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WITandWISDOM(tm) - January 2, 2001 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything that comes along their way." - Author Unknown Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright 2000, www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: His name was Billy. Without question he was the most popular boy in our junior high school. As a ninth-grader, he played on the school basketball team and made good grades, and he was popular with the girls. He was also running for student body president. I was a lowly seventh-grader who would have given my right arm to trade places with him. So when Billy took notice of me, spoke to me in the hallway between class periods and generally treated me well, I was impressed. Naturally, when it was time to vote, I cast my vote for him. Billy was elected. He never spoke to me again. Forty years after that experience, I stepped down from leadership as a superintendent in my denomination. I am amazed at what happened. For one thing, the telephone stopped ringing. Before, when I would check my e-mail messages, I would find dozens waiting; now the screen tells me that there are none. People who once made a point of calling me or of taking me to lunch have disappeared from my life. All this might make some people angry or bitter, but it drives me to the mirror. I am more troubled for what it says about me than for what it says about other people. Because, as I look into the mirror, I see a person who has sometimes been guilty of the very same kind of behavior. It is easy to stop seeing people for who they are and to start seeing them as things to be used or ignored. When I was a college freshman, E. Stanley Jones came to our campus to speak. He was one of the most famous missionaries in the world. People who knew him commented that E. Stanley Jones was more like Jesus than anyone else they knew. After Mr. Jones' lecture, he was immediately taken out of the auditorium by people who were responsible to get him to his next appointment. A few minutes later I was standing alone in a hallway when I saw a group of people hurrying in my direction. At the center was E. Stanley Jones. I tried to move closer to the wall and out of their way, but Mr. Jones saw me and stopped. I still remember his smile and his eyes focusing on me. It was as if we were the only ones present. He wanted to know who I was, where I was from and what subjects I was studying. While the people with him looked at their watches and then looked disapprovingly at me, he listened intently to my answers. For those few minutes I knew that I genuinely mattered to him. And I knew the reason was connected in some way to his relationship with Jesus Christ. Being young and shy, I never would have stopped him. But he saw me and wanted to stop. I believe that Jesus would have stopped His delegation to talk to me too. Do We Ever Use Other People? By Robert E. Rogers who is a pastor, a speaker and a free-lance writer. He and his wife, Brenda, are parents of two grown children and live in Bethel, Delaware. Source: Decision, May 2000, Copyright (c) 2000 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, www.graham-assn.org/decision ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: MISCELLANEOUS SIGNS On a ski lift in Taos, NM: 'No jumping from the lift. Survivors will be prosecuted.' Official sign near door: Door Alarmed. Handprinted sign nearby: Window frightened. Road sign seen on the island of Cyprus (translation of the Greek): 'Caution: Road Slippery from Grapejuice' A sign advertising a Company wide skiing race: Let's see who can go downhill the fastest. Sign in King's Canyon in California. 'Slow Parking Ahead' Two signs found on top of one another in a country kitchen several years ago: Restrooms <------ Please wait for hostess to seat you. Seen in a health food store: "Shoplifters will be beaten over the head with an organic carrot." "Children left unattended will be towed at parents expense." I went to a little hole in the wall restaurant the sign read: Women are not served here . . . You have to bring your own. Source: the Funny List www.egroups.com/list/thefunnylist ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A man called his neighbor only to have the phone answered by a young boy. He asked the lad if he could speak to his father. The lad replied his father was not home. "Well, then, could I speak to your mother?" "She's not home either." the lad replied. "Okay then," asked the man, "who is home with you?" the boy answered "Just my brother!!" Alright then, the man replied, may I speak with him? The lad said "yes" and went to get his brother. After what seemed like a very long time, the boy came back and said that his brother could not come to the phone. Exasperated, the man said, "Well, why not?" the boy answered, "Because I can't get him out of his crib!" Source: The Funnies, andychaps_the-funnies-subscribe@egroups.com ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: INTERESTING FACTS Alexander Graham Bell, never telephoned his wife or mother. They both were deaf. Human hair is estimated to grow at 0.00000001 miles per hour. A person at rest generates as much heat as a 100-watt light bulb. 7'1" basketball star Wilt Chamberlain's parents were 5'8". The human tooth has 55 miles of canals in it. Source: Today's Useless Facts Useless_Facts-subscribe@listbot.com |