Faith and A Good Night's Sleep

IT’S EASIER TO LIVE BY FAITH IF YOU’VE HAD A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

Sometimes cutting short your sleep to commune with God may, in fact, undermine your ability to live close to God. A tired person is more vulnerable to temptations than the wide-awake. The weakened body is more apt to be plagued with self-doubt than one fed and rested.

Quiet times for prayer, meditation and reflection aid the Christian walk, but the notion that “more of the same” will continue to produce positive results is faulty.

The spiritual growth we aspire to cannot take place separate from sound care for the whole person.

• It’s easier to feel close to God when the Excedrin has taken my headache away.

• Faith soars when the air is fresh and I’m biking briskly on a bright spring morning.

• After a cup of coffee my spiritual attitude is always improved.

Spiritual inspiration and enthusiasm can be mediated by physical interventions and activities. Faith-builders will not only implore their adherents to worship in the traditional forms, including Bible study, prayer, meditation and song. They will also encourage the health-care of the body, spirit and emotions through exercise, vacations and travel, hospitality, friendship. Spiritual growth is the product of good-deed projects, enjoyment of the arts, folk-dance, the appreciation of beauty in nature and craftsmanship, ecology efforts, reading, hobbies, gardening.

Confident that “everything affects everything else” the growing Christian will be one designing a well-rounded life-style. Spirit-raising pastimes can bring us closer to God-pleasing service.

The World is Better

In 1975 three of four people in the world had no access to clean water. Now three of  four do have it.

Thirty years ago the adult global literacy rate was 53%. Now it is 80%.

In 1980 the consensus shared by experts was that 80% of the world’s people lived in substandard housing. Today the estimate is 25% are in substandard housing.

Thirty years ago one in eight children died in their first year of life.  Today it is one in sixteen.

Your Smile Can Heal

I was walking in the Mall pondering a couple of discouraging encounters earlier in the day. A young boy suddenly was blocking my path and I slowed to step around him. He greeted me with a warm smile and a wave of his hand. I couldn’t help but smile back, and suddenly I realized my mood had lifted. I also reflected on the fact that the youth was a youngster with Downs Syndrome. He had healed me of my blue feelings—with a smile.

Every one carries a smile. Too many are unused, or too rarely used. Smiles are instant inoculations of loving-kindness. And every one needs them constantly. Each of us walks through life carrying this powerful medicine, and we have the opportunity to lift spirits and heal discouraged souls everywhere we go.

 1. Believe your smile can heal another person.
 2. Decide to give it to people you meet—clerks, mechanics, people you meet.
 3. Trust that they will feel brightened by your kind act.
 4. Enjoy this new agenda for everyday living.

Living Our Loving Kindness

When we talk asbout Care and Kindness we are not just trying to motivate a lot of people to go around doing good deeds and acting friendly.  That is only part of what it is about.  The big picture is being The Body of Christ, the church.  We are expected to be a contrast to society in general.  We are asked to be more conspicuopusly kind and thoughtful toward one another.  The idea is that we look attractive to those who are not part of it.  That is what happened in the early church and Pagan people were attracted.  The Pagan religion disappeared and the Christian community expanded in an amazing way--mostly because they were living their loving kindness.

Go to Jesus for the Holy Spirit

To become what God expects of us we need the Holy Spirit of Jesus to guide us, motivate us, strengthen us, inspire us.  This is possible.  We acquire the Holy Spirit by meeting, knowing, following Jesus.

A regular diet of Jesus will fill our hearts with loving-kindness, and the courage to deliver care and kindness  of major and minor dimensions every day, everywhere.

Soft Answers

A SOFT ANSWER DOES TURN AWAY WRATH

It’s reassuring to doubters, such as I, to find science reinforcing Biblical ideas. (Don’t get too worried about me. I don’t depend on science for the basic issues.) Here’s a new development I read about in Look magazine:

A SOFT ANSWER DOES TURN AWAY WRATH, according to the results of a four-month study of unruly children who were discipline problems in school. Normal and loud teacher reprimands that could be heard by the whole class had no effect on the disruptive behavior of such children. When the teachers switched to soft reprimands that could be heard only by the child being corrected, most of the unruly children misbehaved less often. A return to loud reproaches resulted in an increase in poor behavior, and later return to soft corrections again resulted in better behavior. K. Daniel O’Leary, associate professor of psychology, and a team of graduate students at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, conducted the study.

We who take the Bible so literally might try putting some of its very concrete suggestions into practice – starting with this one.

An Unusual Sin

                                   THE SIN OF RUINING GOOD DAYS

Lady:   When I throw away spoiled food from the refrigerator it makes me feel guilty all day.

Pastor:   A day spoiled by feeling guilty is a far greater waste than a few items of food being thrown away.

How typical --unable to accept my imperfection I gloom around for days over a mistake thereby corrupting hundreds of precious hours – a far greater sin.

Who do I think I am if a little flaw gets me down. I must in fact think I’m pretty good – if that can ruin my day.

May God help me to throw away my mistakes, forgive myself, and charge cheerfully and confidently ahead determined not to waste the day with unnecessary guilt.