Choose...

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood but I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins...Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked

He continued, "..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John. "She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

dW 03.23.07

scripture

Matthew 24:35
Sky and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

quote

This world is the land of the dying; the next is the land of the living.

Tryon Edwards

 

INDIA: Charity Home for Girls

Six of us traveled to India last summer. We went to visit the Charity Home for Girls which our church has supported from the beginning and continues to support. At the home girls whose parents are either unwilling or unable to take care of them are provided simple things - food, clothing, a roof, a bed, and an education. More than those things, Mrs. Spurgeon explains that "each girl leaves here with Jesus and takes Him to their families and their villages!" The girls’ home is a ministry of Mrs. Spurgeon.

Her husband, Dr. D.S. Spurgeon is involved with numerous other ministries. He provides support for indigenous pastors and ministry workers. One other ministry that he does is he translates English Christian books into Tamil. He does this by reading an English book aloud in Tamil while his wife writes it down in Tamil. Then he takes her writings and makes language translation corrections. Once complete the papers are sent to a publisher and then distributed all over southern India. Dr. Spurgeon tells me that "the best translation I have so far done is the translation of the outstanding book My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. His team has been working very hard and A Boy Meets Luther just came hot off the press.

Recently the girls’ home lost a property they were using as a school study and worship hall. However, we've gotten word that construction of a new building has already begun and Dr. Spurgeon was very kind to include a picture of its progress.


For more about these exciting ministries visit - LOHM

Vigi, I haven't missed you. I will tell all about your ministries too! Stay tuned.

dW 03.22.07

scripture
Luke 6:22, 26
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man… Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

quote
In order to realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the stress of the storm.

news
Thirty-Six Christians Arrested in Henan, China - VOM Sources/China Aid Association
On March 6, 2007, the police raided a house-church Bible study in Wancheng District, Nanyang City, Henan province. The leaders were taken to the police station and interrogated for a day. After international pressure, however, the local police have released 33 arrested house-church leaders and three leaders from South Korea. One leader, Pastor Dong Quanyu, was sentenced to 10 days administrative detention for "illegal" gathering. Pray Christians in China demonstrate the love of God through constant love and prayer for those who persecuted them. Pray for strength for Pastor Quanyu, as he serves the remainder of his sentence. Matthew 5:43-48

dW 03.21.07

scripture
John 3:19-21
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

quote
AW Tozer wrote, "But, oh, the grace of God! God through the plan of salvation in Jesus Christ will go beyond our merits, beyond that which we deserve. Even if our sins have been like a mountain, it is the grace of God that assures our forgiveness." Who Put Jesus on the Cross? - page 39.

dW 03.20.07

scripture
James 4:13-15
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

quote
17. Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
The Resolutions of Jonathon Edwards

song
Who Am I by Casting Crowns

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

dW 03.19.07

scripture
Jeremiah 29:11-13
“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

thought
It does not say, For you know the plans I have for you. It says, For I know the plans I have for you. God is not surprised by the circumstance in our lives. He knows they are coming and He either prepares us for them, or He grants us the strength the bear them when they come. He never leaves us in the storm alone. We only question His presence in the storm because our eyes are closed so we cannot see Him or because we are screaming so loud we cannot hear Him. Peace be still our souls and listen to our Lord, “I am with you!”