More Than Today

After reading my blog entry that follows this one, a friend sent me the following prayer. Enjoy! Dear God, When we are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to shore, Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life. Stir us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery. Where losing sight of land, we shall find stars. We ask you to push the horizons of our hopes, and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love. Amen. May we continue to radically and unconditionally trust that our God goes with us, that our future is full of hope, and that we have nothing to fear. Father Jim Schwartz, St. Louis Church If you haven't already done so, read the entry below.

Recently I was reading Deuteronomy 9:4. Here the writer is reminding the people of Israel about how the Lord God led them through the desert and is about to lead them into the Promised Land. When they cross over and conquer the inhabitants, they are to remember who was responsible for their victory. "After the LORD your God has done this for you, don't say to yourselves, 'The Lord has given us this land because we are so righteous!'" It is great to win, to succeed, to accomplish what we set out to do. But when we do this we need to remember that it could not have happened without God. "Lord, forgive me that when life's circumstances lift me to the crest of the wave, I tend to forget you. Yet, like an errant child, I have blamed you with my every failure, even as I credit myself with every success. When my fears evaporate like the morning mist, then vainly I imagine that I am sufficient unto myself, that material resources and human reso...

"Too Busy NOT to Praise" We need to move from pressure to praise. We can get so busy that we don't take the time to say "Thank You" to those we love, including God. We have lots of "stuff" but we're lost. A 90-year-old man was crying on the sidewalk of a city. Someone stopped and was trying to calm the man down. The old man began to tell how he had a beautiful 24-year-old wife at home who was a great cook, cleaned the house, and really took care of him well. The other person asked the old man, "Well, what's wrong then?" The old man replied, "I don't know how to get home." Praising helps us get home. We stop what we're doing and say thank you to God for what He has done for us and for who He is. We move from pressure to praise: 1. When praise and worship is a priority. • We will be available to God. Romans 12:1. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies...

“When Life Is Out Of Control” Luke 7:1-17 In a small west Texas town, a fire broke out in the town’s only oil well. This well was a major source of employment and income for this little town. When the fire went on for days and no one seemed to be able to put it out, they decided to offer a reward to anyone who came up with a plan to extinguish the fire. A young man drove up to the Mayor soon after that. He was driving an old, beat-up pickup truck and wearing old clothes. He told the Mayor that he thought he had a way to get the fire out and he would do it the next morning. Well, the news soon spread all over town and the next morning everyone from town was out by the burning oil well. Pretty soon they saw this old, beat-up pickup truck coming up over the rise. In the back of it must have been every relative this young guy had. As the people watched, the pickup truck kept dri...

Derek Redmond, a 26-year-old from England, was favored to win the 400-meter race in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Halfway into his semifinal heat, a fiery pain seared through his right leg. He crumpled to the track with a torn hamstring. As the medical attendants were approaching, Redmond fought to his feet. “It was animal instinct,” he would later say. He set out hopping, pushing away the coaches in a crazed attempt to finish the race. When he reached the stretch, a big man pushed through the crowd. He was wearing a t-shirt that read “Have you hugged your child today?” and a hat that challenged, “Just Do It.” The man was Jim Redmond, Derek’s father. “You don’t have to do this,” he told his weeping son. “Yes, I do,” Derek declared. “Well, then,” said Jim, “we’re going to finish this together.” And they did. Jim wrapped Derek’s arm around his shoulder and helped him hobble to the finish line. Fighting off security men, the son’s head sometimes buried in the fath...