Time To Review
At the age of 64, British novelist William Somerset Maugham decided that he had better write his autobiography, even though his health was still good. He did so and titled it The Summing Up. But why sum up your life at 64? "An occasional glance at the obituary columns," he explained, "suggests that the sixties can be very unhealthy." That may be true, but Maugham survived another 27 years and died at the age of 91.
A Blessed Alternative
Imagine that a person was seriously ill and near death but then recovered. Recalling his experience, he says that recovering from the surgery that saved his life was extremely painful. But then he jokingly remarks, "Think of the alternative!"
Life's Greatest Moment
What a night for the Minnesota Twins baseball team in 1987! They had just defeated the Detroit Tigers and won the American League pennant for the first time in 22 years. More than 50,000 people, young and old, crowded into the Metrodome to welcome their victors home from Detroit. Banners were waving, horns were blaring, the crowd was cheering. There were even tears of joy.
The Power Of Light
Some of us may not especially enjoy poetry. But often a few lines of verse will grip our imagination, as do the following by Francis Thompson: "The innocent moon, which nothing does but shine, moves all the laboring surges of the world."
Candles Or Stars?
Some say that life is like the flickering flame of a candle. When the flame is snuffed out, the light is gone forever. They believe that when we breathe our last breath, we are totally extinguished—as if we had never been!
The Smallest Place
One of England's most admired heroes, General Charles Gordon (1833-1885), was a devout Christian. Unconcerned about status and wealth, he was passionately ambitious to do God's will. Gordon desired to serve the Lord faithfully, whether it was a big responsibility or a small, unnoticed task.
Time For Friendship
We really can't make more time. There are only 24 hours in a day, and no matter how frantically we try it's impossible to stretch those 24 into 25. So our problem isn't how to increase time but how wisely to use our daily allotment of those 1,440 minutes as they steadily tick away.
Practice What You Preach
Mohandas Gandhi spearheaded India's struggle for freedom from British rule. His Hindu religious practices and his political philosophy had a radical and revolutionary influence on millions of his countrymen.
'God Hides His Face'
Does it ever seem as if you can't get through to God in prayer? If so, you're not alone.
