SKID ROW OR SHANGRILA
These thoughts are added to each day. Scroll down and read previous One A Days.)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters) (365 stories a year)
His name was Walter Edwin Peck, a college professor with a brilliant mind; an authority on the poet Shelley. He was charming, witty and wise in the things of the world. He had the world in a jug and the cork in the other hand.*
But in 1954, The New York Herald-Tribune reported his death on skid row during a snowstorm.
Somewhere along the pathway of living he had zanged when he should have zinged. Somewhere along the way this child of God, with a lifetime of promise in front of him, threw it all away for some moments of impulse. He failed his wives - all three of them. He failed his children - all three of them. He failed his God - who had given him more than most.
And everyone of you sitting where you sit, figuratively shake your head and think, How tragic.
To you to whom skid row probably seems a million miles away; a tragic, wasteful, miserable miles away. But you see, skid row isn’t that far away for it isn’t just an area in New York City or its counterpart here in Miami-Dade County. It is a state of mind, heart and soul.
Skid row is what is inside of you, and if you give it half a chance it will ruin your life.
Walter Edwin Peck came into this world like you and I, and those two American West pilots, who a few years ago with a few drinks too many, drank away their careers, and Albert Schweitzer – doctor and missionary in Africa who was almost a saint, and Mother Theresa, and each of us, and all of us, starting out starry-eyed and innocent.
And then, making decisions and still more decisions, and probably praying they be the right decisions because wrong decision can create such chaos.
In short, destiny is not a toy to be played with. The moral order of the universe is not just an idle rule to be forgotten.
You don’t plant drunkenness and harvest sobriety. You don’t plant a selfish life and harvest a host of friends. You don’t plant a lazy faith and harvest a bumper crop of God’s power.
If you could have asked Walter Edwin Peck as he grew up just what kind of a future he had in mind, the answer would certainly not have been what finally came to pass.
I am who I am, and you are who you are, the product of every thought we have had and every action we have set in motion.
There is a way to begin to move toward decisions that have the glory of God blessed promise in them. May we pray our way toward that direction with a prayer perhaps something like the following…
Dear Lord,
Lead me toward the sensible and away from the senseless. Let me put my ear to sounds that speak a positive note and words that speak of a positive God. May I sign up for the rewards good thinking and good habits produce, sign up with a pen called “deeds.” Hear my prayer and may I it be engraved across the sky of time for all to see; most of all me.
Amen
Psalm 94:8-11
Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does he who implanted the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see? Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches man lack knowledge? The Lord knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.
These thoughts are added to each day. Scroll down and read previous One A Days.)
(Use in your personal or church newsletters) (365 stories a year)
His name was Walter Edwin Peck, a college professor with a brilliant mind; an authority on the poet Shelley. He was charming, witty and wise in the things of the world. He had the world in a jug and the cork in the other hand.*
But in 1954, The New York Herald-Tribune reported his death on skid row during a snowstorm.
Somewhere along the pathway of living he had zanged when he should have zinged. Somewhere along the way this child of God, with a lifetime of promise in front of him, threw it all away for some moments of impulse. He failed his wives - all three of them. He failed his children - all three of them. He failed his God - who had given him more than most.
And everyone of you sitting where you sit, figuratively shake your head and think, How tragic.
To you to whom skid row probably seems a million miles away; a tragic, wasteful, miserable miles away. But you see, skid row isn’t that far away for it isn’t just an area in New York City or its counterpart here in Miami-Dade County. It is a state of mind, heart and soul.
Skid row is what is inside of you, and if you give it half a chance it will ruin your life.
Walter Edwin Peck came into this world like you and I, and those two American West pilots, who a few years ago with a few drinks too many, drank away their careers, and Albert Schweitzer – doctor and missionary in Africa who was almost a saint, and Mother Theresa, and each of us, and all of us, starting out starry-eyed and innocent.
And then, making decisions and still more decisions, and probably praying they be the right decisions because wrong decision can create such chaos.
In short, destiny is not a toy to be played with. The moral order of the universe is not just an idle rule to be forgotten.
You don’t plant drunkenness and harvest sobriety. You don’t plant a selfish life and harvest a host of friends. You don’t plant a lazy faith and harvest a bumper crop of God’s power.
If you could have asked Walter Edwin Peck as he grew up just what kind of a future he had in mind, the answer would certainly not have been what finally came to pass.
I am who I am, and you are who you are, the product of every thought we have had and every action we have set in motion.
There is a way to begin to move toward decisions that have the glory of God blessed promise in them. May we pray our way toward that direction with a prayer perhaps something like the following…
Dear Lord,
Lead me toward the sensible and away from the senseless. Let me put my ear to sounds that speak a positive note and words that speak of a positive God. May I sign up for the rewards good thinking and good habits produce, sign up with a pen called “deeds.” Hear my prayer and may I it be engraved across the sky of time for all to see; most of all me.
Amen
Psalm 94:8-11
Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does he who implanted the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see? Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches man lack knowledge? The Lord knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile.
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