A PRAYER MEMORY

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Two men were walking without a care in the world through a beautiful meadow. Suddenly, nothing was beautiful at all - an enraged bull, seeing them, began to paw the ground and then headed in their direction. As they ran for their lives, one man shouted at the other, “Pray, John. Pray.”

The other man shouted back, “I’ve never made a public prayer in my life.” “Well, now is the time,” puffed back his companion, “the bull is about to catch us.”

“All right,” panted John, “I’ll pray the only prayer I know, one my father used to repeat at the table, ‘O Lord, make us truly thankful for what we are about to receive.”

A good thanksgiving prayer is improved and better aimed with practice.

A good thanksgiving prayer is an extension of many thanksgiving prayers just sitting and waiting to be used again.

A good thanksgiving prayer doesn’t become a joke because it is the only one you know, and haven’t even used that one very often.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
—Psalm 100:4

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WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU THANKED GOD FOR LIGHT?

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In the year 1883, it was inaccurately reported that the sun did not rise. However, on that day in August the people opened their eyes to an eerie darkness.

No roosters crowed, no birds chirped, none of the usual sounds of a new day took place. Around the world, people gathered in small groups to discuss what was happening.

Slowly the churches began to fill and by noon every church was overflowing. There were cries for mercy. Cries of bewilderment. Prayers that lasted into the night. Prayers that the next morning the sun would return.

When time for the next new day grew near, great crowds began to gather on the highest hilltops, atop the highest buildings. People stared at the eastern horizon; every eye fixed on that point where the sun should appear.

And then it came. Came with its usual exuberance. Came with its rays painting patterns across the sky. Warm and comforting as it had always been. At first there was only silence and then as one mighty voice, shouts of thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord echoed all around.

No one yet knew that a sleeping, giant volcano in Indonesia, called Krakatoa, had come to life. When it exploded, it had sent streaming 6 miles into the atmosphere tons of ash and lava rock, a black cloud so thick the sun’s rays could not penetrate it. On the wings of the wind it rapidly traveled around the world, covering whole regions from horizon to horizon with its debris.

It was the first time such a gigantic eruption had ever happened. It was also the first time many in the gathered masses had thanked God for the sun.

Of course, few people thank God for the sun, it’s always there. And perhaps that’s the point. We need to constantly thank God for the always there’s He daily gives us.

“I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.”
—Psalm 9:1

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BE A WARMER?

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In 1860, a young ministerial student, Edward Spencer, in Evanston, Illinois watched a ship go aground on the shore of Lake Michigan.

It was the dead of winter and ice floated all around. Nevertheless, time and time again he waded into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers.

In the process, his health was permanently and irreparably damaged. Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever thanked him.

Will you one day stand beside the grave of a friend or family member and speak of all the things you are thankful for that came from them, or for who they were?

Will you stand around their grave and be thankful but not do so now before it is too late? Now is when they can know and appreciate and be warmed by your love and thanksgiving. So get busy, RIGHT NOW and write a note to someone explaining why your glad to know them and what they have meant in your life or something special they did for you so many months or even years ago.

Give them the gift of your thanksgiving…and yes, better late than never…because even late is too late sometimes.

“Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor” 1 Corinthians 10.24

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PRAYER DOESN’T LOOK AT THE CALENDAR

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The man was depressed, and that word does not even begin to describe how low he felt.

A thousand pounds of problems were pulling his soul apart. He had lost faith in himself, in his God and in all the people around him in the restaurant.

The meal he had just ordered tasted to him like ground-up paper and re-fortified sawdust. And to make the moment even worse, a little girl across the restaurant was loudly complaining to her mother.

He tried to ignore the situation but could not help overhearing her repeated words. “But, mamma, why can’t we say a blessing before we eat?”

The waitress who had just served their breakfast turned back to the table and said, “Why, of course, we can say the blessing, little one.” Turning to all the rest of the people she said, “Can we all bow our heads in prayer?”

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, everyone stopped eating and bowed their heads. The little girl in a voice loud and clear exclaimed, “God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen.”

That simple prayer, that well meant moment of thanksgiving, changed the entire atmosphere. The customers began to talk to each other. There were more smiles. And the waitress, loud enough for everyone to hear, said, “Maybe we should do this more often.”

The man who had been so depressed didn’t raise his head after the little girl’s “amen.” He continued praying and thanking God for all his blessings, rather than majoring in complaining to himself about all the things he didn’t have and couldn’t do.

Sometimes simplicity speaks with such eloquence. Such as the little fourth grader who, when asked to write about Thanksgiving Day, wrote, “The Pilgrims came here seeking freedom, of you know what. When they landed they gave thanks, to you know who. Because of them, we can worship each Sunday, you know where.

Psalms 4:1 (NIV)
“ Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.”

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I'D RATHER DIE

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A young mountain lad was about to go to college. It was his first trip away from home.

As the train whistle signaled that it was time for all to board, the young man’s father put his arm around his son’s shoulder and said, “It’s gonna be hard on your ma and me to keep you up thar in school this year, but we’ll do it somehow because we know you won’t fail to do your best by us.”

The young man boarded the train, found a seat by the window and waved to his parents as the trip began. His eyes were misty as he thought to himself, I’d rather die than fail a dad and mom like mine. They believed in him. Their trust was like a living thing.

It’s what Christ does, you know.

Puts His hand on your shoulder and says, “I love you. I died for you. I know you won’t fail to do your best.” And your response? Is it, I’d rather die than fail a Lord like that.” *first line of a Cajun tune, author unknown.

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HAVE YOU BEEN BUSY PLAYING GOOSE?

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Plutarch tells of a man who attracted attention by standing in the middle of the marketplace all day long on one foot. As people came by to stare he would boast, “You can’t do this.”

Finally, a wise man came by and gave answer to this inane boasting, “No, I can’t, but a goose can.”

The world is full of people wasting time, playing goose in the middle of the marketplace, filling their heads with worthless reading, filling their pockets with first rate money to be spent on second rate projects.

And so, where is your marketplace and what are you busy doing in it all day long?

"choose this day whom you will serve … Joshua 24:15

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LIFE IS A COLLECTION POST

SKID ROW OR SHANGRILA

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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.