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| Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There's a Right Time for Everything
There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
Only 2 weeks left at Hope. It is going to be a busy youth time though - going out with a bang (so to speak). | | |
| Is an activity a failure if those in the group refuse to be involved? The purpose of a team building or group activity is the for the group to work together to complete a task. But if part of the group does not want to do the task - does the group fail at said task? | | |
| Something to Think AboutIf we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100
people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would
look something like the following. There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and
all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need
for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.
The following is also something to ponder...
a. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are
more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
b. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness
of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ...you
are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
c. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people
in the world.
d. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof
overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.
e. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a
dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
f. If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very
rare, even in the United States and Canada.
g. If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in
that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed
than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
Someone once said:
What goes around comes around.
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth | | |
| Thanksgiving is over and it is now offically the CHRISTMAS SEASON!!!! Retailers are doing crazy 4 or 5 hour sales, foolish people are standing out in the cold for HOURS in line for a deal.
What is Christmas? Is it to give or to recieve, or maybe a little of both. Is it a time to show love (why not do that the whole year?), or a time to celebrate a birth so long ago? A time to get off of work and spend with relatives you don't see much, or to spend time with friends?
| Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas. My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant."
I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down.
Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer.
So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads. Those in the front row - center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song.
As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love." The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her...a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W".
The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W".
Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood - the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities. For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear: |
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And He still is! | | | |
| Oh the weather outside is cold, wet and windy and since I want to go home - why not snow?, why not snow?, why not snow? | | |
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