Ponderings

The test of all happiness is gratitude. 

-G.K. Chesterton

Progress does not always mean discovering something new.
  Sometimes it means rediscovering wisdom that is ancient and eternal

        From ‘The Faith’ by Charles Colson

What we see depends mainly

 on what we look for. 

                                                  ~John Lubbock

True joy is far deeper than happiness;
 we can feel joy in spite of our deepest troubles.
  Happiness is temporary because
 it is based on external circumstances,
 but joy is lasting because it is based on God's presence within us.
  As we contemplate his daily presence,
 we will find contentment.
  As we understand the future he has for us,
 we will experience joy.
  Don't base your life on circumstance, but on God.

Bible Notes from Psalm 16:9

There are four things that we ought to do with the Word of God 

         - admit it as the Word of God,

         -commit it to our hearts and minds,

         - submit to it, 

         -and transmit it to the world.

                                --William Wilberforce

Desiderata 
(things that are desired)


Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story. 
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. 


Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism. 


Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass. 


Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself. 


You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. 


Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. 


With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy. 


Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

We often take for granted the very things that deserve our gratitude. 

--Cynthia Ozick

How to have a Revival:

Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.   (Gypsy Smith)

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. 
The more things you love, the more you are interested in, 
the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about,
 the more you have left when anything happens.   

                                                                                                                                              --Ethel Barrymore  

                       Sometimes you make the right decision. 

 Sometimes you make the decision right.

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the main reasons we gossip or complain is to make ourselves look better by comparison...

When I point out your faults, then I'm implying that I have no such faults so I'm better than you are. 

 Complaining is bragging.  And nobody likes a braggart. 

 Here's another bit of sobering news:

  You wouldn't notice the faults in the other person if they were not also in you.

                                                       -  Will Bowen

In the whole of world history there is only one really significant hour -- the present. 

                                       -- Deitrich Bonhoeffer

And what a night it must have been. But when God is on your side, 

you kinda know that in the end you're gonna win!!!  

               (in song The Three Kings and I by trans Siberian Orchestra)

We must get over wanting to be needed

 - this is the hardest of all temptations to resist.

                             - C.S. Lewis

If Jesus is in your boat, whether he seems

 awake or sound asleep, you have nothing to fear.

                             - Max Lucado

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin ---real life.  But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid, then life would begin.  At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.

                                  - Father Alfred D'Souza

No one has yet believed in God and the Kingdom of God, 

No one has yet heard about the realm of the resurrected
 and not been homesick from that hour. 

 Waiting and looking forward to be released from bodily existence.

   How do we know that dying is so dreadful? 

  Who knows that in our human fear and anguish
 we are only shivering and shuttering

 at the most glorious heavenly blessed event in the world?

   Death is hell and night and cold if it is not transformed by our faith,

  but that is just what is so marvelous; that we can transform death!

                      --Deitrich Bonhoeffer 

--Every person you meet today is either a demolition site or a construction opportunity.

  Your words can make the difference.

**Trust God as if everything depended on him,
while working as if everything depended on us**