AN ENLARGED ENGLISH VILLAGE OR…

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I believe that man can be a beast. He’s proven it often enough. But I also believe he can rise above such evil; he’s proven that as well.
Life is not an enlarged English village but neither is it a preparatory school for hell with man’s its star pupil.

Edwin Markham wrote, “When in the dim beginning of the years God mixed in man the rapture and the tears, he scattered through his brain the starry stuff, and said ‘Behold that this is not enough for I must test his spirit to make sure that he can dare the vision and endure…”

And men have…lept out at their best, been a light in the world, spread the gentle warmth of concern across the land.

It has happened before. It will happen again.

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“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink,but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” ~Romans 14:15

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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

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BE A VICTOR AND NOT A VICTIM

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Horace Mann once said, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

It does not have to be some International Event or Newscast Specialty.
It can be one personal victory over bigotry.

It can be every time you do something kind for no gain, something brave for no reward and something good because the better part of you says you must.

Be a victor over your worst desires and not a victim.
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James 4:17
“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

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To view an abundance of unusual and innovative stories go to Neil’s other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com
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RUST ON MY SOUL (18TH in series of novel)

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RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) (A new Series that began on Tues April 13th and will continue every Tuesday thereafter until finished) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)

 

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INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.
Morning
I took a good look at Nancy this morning. For the first time in quite a while I really looked at her.

The years have treated her well. She has managed to win, well, if not win at least reach a compromise with, the battle of the bulge.It’s probably worry as much as diet that has kept her weight down and also caused her frown lines to become firmly etched. She says Connie is giving her more grey hairs than the years are.

Perhaps I looked more closely today because of late she is making more noise about going back to work.At first I dismissed her comments as only a passing fad. Then I tried to convince her it wouldn’t look good for me if she joined the labor force.

I figured that ploy would be sure to work since she’s always so concerned with other people’s opinions. But it hasn’t.I cringe at the thought of some of the inane remarks I’ve come up with lately, “Nancy, go buy a new hat and you’ll feel better.” “We don’t need the money; I’ve got a good job.” Fact is, we are at our usual crossroads of differing opinions and about to have another train wreck.

I know she doesn’t want to go to work for just the money, and she has assured me she isn’t trying to exert her independence, she says it’s only that she needs more in her life than she has.

What then should I care if she’s away from home working? She’s away at the country club or playing bridge often enough, so what is the difference?

Why do I feel so threatened by this? Is my manhood so shallow I feel emasculated by the very thought of her bringing home a paycheck? Is my self-worth so meager that being the breadwinner is the only viable role I see for myself?

Evening

“Honey” is dead. “Honey” and “Darling” and “Sweetheart” are words that have died and been laid to rest.

It was a slow death. The first symptoms showed up twenty-some years ago but we ignored them. I rationalized. There were added responsibilities. I worked hard and overtime and came home tired.

We’d lost our child and, though no one was to blame, anger toward God spilled over into other moments and anger at ourselves for what we might have done, whatever that was. The anger lingered and wore our patience thin.

Why have I Thomas Kettering let myself reach this point in my life where I have become a past master at emphasizing negatives and conflicts and everything that is wrong with life. Why don’t I put out equally as much effort looking for some good things?I know that by the time I recognized where we had let ourselves go it was too late to return to what we had had before. I know I wasn’t willing to talk about it and unsure of what to say if we did.

Togetherness has diminished. There never was enough time, or if there was we didn’t spend it together. Occasionally one of us would try. “Tom, would you read this article? It’s us, you know.”Oh I remember. I remember the title – MARRIAGE LIMBO A REALITY - and felt a twinge. But my pride wouldn’t let me admit that a magazine article could teach me anything. Hadn’t I minored in psychology in college?

We got along all right I convinced myself…whatever that meant…and , after all, the days of wine and roses don’t last forever.I knew better than that. There are couples who find time to play tennis together, or work in the garden together, or walk quietly in the last soft light of evening.

But I childishly rationalized that I had tried in the past to talk about our lax behavior toward each other, she hadn’t been willing to talk then, so why should I read that article for her now?All our love isn’t dead, but how on earth do you resurrect a hot flame from a flicker in the ashes?

That’s all our love is now.


TO BE CONTINUED

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To view an abundance of unusual and innovative stories go to Neil’s other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

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THE POWER OF DISCIPLINED DISORDER

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It was a number of years ago when navigation was more primitive and Captains could get themselves in a heap of trouble.

This was not a good idea when there shorelines lined with rocks and waves sent all kind of craft crashing into them.

On a particular night in question a captain caught in a raging storm realized that he really didn’t know where he was in relation to the shoreline coming up. The lighthouse wasn’t doing its job for whatever reason.

At this moment a passenger came up to him and asked,” How are things going Captain?

“Going,” the captain, replied, “Well, in the first place we’re lost, but as for going we’re sure making good time.”

Most of us are fortunate. We don’t get ourselves in quite that bad a pickle. We have roadsides signs that point where it would be best and better for us to go. And we have a Biblical lighthouse that is always available.

This Bible speaks with a great clarity. It puts out signs with a single word on them; honor, honesty, love, forgiveness.

And as we travel we find construction signs and the construction they are talking about is “us.” What are we constructing? When it is finished will it have been worth the time and effort? Will it be good for those around us?
And as we travel if we have chosen the wrong road how easy will it be to exit? There is a thing called addiction and some addictions are a daily trip to hell.

So yes, in our travels through life we need to discipline any disorder to which we find ourselves becoming addicted to…and follow the right signs…and don’t rush forward until we are sure we are not rushing toward disaster.

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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL

 

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/ **********************************************************************

HOW OLD IS OLD?

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How old is old? A caterpillar is an ugly duckling about to grow up into something beautiful in a matter of weeks and then in the length of time we call a season…it dies.

An oak tree is just beginning to live after one hundred years.

And man or woman, when they enter the grave are still babes for they have eternity ahead of them.

When Jesus said, “Do not fear those who can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul…” he was saying that the valley of the shadow is a passageway and not a dead-end street.

The late Peter Marshall, famous Washington preacher, died at 47.
Abraham Lincoln never reached his three score years and ten.
Jesus himself tasted death at 33.
Would you say they had not lived a lifetime?
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To view an abundance of unusual stories by Neil Wyrick go to his other blog ONE A DAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS

Click on the following URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

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RUST ON MY SOUL (17th in series of novel)

**************************************************************
RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press

 in 1985 & Distributed ernationally)

 

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INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

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Morning

I’ve just about come to the conclusion that we’re a pagan society as we ever were. We no longer fight duels, nor keep slaves, no work children to an early grave. But nonetheless, we too often treat God like a holy afterthought.

I don’t know who wrote it but he wrote it well:
“I never cut my neighbor’s throat
My neighbor’s gold I never stole:
I never spoiled his house and land;
But God have mercy on my soul!
For I am haunted night and day
By all the deeds I have not done:
O unattempted loneliness;
O costly valor never won.”

At my best I am inadequate for life.

Physically I’m never more than a heartbeat away from death.

Mentally the best I can do is briefly be clever and seldom really wise.

Spiritually I shout to keep away the dread that, if there is no God to take my soul, then there is no soul to take.

Late Night

We made it! We just moved to within one block of the country club, two blocks from the president of the First Federal and less than a “hoot and a holler” from bankruptcy.

Nancy is in seventh heaven.

Maybe now she’ll get off my back about moving up. I can’t say I like the new house any better than the old one, but Prestige Terrace is where all the new executive live this year, so I really had no choice.

Late night

Why have I spent so many of my adult years overlooking dad’s admonition, “Poverty is a pain and money can be a blessing, but both are a misery if you spend a lifetime forgetting who you are.”

Here I am, almost half a century old, asking just that: Who am I? Where am I going?

Where is the little boy who climbed trees or just lay back in the fields and looked up at the clouds flying by? Where is the young man who, when he first came with the firm twenty years ago, exclaimed, “This is the best day of my life.”

I can find no vestige of my yesteryears. No one at forty-nine thinks as he did at twenty-nine, but have I been too busy to think of anything but business? I haven’t taken time to even look out the window at the garden, much less stop and smell the roses.

Why do I feel guilty when I take a Saturday afternoon off for a little pleasure?

Was the Puritan work ethic too deeply instilled in me, or do I just have an insatiable appetite for money? We can always use more, but even if I earned more than we needed would I still want more just to flaunt it?

What matters most in my life? And, perhaps answering that, I ought to reword my question: What should matter most in my life?
Unfortunately at this moment I can’t come up with an answer I’ll accept.

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TO BE CONTINUED ***************************************************************

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HAVE YOU LISTENED TO A COMPLAINING LEAF RECENTLY?

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Discontent is a part of the universe, but how sad to let it become a way of life.

Perhaps, if leaves could think, there would be some that would be continually unhappy because the would wish they were pine needles, or wish they could be let loose, and now free from their branch flutter though the air like a bird.

Discontented with how things were and growing more so with the passage of every leaf long day.

And then find fear and fault with their ultimate destination; the ground.

Finding fault with what is, to chase some pie-in-the-sky that isn’t, has happened to lots of people too, but how sad to live in such a state of discontent.

To paraphrase an old saying – man does not live by pie alone.

One thing is for sure… it is important to realize the difference between being stuffed or being satisfied. Ah yes, many who have been chasing and successfully finding more and more still are as dissatisfied as if they were having less and less.
How it really is possible to have too much of a good thing. Take praise. It is certainly good, unless you receive so much of it you can’t live without it, and become blind to criticism.

There is such a bitterness to not being satisfied.

Indeed the Greek word for bitterness also means poison.

I learned and try never to forget the truth that if you feed your discontents they will become a poison to you. If you constantly don’t like what life is doing to you , or what people are doing, or even what God is doing, you will continue to be miserable.

It is God’s world and He loves you. Your life is a gift and God will allow you to fill it with majesty even if sometimes you find it hard to see the whole eternal picture.

So pray positive prayers even in the midst of negative moments. Think positive thoughts even when sunshine is still below the horizon. And then when things have gotten better dance and sing with such gratitude… the angels in heaven grin and break out in song.
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CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN” and enjoy these One Man Drama TV specials films…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.
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Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

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