Midway Church of Christ

The best people as well as the worst are driven by deep hungers, and whenever you see them they are apt to be seeking satisfaction for their intense urges. Some desire to indentify themselves with the world’s hurt and downtrodden. Walt Witman, who nursed wounded soldiers back to health, once said, “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.”

Alexander Pope was one of the most hideously deformed men of Great Britain, and one of its best poets. In his search for aesthetic beauty through poetic expression, he had an ambition to be the best poet possible. He once said of himself, “If my person is crooked, my verses shall be straight.”

There is a glory in doing well whatever you are doing, and doing it better than you ever have done before.

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

The evening news told the story of a 13-year old lad who heard the appeal at his school for contributions to “Santa Claus Anonymous”, which provided funds for the less fortunate children in the school district.

He started saving all his pennies. On the Friday before the Christmas vacation he counted 15 cents he had scrimped and saved for “Santa Claus Anonymous.” He had planned to turn them in at school that day, but a snow storm blocked the roads and the school buses were not running.

After some thought the boy started off from home, and struggling through the snow, finally arrived at the school where he found only the principal.

When the lad offered his 15 cents, it was awkwardly accepted with serious misgivings and embrassment. The lad was one of the youngsters on the list to receivce a gift from Santa Claus Anonymous.

Wherever found, in little children or national heroes, true greatness is in self-forgetfulness.

More than 100,000 jamed the Los Angeles coliseum to watch a pageant honoring the city’s war heroes. After a mock battle scene had driven home the seeming helplessness of the human individual, silence fell. Only the voice of the master of ceremonies could be heard.

He began, “Perhaps you sometimes say to yourself, ‘My job isn’t important because it is such a little job.’ But you are wrong. The most obscure person can be very important. Let me show you.” At his signal the giant flood lights were shut off, transforming the daylight splendor of the area into total darkness. Then the speaker struck a match, and in the blackness the tiny flame could be seen by all.

“Now you see the importance of one little light. Suppose we all strike a light.”

Instantly matches were stuck all over the stadium until nearly 100,000 piinpoints of light illuminated the summer night. Everyone gasped in surprise.

Quickly and effectively they comprehended that it is within the power of each single individual to “light a candle” instead of “cursing the darkness.”

Jesus said it still another way, “You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Does it bother you to think of getting old? Consider the words of an eighty year old man who was asked the question: “What season in life is the happiest?” and he answered by pointing to a grove of trees in front of his house.

“When spring comes and in the soft air the buds are breaking on the trees,” he said, “and they are crowned with blossoms, I think how beautiful is spring! But when summer comes and covers the trees with heavy foliage and singing birds are among the branches, I think how beautiful is summer! And then when fall loads the trees with golden fruit and the leaves begin to bear those gorgeous tints, I cannot help thinking how beautiful is autumn!”

“But winter comes, and there is neither foliage nor fruit. But I have only to look up, and there through the leafless branches I see what was hidden before—-the stars of heaven shining through!”

Life never becomes dull to those who have a vital faith in God, because they have tapped a source of power which keeps life always new and fresh, and they find that each stage of life with its enriching experiences brings its own distinctive satisfactions.

To keep the spirit revived is to bring God from the shadowy circumference of your life, where so many keep Him, into the very center of your life. When this is done, the vitality, the sense of wonder, the boundless enterest in life will never wane. Both the mind and heart will be renewed, not once, but day by day, and year by year. HAVE A JOYOUS SEASON AS WE LOOK FOR A NEW YEAR!

When we lived near the Mississippi Delta flyway the muted honks of wild geese would often drift down, or the noisy quacking of a flock of ducks would signal their flight in the night. Their constant conversation as they called to one another back and forth was as if they were reminding each other that no one need be lonely. “We are all together. No one need make this hard journey alone. We are at each other’s side to guide, to help, and to cheer.”

How long has it been since you were engaged in a conversation that made a real difference to you? Or, more important, how long since you said anything that made a real difference to anyone else?

The migrating birds, speeding across the heavens, carry on a communication as if their lives depended upon it. It is the way they keep together and are heartened for their long journey. May we try to communicate with others as if their hope and cheer, and their very lives depended upon what we have to say. It may well play a part in their eternal destiny.