WHY I DO WHAT I DO?

WHY I DO WHAT I DO?

A young wife was preparing to bake a ham, she took a knife and cut of a piece off each end of the ham. ‘Why did you do that?’ he asked. ‘I really don’t know’, she replied, ‘but my mother always did it.’

Some time later the young man was visiting his wife’s mother, and he remembered the incident with the ham, and his wife’s explanation for doing what she did. So he asked his wife’s mother why she cut a piece off each end of a ham, before baking. The reason was simple, ‘Because the hams sold in our local supermarket are too big for the only baking pan I have!’

v    Oh! To be reflective, to be thoughtful, and not to be afraid to stop and look at ourselves, what we do, and why we do it!

v    On occasions I can do the right thing, but not always for the right reasons.

v    Why I do something makes it wrong or right. I could visit someone in hospital because I feel sorry for him – or because I want to gloat over his helpless state!

APPRECIATING LIFE

APPRECIATING LIFE

 

There is a play called Our Town, and in it a young woman dies. As the play progresses, it happens that she is allowed by God to return to earth t re-live one day of her life. The day she chooses is her twelfth birthday.

A few hours into the day, she cries out “I can’t, I can’t go on. It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another…Oh earth, you’re too beautiful for anyone to realize.” Then, with tears in her eyes she asks, “Do human beings ever realize life while they live it?” A voice answers her, ‘No. The saints and poets maybe – they do sometimes.”

v    If you really want to appreciate something have it taken away from you, and when you have lost it, have it then restored to you.

v    A tragedy of life is to reach the end and realize I never really live; I settled for existing.

v    Everybody dies, but not everybody lives.

WE ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER

WE ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO OFFER

One day a little mouse was caught by a lion. The lion was ready to swallow the tiny creature, when it cried out, “Spare me, great beast! Please don’t eat me. Someday I may be able to repay your kindness.”

The lion, taken aback let out a roar, threw back his head, and roared with laughter. However, he was so amused at the thought that a tiny mouse could help him the king of the jungle, that he freed the little animal.

Sometime later, the lion was captured by hunters. He was caught in a huge net and secured to a tree, while the hunters went to fetch a truck to carry him. Along came the tiny mouse. When he saw the lion and the predicament he was in, he began to chew at the rope. He gnawed an opening in the net, and the lion got free.

v God can use any of us.

v The least significant person in my life can help set me free from my selfishness, intolerance, judgment etc. It all depends on how I relate to them, or treat them. 

THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE

THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE

There is a legend about an African boy called Emmanuel who was always asking questions. One day he asked the question, “What language does God speak?” No one could answer him. He traveled all over his country with the same question, but still did not receive an answer.

Eventually he set off in search of the answer on other continents. For a long time he had no success. At last he came one night to a village called Bethlehem, and, as there was no room in the local inns he went outside the village in search of a shelter for the night. He came to a cave, and he saw that it was occupied by a couple and a child.

He was about to turn away when the young mother spoke, ‘Welcome Emmanuel, we’ve been expecting you.” The boy was amazed that the woman knew his name. He was even more amazed when she went to say, “For a long time you have been searching the world over to find out what language God speaks. He speaks the language of love that is expressed in sharing, understanding, mercy and total acceptance.

v    God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” (Jn 3:16)

v    Love is…meeting another exactly as that person is.

GENTLENESS

GENTLENESS

In one of Aesop’s fables there’s a story about an argument between the wind and the sun as to which of them is stronger. To settle the argument they decide to test their respective strengths against a man who was wearing an overcoat. It was agreed that whichever of them compelled the man to take off his overcoat, that one was the stronger.

The wind began the test. It blew and blew, even to gale force, but the only reaction from the man was to wrap the coat tighter around him. The sun then took over. It didn’t actually do anything. It was shone in the sky and let the heat reach the man. Within minutes the man removed his coat.

v “Blessed are the meek for they shall possess the earth.” (Mt. 5:5)

v You can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar.

- St Francis de Sales

GOOD FRIENDS

GOOD FRIENDS

Dr Joseph Matarazzo was held of the Medical Psychology Department of the University of Oregon. He would of course have been in great demand as a psychotherapist, and would have contributed a great deal to the furtherance of such science.

On one occasion however, he is quoted as saying, “That more psychotherapy is accomplished between good friends over cups of coffee at ten o’clock in the morning than all day long in doctor’s offices.’ He goes on to stress the vital importance of a good talk with a real friend, and he says that this is who is most helpful when things go wrong.

v    My friend is someone who really knows me and still loves me.

v    A problem shared is a problem halved.

HOW REAL IS IT?

HOW REAL IS IT?

One time a group of people came to Abraham Lincoln to discuss something that had been causing some trouble. Their arguments were not based on facts but on suppositions. After listening for a while, Lincoln asked, “How many legs would a sheep have if you called its tail a leg? ‘Five’ was the reply. ‘No’ said Lincoln, ‘it wouldn’t; it would only have four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.’

v    Many will call me ‘Lord’, says Jesus but they won’t enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 7:21)

v    If I am a Christian, I don’t need to tell others – they will know it themselves.