Answers or Echoes?

A man was on the practice golf course when the club pro brought another man out for a lesson. The pro watched the fellow swing several times and started making suggestions for improvement, but each time the pupil interrupted with his own version of what was wrong and how to correct it. After a few minutes of this interference, the pro began nodding his head in agreement. At the end of the lesson, the student paid the pro, congratulated him on his expertise as a teacher, and left in an obviously pleased frame of mind. The observer was so astonished by the performance that he asked, "Why did you go along with him?" "Son," the old pro said with a grin, as he carefully pocketed his fee, "I learned long ago that it's a waste of time to sell answers to a man that wants to buy echoes." Solomon has some encouragement to all of us to pursue real answers, or what the Bible calls “wisdom.” For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from men of perverted speech. (Proverbs 2:10-12 ESV). While the following list borders on the humorous, I think you will agree there is a great deal of wisdom to be gained from thinking through each suggestion. I found it under the title of “All I Need to Know, I Learned from Noah’s Ark.” 1. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. 2. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY big. 3. Don't listen to critics - do what has to be done. 4. Build on high ground. 5. For safety's sake, travel in pairs. 6. Two heads are better than one. 7. Speed isn't always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails. 8. If you can't fight or flee - float! 9. Take care of your animals as if they were the last ones on earth. 10. Don't forget that we're all in the same boat. 11. When the doo-doo gets really deep, don't sit there and complain - shovel! 12. Stay below deck during the storm. 13. Remember that the ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals. 14. If you have to start over, have a friend by your side. 15. Remember that the woodpeckers INSIDE are often a bigger threat than the storm outside. 16. Don't miss the boat. 17. No matter how bleak it looks, there's always a rainbow on the other side. Today, ask the Lord for wisdom. His promise is to give it liberally and without questioning. Don’t settle for echoes when He desires to give you answers!

Room 712

The following is a true story from a nurse, Sue Kidd. It illustrates a very important principle. The hospital was unusually quiet that bleak January evening. I stood in the nurses' station on the seventh floor and glanced at the clock. It was 9 P.M. I threw a stethoscope around my neck and headed for room 712. It had a new patient, Mr. Williams. He was a man all alone, a man strangely silent about his family. As I entered the room, he looked up eagerly, but drooped his eyes when he saw it was only me. I pressed the stethoscope over his chest and listened. Strong, slow, even beating. Just what I wanted to hear. There seemed little indication he had suffered a slight heart attack a few hours earlier. He looked up from his starched white bed. "Nurse, would you - "He hesitated, tears filling his eyes. Once before he had started to ask me a question, but changed his mind. I touched his hand, waiting. He brushed away a tear. "Would you call my daughter? Tell her I've had a heart attack. A slight one. You see, I live alone and she is the only family I have." His respiration suddenly speeded up. I turned his nasal oxygen up to eight liters a minute. "Of course I'll call her," I said, studying his face. He gripped the sheets and pulled himself forward, his face tense with urgency. "Will you call her right away - as soon as you can?" He was breathing fast - too fast. "I'll call her the very first thing," I said, patting his shoulder. I flipped off the light. He closed his eyes. "Nurse," he called, "could you get me a pencil and paper?" I dug a scrap of yellow paper and a pen from my pocket and set it on the bedside table. I walked back to the nurses' station and sat in a squeaky swivel chair by the phone. Mr. Williams's daughter was listed on his chart as the next of kin. I got her number from information and dialed. Her soft voice answered. "Janie, this is Sue Kidd, a registered nurse at the hospital. I'm calling about your father. He was admitted tonight with a slight heart attack and " "No!" she screamed into the phone, startling me. "He's not dying is he ?" "His condition is stable at the moment," I said, trying hard to sound convincing. Silence. I bit my lip. "You must not let him die!" she said. "He is getting the very best care." "But you don't understand," she pleaded. "My daddy and I haven't spoken. On my 21st birthday, we had a fight over my boyfriend. I ran out of the house. I haven't been back. All these months I've wanted to go to him for forgiveness. The last thing I said to him was, 'I hate you." As Janie struggled to control her tears, I breathed a prayer. "Please God, let this daughter find forgiveness." "I'm coming. Now! I'll be there in 30 minutes," she said. Click. She had hung up. I tried to busy myself with a stack of charts on the desk. I couldn't concentrate. I knew I had to get back to 712. I hurried down the hall nearly in a run. I opened the door. Mr. Williams lay unmoving. I reached for his pulse. There was none. "Code 99, Room 712. Code 99. Stat." The alert was shooting through the hospital within seconds after I called the switchboard through the intercom by the bed. Mr. Williams had a cardiac arrest. The door burst open. Doctors and nurses poured into the room pushing emergency equipment. A doctor took over the manual compression of the heart. Nothing. Not a beat. When I left the room, I saw her against a wall by a water fountain. A doctor who had been inside 712 only moments before stood at her side, talking to her, gripping her elbow. Then he moved on, leaving her slumped against the wall. Such pathetic hurt reflected from her face. She knew. The doctor had told her that her father was gone. I took her hand and led her into the nurses' lounge. She stared straight ahead at a pharmaceutical calendar, glass-faced, almost breakable-looking. "Janie, I'm so, so sorry," I said. It was pitifully inadequate. "I never hated him, you know. I loved him," she said. God, please help her, I thought. Suddenly she whirled toward me. "I want to see him." We walked slowly down the corridor to 712. We moved to the bed, huddled together, taking small steps in unison. Janie leaned over the bed and buried her face in the sheets. I tried not to look at her at this sad, sad good-bye. I backed against the bedside table. My hand fell upon a scrap of yellow paper. I picked it up. It read: "My dearest Janie, I forgive you. I pray you will also forgive me. I know that you love me. I love you too, Daddy" The note was shaking in my hands as I thrust it toward Janie. She read it once. Then twice. Her tormented face grew radiant. Peace began to glisten in her eyes. She hugged the scrap of paper to her breast. "Thank You, God," I whispered, looking up at the window. A few crystal stars blinked through the blackness. A snowflake hit the window and melted away, gone forever. Life seemed as fragile as a snowflake on the window. But thank You, God, that relationships, sometimes fragile as snowflakes, can be mended together again - but there is not a moment to spare. I crept from the room and hurried to the phone. I would call my father. I would say, "I love you." The Apostle John had this to say: “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:11 ESV). Is there someone you need to call today?

The Paper Route

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 1:8-10; 2:1-2 ESV). There is something so wonderful about the grace of God that it often defies illustration or explanation. However, it always causes me to marvel. The following is a true story I read that begins to illustrate the wonder of God’s grace: “Forty-three years seems like a long time to remember the name of a mere acquaintance. I have duly forgotten the name of an old lady who was a customer on my paper route when I was a twelve-year-old boy in Marinette, Wisconsin back in 1954. Yet it seems like just yesterday that she taught me a lesson in forgiveness that I can only hope to pass on to someone else someday. On a mindless Saturday afternoon, a friend and I were throwing rocks onto the roof of the old lady's house from a secluded spot in her backyard. The object of our play was to observe how the rocks changed to missiles as they rolled to the roof’s edge and shot out into the yard like comets falling from the sky. I found myself a perfectly smooth rock and sent it for a ride. The stone was too smooth, however, so it slipped from my hand as I let it go and headed straight for a small window on the old lady's back porch. At the sound of fractured glass, we took off from the old lady's yard faster than any of our missiles flew off her roof. I was too scared about getting caught that first night to be concerned about the old lady with the broken porch window. However, a few days later, when I was sure that I hadn't been discovered, I started to feel guilty for her misfortune. She still greeted me with a smile each day when I gave her the paper, but I was no longer able to act comfortable in her presence. I made up my mind that I would save my paper delivery money, and in three weeks I had the seven dollars that I calculated would cover the cost of her window. I put the money in an envelope with a note explaining that I was sorry for breaking her window and hoped that the seven dollars would cover the cost for repairing it. I waited until it was dark, snuck up to the old lady's house, and put the envelope of retribution through the letter slot in her door. My soul felt redeemed and I couldn't wait for the freedom of, once again, looking straight into the old lady's eyes. The next day, I handed the old lady her paper and was able to return the warm smile that I was receiving from her. She thanked me for the paper and said, ‘Here, I have something for you.’ It was a bag of cookies. I thanked her and proceeded to eat the cookies as I continued my route. After several cookies, I felt an envelope and pulled it out of the bag. When I opened the envelope, I was stunned. Inside were the seven dollars and a short note that said, ‘I'm proud of you.’" John Ruskin has said, “In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.” There is not one of us who have not mistakenly thrown a rock into the windowpane of God’s will for our lives. We have all sinned. It is just one of the simple truths of life. Forgiveness awaits all of those who will simple confess their sin. God restores and completely forgives us in that simple act of confession. Why don’t you go and get you “bag of cookies” today?

The Spin Doctors

“When a stretch of street swelled, cracked and then returned to normal within 20 minutes last summer, one city official joked that it was the work of a giant earthworm. Fire Dept. spokesman Charlie McCafferty, who make the quip, later chalked the 20-foot-long bulge up to a natural gas accumulation and forgot about it. Until Tuesday, when he learned that the weekly National Examiner carried the headline, ‘20-foot earthworm terrorizes city, swallows dogs.’ The story told readers about a ‘top-level investigation ordered into the horrifying sighting of a giant earthworm.’ McCafferty said he heard about the article when two frightened women phoned him about a creature ‘eating up dogs’ they’d read about in the magazine. The tabloid quoted unidentified city officials and witnesses who said they saw the worm grab dogs and swallow them whole. Cliff Linedecker, news editor for the West Palm Beach, Fla. weekly, said the paper got the story from Frank Kendal, a stringer who ‘has given us some pretty good stories. It was a very good story and I saw no reason to question it,’ he said. ‘We run into a lot of really unusual stories here. ‘ When asked if he believed in such giant earthworms, he said, ‘Well I do now. When you’re dealing with the printed word. All I had to deal with was the printed word.’” (Taken from Spokesman Review, of Fort Worth, Texas). In recent years we have come to add another meaning to a very common word: “spin.” This is what Webster’s Dictionary lists as the definition of “spin”: 1. To draw out and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton or flax; to spin goats' hair. All the yarn which Penelope spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca with moths. 2. To draw out tediously; to form by a slow process of degrees; with out; as, to spin out large volumes on a subject. 3. To extend to a great length; as, to spin out a subject. 4. To draw out; to protract; to spend by delays; as, to spin out the day in the idleness By one delay after another, they spin out their whole lives. 5. To whirl with a thread; to turn or cause to whirl; as, to spin a top. 6. To draw out from the stomach in a filament; as, a spider spins a web. It is amazing how comfortable we have become with something less than the truth! Lying is one of the many tools Satan has used to since the beginning of time to keep us from the fullness of God’s presence. The trouble with his lies is that they sound so believable! Perhaps one of the most destructive forms of these believable lies is that of gossip. The Scripture has some very specific things to say about this subject. A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. (Proverbs 16:27-28 ESV). For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body. (Proverbs 26:20-22 ESV). Truth is always the better of the two choices in our speech, especially when it concerns the lives of others. The old adage is still true: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all! Today, determine to use your tongue for good and not evil.

The Cracked Pot

I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:1-10 ESV). A water bearer in India had two large pots; each hung on each end of a pole, which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you." "Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said. The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure. The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house." Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But if we will allow it, the Lord will use our flaws to grace His Father's table. In God's great economy, nothing goes to waste. So as you seek the Lord today, remember He has appointed you to a task; don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and allow Him to take advantage of them, and you, too, can be the cause of beauty in His pathway. Go out boldly, knowing that in our weakness we find His strength.

What Kind of Bird are You?

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:27-31, NLV). There is a little island off the coast of British Columbia whose stony crags are inhabited by a species of bird called the "puffin." It is a tufted small bird, a tufted puffin. The most amazing characteristic of this bird is its habit of living in that spot only. Take it away from that area and it cannot survive. It has no resistance. This tufted puffin is so fragile that is cannot endure or overcome stress. It dies if you take it away from its normal habitat. What kind of bird are you? Are you a tufted puffin, or are you an eagle? God’s desire for all of us is that we rise above the routine of our life and conquer the stress that seeks to invade our souls attacking our well being and peace of mind. I know that I have used the above Scripture previously, but today I thought it might need to be revisited for just a few moments. When Isaiah wrote these words the people were very discouraged. It appeared that their entire way of life would soon end. They faced the Assyrians who wanted nothing less than complete domination of their land and their future. They did not have enough resources to fend off this vast enemy form the north. Perhaps you feel that way as well today. The enemy has surrounded you and you feel as if there is no means of escape. I have good news for you this morning! There is a poem by Victor Hugo called "Wings": Be like the bird that, Pausing in its flight awhile On boughs too light, Feels them give way, Yet sings! Knowing she hath wings. Do you have wings? Of course you have. Your wings are your faith and belief in your heavenly Father. And you can soar to your destination if you'll only give your life to Him. Through frustration and despair you tie your wings, and you cannot get off the ground. This morning, surrender to the truth of God’s provision for you. Wait on the Lord. Take the time to pray and praise Him right now. He desires to lighten the load and allow you to take up flight above and beyond all your circumstance. He desires you to succeed; to rise above fear, to rise above the stress, turning your life into a continuous creative opportunity. Now, take a deep breath and receive His presence into your life!