Will you join me in giving thanks?
don.huntington@gmail.com
The third element in Einstein's quote moves the formula from the realm of trite aphorism into the heady domain of profound truth. Thomas Edison once made the wry comment, "You will have many opportunities in life to keep your mouth shut: You should take advantage of every one of them." So much of my success in life depends upon my ability to control my tongue. "Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity." the Bible says.
Silence can be an avenue of ministry. A pastor told me that he once received a chilling call informing him that an elder in his church had just had a car accident and had killed a young boy. "What are you going to say to him?" his wife asked the pastor, as he was getting ready to leave. "If I have to say anything to him, I'm not going!" he answered.
My daughter's little doggie, Roxanne, is one of the most loving and lovable creatures on the planet, I think. Of course she manages to communicate her affection, commitment, and consolations without uttering a single word. The ability to speak would probably diminish the power of her communication.
I am grateful that I often work hard and take delight in my work, as Einstein said I should. I'm thankful that I have fun playing hard. I'm most grateful that I am finally finding through the grace of God the ability sometimes to hold my tongue. The
Bible Says:
A number of times each week I quote again to myself the somber verse: "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless."
I'm exerting effort to keep myself in the place where the Spirit of God can give me that wisdom. I've got a long way to go, but I'm on the way. Perhaps Einstein would never consider me a success but, nevertheless, my tongue is a wonderful thing to gain even partial mastery over.
Something is wrong with people who permit their beliefs to come between them and the world around them. Regrettably, that is all too typical of "believers" of many different kinds — sometimes, unfortunately, some believers of my own kind.
From now on I'm going devoutly to reject any belief that doesn't open up the wonder of the creation to me; I'm going to discard beliefs that stand between me and genuine love for other people. I'm serious about this. My mind is made up! I'm going to make sure my beliefs enhance my sense of wonder at the universe; I'm going to ignore any teachings that do not reinforce my being dazzled by the people in my life.
Anyone who does not love his fellow man is a child of the devil, the Bible says.
"I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full," the Master said. I like The Message Version of that verse: "I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of."
The world is a more amazing thing than I can ever comprehend. I'm constantly dazzled by the wonder and complexity of the universe around me. I'm continually amazed by the qualities I find in the character of the people around me, as well. They are all worthy of being cherished.
The Bible says that qualities such as love, joy, peace, and faithfulness are the fruit, or crops, that God, the Farmer in Heaven, expects from my life. I'm grateful for the power of His grace that finally is producing this amazing harvest.
"Life is a symphony," as one old chorus put it, "...since the Man of Calvary changed my discord into song." What could be more of a wonder than the miracles of harmony that take place in my heart and in my life every day? God does the most amazing things in the heart of any person awash in His grace.
"Have a wonder full day," a friend once wished me at the end of an e-mail.
Oh I will! I will! Life is a wonder. God is always helping me to open my eyes and see that it is so.
I once called up my mom when she was in her late 80s and asked her how she was doing. She said, "Something is rattling in my trunk. I think that the guys from the garage didn't fasten my spare tire down the last time they put it in there. Other than that rattle I have no complaints whatsoever."
That's the way I almost always feel. Even after a decade with no reliable source of income, I have no complaints whatsoever beyond a few insignificant annoyances. I praise God for giving me a life blessed beyond imagination.
Of course I know (and my mom knew) that these good times aren't going to last forever. I've had bad things happen to me in the past — and will have much worse things happen in the future. But even if I never become financially sound again or lose my health, I will praise my God. I will sing as Job sang in the face of much more unfathomable disasters than I every had,
This urge to praise is far more than merely a product of positive thinking. Praising God amid the ashes of some great catastrophe is the logical reaction to living a life of faith. The Bible has a lot of wonderfully reassuring messages, for example, "Your life is hidden in Christ in God." And "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me," the Master said.
Spurgeon wrote the wonderful words:
I'm so grateful that I have no fear of the terrible things that will certainly come my way. "Griefs cannot mar the melody of my praise," as Spurgeon said. I'm singing in the sunshine today. If storms rack my life tonight I'll be singing in the rain or in the blizzard tomorrow. By the grace and presence of God, I will!
Rudyard Kipling once wrote a poem called "Tomlinson," which described a man who died and experienced adventures that began when....
It turned out, upon investigation by St. Peter, that Tomlinson had lacked sufficient moral courage to do anything good enough to win a place in heaven and so St. Peter cast him down to hell. However, Tomlinson's subsequent examination by Satan in hell didn't go any better because it turned out that neither had Tomlinson possessed the courage to do anything bad enough to be worthy of damnation.
Satan's final recourse was to send Tomlinson back to earth with the instructions to see if he could muster up the courage to sin to his heart's desire and thus win a place for himself in Perdition the next time he died. The Devil sent Tomlinson away with the final benediction, "And the God you took from a printed book go with you, Tomlinson."
I can so easily become a member of the club of Tomlinsons in this world — taking my God from a "printed book," lacking the courage to accomplish anything really good in this world, and often failing to carry out the evil in my heart simply because of a lack of sufficient fortitude to follow where my passions would lead me.
I'm grateful that living a life awash in the grace of God diminishes the temptation to live the spiritually vacant life that Kipling's poem criticizes. If the will, the Word, and the power of God are the central things in my life, I don't even have to think about trying to avoid Tomlinson's fate. I don't have to spend a minute thinking about trying to get into heaven; I don't have to spend a second trying to avoid hell.
By the grace of my loving Master I plan to be "a half an hour in heaven before the Devil knows I'm dead," as a merry old toast put it. I'm living for something worth dying for.
Or, better, I'm living for Someone who has the power to make worthwhile both the life I live today and accompanying me through the death I will face tomorrow.
In the great but disturbing movie, Fight Club, Tyler Durden (played by Edward Norton) was a well-educated person, living in a lovely condominium, with a high-paying and interesting job. He was bright enough to do anything he wanted and possessed enough money to buy everything he could wish for. He was good-looking, popular, and witty. But within himself he was leading a wretched, desperate existence until a stranger entered his life with a promise of excitement that developed into a stunning reality of mayhem and destruction.
Wealth is small coin when it comes to the price life demands for genuine satisfaction. Many of us in America have used whatever wealth we possessed in order to hedge our lives about with satiated passions and expensive but useless belongings. Those hedges have grown tall and thick; they have moved inward until the light of genuine happiness sometimes become a mere, scarcely visible, shadow across the dark recesses into which our spirits have receded.
John D. Rockefeller once observed, "I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure."
I read not long ago of a desperate family who had $6,500 a month take-home salary, who owed $2,000 a month in credit-card debt, who owned 16 vehicles, including a motor home, and who gave $10 a month to charity. The wife earned $4,000 a month by working 65 hours a week at two jobs, including stocking shelves in a grocery store.
This desperate striving for wealth and things will divert any of us from what the Master said were the big issues of life: "justice, mercy and faithfulness." God is waiting to give me the gifts of His presence and His power, but sometimes I've been too distracted by the things in my culture to reflect upon Him and to receive these gifts.
Chambers put it well when he wrote, "We act like pagans...; only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God." The Master put it best when He said, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." I'm watching out! I'm on my guard!
I'm grateful to God that today I am escaping the dark tentacles of our materialistic world. He has opened my eyes to the sunshine of His grace; I'm not trying to keep up with anybody. I love my life! I love my home! Life is wonderful!! The Master gives these things to me just for nothing. I'm no longer ever desperate! Not about anything!
Kafka's words paint a gripping picture of the problematic human condition that I have participated in. All the bad messages, harmful blows, and terrible failures of my life created in the depths of my being a condition that could be accurately described as a "frozen sea."
I'm continually delighted these days that my life of grace is marked by two ongoing processes — the destruction of the dark conditions that insulate me against the warmth of God's love on one hand, and the growing harvest of life-renewing blessings on the other.
The grace of God comes into my life, attacking that "frozen sea" — not as the axe of Kafka's image but as a furnace of heat and light; a blowtorch of love. The effect is actually more like that of warm, steady sunshine. The frozen sea is melting; the dark waters themselves evaporating and being replaced by springtime flowers of grace that are growing in profusion across the meadows and down the hillsides of my heart.
I'm so grateful that the Master has taken His place on the throne of my spirit! I'm not ashamed to come into His presence in prayer these days! I'm not reluctant to admit that I'm a child of God. He has put a song in my heart. The words of van Dyke's hymn become true in my heart again every day:
This day will be good! This day will be full of love and light and fun for me. This day will be marked by the blessings of Heaven. This will be one of my normal days.
How wonderful to so live that the warmth of the sunshine of God's grace becomes a normal experience. I have become, in the words of the Bible, "...like a tree planted by streams of water..., whose leaf does not whither."
Drugs, sex, and materialism hold out false but powerful promises of pleasure and gratification. The words of Epicurus are like a lighthouse illuminating the moral darkness of the world I live in.
If asleep in my spirit, I can regard a life of grace as a life of narrow confines imposed by the demands of appropriate behavior. Prudence, honor, and justice are seen, from this view, as impediments to a life of pleasure and happiness. Just the opposite results are actually the case in the real world, however. Ignoring Epicurus' large virtues leads to indulgence, ugliness, and lawlessness. These unrestrained behaviors, in turn, produce fruits of shame, hardship, and deep unhappiness.
I've discovered that the life of grace I am leading — which necessarily involves "living prudently, honorably, and justly" — produces an amazing amount of pleasure. After all, God desires our pleasure, the Bible says, "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil."
Our pleasure pleases Him. The Bible says:
How priceless is your unfailing love!
So God gives us the permission to enjoy the good things He puts into this world — to enjoy them as the fruits of His presence. Jesus is here in this world as He was at the feast in Cana, enjoying our pleasure with us.
I'm so grateful for the good things God constantly puts in my life and for the virtues that permit me to enjoy them! I can get more pleasure from laughing with my wife than some people can get from buying a new car. Along with a lot of other qualities, my life is usually a lot of fun.
"Pain is God's megaphone that He uses to get our attention," CS Lewis said. I will lose correct perspective in times of suffering if I focus on the megaphone and not on the message.
When called upon to suffer, too often have I asked the question "Why me?" in such a way as to complain to God that I should not be suffering. I have finally quit asking the "Why me?" question because it always leads to an even more difficult question: Why not me? This leads, in turn, to other questions that I have absolutely no answer for:
The last period of suffering I was called upon to endure was really intense. I lost ten pounds in a month. I had no appetite for eating. I couldn't sleep at night. I was crushed in my soul. However, my spirit soared during this time. My Master was by my side in a real way throughout the entire ordeal. I was learning lessons of patience and fortitude that I needed to learn. "God whispers in our pleasures but shouts in our pain," C.S. Lewis wrote. Henry Emerson Fosdick wrote:
I'm learning the truth the of the Bible's assertion, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." I'm so grateful that most of my life is happy and blessed beyond imagining. I'm also grateful that I don't depend upon those times of happiness and blessing to continue forever.
Thank God that when He points upward or towards himself with His finger of pain, I have enough sense these days to not usually concentrate on the finger He is using to point with.
Many years ago I read a comment to the effect that it isn't important how many things you believe in. Change comes from the purity and sincerity with which you actually believe something. If with all your heart you believe in only one true thing, that sincere belief will transform your life.
For much of my life it seems to me that I didn't believe in anything strongly enough to create teal integrity of my life and behavior. These days I am trying to focus upon the power and presence of God in my life as the key reality of my existence.
I have adopted a passage of Scripture as my special promise:
Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. The Bible contains many wonderful promises and assertions. Perhaps believing from my heart only one promise from my special passage would be sufficient to secure my success in the eyes of Heaven: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness." If this is true, what else do I need to be true? This promise of God's sufficiency is all I really need to take to heart. This is the promise that will lead me to all the good things in this life and in the life to come.
The knowledge that the Master gives me everything I need is the basis upon which all the other "very great and precious promises" can be received without conscious effort on my part.
I'm grateful that personal holiness is no more complicated than believing this promise with all my heart — never taking it for granted but each day deliberately taking the promise as the central Truth in my life.
My greatest effort these days is spent in trying to stay in the place where I don't have to strive to do anything. I'm arriving at the blessed plateau of resignation. I want the Spirit of my Master to fill me like a hand fills a glove — giving my life shape, animation, and effectiveness.
The life of grace is a matter of great effort but of no self-effort. I mean that I'm hard at work at many things during the week but when I'm at my best I'm doing these things at the direction of, and by the power of, my Master. The testimony of the Apostle Paul becomes a daily reality (though much less complete than his), "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
Even my secular work is becoming less secular. Every day I commit my work to the Master. My work is becoming a sacrament, as Martin Luther said it should be. As a result, I never worked with less difficulty and strain than I am now.
Also, I never had a job in which my work has been more appreciated. I'm the underpaid editor in chief of a lifestyle magazine. I write most of the material and people keep telling me how wonderful they think the articles are. People I don't even know tell me they read the magazine "from cover to cover." Sometimes they can't find words to describe how much they enjoy reading what I have written.
Nobody knows better than I how limited my skills and my intelligence actually are. Of course, I sometimes fail miserably in things that I attempt, but other times I astonish myself by things I succeed at.
I owe any such success to the power of grace that fills me and makes me effective far beyond my natural abilities. This kind of blessing is not automatic. I don't take it for granted. But it is very real — and wonderful.
I'm trying these days to extend this power to every part of my life; to have the grace of God fill my life to the corners. Life lived on this level is wonderful because this is the way He wants me to live. I call Him my Master. I want that to be more than a mere word. I want Him to guide me through all parts of my life.
I am grateful that he is with me always, as He promised He would be. I'm so thankful for the difference that His presence is making in my life and in my work.
Twain's comment is right on. I've laid a few eggs and cackled like they were asteroids myself. Someone once made the observation that a person who sings his own praises usually sings solo. Someone else added that they usually sing in too high a key.
My wife, Rae, on the other hand, is a model of the reservation that Twain would approve of. I have been thinking about all the activities that she fills her week with:
What a wife I'm married to! God knew that I needed as a life partner someone who was a better Christian than I am — one who would be a more gentle, more complete person than I am; someone whose quiet service would help mitigate the cackling of my noisy and shallow behavior. Rae helps quiet me down.
The Bible says, "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD." These words are certainly true for me.
I'm so grateful for the woman I've been married to for the past 43 years. She is a joy to live with; she is a pleasure to be around. Thank you, Rae! Thank You, God! Thank You! Thank You!
My world is full of people like Rae; people who just keep "showing up" and quietly serving to make my world a better place to live.
Today is the birthday of a remarkable person. My son, Sgt.. Matthew Huntington, Ret. is the absolute paradigm of a good man.
I remember the day Matt was born. The most amazing things about newborn babies the first time you are near one, I think, is how small their hands are; how tiny and perfect their little fingers and fingernails...! I remember as though it were yesterday how, even though he was only 15 minutes old, when I touched my finger into the palm of his tiny hand, he instantly grabbed it and hung on. (Amazing!)
Something happens to a father at that moment. A man becomes bonded to his offspring in an instant. This little person immediately became someone to die for; to kill for; to live for....
All his life Matthew has amazed me with his rock-bottom goodness. He has always made choices for decency and goodness without struggle, fanfare, or obvious reflection — just doing the right thing for no reason other than that it was the right thing to do. When he was seven years old Matthew led his five-year-old sister to pray to "receive Jesus into her heart."
At a time when most parents just hope that their kid is practicing safe sex, Matthew's nickname in basic training was "The Virgin." When stationed in Panama Matt taught a class of children in Sunday School. He would teach the English children while his beautiful Panamanian wife would teach the Spanish-speaking children.
Matthew dedicated his life to serving "the king," in the words of Shakespeare's quote. He is retired from the US Air Force. But, unlike the speaker in the quote, Matt didn't have any trouble with priorities. He did a good job in the service of "his king" precisely because he was always in quiet obedience and service to His God. He spent one Christmas in Iraq and the Christmas before that in Uzbekistan. He never uttered a complaining word about either assignment.
Now he is studying to become a Pharmacist, and doing better with sciences than his dad ever could have.
My son is a better man than I am. I salute him today. I am grateful for Matt and for his witness to my own life of the possibility of just doing what I am supposed to do without fretting or noise.
CS Lewis made the alarming observation that, "One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness."
Any faith I have that leads me to God's to grace always includes subsequent direction for the course of my life. When I pray that God might deliver me from my problems, He often answers by showing me where the morally and spiritually dangerous rocks are. Then He gives me wisdom to begin rowing away from them, plus granting me the ability to do so.
I give my life into the hands of God every morning, asking that He might lead me as He sees fit. The way He usually sees "fit" is to get me to work:
Someone said, "Good luck is often with the man who doesn't include it in his plans."
I'm so grateful for the grace of God that is transforming my life and is saving me from the dangers that lie in my path. I'm thankful that my life sometimes demonstrates the truth of the words of the Apostle Paul:
I'm rowing away from the rocks as hard as I can. (Or often doing so, at least.) I'm thankful to God for giving me my boat, the oars, the strength to row, and the wisdom to know which directions in life lead to safety.
The movie Crocodile Dundee II has a great scene in which one of the bad guys comes out of a forest and sees one of Dundee's "mates" sitting by a stream and drinking a beer. In a gesture of friendliness, Crocodile's friend offers the guy a cool one. In response, the man raises his rifle and says coldly:
The more I grow in the ways of grace the simpler true religion seems to become. The Bible asks the rhetorical question, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" The implied answer "No one!!" means, of course, that I don't have a single thing to worry about. God is responsible for taking care of me and for meeting my needs.
"Don't let your hearts be troubled," the Master said. The words aren't spoken in a vacuum; they are spoken in the context of the promise of His presence, power, and love. It is significant that they are spoken just before He was going to be crucified and the disciples scattered. The next day was going to be the worst day in the history of the world, but everything was going to come out fine.
So I naturally obey and do not worry. I'm not perfect at this, but I'm getting better at it. I've at least reached the point where Chambers' quote resonates completely with my own attitude. Nothing bad can happen to me. Unemployment, illness, loss, and even the eventual prospect of death are events that merely provide opportunities to watch the hand of God go to work on my behalf.
There's no denying or avoiding the pain and even agony that often accompanies us on our pathway through life. But these are passing pains, especially since I know the end results will be the victory of God and the furthering of God's plans in and for my life. Things will work out for me just as they worked out for the disciples as they watched the power of God transform history's worst day into Heaven's most wonderful event.
Someone once wisely observed, "Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." Problems, no matter how severe they might be, do not threaten my well-being. I can see my Heavenly Donk looming up behind every one of them. He's going to pound them for me.
Entomologists (i.e., scientists who study insects) can see enough things beneath their feet in a grassy yard to keep them occupied for months. One of them once took a vacation for two weeks and, upon returning to work, was asked by his fellow workers if he had taken a trip. "Why yes I did," he answered. "I made it almost halfway across my back yard."
I'm trying to be like the entomologist and find under my feet, as it were, wonderful things that might be overlooked; things that I might miss myself if I don't pay attention. I am developing the habit of finding God's gifts strewn all around me on the landscape of my life — under my feet, wherever I look....
One night after supper my daughter and I were having a pointless conversation, getting on each other's nerves in a variety of ways. She suddenly asked, unexpectedly, for me to teach her the second verse of some hymn she only knew the first verse to. She didn't have any particular hymn in mind. She finally settled on "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." So I taught her the words:
As we were singing together it suddenly occurred to me how blessed I was. There probably wasn't another father on the face of the earth who that day had the opportunity to sing the second verse of this hymn with his daughter even once. Dawn Marie and I sang it together 4-5 times, as she labored to commit it to memory.
This was one of the blessings that were just "under foot," as Burroughs put it. My life is crowded with these kinds of experiences that really do constitute one of "...the true sources of ... power." I'm trying to make a habit of looking down to find the gifts that God scatters constantly across my path.
I don't know much about Captain Hadfield except that his middle name was Arthur and he was a writer. I guess he wasn't a great man, as the world measures greatness, but some great men probably do share the secret he talks about in his quote.
I'm not a great man either. Long ago I replaced a desire for greatness with a striving for excellence. When cut off from a life of grace, excellence can become a tyrant — demanding the dedication of its devotees while offering steadily diminishing rewards. But as a component in a life lived in heavenly sunshine, excellence becomes a sacramental activity; a part of subduing the chaotic world for the honor of Heaven.
At its best, excellence becomes richly gratifying, conveying its own brilliant rewards. The Scriptural maxim, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your whole heart," becomes a means of serving Him who is the Most Excellent One.
Great exertion in the context of excellence carries with it the reward of psychological rest. I always strive to do my work better than anyone could have asked of me and to deliver it sooner than they might expect. I do this because long ago I discovered that when you successfully do that, you are never under strain or stress at your work. Work becomes relaxing and fun.
"My yoke is easy," the Master said. "My burden is light." An old hymn contains the paradoxical words about the Christian life:
"Resting while we're working; Bold yet humbly meek." Right! That's the way the Christian life was designed to feel.
"I've got grace like an ocean," are the words of an old chorus. That's the way the power of God usually comes to me. Like a gentle, peaceful ocean tide rolling over me and carrying me to a sunny place. I'm at peace; I'm at rest — even when I am hard at work. At least that is true when God helps me to perform with excellence. Every day I give my activities over to Him again. And every day He helps me.
A dear friend once made an observation that went straight to my heart. He said, "I am like a pebble being pushed to the sky by a great mountain rushing up beneath me." That's what it is! I'm resting mind and heart as Heaven exerts tremendous efforts on my behalf. That's how easy it really seems to be these days!
I can't remember the last time I was really bored. I was on a plane once with my wife and daughter waiting for final preparations to be made before taking off. "This is so boring," my daughter complained.
"I haven't been bored for years," I replied. "These days I just go into my mind. There are so many things in there to think about, play with, meditate on, recite.... Aging gives the gift to never be bored. Your mind becomes a garden of interesting activities. "I wouldn't be young again for anything," I told her.
A middle-aged woman sitting in front of us looked over the back of her seat and laughingly said, "Isn't that the truth!"
On the other hand, I don't get as panicky or as upset when things go terribly wrong, perhaps. I can sometimes keep my head when those about me are losing theirs, as Kipling advised.
During public meetings and group practices when people are yelling questions and orders at each other, and confusion reigns supreme, I often find myself just doing my part, contributing quietly when appropriate, and not being tempted to add to the noise and confusion.
I'm not perfect at this, as my daughter would gladly testify. But I'm better; I'm learning.
I think God's grace combines with the fact that I'm finally growing up to make my own experience these days conform to Indira Gandhi's quote. I often am "vibrantly alive in repose" and "still in the midst of activity." Such repose feels good.
It IS good!
I'm grateful for the possibility of change in my life. I'm so thankful that my daily experience of the grace of Heaven means that the change is often an upward spiral towards joy and harmony rather than a downward spiral to dissatisfaction and sorrow.
I often don't know what to do next out of the wonderful possibilities available to me. I just wish there more hours in the day and more days in the week. Sometimes life has me feeling like I'm like a kid in a candy store with a $50 bill.
I'm as wealthy as a king these days, when I measure wealth by the quality of my life and my enjoyment of the things I do every day. Even during the years that I was unemployed, I still never had time to do all the things I wanted to do.
I'm an especially blessed person at this point because almost all the things that I want to do are not things that I need to do. At least I don't need to do them because of external pressures:
I continually feel like I am receiving the blessing promised by God to those who would bring their offerings to Him: "Test me in this,' says the LORD Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'" I open myself fully to the grace of Heaven and, in return, Heaven fills my life with good things.
... by the time I tear myself away from my activities and go to bed at night, sleep usually comes like a blessed benediction — nothing to fear; nothing to regret.... Maybe this is the best thing of all.
A problem with Fuller's quote is that I don't really know the true extent of my power. "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any," Alice Walker said. Humility, rightly practiced, is an empowering virtue. On the other hand, timidity is a vice, or at least a failing, no matter how it is practiced.
Someone once gave me the movie, "The Mouse that Roared," which was made when I was young. I always liked the title. One of the great fantasies is to appear outwardly as weak but inwardly to have great power; to be "a mild-mannered reporter" on the outside but a "man of steel" on the inside; to be a mouse that could roar.
I guess I need to find a power in my life that doesn't have anything to do with a show of personal strength. And that's just what I am finding!
A writer once said when he was young if a bully would start picking on him he would just go get his older brothers. They would go looking for the bully, "Who's been picking on our brother?" He said that he was always delighted at those times. "This is really going to be good!" he would always think.
Ah! That's the kind of power I am finding in my life! Not a power that belongs to me (I'm the weakest of God's creatures), but the power that belongs to Heaven itself — the grace that can be part of my life giving me strength beyond my natural abilities.
When attacked by temptations, trials, or challenges I can just go to the Master and send Him to fight against the enemy. I can have delighted anticipation at those times. I too can have the attitude, "This is really going to be good!"
I'm so grateful that I have no desire to let my will roar or to try to assess the measure of my power. I'm not competing with other people over silly issues. I'm so pleased that I can even cheerfully say, "Thy will be done" to other people than to God. I thank God for the gifts of peace, rest, and self-acceptance that He gives to me.
One day we were waiting for my son to get home from college. He was driving by himself, at night, in an old car, from Las Angeles. He was supposed to arrive at 10 p.m. When it got to be 10:45 it occurred to me to start worrying. However, I realized that no amount of worry was going to make the old car run any more reliably, or my son to stay more alert, or keep drunken drivers from slamming into him, or etc. etc.
So I did the only thing possible (which is actually a wonderful thing to do), I held my hands out, palms down, and just let go of the situation — I gave Adam into the hands of God. I didn't worry another second. Twenty minutes later Adam came cruising into the driveway, mentioning something about Los Angeles commute traffic.
"I have endured many terrible disasters," Mark Twain said. "Most of which never actually happened." Someone said that it never makes sense to worry because everything in life falls into two categories — things you can control and things you can't control. You don't have to worry about things you can control. And it doesn't do any good to worry about things you can't control. When I first read that, I was sure something was wrong with the logic. Upon reflection, however, I can discover nothing at all wrong with the reasoning.
Mary Hemingway was right. If you worry a few minutes every day then over a lifetime you will lose years that could have been spent in real living.
And Hemingway was also right that "worry never fixes anything." In fact, worry causes problems, doctors say, leading to high blood pressure, heart problems, and other circulatory ailments — not to mention problems with digestion and nervous disorders.
"Worry is an awful thing; It is a form of sin," my old grandma wrote before I was born. And she was right! I'm so grateful that I'm basically done with worry. I'm done with it forever! "Cast all your anxiety on him," the Bible says, "because he cares for you." I'm casting! I'm casting!
I once heard the CTO at a hi-tech Silicon Valley company say in a staff meeting, "Try every day to accomplish something. Don't be satisfied unless you have finished at least one thing before you go to bed at night." I was struck with how excellent that principle seemed to be.
I try every day to accomplish something in my work; to have something every day that I can point at and say, "I did that today!" This kind of "diligence and labor," as Menander said, preserves us from despair in our work. Each day's labor becomes a building stone in a growing edifice of personal industry.
God's will for me is that I be diligent in all the affairs of my life. "We do not want you to become lazy," the Bible says, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."
Of course, I realize that what Menander wrote is not always true. People can labor with the greatest diligence and intelligence but in the end be left with nothing but ashes. Some disaster — a fire, illness, death, Microsoft (I live near Silicon Valley) comes along and snatches away completely the success they worked for and rightfully deserved. But in a general, proverbial way Menander's comment is right and echoes the Bible's wisdom: "Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth."
My present life awash in the grace of God makes it possible for me to comply with Kipling's advice, when he wrote:
I'm grateful to God that He has given me the grace sometimes to be diligent — to work hard to please the people I serve; to strive, as Menander said, to accomplish things. I'm ultimately striving to serve my Master through the efforts I expend every day. And with that as a goal I can never come to despair.
When my accomplishments come crashing down about my ears, as during an extended time of unemployment, it is natural to pray, "Let me learn the lessons you have for me in this," and then to carry on. After all, I have the Bible's promise, "...your labor in the Lord is not in vain." How positive become even the setbacks in my life! How frequent become my small triumphs!
I once heard the CTO at a hi-tech Silicon Valley company say in a staff meeting, "Try every day to accomplish something. Don't be satisfied unless you have finished at least one thing before you go to bed at night." I was struck with how excellent that principle seemed to be.
I try every day to accomplish something in my work; to have something every day that I can point at and say, "I did that today!" This kind of "diligence and labor," as Menander said, preserves us from despair in our work. Each day's labor becomes a building stone in a growing edifice of personal industry.
God's will for me is that I be diligent in all the affairs of my life. "We do not want you to become lazy," the Bible says, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."
Of course, I realize that what Menander wrote is not always true. People can labor with the greatest diligence and intelligence but in the end be left with nothing but ashes. Some disaster — a fire, illness, death, Microsoft (I live near Silicon Valley) comes along and snatches away completely the success they worked for and rightfully deserved. But in a general, proverbial way Menander's comment is right and echoes the Bible's wisdom: "Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth."
My present life awash in the grace of God makes it possible for me to comply with Kipling's advice, when he wrote:
I'm grateful to God that He has given me the grace sometimes to be diligent — to work hard to please the people I serve; to strive, as Menander said, to accomplish things. I'm ultimately striving to serve my Master through the efforts I expend every day. And with that as a goal I can never come to despair.
When my accomplishments come crashing down about my ears, as during an extended time of unemployment, it is natural to pray, "Let me learn the lessons you have for me in this," and then to carry on. After all, I have the Bible's promise, "...your labor in the Lord is not in vain." How positive become even the setbacks in my life! How frequent become my small triumphs!
What truth could be more fundamental than this? I can, and do, give the affairs of my life over into the hands of the Master — regularly, daily, constantly.... And, in return, He gives my life back to me — blessed by gifts of joy, peace, and happiness that far exceed anything I could muster up by mere self effort. Even dark times become a blessing to the life awash in grace. And the future is bright with the promise of God. As the Apostle Peter wrote: "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."
I feel like I have entered the City of Zion, as Isaiah prophesied:
This is what the old time gospel preachers, quoting Isaiah, meant by Beulah Land. This is fullness of Spirit. The only thing necessary from me is to continue to let God have His way in my life — every morning to give my life over into His hands once more; every day to take my hands off the steering wheel of my life again.
I'm so grateful to be experiencing a joy that is unaffected by circumstances. I really believe, as Chambers intimated in the quote, that my circumstances are completely controlled by God and, therefore, are completely outside the control of chance and the decisions of other people. I stand in a place of blessed security — and this is where I'm going to remain. I am a blessed man!
My buddy the guru knows more facts about more topics than anyone I know. He must surely be one of the most informed people on our planet. He is the author of 60 books on technology topics. Even in technology rich Silicon Valley, Dan Shafer is regarded by a great number of people as the person with answers. He is regarded by a smaller number of people, including myself, as an awesome storehouse of ideas and knowledge.
Even though he is better informed about almost everything than I am, Dan has always treated me with deference and graciousness. He always made me feel like I am a better person than I am. His wife, Carolyn — one of the best people I know — treats me as though I am better than she.
There are a lot of people in this world who make me feel great! My buddy, Pete, is a wonderful graphics design person who never said a single depreciating word about my astounding lack of artistic skill. He always tried to give me the impression that, with a little effort, I could become an artist.
I feel generally good about myself, in part because of people like Dan & Carolyn, and Pete, and my wife (much of the time, at least)... make me feel good. These are great people who help me to feel great, as Chesterton said in today's quote.
Of course, the Person who does the best job of making me feel great is the Master whom I serve. He is always gentle with my failures — never harsh or demanding. I always liked the words about Jesus, "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out...." How many times I have been like a bruised reed or a sputtering candle! And yet He always lifted me up.
I'm so grateful that I personally have found the words of King David to be true, "...you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head." How abundantly the Master has poured out blessings upon me, who deserves them the least!
The final stanza of one of ee cummings poems exactly catches my attitude at this point:
On this happy day it is natural to pause and to reflect upon the incarnation; to think about the event during which God became a man. In Jesus Christ God the Father "pitched his tent among us," the Bible says. The Apostle Paul wrote:
So through Jesus I understand about God the father. The author of Hebrews wrote, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Jesus Himself told His disciples, "He who has seen me has seen the Father."
I'm so grateful today for this wonderful truth! But today's quote adds another wonderful truth: There is another incarnation. Through the grace of God the Spirit of Jesus is born in me.
I think of myself as a glove. By itself a glove is nothing. An empty glove is useless and can do nothing (except possibly swat flies). For much of my life I was like a glove without a hand in it. But then the grace of God came into my life and everything changed. The hand of God was slipped into the glove of my life. "The old has gone," was the way the Apostle Paul put it, "The new has come." Hal Leonard got my feelings exactly right when he wrote:
By the power that was born in Bethlehem and daily is born in me, I become an animated and useful member of the society of this world and of the kingdom of heaven.
Lao-tsze, in this quote, was wiser than some Christians I've known; wiser than I've been myself on occasion. A pox on people who are afraid to have fun! People who are too spiritual for laughter are too serious for me!
The Koran contains a great assertion: "He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh." Aristotle wrote, "The gods too are fond of a joke." Since I was in the Seventh Grade I have loved Yeat's poem, "The Fiddler of Dooney," that contains the words,
Happiness shouldn't be the main entrée of the dinner of our lives because love is the main course. Happiness shouldn't even be the dessert. The joy of the Lord is my dessert. Happiness is like the hors d'oeuvre.
A good appetizer is a welcome addition to any meal even though, if the appetizer is missing, a good meal suffers no great loss.
On the other hand, people who make a small god of pleasure and happiness are greatly to be pitied. "The widow who lives for pleasure," the Bible says, "is dead while she lives." Right! As is any person who so lives.
The life of grace protects me against this extreme. The Psalmist wrote:
The delightful experiences in my life come as gifts from the hand of a loving God. He sends me pleasures day-by-day.
There's a quality in my life these days that is even better than the gifts themselves — the gift of enjoying the good things as they come. I'm delighted by hot dogs and by T-bone steaks! I love reading comics and taking trips to Hawaii! The laughter of my grandson is a source of ecstasy and so are the hot tubs in Calistoga. I enjoy surfing around on the Web as much as some people enjoy buying new motorcycles.
Life lived in grace is good! It really is!
The Christian view of reason and faith has always had somewhat of a chicken-or-egg flavor. Did I become convinced of the truth about the Master and then order my life by that truth, finding His gifts in response to my faith? This is the most obvious and reasonable position — and is one that I have heard spouted most often by preachers.
However, the words of Jesus, Himself, in today's quote, seem to turn the process of faith on its head. True spiritual reality apparently begins with my decision to follow the will of God. If I desire God to work out His will in my life — without reservations; with no thought to the outcomes — then God rewards me by showing me His truth.
So faith has a leap-in-the-dark quality, as Kierkegaard said. The first prayer of faith, therefore, is necessarily something like, "O God, if there is a God, show me your truth and I'll follow it wherever it leads." Most of us living grace-filled lives come to this position through a process more similar to that of an drunkard coming to Alcoholics Anonymous than like a philosopher arriving at some satisfying propositional truth.
My real life of grace begins only when my self-centered, self-actualized life fails. I find God only when I get to the end of myself. Here's how that works: I realize that I'm in need of help and guidance, and on the basis of that need I reach out to Him. At that point, and only at that point, God conducts His intervention into my life as the Great Helper, the Great Guide. And while doing that He shows me His truth.
Now that I'm going through the process, God's truth constantly becomes an active energy in my life. I'm hard at work about the business of God these days, but remarkably it doesn't feel like I'm working at all. And it certainly doesn't feel like religion. The warp and woof of my life currently demonstrates the truth of Oswald Chamber's comment, that my life will become marked by harmony and not by effort:
I'm so grateful that God keeps revealing His truth — revealing Himself — to me day-by-day. I've never been less certain about the role of dogma in all this. But, on the other hand, I've never been more certain of the reality of His grace that comes as an energy in my life, working for my blessing and ultimately for my happiness.
I read an unforgettable book by the great 18th Century Christian novelist, George MacDonald, in which one of his characters observes a difference between a Christian philosopher and a philosophic Christian. The Christian philosopher is concerned about what God's plan is and how it is being worked out in the world. The philosophic Christian, on the other hand, always wants to know what God's will is for his or her life, and how to work that will out in daily life.
My life used to be one of outward conformity to the will of God but of inward rebellion, or at least a wishy-washy attitude towards obedience. I was a modern version of one of the Pharisees whom Jesus criticized as being like a tomb — white-washed the outside but inwardly being full of dead men's bones.
The main issue in a life awash in grace is never knowledge but obedience. The great task is not to know the truth, but to live by the truth that I know. Someone once commented that intellectual darkness is the result of ignorance, but spiritual darkness is the result of something that I do not intend to obey.
I don't want to be knowledgeable, as the world would applaud knowledge, but to be wise, as God would reward wisdom. The Bible says:
I'm done with Christian philosophy forever. It never accomplished a single thing for me, or enabled me to do one good thing in this world.
I'm glad that Heaven has lead me to become a philosophical Christian — seeking to carry out God's will in my life. My determination about this has filled my life with grace — thereby filling it with love and peace.
I once read Wally Lamb's best-selling book I Know This Much is True. I thought the book was a good read, but thought the title was especially great! One of my increasingly important tasks as I grow older seems to be to sharpen my ideas of what I really believe to be true.
The older I get the more I lose the ability to be absolutely certain about things. It seems like every year I actually "know" even less than I knew the year before. I discover that many of the things that I "knew" so firmly are not true at all.
For years I wouldn't look at The Simpsons, for example, because of all the vulgar language and situations the characters kept getting into. Finally my kids cornered me into watching it once and I became an instant fan. I discovered that the show is sometimes engaged in carrying out small acts of sedition against immorality in our culture — pushing past young people's natural defenses against things that are good for them and teaching them lessons in virtues in such a way that they don't even know they're being taught. I don't know how much actual good the shows do — how much really sinks in — but I applaud the producers for a valiant attempt. How could I have been so ignorant as to miss this for so long?
I'm also discovering how pernicious and wrong-hearted so many of the things I used to believe actually were. I discovered that Voltaire did not die a terrible death, crying out because he was going to hell. It was a lie concocted by religious people, apparently, as a libel against him. Some of the things Voltaire taught about God and righteousness were better teachings than would be heard in any of the churches of his day. "Love truth, and pardon error," He wrote. Who could propose a more wonderful ideal for life than that? How could I have been so dumb as to have missed this for so long?
I'm getting less certain about my need to be right about everything, or even to have opinions about everything.
I don't know as much as I used to, but I'm doing a little bit of good these days, as Schweitzer said I should. I know this much to be true: God is good. The promises of the Bible are a strong force for good in my life. Jesus Christ is with me, giving me His blessing and sometimes making me a blessing to others.
And that is enough for me to know.
The Word reminds me that I have a responsibility to love others just as I am loved:
My heart is full at the end of this year with the power and the presence of God's grace in my life! The reality of God's love is the sharp spice which cuts the sweetness of my blessed life.
How grateful I am for the reality of the love of God for me; and for His power that fills me with His love so that I might share it with others around me.
On the other hand, if not for His grace I tremble to think of how I would feel during this day of reflection. Why should it be true that "the evil has perished, and the good survives," apart from the grace that Beecher experienced, and that I experience every day? Mark Anthony made his famous comment: "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." Why should that be less true of me (or Beecher) than it was of Julius Caesar?
Grace makes the difference. God reassures me again today in the words of the prophet Isaiah:
Or, as the prophet Micah so eloquently prayed, "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin...? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy."
So I go into the new year as I try to go into every day of the year — repentant, humble, with my sins forgiven, and with my heart full of the love of God and love for the people around me.
I'm going to cherish the good things of the last year — keep them strong in my mind forever. On the other hand, I'm going to forget the evils of the past year. I've tried to learn whatever lessons I needed to learn from them and now I'm going to let the evil be gone from my life forever. "...you have put all my sins behind your back," Isaiah prayed. That's just where I'm going to put them. God told Isaiah, and tells me: "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more."
If God forgets my sins, I'm not going to bother bringing them up again. I'm grateful that by the grace of God I'm so clean! I'm so whole! I'm so full of joy! Bring on the New Year! I can't wait to see what happens next!
(December 1) Einstein's other formula
A + B + C = Success if:
A = Hard Work
B = Hard Play
C = Keeping your mouth shut. (Albert Einstein) Sin is not ended by multiplying words,
but the prudent hold their tongues.
Heavenly Father: Thanks that your grace is with me always; helping me, comforting me, strengthening me.... Thank You that You can do this for me without words — and that You enable me sometimes silently to pass these gifts on to others.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 2) Life is a wonder
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. (Gerry Spence)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the possibility of faith. Thanks for the wonder full outcome as my faith is allowing your grace to open my eyes to the marvels found in your world.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 3) Singing in the rain
The deeper our troubles, the louder our thanks to God, who has led us through all, and preserved us until now. Our griefs cannot mar the melody of our praise, we reckon them to be the bass part of our life's song, "He hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." (Spurgeon)
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.He casteth forth His ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight.... He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten the soul. O that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!
Heavenly Father: Thanks for your presence and your power in my life that creates such an effective blockade against dark forces, keeping back the powers of depression and oppression from my heart and my mind.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 4) The man who couldn't get into hell
Is what you're living for worth dying for? (Anonymous)
A spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him far away....
'Till he heard the roar of the milky way die down, and drone, and cease.
And he came to the gate within the wall where Peter holds the keys.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for being in the events of my life again today. Thanks for making my life full and blessed again today — a life worth living made possible by a faith worth dying for.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 5) Living without desperation
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. (Henry David Thoreau)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the miracle of your grace that fills my life with pleasures and satisfactions all day every day.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 6) The Thawing Sea
A book must be an axe for the frozen sea inside of us. (Franz Kafka)
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away
Giver of immortal gladness; Fill us with the light of day.
Heavenly Father, thanks for the light of your love that shines in my heart, thaws my hardness, and causes all the good things in my life to germinate, bud, and burst into bloom.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 7) Holy hedonism
It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, honorably, and justly; or to live prudently, honorably, and justly, without living pleasurably. (Epicurus)
You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
Heavenly Father: I'm always amazed by the quality of my life; by the amazing collection of things — large and small — that You give me to enjoy; and by the intense enjoyment that those things provide. Thank You! Thank You!
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 8) Ignoring the finger
If a man points at the moon, an idiot will look at the finger. (Sufi wisdom)
He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the tough times as well as for the good. Thank You that You are here working with me and working in me during both kinds of experiences.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 9) A heart-filled belief
Take God's promises to heart, but never take them for granted. (ODB)
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Heavenly Father: Thanks that, though I have trouble believing so much in my life, I'm having less and less trouble believing that You really are giving me everything I "need for life and godliness."
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 10) Working to quit working
Without God we can't; without us He won't. (Anonymous)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the possibility of just giving up and letting You take control of everything in my life. Thank You that the possibility is becoming more-and-more a daily reality for me.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 11) What a wife!
Noise proves nothing — often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid. (Mark Twain)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for blessing me with a wife who is faithful in all things. Thank You that there are people like Rae in our world; in my life, even.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 12) Happy birthday, Matthew!
Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies. (Shakespeare)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for my son Matthew. Thank You that your Spirit has been with him throughout His life, witnessing to me of your power and of my need to practice your goodness.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 13) Rowing my boat
Call on God, but row away from the rocks. (Indian Proverb)
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age....
Heavenly Father: Thanks that the course of my life leads away from the rocks of self-destruction. Thank You for your wisdom, guidance, and strength.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 14) Our Donk who art in heaven
Any problem that comes while I obey God (and there will be many), increases my overjoyed delight, because I know that my Father knows and cares, and I can watch and anticipate how He will unravel my problems. (Oswald Chambers)
"You should have brought a gun instead of a cooler of beer."
"Oh I've got something better than a gun," he responds with a smile. "I've got a Donk!"
"A 'Donk!'" the guy says. "What's a 'Donk'"?
Suddenly a giant of a man comes up behind the bad guy, snatches the rifle out of his hand, and announces, "Hi! I'm Donk!" and knocks the guy to the ground.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the reality of your presence and power in my life. Thank You for being in control of my destiny. You are even in control of the experiences that will come to me today.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 15) I'm looking down
The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is "look under foot." You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think. (John
Burroughs)
Here I'll raise my Ebenezer; hither by Thine help I've come
And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger wondering from the God I love
He to rescue me from danger interposed His precious blood.
Heavenly Father: My life is full of gold; my pathway full of treasure
More blessings than my hands can hold; giv'n for your glory and my pleasure.
Thank You! Thank You!
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 16) Resting while I'm working
This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men. (Captain J. A. Hadfield)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for being interested even in the small challenges in my life. Thank You for helping me to be good — often far beyond the level of my natural abilities or energies.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 17) Work and repose
We must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose. (Indira Ghandi)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the stillness that can be mine in the center of confusion and for the vibrant activity that can be mine when alone and quiet.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 18) Awash in grace while awake or asleep
Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night. (Anonymous)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the ability to set my own activities and schedules. Thank You for the guiding of your Spirit that makes every hour of my life (well, almost every hour) seem worthwhile.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 19) I'm not roaring!
Let not thy will roar, when thy power can but whisper. (Thomas Fuller)
Heavenly Father: Thanks that the words "the peace of God that passes all understanding" is not merely an empty phrase. Thank You that I can be at peace with You and, therefore, often be at peace with myself. On that basis, in turn, I can be at peace with the people around me.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 20) No worry, Mate!
Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry. Worry never fixes anything. (Mary Hemingway)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for bearing the cares and worries and sins that I was never designed to carry. Thank You for the freedom this gives me every day.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 21) Work it on out
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor. (Menander of Athens)
If you can make a heap of all your winnings ... and risk it all on one turn of pitch and toss
and lose and go back to your beginnings ... and never breath a word about your loss;
...Then yours is the world and all that's in it....
Heavenly Father: Thanks for giving me the intelligence, energy, and ambition to strive every day. Thank You that your presence is there helping me all the time.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 21) Work it on out
He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor. (Menander of Athens)
If you can make a heap of all your winnings ... and risk it all on one turn of pitch and toss
and lose and go back to your beginnings ... and never breath a word about your loss;
...Then yours is the world and all that's in it....
Heavenly Father: Thanks for giving me the intelligence, energy, and ambition to strive every day. Thank You that your presence is there helping me all the time.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
To the gratitude Contents.
(December 23) Hands off the steering wheel
It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. (Oswald Chambers)
I guess I'm a "faithful person" by Chambers definition. I really do believe from my heart that "God sovereignly controls" my circumstances. This certainty is the basis for my experience of the life of grace. "God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life." That's the first of the Four Spiritual Laws — and one that I believe with all my heart.
The ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the power of your Word and of your presence that cause the circumstances of my life to work out for my ultimate good and for your glory.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 24) I feel great!
There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great. (G.K. Chesterton)
winter by spring, i lift my diminutive spire to merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence (welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for making me feel great! Thank You for Jesus who always helps me; who never makes me feel badly about myself beyond the tough-love discipline necessary for me to thrive.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 25) Two incarnations
O Holy child of Mary descend on us today
Cast out our sin and enter in. Be born in us today
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tiding tell
O come to us, abide in us, our Lord, Emmanuel. (Phillips Brooks)
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
"God was in Christ," Paul said. The power and the Person of God filled up the person of Jesus and animated and moved Him for service. During His life on earth Jesus declared that He didn't do anything except what He saw His Father doing. He didn't say anything except what He heard His Father saying.
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death —
even death on a cross! My heart would be your Bethlehem, a shelter for your birth
My body be your dwelling-place, a sacred temple on this earth.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for your incarnation in our world. Thank You also for filling up my own life with your presence and power.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 26) Pursued by happiness
Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness. (Lao-tsze)
...the good are always the merry, save by an evil chance.
And the merry love the fiddle, and the merry love the dance.You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with ... eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Heavenly Father: Thanks that life is full of so much sweetness and happiness; thank You for giving me the eyes to see and the heart to receive the pleasures that You give to us as though they were appetizers to a wonderful feast.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 27) A will that leads to truth
If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
(Jesus, John 7:17). With focused attention and great care, you have to "work out" what God "works in" you — not work to accomplish or earn "your own salvation," but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for speaking to me your truth this day — and every day in which my will is completely dedicated to You.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 28) I'm a Philosophical Christian
When Jesus drives something home to you through His Word, don't try to evade it. If you do, you will become a religious impostor. Examine the things you tend simply to shrug your shoulders about, and where you have refused to be obedient, and you will know why you are not growing spiritually. (Anonymous)
The fear of the Lord — that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for your Spirit that gives me the desire and the ability to listen to and follow your will.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 29) I know this much is true
Knowing all truth is less than doing a little bit of good. (Albert Schweitzer)
Heavenly Father: Thanks that every day You lead me into the truth about who You are and what your will for me is. Thank God that I quit trying to figure out everything you've done and plan to do in other people's lives, in this world, in the future....
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 30) Simple love
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
It occurred to me when I read Neruda's stirring words that he could be quoting my Master, Jesus Christ. He loves me "simply." He loves me because He doesn't know "any other way of loving" either. The Bible is filled with references to the love of God towards the people of His grace:
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
(from Soneto 17 — Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda)
Heavenly Father: Thanks for the love that filled my life during the year about to pass away. Thanks for your grace which will be part of my life during the few hours remaining in this year; and during the months of the coming New Year; and during the years remaining in my life; and for the space of eternity.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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(December 31) By grace to the end of the year
We have passed through one more year. One more long stage in the journey of life, with its ascents and descents and dust and mud and rocks and thorns and burdens that wear the shoulders, is done. The old year is dead. Roll it away. Let it go. God, in His providence, has brought us out of it. It is gone...; its evil is gone; its good remains. The evil has perished, and the good survives. (Henry Ward Beecher)
I don't know any better quote for the last day of the Old Year than this one by this great preacher. God give me the grace today and this year to "let it go," as Beecher tells me I should. By the grace of God I believe that I should do this. And by that same grace, I find that I can actually do so.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
Heavenly Father: Thanks for your constant presence in my life during this day, during this year.
(Talk back to me: I'm don.huntington@gmail.com.) (© by Don Huntington, June, 2003)
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