FT 6/28/10 - At Evening Time It Shall Be Light

One of the things that I find comforting is that I am not alone in my struggles. While I often in my unhappiness, feel completely alone...the reality is that I am not. I am not even experiencing something exceptional. Sorrow and hard times are a staple of humanity. They are a consequence of a fallen world and everyone experiences them. What is exceptional is that I am a child of God, heir to the through, and within me is a fount of Joy that is inexhaustible. Consider this excerpt from one of Spurgeon's sermons given over 150 years ago...Humanity doesn't change...but neither do the promises of God. Joy is one of those promises. 

Delivered on Sabbath Morning, October 25, 1857, by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

"It shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light."—Zechariah 14:7.

 I SHALL NOT stay to notice the particular occasion upon which these words were uttered, or to discover the time to which they more especially refer; I shall rather take the sentence as a rule of the kingdom, as one of the great laws of God's dispensation of grace, "that at evening time it shall be light."...

 It is now my business to illustrate this general rule...

...This rule holds equally good in the little, as well as in the great. We know that in nature the very same law that rules the atom, governs also the starry orbs.

"The very law that molds a tear,
And bids it trickle from its source,
That law preserves the earth a sphere,
And guides the planets in their course."

It is even so with the laws of grace. "At evening time it shall be light" to the church; "at evening time it shall be light" to every individual. Christian let us descend to lowly things. Thou hast had thy bright days in temporal matters: thou hast sometimes been greatly blessed: thou canst remember the day when the calf was in the stall, when the olive yielded its fruit, and the fig-tree did not deny its harvest; thou canst recollect the years when the barn was almost bursting with the corn, and when the vat overflowed with the oil; thou rememberest when the stream of thy life was deep, and thy ship floated softly on, without one disturbing billow of trouble to molest it. Thou saidst in those days, "I shall see no sorrow; God hath hedged me about; he hath preserved me; he hath kept me; I am the darling of his providence; I know that all things work together for my good, for I can see it is plainly so."

Well, Christian, thou hast after that had a sunset; the sun which shone so brightly, began to cast his rays in a more oblique manner every moment, until at last the shadows were long, for the sun was setting, and the clouds began to gather; and though the light of God's countenance tinged those clouds with glory, yet it was waxing dark. Then troubles lowered o'er thee; thy family sickened, thy wife was dead, thy crops were meager, and thy daily income was diminished, thy cupboard was no more full, thou wast wondering for thy daily bread; thou didst not know what should become of thee, mayhap thou wast brought very low; the keel of thy vessel did grate upon the rocks; there was not enough of bounty to float thy ship above the rocks of poverty. "I sink in deep mire," thou saidst, "where there is no standing; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me."

What to do you could not tell; strive as you might, your strivings did but make you worse. "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." You used both industry and economy, and you added "hereunto perseverance; but all in vain. It was in vain that you rose up early, and sat up late, and ate the bread of carefulness; nothing could you do to deliver yourself, for all attempts failed. You were ready to die in despair. You thought the night of your life had gathered with eternal blackness. You would not live always, but had rather depart from this vale of tears. Christian! bear witness to the truth of the maxim of the text! Was it not light with thee at evening time? The time of thine extremity was just the moment of Godly opportunity. When the tide had run out to its very furthest, then it began to turn; thine ebb had its flow; thy winter had its summer; thy sunset had its sunrise; "at evening time it was light." On a sudden by some strange work of God, as thou didst think it then, thou wast completely delivered. He brought out thy righteousness like the light, and thy glory as the noon-day. The Lord appeared for thee in the days of old: he stretched out his hand from above; he drew thee out of deep waters; he set thee upon a rock and established thy goings. Mark, thou then, O heir of heaven! what hath been true to thee in the years that are past, shall be true to thee even till the last.

Art thou this day exercised with woe, and care, and misery? Be of good cheer! In thine "evening time it shall be light." If God chooseth to prolong thy sorrow, he shall multiply thy patience; but the rather, it may be, he will bring thee into the deeps, and thence will he lead thee up again. Remember thy Saviour descended that he might ascend: so must thou also stoop to conquer; and if God bids thee stoop, should it be to the very lowest hell, remember, if he bade thee stoop, he will bring thee up again. Remember what Jonah said—"Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest me." Oh! exclaim with him of old, who trusted his God when he had nothing else to trust: "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Do thou so, and be blessed; for "at evening time it shall be light."

 If you made it this far in the reading...I'd really love to hear your thoughts. Or maybe you have a prayer concern that you would like for me to join with you in as you wait on the Light. Either way, I'd love to hear from you...

FT 6/28/10 - Joy v Happiness

There is a major difference between joy and happiness.

Happiness comes from the word 'hap' as in happenstance. It is feeling good about what is happening to you. In other words, happiness is dependent on your circumstances. Good circumstances equates happiness and bad circumstances equates no happiness.

Joy on the other hand comes from a sense of inner peace about who you are within the circumstances. Jesus states in John 15:11, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." Jesus is the prince of peace, yet He was crucified and His followers are regularly reminded in the Bible that suffering is generally part of this life...yet in the midst of all that, His desire is that your joy may be full. This is a sense of inner peace founded on who you are in Christ.

It is finding joy in who we were created to be that enables us to confidently take control of our lives and cultivate happiness in our lives as we actively choose to act in accordance with our identity in Christ. Without joy we have no choice but to act in accordance with our circumstances. This lends us to living as a victim. With joy we have the ability to act in accordance of our identity regardless of our circumstances. Thus, we stop being a victim and start living as a victor...which will lead to happiness!

What do you think?

FT 6/21/10 - Picasso: Reality and The Abstract

In Seth Godin's new book Linchpin he shares the story of a man and Pablo Picasso that goes...

A guy is riding in the first-class cabin of a train in Spain and to his delight, he notices that he's sitting next to Pablo Picasso. Gathering up his courage, he turns to the master and say, "Senor Picasso, you are a great artist, but why is all your art, all modern art, so screwed up? Why don't you paint reality instead of these distortions?

Picasso hesitates for a moment and asks, "So what do you think reality looks like?"

The man grabs his wallet and pulls out a picture of his wife. "Here, like this. It's my wife."

Picasso takes the photograph, looks at it, and grins. "Really? She's very small. And flat, too."

As we look at what we are thinking this week, we have to understand that just because we can reduce things into symbols, that does not mean that the symbols are reality and aren't an abstraction. They are in fact the worst kind of abstraction...an abstraction not seen for what it truly is.

Abstract thought often scares people to death. It means contemplating some uncomfortable ideas and scenarios. However, symbols like the photograph of the guy's wife are merely accepted abstractions. The photograph is not reality. It merely captures one very small slice of who his wife really is. If he honestly thought that it was his wife in totality, I'm pretty sure their marriage would be short lived...or he would have a short life anyway.

As we are thinking about what we are thinking about this week, we need to consider what symbols and abstractions we have accepted as reality. Maybe it is your abilities or gifts that you have reduced to mere symbols that can only be applied in a very limited scenario. Perhaps we need to spend some time thinking abstractly about our gifts, abilities, relationships, and working environments in order to get a better look at reality and the options that are before us. We need to think outside the photograph and consider the totality and how we fit into that scenario.

What do you think?

FT 6/21/10 - Andy Andrews

Here is an interview with one of my favorite authors, Andy Andrews, about his book The Noticer. It shares some important insights about changing your think...mainly perspective and action! Let me know what you think.

And you can find out more about Andy by clicking here! enjoy!

FT 6/21/10 - Acres of Diamonds

The following was deliverd by Russell H. Corwell regularly during his speaking tours during the late 1800's. The text reproduced here is public domain. Please read the passage and then consider my thoughts added at the end...and I'd love to hear your comments.

WHEN going down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers many years ago with a party of English travelers I found myself under the direction of an old Arab guide whom we hired up at Bagdad, and I have often thought how that guide resembled our barbers in certain mental characteristics. He thought that it was not only his duty to guide us down those rivers, and do what he was paid for doing, but also to entertain us with stories curious and weird, ancient and modern, strange and familiar. Many of them I have forgotten, and I am glad I have, but there is one I shall never forget.

The old guide was leading my camel by its halter along the banks of those ancient rivers, and he told me story after story until I grew weary of his story-telling and ceased to listen. I have never been irritated with that guide when he lost his temper as I ceased listening. But I remember that he took off his Turkish cap and swung it in a circle to get my attention. I could see it through the corner of my eye, but I determined not to look straight at him for fear he would tell another story. But although I am not a woman, I did finally look, and as soon as I did he went right into another story.

Said he, "I will tell you a story now which I reserve for my particular friends." When he emphasized the words "particular friends," I listened, and I have ever been glad I did. I really feel devoutly thankful, that there are 1,674 young men who have been carried through college by this lecture who are also glad that I did listen. The old guide told me that there once lived not far from the River Indus an ancient Persian by the name of Ali Hafed. He said that Ali Hafed owned a very large farm, that he had orchards, grain fields, and gardens; that he had money at interest, and was a wealthy and contented man. He was contented because he was wealthy, and wealthy because he was contented. One day there visited that old Persian farmer one of these ancient Buddhist priests, one of the wise men of the East. He sat down by the fire and told the old farmer how this world of ours was made. He said that this world was once a mere bank of fog, and that the Almighty thrust His finger into this bank of fog, and began slowly to move His finger around, increasing the speed until at last He whirled this bank of fog into a solid ball of fire. Then it went rolling through the universe, burning its way through other banks of fog, and condensed the moisture without, until it fell in floods of rain upon its hot surface, and cooled the outward crust. Then the internal fires bursting outward through the crust threw up the mountains and hills, the valleys, the plains and prairies of this wonderful world of ours. If this internal molten mass came bursting out and cooled very quickly it became granite; less quickly copper, less quickly silver, less quickly gold, and, after gold, diamonds were made.

Said the old priest, "A diamond is a congealed drop of sunlight." Now that is literally scientifically true, that a diamond is an actual deposit of carbon from the sun. The old priest told Ali Hafed that if he had one diamond the size of his thumb he could purchase the county, and if he had a mine of diamonds he could place his children upon thrones through the influence of their great wealth.

Ali Hafed heard all about diamonds, how much they were worth, and went to his bed that night a poor man. He had not lost anything, but he was poor because he was discontented, and discontented because he feared he was poor. He said, "I want a mine of diamonds," and he lay awake all night.

Early in the morning he sought out the priest. I know by experience that a priest is very cross when awakened early in the morning, and when he shook that old priest out of his dreams, Ali Hafed said to him:

"Will you tell me where I can find diamonds?"

"Diamonds! What do you want with diamonds?" "Why, I wish to be immensely rich." "Well, then, go along and find them. That is all you have to do; go and find them, and then you have them." "But I don't know where to go." "Well, if you will find a river that runs through white sands, between high mountains, in those white sands you will always find diamonds." "I don't believe there is any such river." "Oh yes, there are plenty of them. All you have to do is to go and find them, and then you have them." Said Ali Hafed, "I will go."

So he sold his farm, collected his money, left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search of diamonds. He began his search, very properly to my mind, at the Mountains of the Moon. Afterward he came around into Palestine, then wandered on into Europe, and at last when his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay at Barcelona, in Spain, when a great tidal wave came rolling in between the pillars of Hercules, and the poor, afflicted, suffering, dying man could not resist the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide, and he sank beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again.

When that old guide had told me that awfully sad story he stopped the camel I was riding on and went back to fix the baggage that was coming off another camel, and I had an opportunity to muse over his story while he was gone. I remember saying to myself, "Why did he reserve that story for his 'particular friends'?" There seemed to be no beginning, nomiddle, no end, nothing to it. That was the first story I had ever heard told in my life, and would be the first one I ever read, in which the hero was killed in the first chapter. I had but one chapter of that story, and the hero was dead.

When the guide came back and took up the halter of my camel, he went right ahead with the story, into the second chapter, just as though there had been no break. The man who purchased Ali Hafed's farm one day led his camel into the garden to drink, and as that camel put its nose into the shallow water of that garden brook, Ali Hafed's successor noticed a curious flash of light from the white sands of the stream. He pulled out a black stone having an eye of light reflecting all the hues of the rainbow. He took the pebble into the house and put it on the mantel which covers the central fires, and forgot all about it.

A few days later this same old priest came in to visit Ali Hafed's successor, and the moment he opened that drawing-room door he saw that flash of light on the mantel, and he rushed up to it, and shouted: "Here is a diamond! Has Ali Hafed returned?" "Oh no, Ali Hafed has not returned, and that is not a diamond. That is nothing but a stone we found right out here in our own garden." "But," said the priest, "I tell you I know a diamond when I see it. I know positively that is a diamond."

Then together they rushed out into that old garden and stirred up the white sands with their fingers, and lo! there came up other more beautiful and valuable gems than the first. "Thus," said the guide to me, and, friends, it is historically true, "was discovered the diamond-mine of Golconda, the most magnificent diamond-mine in all the history of mankind, excelling the Kimberly itself. The Kohinoor, and the Orloff of the crown jewels of England and Russia, the largest on earth, came from that mine."

When that old Arab guide told me the second chapter of his story, he then took off his Turkish cap and swung it around in the air again to get my attention to the moral. Those Arab guides have morals to their stories, although they are not always moral. As he swung his hat, he said to me, "Had Ali Hafed remained at home and dug in his own cellar, or underneath his own wheat-fields, or in his own garden, instead of wretchedness, starvation, and death by suicide in a strange land, he would have had 'acres of diamonds.' For every acre of that old farm, yes, every shovelful, afterward revealed gems which since have decorated the crowns of monarchs."

The moral of the tale is that there are acres of diamonds that each of us miss everyday right where we are. Mr. Cornwell continues the story by considering numerous examples of this truth. In the FACE Today for the week of June 21st, I quoted Albert Einstein that the problems we face today can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when they were created. This does not mean that you need to look all over the world to find your solution. Perhaps you need to mine the acres of diamonds (new thoughts) that lie dormant in your own mind. What do you think?