Freedom  . . . . . . . . Somerset Maugham

Known For What?  . . . . . . . . Anonymous

Mother’s Day  . . . . . . . . J. Harold Gwynne

Courtesy is Kindness  . . . . . . . . George D. Powers

Really Great People  . . . . . . . . Mark Twain

     "Our dirty little secret is that we don’t actually want our lives to be transformed. Jesus wants to turn our lives upside down, which as it turns out will be right-side up. But we are comfortable with who we are and where we are, and we don’t want God all up in our business moving things around, turning things upside down, looking into every dark and dirty corner of our hearts and souls. Don’t get me wrong — we want to be considered good or committed Christians (whatever that means). But we are not interested and are certainly not deeply committed to collaborating with God to completely transform ourselves and our lives into the very-best-version of ourselves.

     …That lie and all the extensions that are natural consequences of the lie lead us to one place: the big fat mediocre middle."

Graduation Gratitude  . . . . . . . . Dr. Elie Wiesel

     Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Elie Wiesel in a graduation address noted: "May I share with you one of the principles that governs my life? It is the realization that what I receive I must pass on to others. The knowledge that I have acquired must not remain imprisoned in my brain. I owe it to many men and women to do something with it. I feel the need to pay back what was given to me. Call it gratitude."

     Once a do-it-yourselfer went into a hardware store and asked about a new saw for cutting firewood. The salesman took a chain saw from the shelf and told him it was the newest model, with the latest in technology, guaranteed to cut ten cords of wood a day. The customer thought that sounded great, so he bought it on the spot.

     The next day the customer returned, looking somewhat exhausted. "Something must be wrong with this saw," he moaned. "I worked as hard as I could and only managed to cut five cords of firewood. I used to cut seven cords with my old saw."

     Confused, the salesman said, "Here, let me try it out back on some wood we keep there. "They went to the woodpile, the salesman pulled the starter cord, and as the motor went Vvr-rooom, the customer jumped back shouting, "What’s that noise?"

     Now, the customer trying to saw wood without the power of the saw to help him is very much like the believer who attempts to live the Christian life without the daily empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

    The story is told of a woman who invited all her friends over for a special dinner. Desiring to impress them, she hired a maid, a butler, and a chef. She purchased the finest steaks and exotic mushrooms to accompany them.

     When the chef noticed that the mushrooms seemed a bit discolored, the lady suggested he feed a few to the dog, since it was too late to purchase more mushrooms. "If the dog eats them and doesn’t get sick, they’re probably all right."

     The dog eagerly consumed the 'schrooms' and showed no signs of ill-effects, so the chef completed the meal, and served the guests.

     Later, as dessert was being served, the maid hurried in and whispered to the lady of the house, "Ma’am, the dog is dead!? Not waiting to hear any more, she leaped to her feet and told the guests they had no time to lose! They had eaten tainted mushrooms and must rush immediately to the hospital!

     Some time later, after the lady and her guests had returned from having their stomachs pumped, she asked the maid, "Where is the dog now?"

     "Why out in the front yard, ma’am," replied the maid, "where he crawled to after the car hit him!"

     Moral: It is a good idea to thoroughly investigate a matter before leaping to hasty conclusions which may result in unfortunate consequences.

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