Our Daily Bread

What’s the matter, Mom?” asked the 3-year-old boy earnestly. Kimberly Fast had just received some disappointing news. She was discouraged, and her son sensed it. After a moment of hesitation, her little boy said, “That’s okay, Mom. You’ve still got me!”

Celebrate bankruptcy? How foolish that seems to us! Yet author Leo Buscaglia’s mother did just that.

Having lost his beloved wife of many years, a 96-year-old man shared the deep longing of his heart with a retired pastor as he said, “There’s nothing I want more than to be with my wife again.”

A number of years ago, I had a night out with my 4-year-old son. Halfway through our hamburgers, I detected rumblings in the booth behind me. The muffled anger in a man’s voice soon erupted in a snarl, “What did you say?” A woman shot back, “I said I’d never come crawling to you. I couldn’t get that low.” I cringed as he cursed at her and said, “I don’t know why I ever brought you to this restaurant tonight.” “I do,” she said. “You’ve got a guilty conscience!”

Author and scientist Carl Sagan says that the material world is the only reality. If we accept this premise, then nature has been cruel to us, giving us, as someone has cynically phrased it, “the endowments of a god and the career of an insect.”

I shall never forget being in the “big blackout” of November 1965. Not just one city or one county or one locality was involved in this widespread power outage, but eight states and a part of Canada—covering a total of 80,000 square miles and affecting 30 million people.

How frustrating to have someone interrupt you, thinking he knows what you’re about to say and then jumping to a conclusion! We’ve all done that. We’ve jumped to “illusions” about what the person was actually saying. We’ve heard the words that were spoken, but we didn’t really listen to what was being said. And what misunderstanding has resulted!

Have you heard about the man who took his old car to a dealer and asked him to sell it for him? When the dealer asked how many miles were on it, the man replied, “It’s got 230,000.” The salesman replied, “It’ll never sell unless you turn back the mileage.” So the man left.

A new York City couple received through the mail two tickets to a smash Broadway hit. Oddly, the gift arrived without a note, and they wondered who had sent it. But they still attended the show and enjoyed it immensely.

My daughter travels all over the world as a flight attendant and often comes home with some fascinating tales. One such story is about former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who was seated in an aircraft that was preparing for takeoff. A flight attendant, noticing that he did not have his seatbelt fastened, asked him kindly, “Excuse me, sir, but would you mind fastening your seatbelt?”

More than 45 years ago, my father was wounded while fighting in World War II, a conflict that claimed at least 35 million lives. Millions of other people around the world carry with them the lifelong, tragic consequences of international conflict.

Dwight L. Moody was greatly moved by a lay preacher’s statement that the world has yet to see what God can do through a person fully yielded to Him. Because an attitude of submission is far more important than outward appearance, some unlikely people have become spiritual giants.

The University of Wisconsin in its Extension Outreach catalog announced a new course on “Interpersonal Forgiveness.” The catalog explained that students would be exploring “the latest approaches to forgiveness.”

The human spirit longs for freedom. But for many people, its pursuit actually leads to greater bondage.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt loved the song we call the Navy Hymn. It was sung at his funeral in Hyde Park, New York, on April 14, 1945. The words of the hymn were written in 1860 by William Whiting, who taught and directed a 16-voice boys choir. He penned them for a student who was about to set sail for America and who was apprehensive about the journey.

George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.

People who live without hope can become suicidal. So it was with an Italian prisoner of war being held on a military base in the United States during World War II. He had become despondent after learning that his wife had died in Italy. The camp commander, knowing that the man had been a stonemason, asked him if he could design a chapel for the base. The POW accepted the assignment and even supervised its construction.

We tend to take our lead from the great characters and personalities of the world. But the ancient wise man Agur pointed us in another direction. In Proverbs 30, he chronicled the virtues of the low things around us: the ants, badgers, locusts, and lizards (vv.24-28).

What are you living for in your few fleeting years here on this earth? Anything other than fame, wealth, or influence?

Sadly, many true Christians are plagued with doubt about their salvation. Even though they have come in repentance and faith to Jesus as their Savior, they still wonder, “Am I really saved?”

Caribbean pine trees routinely with stand fierce hurricanes, long periods of drought, and even fire. But one thing they cannot tolerate is cultivation. In a well-kept yard with plenty of water and fertilizer, they often die.

John Newton, author of the well-known hymn Amazing Grace, was a miserable man at the age of 23. He had been involved in an immoral lifestyle and was engaged in the heartlessly cruel African slave trade. But he was fed up with his sinful way of life.

I recently saw a photograph of people leaving a church after a service. They were carrying Bibles and smiling. As I looked at those men, women, and children, I thought, there goes the church. The building will stay, and it will be referred to as “a church.” But those bricks can’t preach and those pews can’t witness. Only people can do that.

Having just received the Lord Jesus as his Savior from sin, an enthusiastic young boy blurted out, “Now what do I do? What’s next?” He had the right idea! Although nothing further had to be done to receive salvation, there was much more to do to serve God.

He was a politician noted for his integrity. Although this description might be viewed by some as a contradiction in terms, it certainly was used often and correctly to describe US Congressman Paul Henry. After the three-term member of the House of Representatives lost a battle with brain cancer in 1993, political commentator David Broder said, “He was a model of what a public servant should be.”

Some people are good at popping the balloon of those who are feeling the excitement of a new experience. And their negative spirit tends to discourage others.

A glance at the daily newspaper tells us that modern life is still infected by the ancient practice of astrology. Guests on talk shows discuss their astrological signs with the same ease that they discuss their divorces. Late-night television offers the services of stargazers by telephone at four dollars a minute. The wife of a recent president of the United States consulted an astrologer for advice on the travel schedule for her husband.

Turmoil continues to seethe in many parts of the former Soviet Union. Unrest, revolt, hunger, unemployment, and severe shortages still plague most of the land. It prompted a leading Russian journalist to refer to these days as smutnoye vremya, the “time of trouble.”

An unknown author wrote, “When I was first converted, and for some years afterward, the second coming of Christ was a thrilling idea, a blessed hope, a glorious promise, the theme of some of the most inspiring songs of the church.

Some opponents of Christianity may not be so much against Christ as they are against hypocrisy. Ironically, it hasn’t occurred to them that no one was more opposed to hypocrisy than Christ Himself.

Many years ago a doctor made a house call on a dying patient, who asked, “Doctor, what will heaven be like?” The physician paused, trying to think of a helpful reply. Just then they heard the sound of scratching on the closed door of the patient’s bedroom.

Joe was a behind-the-scenes kind of person—quiet, unassuming, often unnoticed. To see him, you wouldn’t think he had been carrying a heavy burden for more than 11 years. But Joe carried it well.

Abe Lincoln told the story of a blacksmith who heated a piece of iron in the forge, not knowing what he was going to make. At first he thought of shaping it into a horseshoe but changed his mind. After hammering on the iron for a while, he decided to try to make it into something else. By this time the metal was no longer malleable. Holding it up with his tongs and looking at it with disgust, the blacksmith tossed it into a vat of water. “Well,” he shrugged, “at least I can make a fizzle out of it!”

I understand why I’ve never been asked to join a choir or sing a solo. Musical talent is not one of my gifts. I discovered this at 9 years of age when I was outside one day singing lustily. My mother opened the door and asked, “Is one of the calves sick? I think I just heard one.”

A situation that once was viewed by most people as unacceptable and immoral has become commonplace. According to the National & International Religion Report, before the majority of American marriages take place, the man and woman have already been living together.

A gifted and active Christian woman was stricken with an illness that confined her to bed. On her wall hung a motto, Be Strong— and Work for the Lord, based on 1 Chronicles 28:20. But those words, which used to bring her encouragement and strength, now brought only distress.

In a New York Times interview, a widely recognized man voiced his displeasure with a fast-food chain in whose TV commercials he had appeared. He felt that the quality of some of the items he advertised had been diminishing. Since people associated his name with the product, he didn’t want the corporation’s lowered standards to damage his own name.

Poor Jacob had reached the end of his rope. Hearing upsetting news from his sons who had just returned from Egypt, he said in utter dismay, “Everything is against me!” (Gen. 42:36 NIV).

Phillips Brooks, former minister of Boston’s Trinity Episcopal Church, is perhaps best known as the author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” He was a very busy pastor, yet he always seemed relaxed and unburdened, willing to take time for anyone in need.

I was in my second year of widowhood and I was struggling. Morning after morning my prayer life consisted of one daily sigh: “Lord, I shouldn’t be struggling like this!” “And why not?” His still, small voice asked me from within one morning.

Man has always wondered about the origin of life. The ancient Egyptians believed that frogs and toads originated in the silt of the Nile. Aristotle believed that worms came from dew and slime, and that mice sprang into life out of dank soil.

Are most people happy? Dennis Wholey, author of Are You Happy? reports that according to expert opinion, perhaps only 20 percent of Americans are happy.

God hates slanderers. They are scoundrels and villains with hidden hatred in their hearts and deceit in their mouths.

Some evening when you have a spare moment, get out your old checkbook registers and read through the entries. You may find it interesting, and perhaps somewhat startling, to discover just how the money you’ve earned has been spent.

Linus Mandy wrote, “A friend was telling me she helped out at a kid’s summer camp a few years ago. After rounding up the troops for the night, she told them, ‘Let’s go to sleep and put our cares in God’s hands.’ ‘Yeah,’ said one of the kids, ‘He’s up all night anyway!’”

That’s okay with me. Children need good role models and examples. And Maravich was a Christian. But I would be disappointed if my children didn’t see Jesus Christ modeled in my life also and want to be like Him. That’s why when Stevie tells me that Jesus is his best friend, I’m a happy dad.

People who clearly understand their own strengths and weaknesses are better able to accept themselves as they are and accomplish more in life. They can identify with the person who said, “I’m only someone, but I am someone. I can’t do everything, but I can do something.”

In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew ravaged South Florida, destroying homes, businesses, and lives. The cost of that terrible disaster cannot be estimated only in terms of millions upon millions of dollars. What about the incalculable human suffering—physical, emotional, and spiritual? If people lost faith in God and prayer, they sustained the worst loss of all.

While stationed in England during World War II, I received word that my 20-year-old brother Cornelius had been killed in action. The news hit me hard, but God immediately comforted me with the assurance that Cornie was safe with Jesus. The peace of God took possession of me.

Romans 8:28—how easily and how often this Bible reference rolls off our tongues! But perhaps we need to grasp more fully what this verse is really saying.