There are very few people who realize what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves into his hands, and let themselves be formed by his grace. (St. Ignatius)
Monday, January 24, 2005
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Worth Pondering...
"Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude—an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God." - Arthur W. Pink
"The gentlest form of spiritual narcissism is the idea that one can accomplish one's own spiritual growth. . . The belief that 'I can do it' is intimately associated with the assumption that 'it is my idea, my desire, to do it.' Spiritual narcissism works to deny the realization that our spirituality comes from God." - Gerald May
"The gentlest form of spiritual narcissism is the idea that one can accomplish one's own spiritual growth. . . The belief that 'I can do it' is intimately associated with the assumption that 'it is my idea, my desire, to do it.' Spiritual narcissism works to deny the realization that our spirituality comes from God." - Gerald May
Monday, January 17, 2005
The Simple Life
(This is my favorite story taken from my book, Timely Words.)
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a little boat with one fisherman docked with a slim catch.
The American asked him, “Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?”
The Mexican replied, “This is all I need to support my family for a few days.”
“But what do you do with the rest of your time?” the American inquired.
“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I dine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed at the Mexican. “Listen. I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this little village and move to Mexico City or even New York City where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
“But how long will this take?” the fisherman asked.
“About 15-20 years,” responded the expert.
“But what then?”
The American laughed. “That is the best part…when the time is right you would sell your company stock and become rich.”
“Rich,” the Mexican dreamed aloud. “Then what?”
The businessman said, “Then you could retire, move to a small coastal village and sleep late, fish a little, play with your grandkids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings and play the guitar with your friends.”
Friday, January 07, 2005
Thought for the day
"I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all. But whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess." - Martin Luther
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Excerpt from AM Message
The following is an excerpt from my message this morning. I am attracted to stories of humble service like this one.
In 1979, my parents and I spent a week in Cairo, Egypt. While there we visited the Egyptian National Museum. The King Tut exhibit was mind-boggling. King Tut was only 17 when he died. He was buried with solid gold chariots and thousands of gold artifacts. His gold coffin was found within gold tombs within gold tombs within gold tombs. The burial site was filled with gold.
The Egyptians believed that you could take earthly treasures with you but all of the treasures intended for King Tut’s afterlife were still in his grave until they were discovered in 1922 - over 3000 years later.
Not far from the museum, if you go down the dusty streets of Cairo and turn down an alley you will find a plot of overgrown grass. It is a graveyard for American missionaries. At the top of one old tombstone it says, “William Borden, 1887-1913.” He was twenty-five years old.
William Borden graduated from both Yale and Princeton and was a multi-millionaire due to his family’s business, i.e., Borden Dairies. In many ways he was the King Tut of his day. William Borden could have lived a life of luxury but instead chose to give his life as a disciple of Christ and he had a burden to be a disciple maker as a missionary to the Muslim world. He refused to spend money on himself and instead gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the ministry. He died when he contracted spinal meningitis at the age of 25 while serving in Egypt.
If you dust off his tombstone further, you will read on his epitaph his love for God and the Muslim people. Then the inscription ends with this phrase, “Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life.”
What a contrast! One man buried with a ridiculous amount of gold and the other buried in an obscure, dusty, overgrown, back alley graveyard. One lived in complete opulence with everything the world had to offer and the other lived a modest life of service to the one true king and he is enjoying his everlasting reward in the presence of God today.
King Tut’s life was tragic because of an awful truth discovered too late – you can’t take it with you. William Borden’s life was triumphant because instead of leaving his treasures behind, he sent them ahead.
In 1979, my parents and I spent a week in Cairo, Egypt. While there we visited the Egyptian National Museum. The King Tut exhibit was mind-boggling. King Tut was only 17 when he died. He was buried with solid gold chariots and thousands of gold artifacts. His gold coffin was found within gold tombs within gold tombs within gold tombs. The burial site was filled with gold.
The Egyptians believed that you could take earthly treasures with you but all of the treasures intended for King Tut’s afterlife were still in his grave until they were discovered in 1922 - over 3000 years later.
Not far from the museum, if you go down the dusty streets of Cairo and turn down an alley you will find a plot of overgrown grass. It is a graveyard for American missionaries. At the top of one old tombstone it says, “William Borden, 1887-1913.” He was twenty-five years old.
William Borden graduated from both Yale and Princeton and was a multi-millionaire due to his family’s business, i.e., Borden Dairies. In many ways he was the King Tut of his day. William Borden could have lived a life of luxury but instead chose to give his life as a disciple of Christ and he had a burden to be a disciple maker as a missionary to the Muslim world. He refused to spend money on himself and instead gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the ministry. He died when he contracted spinal meningitis at the age of 25 while serving in Egypt.
If you dust off his tombstone further, you will read on his epitaph his love for God and the Muslim people. Then the inscription ends with this phrase, “Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life.”
What a contrast! One man buried with a ridiculous amount of gold and the other buried in an obscure, dusty, overgrown, back alley graveyard. One lived in complete opulence with everything the world had to offer and the other lived a modest life of service to the one true king and he is enjoying his everlasting reward in the presence of God today.
King Tut’s life was tragic because of an awful truth discovered too late – you can’t take it with you. William Borden’s life was triumphant because instead of leaving his treasures behind, he sent them ahead.
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