You’ll find there’s plenty of sunlight up there as long as you keep trying to reach for it.
Distinguish the Trees from the Forest – 2
In a brief span of a year I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing…
- some who are surprised by love and finding themselves in matrimony
- others who suddenly strike gold for which they’ve spent a lifetime searching for
- some who fall into seemingly insurmountable hardships
- and others who get caught in gusts of wind and blown away to far off lands
Trees change so quickly yet we wouldn’t know just by looking at them. At moments it feels like the goals are always just beyond our reach and painful moments seem to last forever. Milestones and experiences often end up in our hindsight and go unnoticed, so take a moment and appreciate what’s changing in your life.
Distinguish the Trees from the Forest
A quarter is flipped 99 times. Each time it lands, heads comes up. What’s the probability of the quarter landing heads again?
Stats would tell us there is a 50/50 chance of the quarter landing as heads or tails. That’s the chump answer. The real answer is that the coin is rigged.
Tribute to the Wizard of Westwood
John Wooden, UCLA basketball coach, was well-known as a genious of basketball. He led his university to 10 NCAA champions and inspired some of the greats in the world of athletics. But his real contributions as many of us know was that he was coach of men. He wasn’t placed in this world to gain great acclaim from basketball, though in basketball he gained acclaim. His purpose was to pass along a simple advice to others.
The following was a creed given to him from his father the moment he passed grammar class. He kept these words close to him even until his ripe age of nearly 100.
- Be true to yourself
- Make each day your masterpiece
- Help others
- Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible
- Make friendship a fine art
- Build a shelter against a rainy day
- Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day
At God’s footstool to confess,
A poor soul knelt and bowed his head.
“I failed,” he cried. The Master said,
“Thou didst thy best, that is success.”
Job’s Discourse on Wisdom
28
“Surely there is a mine for silver,
And a place where gold is refined.
Iron is taken from the earth,
And copper is smelted from ore.
Man puts an end to darkness,
And searches every recess
For ore in the darkness and the shadow of death.
He breaks open a shaft away from people;
In places forgotten by feet
They hang far away from men;
They swing to and fro.
As for the earth, from it comes bread,
But underneath it is turned up as by fire;
Its stones are the source of sapphires,
And it contains gold dust.
That path no bird knows,
Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it.
The proud lions have not trodden it,
Nor has the fierce lion passed over it.
He puts his hand on the flint;
He overturns the mountains at the roots.
He cuts out channels in the rocks,
And his eye sees every precious thing.
He dams up the streams from trickling;
What is hidden he brings forth to light.
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But where can wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know its value,
Nor is it found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It is not in me’;
And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
It cannot be purchased for gold,
Nor can silver be weighed for its price
It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
In precious onyx or sapphire.
Neither gold nor crystal can equal it,
Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or quartz,
For the price of wisdom is above rubies.
The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,
Nor can it be valued in pure gold.
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From where then does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all living,
And concealed from the birds of the air.
Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’
God understands its way,
And He knows its place.
For He looks to the ends of the earth,
And sees under the whole heavens,
To establish a weight for the wind,
And apportion the waters by measure.
When He made a law for the rain,
And a path for the thunderbolt,
Then He saw wisdom and declared it;
He prepared it, indeed he searched it out.
And to man He said,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom,
And to depart from evil is understanding.’”
