When it comes to jigsaw puzzles, we all know that to enjoy a satisfying outcome you need all the pieces. In many ways, life is like that. We spend our days putting it together, hoping to create a complete picture out of all the scattered parts.
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An article in The Washington Post told about a 15-year-old girl who sent and received 6,473 cell phone text messages in a single month. She says about her constant communication with friends, “I would die without it.” And she is not alone. Researchers say that US teens with cell phones average more than 2,200 text messages a month.
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If someone were to ask, “Who are you?” my guess is that you would tell a little about yourself and what you do—“I’m an electrician” or “I’m a nurse.” But that’s not really who you are—it’s what you do. Which leads to the question, If what you do is who you are, who will you be when you stop doing what you’re doing?!
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In Forever Young: My Friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr., Billy Noonan recalls the life experiences he shared with the son of President John Kennedy.
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A clerk who helped me purchase a small digital voice recorder told me that he kept one just like it in his car when he worked in California. “When I began driving home after work I switched it on,” he said, “and I talked about everything that happened that day on the job, good and bad. When I pulled into my driveway, I hit the erase button.” Then he smiled. After telling everything to his voice recorder, he apparently had no need to go over the day’s problems with his wife or family.
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The documentary In the Shadow of the Moon includes the story of Charlie Duke, one of the Apollo 16 astronauts launched to the moon in 1972. While the command ship orbited the moon, Duke and another astronaut landed the lunar module Orion on the moon’s surface. After 3 days of running experiments and collecting lunar rocks, the Apollo 16 crew safely returned to earth.
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The word connected captures our contemporary experience of life. Many people rarely go anywhere without a cell phone, iPod, laptop, or pager. We have become accessible 24 hours a day. Some psychologists see this craving to stay connected as an addiction. Yet a growing number of people are deliberately limiting their use of technology. Being a “tech-no” is their way of preserving times of quiet, while limiting the flow of information into their lives.
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The highway that winds around the southern shore of Lake Michigan can be treacherous in the winter. One weekend as we were driving back to Grand Rapids from Chicago, a buildup of snow and ice slowed traffic, caused numerous accidents, and almost doubled our drive time. We were relieved as we eased off the expressway onto our final road. It was then that my husband said out loud, “Thanks, Lord. I think I can take it from here.”
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The city of Laodicea had a water problem. One nearby town had fabulous hot springs and another had cold, clear water. Laodicea, however, was stuck with tepid, mineral-laden water that tasted like sulphur. Not hot. Not cold. Just gross.
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Pastor A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) read the great Christian theologians until he could write about them with ease. He challenges us: “Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking.”
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The word hallow isn’t used much anymore, and when it is, the uses have a broad range of meaning. Christians use the word when we say the Lord’s prayer, as in “Hallowed be Thy name.” Often the word is associated with the last day of October, which we in the US refer to as Halloween, a shortened form of All Hallows’ Eve.
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In data collected from over 20,000 Christians in 139 countries, The Obstacles to Growth Survey found that, on average, more than 40 percent of Christians around the world say they “often” or “always” rush from task to task. About 60 percent of Christians say that it’s “often” or “always” true that the busyness of life gets in the way of developing their relationship with God. It’s clear that busyness does distract us from our fellowship with Him.
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In July 1969, I was at Fort Benning, Georgia, training to become a US Army officer. Infantry Officer Candidate School was intense and highly regimented with only rare moments of free time. Surprisingly, on the evening of July 20, we were ordered to our company Day Room, seated in front of a flickering television set, and told simply, “This is history.”
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In ancient Rome, adoption was occasionally used by the emperors to pass on succession to competent heirs. Augustus Caesar was adopted by his great-uncle Julius Caesar. Other notable adoptees include the emperors Tiberius, Trajan, and Hadrian. All of them proved to be strong rulers because each lived like a child of his adoptive father.
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When God spoke to Abram, he obeyed at once, departing for an unknown land based only on a promise. Childless, he trusted God to make of him “a great nation” (Gen. 12:2).
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When God spoke to Elijah on Mount Horeb, He could have done so in the wind, earthquake, or fire. But He didn’t. He spoke with a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12). God asked, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (v.13), as he hid from Jezebel who had threatened to kill him.
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Imagine relaxing on a rubber raft along the shore, eyes closed, soaking up the sun and listening to the gentle crash of waves. You don’t have a care in the world—until you open your eyes! Suddenly the shore is alarmingly distant.
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When Jesus sent His disciples out, He gave them this promise: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). Literally, the word always means “all the days,” according to Greek scholars Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown.
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When Robert Klose first moved into his 100-year-old house, its strange sounds were disconcerting. A carpenter told him the house was crooked. Klose admitted, “I could see it in the floors, the ceilings, the roofline, the door jambs, even the window frames. Drop a ball on the floor and it will roll away into oblivion.” Seventeen years later, the house is still holding together and he has gotten used to it and even grown to love it.
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My friend Mary told me that she had always valued the time she spent fishing with her dad. Not being a fishing aficionado myself, I was curious about what she found so enjoyable. “I just like being with my dad,” she said. “So you just fish and talk?” I asked her. “Oh, no, we don’t really talk,” she said. “We just fish.”
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After you placed your food order at a popular fast food restaurant, the cashiers used to ask that famous question: “Would you like to supersize that?” In essence, they were asking the customers if they wanted more of what they were already getting.
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If you were invited to a meeting at the White House with the President of the United States, regardless of your opinion of him or her, you would probably go. Upon entering the White House, a protocol officer would meet you and outline the proper procedures for meeting the President. Suffice it to say, it would be unacceptable to let loose with a burst of undignified familiarity or negative criticism as you shook hands.
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While working my way through graduate school, I taught five-string banjo in a music store. The job provided me with the opportunity to buy a brand-new, professional-quality instrument for nearly half-price.
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One thing that impresses me about my wife is her commitment to walk two to four times a week for at least an hour. Come rain, snow, sleet, or shine, my wife layers up or down (depending on the weather), puts on her headphones, and off she goes walking through our community.
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As Jacob did in Genesis 28, I like to remind myself each morning when I awaken that God is here, “in this place,” present with me (v.16). As I spend time with Him each morning, reading His Word and responding in prayer, it reinforces my sense of His presence—that He is near. Although we do not see Him, Peter reminds us that we can love Him and rejoice in His love for us with “inexpressible,” glorious joy (1 Peter 1:8).
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In his early years of ministry, the English preacher Charles Simeon (1759–1836) was a harsh and self-assertive man. One day he was visiting a friend and fellow pastor in a nearby village. When he left to go home, his friend’s daughters complained to their father about Simeon’s manner. So he took the girls to the backyard and said, “Pick me one of those peaches.” It was early summer, and the peaches were green. The girls asked why he wanted green, unripe fruit. He replied, “Well, my dears, it is green now, and we must wait; but a little more sun, and a few more showers, and the peach will be ripe and sweet. So it is with Mr. Simeon.”
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I’ve never sat in the first-class section of an airplane. But I still hold out the hope that someday I’ll get on the plane and the flight attendant will stop me and say, “Come with me. I have a special seat for you.”
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In the western panhandle of Texas is a small town named Texline. It had an ostentatious beginning in the late 1800s as a thriving center along a new railroad line. Within a few years, though, most of the shops had closed and the town’s population shriveled to about 400. In 2000, the population was still just over 500.
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I’ll never forget my frustrating experience when I went to Chicago’s Union Station early one morning to pick up an elderly relative who was arriving by train. When I got there, she wasn’t where I thought she would be. With increasing anxiety I scoured the place—to no avail. Thinking she had missed her train, I was about to leave when I glanced down a hallway toward the baggage area. There she was, luggage at her feet, patiently waiting for me to arrive. She had been there all the time. And, to my chagrin, she was right where she was supposed to be.
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When I was a boy, my dad observed my spendthrift ways and often said that money burned a hole in my pocket. I suppose it’s not unlike the way those 30 pieces of silver burned a hole in Judas’ heart after he had betrayed Jesus for a little cash. Imagine how he must have felt as he watched his friend Jesus, with hands bound, being led to trial. Judas had seen those hands calm the stormy sea and touch the blind and lame. How often those loving hands had touched his own life!
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The great cathedrals of Europe are not only breathtaking but intriguing in their architecture. Because their massive ceilings were too heavy for the walls to support, flying buttresses, or external extensions, were built to support the expansive roofs.
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When Mike Marolt is out of town, he remotely accesses the computer and files in his Aspen, Colorado, office. On a recent overseas trip, Marolt answered e-mails and kept in touch with his clients by using his laptop through a satellite phone hookup. This time, however, he was sitting in a base camp tent at 21,000 feet on the side of Mt. Everest. These days even that doesn’t surprise us because we have become used to the technology that provides access to the rest of the world anytime, anywhere.
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I grew up in a home with lots of wall plaques. One had a quotation by poet Claude Mermet that stands out in my mind: “Friends are like melons; let me tell you why: To find a good one, you must one hundred try!”
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Jane Welsh, secretary to Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), married him and devoted her life to him and his work. He loved her deeply but was so busy with his writing and speaking that he often neglected her. Some time into their marriage, she became ill and suddenly died.
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Because our son Steve spent most of his teen years connected to a cell phone, it was a bit of a shock for us when we couldn’t talk with him for long periods of time after he joined the US Navy. First at boot camp and later while he trained as a hospital corpsman, we endured long periods of time without any communication. So it was a treat whenever we finally did hear from him.
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It’s an honor I cherish, and one I seek to live up to—but I don’t always do it. It’s the privilege of hearing my wife say, “You’re my best friend,” which she does often. As much as I love her, though, I occasionally do something that is not so “best friend-ish.”
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In his book Objects of His Affection, Scotty Smith shares his journey of learning to personally experience the passionate love of God. As a young boy, he lost his mother suddenly in a car accident. Because of this, he closed off his wounded heart to others—including God. Several years later he received Jesus as his Savior and began to learn the truths of Christianity. Yet his relationship with the Lord in those days was, as he described, “side by side rather than face to face. Important, but not intimate.”
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Sometimes Christians follow an “open door” policy. When a door of opportunity opens, they assume that it’s God’s will to go through it.
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Many people make resolutions on New Year’s Day, promising themselves (and sometimes God) that the next year of life will be different. We determine that habits are going to be changed and new patterns of behavior developed.
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Mary received a ceramic frog for her birthday from a co-worker, and she displayed it on her desk for all to see. Some of her fellow employees began to think she must like frogs, so they started to give her frog items for Christmas, birthdays, and special celebrations. Her office soon became filled with “things frog”—pens, candles, stickie notes, posters, coffee cups.
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When we attended a large church, we learned new things, joined a great small group, and enjoyed the worshipful music. But I didn’t realize for a long time that I missed something—the pastor had no idea who I was. Because of the thousands in attendance, I understood that it would be impossible for him to know each person by name.
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While flying from Europe back to the US, I found myself sitting next to a little girl who never stopped talking from the moment she sat down. She told me the history of her family and all about her puppy, who was in the hold of the plane. She pointed excitedly to everything around us, “Look at this! Look at that!” I couldn’t help but think that 8 hours of this could make for a very long flight!
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As a former high school teacher and occasional college instructor, I had this recurring thought: How terrible it would be to stand up in front of a classroom of students and have no one pay attention—to talk and have no one listen, to give instructions and have the students ignore them.
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Five for Fighting is the stage name of a recording artist who soared to popularity after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He sings the song “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” a ballad that imagines what it must be like to be a superhero. Yet he struggles with the inadequacy of his strength to cope with the world’s complexities.
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Sometimes I feel as if I’m in a bad relationship—with myself! Whenever Julie the writer starts a paragraph, Julie the editor interrupts. “No, no, no. Don’t say it that way. Why are you always so negative?” Or “What makes you think you have anything worthwhile to say?”
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During a small-group exercise at a seminar, we were asked to introduce ourselves without referring to our occupations. The challenge was to explain who we are instead of telling what we do. It was not easy to focus on being instead of doing.
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Tiger Woods has won many dramatic tournament victories during his professional golf career. But one of his greatest achievements went virtually unnoticed because it unfolded slowly over 7 years. During that period, Tiger qualified in 142 consecutive tournaments—more than any other player in the history of US professional golf. It speaks to the power of his commitment and consistency, and to his conviction never to give up.
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The congregation listened intently as the pastor began to pray: “Dear heavenly Father . . .” Suddenly he was interrupted by a voice saying, “Hey there, good buddy!”
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One morning, Scott Long and his wife had just awakened and were lying in bed when suddenly a young fellow entered their bedroom. He walked around the bed to Scott’s side.
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Wreckers preparing to tear down a burned-out bakery in Troy, Illinois, accidentally made a big impression on City Hall right next door. A 65-ton crane backed into the government building, creating a huge hole in the front wall. According to a supervisor, the crane operator “was just being careless.”
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Aristides, a second-century apologist for the Christian faith, wrote this to the Roman emperor Hadrian about believers in his day:
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What was wrong with the ancient Israelites? Why did they have such trouble trusting God? In Hebrews 3, we’re reminded that they heard God’s promise yet refused to believe. I think I know why—we have the same problem today.
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Nobel Prize-winning physicist Martin Perl was asked what he attributed his success to. “My mother,” he answered. “Every day when I came home from school she asked me, ‘So, Marty, did you ask any good questions today?’”
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Most Christians would prefer to see God perform mighty miracles rather than to have fellowship with Him and learn His ways.
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Today, people around the globe will observe the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. The lessons and encouragement contained in his tales of The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, and The Emperor’s New Clothes are still considered a great gift to children everywhere.
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Thanks to Internet technology, I can watch ice building up on Lake Michigan from my warm office 30 miles away. The changing angle of the sun’s rays in winter chills the earth. Frigid temperatures turn surging water into rock-hard ice in a surprisingly short time. Witnessing this rapid transition reminds me of how quickly our hearts can turn cool toward God.
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Two men were neighbors—one had opened his heart to Christ and the other had not. The believer witnessed often; the other ignored him.
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An executive of the world’s largest toymaker said, “We are such a machine in terms of what we deliver on an annual basis that it doesn’t allow time to think.”
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The Parrotfeather is an attractive aquatic plant that looks like a forest of small fir trees growing on top of the water. In the springtime it produces a blanket of small, white flowers. But it’s a noxious weed. It forms a dense mat of vegetation that covers the surface of lakes and ponds, crowding out native plants and destroying fish and wildlife habitat.
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Page through an old-time hymnal and notice how often the songwriters referred to the blessing of God’s friendship. Stop and think about what that really means.
Yes, it’s a blessing to have human friends who enrich our lives. A devoted friend, as Proverbs 17:17 tells us, “loves at all times,” standing with us steadfastly through life’s sunshine and storm.
How would you answer if Jesus were to ask you, “What do you seek?” (John 1:38). Would you ask Him for health and fitness? A better job? A happier marriage? Financial security? Vindication from a false accusation? Salvation for a wayward loved one? An explanation of some difficult theological concept?
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Robinson Crusoe, the chief character in a novel by Daniel Defoe, was shipwrecked and stranded on an uninhabited island. Life was hard, but he found hope and comfort when he turned to the Word of God.
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After a hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, many people inside the building were trapped by a cloud of thick, blinding smoke. Police officer Isaac Hoopi ran into the blackness, searching for survivors, and heard people calling for help. He began shouting back, over and over: “Head toward my voice! Head toward my voice!”
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I read about a Detroit man who couldn’t find his house. He had gone to the right address but all he found was an empty lot. Completely baffled, he asked the Detroit Free Press to help him figure out what was going on. A newspaper reporter learned that not only was the house gone, but the deed to the empty lot was in someone else’s name.
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We would expect King David to be extremely upset, because his enemies were scheming to dethrone him. Yet in Psalm 62 he testified that his soul was quietly confident before God. How was this possible in the midst of such turmoil? Verse 8 offers a clue—one I discovered for myself several years ago.
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Have you ever found it tough to pray? That can happen when we’re reluctant to tell God how we’re really feeling. We might abruptly stop in mid-sentence, fearful of being disrespectful of our heavenly Father.
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As I read a modern paraphrase of John 15:1-8, I began to reconsider my concept of what it means to be a fruitful Christian. Jesus said, “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of Me that doesn’t bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing He prunes back so it will bear even more” (The Message by Eugene Peterson).
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People who want to feel better, reduce stress, and shed unwanted pounds are discovering that walking may be the best exercise of all. A fitness philosophy of 10,000 steps a day, which first took hold in Japan, is gaining popularity in other countries. Experts advise starting slowly and working toward a higher goal, realizing each day that every step counts.
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I don’t wade in swift streams anymore. The bottom’s too slippery, the current’s too strong, and my old legs aren’t what they used to be.
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