
sit and stare into the shell's path! They all knew the gun could go off at
point-blank range at any moment
but they were gambling that the fatal blast
wouldn't happen during THEIR minute in the chair.
Yes
it was foolhardy
yet many people
who wouldn't dream of sitting in that chair live a lifetime gambling that they
can get away with sin. Foolishly they ignore the risk until the inevitable
self-destruction.
Jeffrey D. King.
It is said that Cyrus
the founder of
the Persian Empire
once had captured a prince and his family. When they came
before him
the monarch asked the prisoner
"What will you give me if I
release you?" "The half of my wealth
" was his reply. "And
if I release your children?" "Everything I possess." "And
if I release your wife?" "Your Majesty
I will give myself."
Cyrus was so moved by his devotion that he freed them all. As they returned
home
the prince said to his wife
"Wasn't Cyrus a handsome man!"
With a look of deep love for her husband
she said to him
"I didn't
notice. I could only keep my eyes on you- -the one who was willing to give
himself for me."── Unknown.
At lunch one day in a hotel with her
son Reggie and his new wife
Gloria
Alice Vanderbilt asked whether Gloria had
received her pearls. Reggie replied that he had not yet bought any because the
only pearls worthy of his bride were beyond his price. His mother then calmly
ordered that a pair of scissors be brought to her. When the scissors arrived
Mrs. Vanderbilt promptly cut off about one-third of her own $70
000 pearl
necklace and handed them to her new daughter-in-law. "There you are
Gloria
" she said. "All Vanderbilt women have pearls."── Today
in the Word
September 18
1993.
During his reign
King Frederick
William III of Prussia found himself in trouble. Wars had been costly
and in
trying to build the nation
he was seriously short of finances. He couldn't
disappoint his people
and to capitulate to the enemy was unthinkable. After
careful reflection
he decided to ask the women of Prussia to bring their
jewelry of gold and silver to be melted down for their country. For each
ornament received
he determined to exchange a decoration of bronze or iron as
a symbol of his gratitude. Each decoration would be inscribed
"I gave
gold for iron
18l3." The response was overwhelming. Even more important
these women prized their gifts from the king more highly than their former jewelry.
The reason
of course
is clear. The decorations were proof that they had
sacrificed for their king. Indeed
it became unfashionable to wear jewelry
and
thus was established the Order of the Iron Cross. Members wore no ornaments
except a cross of iron for all to see. When Christians come to their King
they
too exchange the flourishes of their former life for a cross.── Lynn Jost.
It is said that on his retreat from
Greece after his great military expedition there
King Xerxes boarded a
Phoenician ship along with a number of his Persian troops. But a fearful storm
came up
and the captain told Xerxes there was no hope unless the ship's load
was substantially lightened. The king turned to his fellow Persians on deck and
said
"It is on you that my safety depends. Now let some of you show your
regard for your king." A number of the men bowed to Xerxes and threw
themselves overboard! Lightened of its load
the ship made it safely to harbor.
Xerxes immediately ordered that a golden crown be given to the pilot for
preserving the king's life -- then ordered the man beheaded for causing the
loss of so many Persian lives!── Today in the Word
July 11
1993.
Fifty-six men signed the Declaration
of Independence. Their conviction resulted in untold sufferings for themselves
and their families. Of the 56 men
five were captured by the British and
tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two
lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine
of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter
Braxton of Virginia
a wealthy planter and trader
saw his ships sunk by the
British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in
poverty.
At the battle of Yorktown
the British
General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters.
Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson
home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven
from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for
their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year
he lived in
forest and caves
returning home only to find his wife dead and his children
vanished. A few weeks later
he died from exhaustion.── Kenneth L. Dodge
Resource
Sept./ Oct.
1992
p. 5.
Sitting majestically atop the highest
hill in Toledo
Spain
is the Alcazar
a 16th-century fortress. In the civil
war of the 1930s
the Alcazar became a battleground when the Loyalists tried to
oust the Nationalists
who held the fortress. During one dramatic episode of
the war
the Nationalist leader received a phone call while in his office at
the Alcazar. It was from his son
who had been captured by the Loyalists. The
ultimatum: If the father didn't surrender the Alcazar to them
they would kill
his son. The father weighed his options. After a long pause and with a heavy
heart
he said to his son
"Then die like a man." ── Daily Walk
April 16
1992.
I went into church and sat on the
velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass
windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible
marked it with a silk bookmark and said
"If any man will be my disciple
said Jesus
let him deny himself
take up his cross
sell what he has
give it
to the poor
and follow me."── Soren Kierkagaard
in "And I looked
Around and Nobody was Laughing."
Boarding the SS Dorchester on a dreary
winter day in 1943 were 903 troops and four chaplains
including Moody alumnus
Lt. George Fox. World War II was in full swing
and the ship was headed across
the icy North Atlantic where German U-boats lurked. At 12:00 on the morning of
February 3
a German torpedo ripped into the ship. "She's going
down!" the men cried
scrambling for lifeboats.
A young GI crept up to one of the
chaplains. "I've lost my life jacket
" he said. "Take
this
" the chaplain said
handing the soldier his jacket. Before the ship
sank
each chaplain gave his life jacket to another man. The heroic chaplains
then linked arms and lifted their voices in prayer as the Dorchester went down.
Lt. Fox and his fellow pastors were awarded posthumously the Distinguished Service
Cross.── Today in the Word
April 1
1992.
Ministry that costs nothing
accomplishes nothing.── John Henry Jowett.
Sometimes marriage to a great leader
comes with a special price for his wife. Such was the case for Mary Moffatt
Livingstone
wife of Dr. David Livingstone
perhaps the most celebrated
missionary in the Western world. Mary was born in Africa as the daughter of
Robert Moffatt
the missionary who inspired Livingstone to go to Africa. The
Livingstones were married in Africa in 1845
but the years that followed were
difficult for Mary. Finally
she and their six children returned to England so
she could recuperate as Livingstone plunged deeper into the African interior.
Unfortunately
even in England Mary lived in near poverty. The hardships and
long separations took their toll on Mrs. Livingstone
who died when she was
just forty-two.── Today in the Word
MBI
January
1990
p. 12.
Every year in Alaska
a 1000-mile
dogsled race
run for prize money and prestige
commemorates an original
"race" run to save lives. Back in January of 1926
six-year-old
Richard Stanley showed symptoms of diphtheria
signaling the possibility of an
outbreak in the small town of Nome. When the boy passed away a day later
Dr.
Curtis Welch began immunizing children and adults with an experimental but
effective anti-diphtheria serum. But it wasn't long before Dr. Welch's supply
ran out
and the nearest serum was in Nenana
Alaska--1000 miles of frozen
wilderness away. Amazingly
a group of trappers and prospectors volunteered to
cover the distance with their dog teams! Operating in relays from trading post
to trapping station and beyond
one sled started out from Nome while another
carrying the serum
started from Nenana. Oblivious to frostbite
fatigue
and
exhaustion
the teamsters mushed relentlessly until
after 144 hours in minus
50-degree winds
the serum was delivered to Nome. As a result
only one other
life was lost to the potential epidemic. Their sacrifice had given an entire
town the gift of life.── Unknown.
Two weeks after the stolen steak deal
I took Helen (eight years old) and Brandon (five years old) to the Cloverleaf
Mall in Hattiesburg to do a little shopping. As we drove up
we spotted a
Peterbilt eighteen-wheeler parked with a big sign on it that said
"Petting Zoo." The kids jumped up in a rush and asked
"Daddy
Daddy. Can we go? Please. Please. Can we go?"
"Sure
" I said
flipping
them both a quarter before walking into Sears. They bolted away
and I felt
free to take my time looking for a scroll saw. A petting zoo consists of a
portable fence erected in the mall with about six inches of sawdust and a
hundred little furry baby animals of all kinds. Kids pay their money and stay
in the enclosure enraptured with the squirmy little critters while their moms
and dads shop.
A few minutes later
I turned around
and saw Helen walking along behind me. I was shocked to see she preferred the
hardware department to the petting zoo. Recognizing my error
I bent down and
asked her what was wrong.
She looked up at me with those giant
limpid brown eyes and said sadly
"Well
Daddy
it cost fifty cents. So
I
gave Brandon my quarter." Then she said the most beautiful thing I ever
heard. She repeated the family motto. The family motto is in "Love is
Action!"
She had given Brandon her quarter
and
no one loves cuddly furry creatures more than Helen. She had watched Sandy take
my steak and say
"Love is Action!" She had watched both of us do and
say "Love is Action!" for years around the house and Kings Arrow
Ranch. She had heard and seen "Love is Action
" and now she had
incorporated it into her little lifestyle. It had become part of her.
What do you think I did? Well
not
what you might think. As soon as I finished my errands
I took Helen to the
petting zoo. We stood by the fence and watched Brandon go crazy petting and
feeding the animals. Helen stood with her hands and chin resting on the fence
and just watched Brandon. I had fifty cents burning a hole in my pocket; I
never offered it to Helen
and she never asked for it.
Because she knew the whole family
motto. It's not "Love is Action." It's "Love is SACRIFICIAL
Action!" Love always pays a price. Love always costs something. Love is
expensive. When you love
benefits accrue to another's account. Love is for
you
not for me. Love gives; it doesn't grab. Helen gave her quarter to Brandon
and wanted to follow through with her lesson. She knew she had to taste the
sacrifice. She wanted to experience that total family motto. Love is
sacrificial action.── Dave Simmons
Dad
The Family Coach
Victor Books
1991
p. 123-124.
Jermaine Washington
26
did something
that amazes many people. He became a kidney donor
giving a vital organ to a
woman he describes as "just a friend." Washington met Michelle
Stevens
23
when they began working together at the Washington
D.C.
Department of Employment Services. They used to have lunch with one another and
chitchat during breaks. "He was somebody I could talk to
" says
Stevens. "One day
I cried on his shoulder. I had been on the kidney donor
waiting list for 11 months
and I had lost all hope."
She told Washington how depressing it
was to spend three days a week
three hours a day
on a kidney dialysis
machine. She suffered chronic fatigue and blackouts and was plagued by joint
pain. He could already see that she had lost her smile. "I saw my friend
dying before my eyes
" Washington recalls. "What was I supposed to
do? Sit back and watch her die?"
Steven's mother
suffering from
hypertension
was ineligible to donate a kidney. Her two brothers were
reluctant. "I understood
" says Stevens. "They said they loved
me very much
but they were just too afraid."
The operation at Washington Hospital
Center in April 1991 began with a painful procedure in which doctors inserted a
catheter into an artery in Washington's groin. They then injected dye through
the catheter into his kidney before taking X rays to determine if it was fit
for transplant. A week later
an incision nearly 15 inches long was made from
his navel to the middle of his back. After surgery he remained hospitalized for
five days.
Today
both Stevens and Washington are
fully recovered. "I jog at least twice a week
" Washington says.
Three times a month
they get together for what they call a "gratitude
lunch." Despite occasional pressure by friends
a romantic relationship is
not what they want. "We are thankful for the beautiful friendship that we
have
" Stevens says. "We don't want to mess up a good thing."
To this day
people wonder why
Washington did it -- and even question his sanity. But when one admirer asked
him where he had found the courage to give away a kidney
his answer quelled
the skeptics. "I prayed for it
" Washington replied. "I asked
God for guidance and that's what I got."── Courtland Milloy in Washington
Post
quoted in Reader's Digest.
Eric Fellman speaks of meeting a
Chinese couple in Hong Kong
while traveling to China. "A friend took me
down a narrow alley to a second-floor flat to meet a man recently released from
prison in China. I knew I would be pressed to carry Bibles and literature on my
trip. But I was hesitant and tried to mask my fear with rationalizations about
legalities and other concerns.
A Chinese man in his 60s opened the
door. His smile was radiant
but his back was bent almost double. He led us to
a sparsely furnished room. A Chinese woman of about the same age came in to
serve tea. As she lingered
I couldn't help but notice how they touched and
lovingly looked at each other. My staring apparently didn't go unnoticed
for
soon they were both giggling. "What is it?" I asked my friend.
"Oh nothing
" he said with a smile. "They just wanted you to
know it was OK--they're newlyweds." I learned they had been engaged in
1949
when he was a student at Nanking Seminary. On the day of their wedding
rehearsal
Chinese communists seized the seminary. They took the students to a
hard-labor prison. For the next 30 years
the bride-to-be was allowed only one
visit per year. Each time
following their brief minutes together
the man
would be called to the warden's office. "You may go home with your
bride
" he said
"if you will renounce Christianity." Year after
year
this man replied with just one word; "No." I was stunned. How had
he been able to stand the strain for so long
being denied his family
his
marriage
and even his health? When I asked
he seemed astonished at my
question. He replied
"With all that Jesus has done for me
how could I
betray Him?" The next day
I requested that my suitcase be crammed with
Bibles and training literature for Chinese Christians. I determined not to lie
about the materials
yet lost not one minute of sleep worrying about the
consequences. And as God had planned
my suitcases were never inspected.── Eric
Fellman
Moody Monthly
January 1986 p. 33.
People talk of the sacrifice I have
made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice
which is simply acknowledging a great debt we owe to our God
which we can
never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward in healthful
activity
the consciousness of doing good
peace of mind
and a bright hope of
a glorious destiny? It is emphatically no sacrifice. Rather it is a privilege.
Anxiety
sickness
suffering
danger
foregoing the common conveniences of this
life--these may make us pause
and cause the spirit to waver
and the soul to
sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing compared with
the glory which shall later be revealed in and through us. I never made a
sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk
when we remember the great sacrifice
which He made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us.──
David Livingstone.