“How will they call on
Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom
they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher”
(Romans 10:14
Hey Gang,
TGIF! Do you sometimes feel that way? I certainly had many Fridays
when I felt that way. In my working days I was involved in three occupations: I
was an air - traffic controller, a
counselor in a detention home and the developer and president of a child care
program.
Note: none of
these jobs were five-days a week, nine to five and off on weekends and
holidays. Did it bother me? Yes, to a degree. it would have been
nice to punch the clock at five o’clock and put the work place out of my mind
until Monday morning when I punched in again. But there was also the joy of
knowing that one of my fellow *** employees was home enjoying his family today,
and I would be able to do the same tomorrow, hopefully!
I found this neat
little ditty in Chuck Swindoll’s book Ultimate Book of Illustrations that
makes a great deal of sense. I wish I would have had it when I was up to
my armpits in alligators. It goes like this:
“Slow me down,
Lord, ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my
hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me, amid
the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break
the tension of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing
streams that live in my memory. Teach me the art of taking mini vacations
– of slowing down to look at a flowers, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to
smile at a child, to read a few lines from a good book. Slow me down,
Lord. And inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s ending
values, that I may grow toward my
greater destiny. Remind me each day that the race is not always to the
swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed. Let me look
upward to the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it
grew slowly and well.”
Is that not a great
piece of advice especially to those who are wired with the insatiable feeling
that we must be doing something constructive every moment of our ‘awake hours’?
My warning to those who have completed their working tenure and are preparing
for the life of leisure: “Be careful, chose your projects well or you
might find your calendar looking like someone walked on it".
Does that mean I am
telling them to get out the old rocking chair and as Dwight Eisenhower said he
would do, "Sit quietly for seven
years and then begin to slowly start rocking”? No, that is not what I
am saying but rather when you no longer have the discipline of the work day in
your life, you can let your life get out of control.
Soooo, my young
buckaroos, when it seems the alligators are rising and the sun is having a hard
time peeking through the dark clouds, take a moment or two and smell the
posies. Then call someone that is worse off then you and tell them
you really, really, really care about them and want to do something very
special for them right now!
Blessings,
Gramps
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