Issue 5609

Living Water Newsletter

Quotes & Stuff

Red Smith
Most of the critical things in life, which become the starting points of human destiny, are little things.

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Unknown
God breaks any of His children who are willing to be broken; and afterwards, they are strong in the broken places.

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Unknown
Today is the day that you worried about yesterday—don't let it be the day in which you worry about tomorrow, or your worries about tomorrow will have an endless cycle.

You recall John Godfrey Saxe—he lived from 1816 to 1887, and is most famously known for his poem about six men of Indostan, "to learning much inclined, who went to see the Elephant (though all of them were blind), that each by observation might satisfy his mind."

The first touched the elephant's broad side and proclaimed, "the Elephant is very like a wall." The second felt the tusk and declared, "the Elephant is very like a spear." The third grabbed the squirming trunk and boldly said, "the Elephant is very like a snake." Feeling about the knee, the fourth said it was mighty plain, "the Elephant is very like a tree." The fifth, rubbing the ear, said most clear that even the blindest man could tell, "the Elephant is very like a fan." Seizing the swinging tail, the sixth man stated most emphatically, "the Elephant is like a rope."

Each was right in his perception of the Elephant, and yet all were wrong. As Obi-wan Kenobi said, "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our point of view."

As Christians who are called to open the eyes of the blind to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sometimes we have to get on their side of the Elephant and see their viewpoint, and then lead them to the truth from there. It's not the reality of their perception that needs changing, it's their point of view.

The barber said, "Sure, just sit in the seat and I'll be with you in a moment." He then went into the back room and prayed a quick, desperate, prayer, saying, "God, the first customer just came in and I'm going to witness to him. So please give me the wisdom to know just the right thing to say to him. Amen."

Then quickly, before he lost his nerve, he came out with his straight-edged razor in one hand, his Bible in the other, and said loudly, "Sir, I have a question for you: Are you ready to die?"

See you at the house!

Harold J. Chadwick