Our lives -- an open book

This email has been around before; its message is ever timely.

His name is Tim. He has wild hair, wears a crumpled T-shirt, jeans with holes, and flip-flops. This was his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is bright, thoughtful, and a gentle guy.

Across the street from the campus is a well-coifed, very conservative church congregation. They want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how to go about it.

Enter Tim, clad in flip flops, jeans, T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Tim starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is packed and he can't find a seat. By now,people are shifting uneasily, but no one says anything, and no one moves over to make a place for him.

Tim gets closer and closer to the pulpit. When he realizes there are no seats up front, he sits down in the aisle. Some smile, but most are uncomfortable with Tim's innocent break with tradition.

The minister sees peripherally, even while he is preaching, way from the back of the church, a deacon slowly making his way toward Tim. This deacon is in his eighties, sports dignified silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit.

He's a godly man, elegant and courtly as he comes down the aisle. Everyone has pretty much tuned out the sermon, and is saying to themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and background to understand some college kid perched on the floor?

It takes an eternity for the man to reach the boy. His cane taps rhythmically as all eyes focus on him. The minister clears his throat and waits. And now this elderly Christian drops his cane on the floor. With some difficulty, he lowers himself and sits down next to Tim, smiles at him, and worships with him so he won't be alone.

The congregation is pretty much stunned, embarrassed, silent. Yet everyone begins to breathe again.

The minister sighs deeply, then says, "What I'm preaching today, you will probably not remember. What you have seen today, let's hope you will never forget."

Hmm. What if your life, and mine,
are the only Bible some people will ever read?

Law of the Garbage Truck

This metaphor came in a recent email. Thought it had a good message.

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.

We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car sped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy; and I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? That idiot almost ruined your car and could have sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxidriver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage -- full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and sometimes they'll dump it on you.

Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The taxi driver showed me by example that one key to a stress-free life is to not let garbage trucks determine your happiness.

What happens to you may not be your choice. What you do about it is.

American religious leader Mary Baker Eddy, explained it another way, "Love meeting no response, but still remaining love."

Hubble finds crowd in empty space

Logic insists on reasons for doing, or not doing, something.

Intuition is not logic. Listening to our intuition can help us avoid danger; can help us be in the right place at the right time to recognize a blessing or to be a blessing; helps us make surrendipitous discoveries.

Have you ever followed your intuition, even when it went counter to all logic? And were glad you had?

That's what Scientists did with Hubble when they pointed it at a blank area in outer space -- just to see if possibly anything was there.

Dear (Deer) Story

This photo story came in a recent email. It seems that after the time of the fires in southern California, two guys set out to go fishing in the Pacific. They spotted something swimming ahead of them.

Yes, is was a deer.




Nearly exhausted, it offered little resistance to being hauled on board their fishing boat.

Safely ashore, the men released the deer.


Some have seen this as a metaphor. Sometimes the thing nearest right to do doesn't look very promising. For whatever reason, the deer felt it needed to jump into the ocean and start swimming. Somehow these fishermen came to the very spot where the deer needed rescuing.

So sometimes when it looks like we can't swim another 10 yards on a course that seemed the nearest right thing to do, God will rescue us (or send rescue) and set our feet firmly on the ground again.