Make a Difference in This World

John 15:27 (NIV)

And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

What do we do when depression take over our minds? How do we react when anxiety springs up on us? Where do we go to when all of our energy seems to have evaporated into thin air? Where do we turn when adversity becomes our constant companion?

In the 14th century, construction began on the western tower of the St. Waburga Church in Veurne, Belgium. It was going to be a glorious tower, and many were looking forward to seeing its completion. But it never came to be. Due to limited funds, the work was halted and the tower was never completed.

These people could commiserate with those of us whose strength has left us.

Although unfinished however, the tower was far from being useless! Its caves, deep in the ground, were ideal for storing ammunition and protecting Veurne residents from the bombings of World War II, and even today it has found its usefulness. A modern art museum is now hosted there. Even though incomplete, the tower still has its place in society!

I have discovered that age has nothing to do with usefulness. I have met elderly people who are still so full of vigor that they continue to be shining examples of how God had transformed their lives. Not only do they do the unthinkable, like that 90 year-old woman who jumped from a plane (with a parachute naturally!) for the first time in her life, but they also testify about Jesus through their actions, by helping the dejected, by encouraging the hopeless and by visiting the abandoned.

An older lady discovered she had cancer. It didn’t stop her from becoming a missionary in China. “If I have to die, it doesn’t matter where it will occur. I want to die in a place where I can be useful and where I can testify.”

I have also met young people, however, who acted like they were elderly. They have no ambition, no motivation. Maybe it’s because they hadn’t discovered what the apostle Paul had found out:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35-39 NIV)

Doesn’t this truth fill us with adrenaline? Doesn’t this encourage us to carry this banner of love throughout our neighborhood’s? How many around us are hungering for hope? Why can’t we be the ones to satisfy that hunger?

Yes, we may face ridicule, even rejection, but still such consequences are meager compared to the witness of Christians in oppressed countries. Their testimony can cost them their very lives, yet they still go one, undeterred. With God’s love spurring them to action, they bring hope to the hopeless, encouragement to the depressed, and friendship to those who are friendless.

All of those who don’t hesitate to testify have discovered a simple truth: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:10 NIV)

No matter how incomplete our own “tower” stands, we can make a difference! We don’t have to feel dejected and useless! It’s time to stand up, for we truly are “more than conquerors through him who loved” you.

Are you willing to make a difference in this world?

Dear Lord, We pray that today will be the day we will make a difference in our world. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

A Grocery Store Hug

John 13:34 (NIV)

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

She was eighty years young and still very active. In this small town in southwest Virginia, not much happened. It was just another empty day for a senior citizen who lived by herself. Although she has four children, five grandchildren and several great grandchildren, she was often alone.

In need of a few small things at the grocery and a desire to just get out of the house and be among people, she took a trip to the local Kroger's. Since there were only her own needs to satisfy, she walked up and down the aisles with a small cart. With just six items, she headed to the checkout.

He wandered the store. He'd come for a cup of hot soup and perhaps someone to talk to. The soup was good, it always was, but no one wanted to talk to an old man.

Disappointed, he was about to leave when he saw her. She headed to the checkout with only a few items.

"Good morning, Ma'am." He smiled, "You can't leave yet?"

She turned toward the voice. A well-dressed man smiled at her. "Excuse me?" She asked.

He pointed to the six items she'd selected. "Your basket is not full."

"There's no need to buy a lot." She replied. "There's no one to eat it."

He stared at her for a moment and said, "I'm so lonely!"

"I know what that's like."

In the middle of an aisle, in a large grocery store, at 11:30 AM, they stood and talked. "My wife and daughter died." He said. "They died too young." His eyes softened as he spoke briefly of them and then added, " I just recently, I lost my little Pomeranian.

She was all I had left. Now I'm alone."

"I'm so sorry." She felt her own eyes moisten. He was as alone as she was.

"It's OK." He said bravely. "I hope I can find another dog like her. She was such a joy. At least someone needed me. She gave me purpose. Now I have none. Perhaps I'll get another, but at my age, I don't want to leave her alone when my time comes. Then again, I have this big house. A dog would be happy there. I've lived in it for fifty years. It has big rooms."

"Oh, the homes were built big back then. It was a time when people had large families." She smiled and wondered where the conversation was going.

"They sure did. This old place has four bedrooms. Three of them are empty. It's just me now." He sighed. "There's not much to do. My days are empty. I do get out as often as I can. In fact, every morning I go to McDonalds for breakfast."

"Good for you!" She said. "I try to get out as much as I can myself."

"Those kids at McDonalds are very nice to me. They always greet me with a smile and make such a fuss over me. They're almost like having grandkids. And you know what?"

"What?"

He leaned close and whispered. "They let me have my coffee for free. What do you think of that?"

"That's wonderful!" She knew the joy it must give him to feel welcomed.

They chatted for perhaps twenty minutes. "Well," she looked into his eyes, which now sparkled with pride over the family he had at McDonalds. "I must be getting home."

"I understand." The sparkle faded. "It was nice talking to you."

"It was nice talking to you too." She touched his hand. "I mean it."

He looked back at her and asked softly, "Can I give you a hug?"

A bit taken by his request, but fully understanding his need, she said, "Yes!"

There they stood, in a warm embrace, in the middle of a busy grocery, on a normal day that was made special by a simple hug.

That evening, she reflected on her encounter with the man. She felt like he did, alone in the world. How many others her age feel the same loneliness? How many seniors just need a kind ear and perhaps a simple hug?

How about reaching out today to somebody who needs a hug.

Dear Lord, we pray that we would share the love to someone who needs it today. Helps us be Your arms today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Lessons From a Old Stem of Wheat

1 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV)

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.

Here I am an Old Stem of Wheat among all the other stems in the field of life, as well as the tares and thorns.

I am now an old stem ready to be harvested.  Maybe now, maybe a little later, but I am white to the harvest.

I will stand or wait for a few more days maybe of “My Season.”

Will the seeds from my stem be fruitful, with good fruit bearing seeds to replenish and refurbish the fields when they are ready for the planting again?  Or, will they be like the chaff and blown away before their time with the storms and winds of life?  Or beat down and give up with the downpours of rain and strives that they will each face as time goes on to the harvest?  But this is not for me to know I guess, it is for the Master of the fields. I can only wait and HOPE.

My head is bowed now and I am bent some as I stand here from all the beatings and struggles I have faced.  Struggles to keep alive and fruitful during my seasons.  Yes!  I have faced many of them now.

But I am also sure they are not over yet.  Not till I am taken by the “Reaper” to my place.

Spring and the planting...my seed among all the others.  I sprouted and grew. I became a stem, a blade of wheat in a “harvest field of life.”  The grain that was planted died and I was left there with its roots and I grew.

My start may not have been so good.  I was weak, and small, and struggled hard to keep alive.  But I was nurtured, and fed, and watered, with love and care. I was planted on good ground.  Yes, I grew among the tares and weeds and thorns!  Yes, I sometimes was overrun with the cares of this life. Yes! I fell as the waters overflowed on me and the downpours of rains and the strong winds beat me down But I was sheltered Sometimes it seemed I would not make it.  I was fed and watered with love and care and with strong determination I made it through all those things and He nourished me with gentle spring showers. My ground was well fertilized and my roots planted deep.  So I made it to a strong, tall healthy plant.

Then summer came with it came the hot, dry summer days of heat from the blazing unshadowed hours of standing.  Of surviving when I thought I would surely faint and give up.  But somehow just in time HE was there with the refreshing summer showers and cool nights.  Yes!  Sometimes it was terrible!  Sometimes it was almost more than this old stem wanted to take, but HE always made a way for me.  You see sometimes there was a tall strong weed that grew and seemed to almost overtake my place in the field, but HE used it to shelter me and give me shade in my worst times of need and then when it was the tallest and the strongest the sun beat it down because it never got roots as well and deep as I did.  And it didn't survive.  It was not a grain of wheat from my family but it was an outcast that He caused to be a blessing to me.  A tare planted by the enemy to break me down, to destroy me when it tried to steal my strength. But He made my roots deep and strong and I survived. I grew on and bore fruit.

Sure there have been many days and still are sometimes when I think that I shall not make it another day.  When I think I will just bow my head over and lay down and give up.  But He makes a way and I stand here.  Bent and bowed somewhat, but I am alive, and waiting my turn in the harvest field.

Though my head may be bent and though my stem is bowed somewhat I stand here with my face upturned towards the SON praising Him for his blessings, Praising Him for his goodness.  Praising HIM for his MERCY and LOVE and PEACE and, with JOY, I wait for the “HARVEST.”

Spring and Summer is now over and in the fall I stand and sometimes I quiver and shake as the chilly winds and frost begin to chill my strong spirit. {Funny how much of the hardest things we have to bear are brought to us by the falling over and struggles of our closest family.  Yes that seems to bother me the most for it wears my heart out with the aches it causes me to have as I see them struggle to try to survive for their own selves and for HIM.}  But He knows how much of this is good for me and how long to make me wait.   So I wait along with the other grains that are stems of my family...yes they are near me, a part of my being.  But yet—they are individuals.  They will either stand or fall.  They will either bear or be unfruitful.  They will be judged along with me when our time comes for the HARVEST. I can only encourage them by my actions, by my presence and how I react to such things as we all seem to have come across our paths in this HARVEST FIELD of LIFE.

I can only stand in praise and hope that I did not cause them to inherit any illnesses or diseases or afflictions from my touching their lives.  Yes!  I touched many...Yes, I watched many. Many watched and touched me as we stood there with the daily flow of life taking it toll on all of us.  And I still stand and wait, and as I do I try hard to keep my face lifted up or else bow my head with praise and thanks to HIM who has been there and helped me survive all this time.  I try to keep and make a good testimony of my life and show HIS presence is what took me to where I am.  His love, His mercy, His grace, His strength and His nurturing.  And I hope as I wait that all the others that I have been privileged to share this HARVEST FIELD of LIFE with makes it to the good and faithful HARVEST door. And are kept; not to be thrown aside and burned with the tares, the weeds, the thorns that were planted by the enemy.

Yes, I am just an old blade or stem of wheat from life’s Harvest Fields and I am waiting, hopeful, wanting to shine with HIS glory when the “reapers of the harvest” come for me.  I hope to shine with the Glory of “an Old Ready to the Harvest field stem  ...the PLANTING of the LORD.

Dear Lord, We pray that we would grow where You have planted us. In all things help us bring honor to Your name in all seasons of our live. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

We Are Never to Old to Serve

Genesis 12:4 (NIV)

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

In 1927, 15-year-old Lois Secrist promised God she'd become a missionary. But she married Galon Prater, a farmhand who became a heavy drinker, when she was twenty-three. Years later, Galon did become a Christian just before his death in 1988 at age 80. After Galon's death, Lois's childhood desire of becoming a missionary returned. At first she resisted. At age 76, she felt her opportunity to serve as a missionary had slipped away. "I said, 'Lord, I'm too old to go now. I can't do this,'" Lois admitted. But this great grandmother was determined to follow the Lord's calling.

So after several more years, at age 87 Lois Prater became the unlikely builder of an orphanage in the Philippines. It has become a lifeline to 35 children whose lives previously consisted of begging in the streets. Lois has built the orphanage without taking out a loan, relying instead on individual financial support from across the United States. Because of her age, she is not supported by any church denomination and depends solely on private donations. When asked if that makes her nervous, Lois replies: "I serve a mighty God. He's in control. I feel I'm not talented enough to do any of this. But God enables me. My responsibility is to do what I can."

What has the Lord called you to do?

Dear Lord, we pray today that we would give You this day and strive to do all we you can do to further your gospel. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

The Four R’s of Our Life

Proverbs 1:5 (NIV)

let the wise listen and add to their learning,

    and let the discerning get guidance—

Sandhya was a grandmother who enjoyed life in the company of her family members! She had two very affectionate grandchildren named Shruti and Gaurav. They were 8 and 10 years old. Lot of love, affection and caring was being exchanged in their relationship. There was lot of happiness around.

Shruti had a lovely handwriting. There was beautiful flow in her writing. Sandhya used to praise her quite often while secretly feeling bad about her own which was not as good. One fine day Sandhya decided to learn the art of good handwriting and take some finer tips from Shruti.

Shruti's initial reaction was that of surprise. She said "Grandma! You are sixty years old now, why do you want to learn?"

Sandhya said "Age has no barriers, my little darling! I feel I have a keen desire to learn & improve the way I write so would you not help me doing it?”

And so started a different kind of an adult education project. Sandhya told Shruti to buy her a notebook. Shruti used to write a sentence every day for Sandhya and would say, "Grandma complete your homework". Grandma faithfully and sincerely did her homework before her young little teacher returned from school.

There were also days when the young teacher was not happy with her pupil's work and would give her a remark as 'O.K.', "needs improvement" etc.

Grandma would ask "Why O.K.?"

And the teacher would reply "You have not written the 'P' properly, look at these strokes, these need to improve etc."

Grandma took the suggestion very seriously and acted on them with full sincerity. It must be mentioned here that the young teacher was often quite generous with her evaluation as grandma earned a lot of remarks like excellent, very good and good etc.

A wonderful process was on but the young minds were still unable get over the question that why is grandma trying to learn the art of good handwriting at this age!

Gaurav and Shruti kept on asking her “But why do you want to improve your handwriting at this age, when you have already crossed sixty."

Grandma would try to explain "Learning can be done at any age, any time, my sweet little darlings, provided there is a keen desire to learn."

Days passed, months went by and there was significant improvement in Grandma's handwriting! It was now the turn of her friends & relatives to be pleasantly surprised when they received her letters in the newly learnt & perfected hand!

At first they thought someone else is writing these for her. There were compliments from one & all when they came to know that it is this 60 years young student who has this charisma!

The whole process was a living expression on the significance of the four R’s of our life i.e. REACHES OUT, RELATE, RECEIVE and REJOICE.

If one is to draw a lesson from the above story, it is evident that these processes are not only complimentary to each other, their adoption in the above order leads to lasting happiness in life!

The results in the current exercise were also no different! While it fuelled Grandma's desire to lead a creative & healthy life, added few more reasons for her to make active contribution to her environment, she and her grandchildren experienced a kind of openness that brought them closer to each other! More than ever before!

Growing older is an eventuality! Growing younger is a possibility! Only you can make it happen! Last take the time today to help each other learn and become better people.

Dear Lord we pray that we would take the time to encourage others and help them learn. We thank You that we have the ability to learn and to teach. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Lesson from Rose

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

It was the first day of school and the professor introduced himself and challenged the class to get to know someone they didn't already know. As one guy stood up and looked around a gentle hand touched his shoulder. He turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at him with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, "Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty seven years old. Can I give you a hug?"

He laughed and enthusiastically responded, "Of course you may!" and she gave him a giant squeeze.

"Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?" he asked.

She jokingly replied, "I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel."

"No seriously," he asked. Because he was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

"I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!" she told him.

After class they walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake. They became instant friends. Every day for the next three months they would leave class together and talk non-stop. He was always mesmerized listening to this "time machine" as she shared her wisdom and experience with him.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester she was invited to speak at the football banquet and they never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.

Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said "I'm sorry. I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know."

As they all laughed she cleared her throat and began:

"We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success.

"You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!"

"There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty eight. Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability.

The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change." "Have no regrets. The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets."

She concluded her speech by courageously singing "The Rose." She challenged each one to study the lyrics and live them out in their daily lives.

At the years end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

Dear Lord, we pray that we would we be thankful for the abilities that You give each of us no matter what age we are. We pray that we would take the time to learn from those you bring into our life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Are You Focused on Godly Ways?

2 Peter 1:5-7 (NIV)

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

James A. Reed was born in 1861 in Ohio. He grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and studied law at Coe College. He arrived in Kansas City in 1887, and began a law practice. In 1896, Reed was appointed county counselor, and in 1898 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Jackson County. Reed continued up the political ladder and was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in 1911. In 1932, he narrowly missed winning the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

James Reed was an outspoken man who did not mince words. In an article written in 1929, H. L. Mencken of the American Mercury wrote: "To be a fraud is safer and happier in Washington today than it has been since March 4, 1911. For James A. Reed, after eighteen years in the Senate, has hung up his sword and gone home to Missouri."

In one of the most forceful speeches ever delivered before the Senate, observed with great truth: "The majority crucified Jesus Christ; the majority burned the Christians at the stake; the majority established slavery; the majority jeered when Columbus said the world was round; the majority threw him into a dungeon for having discovered a new world; the majority cut off the ears of John Pym because he dared advocate the liberty of the press."

We need to resolve in our lives to follow the Lord and not the majority.

Dear Lord, we pray that you would desire to make every effort to follow You and to be godly in everything we do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.