Monthly Archives: April 2005

Another view on the story that someone sent me.

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IMG_1647My friend Lee left me this comment on one of my posts (you know the one with a story of a professor who talks about the things that fit into a jar):

Nice message. It’s only too easy (maybe more so for men) to have only 2 contents in the jar, pebbles and sand. Instead of golf balls I may fill my jar with only a few tennis balls as any free time is spent with my immediate close family, I need to make an effort to visit my parents, brother and sister, and further extended family. People I sometimes come across in my work life make me forget that I actually work to live and don’t live to work!

Lee and I work in the same organisation so I am going to avoid talking about specific people, but how true he is. Work is about work for so many people, they are focussed on work and little else. But I believe that there is so more to life than that. I have been trying to formulate my thoughts over a few posts, these are all under the “My Time” category.

What makes you look at something in a different way

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Tree on Fernyhalgh LaneI have walked past this tree hundreds of times in the past. It’s on a route I regularly use in morning to get me up and about. I sometimes take a camera with me while walking about and this morning I saw this tree and something attracted me to it.

It always amazes me that we can see the same things in nature every day, but in many mays these things are different every day. The light is never quite the same, the season is never quite the same, the growth is never quite the same.

It’s just an ordinary tree in an ordinary little wood, but this morning is said to me.

“Do you know, I’ve been here on this earth longer than you have. I was here before any of these houses were here. I was here before this road had tarmac on it. I may still be here after you have gone. You humans you run around and strive and build and break. But if you will just sit back and rest in God, He will provide for you.”

The Bible (Message) says:

“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.” Matthew 26

How much we have to learn. I need to make sure I include this in my thoughts for connecting with the purposes of God.

Working for Others

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As part of studies in to my mission statement I recently listened to a sermon from Knox County Vineyard in which the Pastor references studies about happiness during retirement for people who volunteer.

It’s one of my objectives to “Devoting my time to the service of others and in so doing discover God’s purposes for the Cross of Jesus Christ”. I’ve not set myself this objective in order to get a happy retirement, I have set it because I believe that it is the call of the Christian to serve others. But it’s interesting to note that God honours those who connect with His purposes (even if they don’t know they are).