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WITandWISDOM(tm) - June 4, 2007 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: The past is finished. Learn from it and let it go. The future is not even here yet. Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it. Worrying is worthless. When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, when you stop worrying about what might never happen, then you will be in the present moment. Then you will begin to experience joy in life. - Brian Weiss, MD. ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: The life of Fanny Crosby—our sweet singer in the night—shows us how faith, courage, and cheerfulness can win over terrible handicaps. Her sight was completely destroyed when she was only six weeks old because someone placed a wrong poultice on her eyes. Fanny, then, never saw the beauties of the world about her. This affliction, however, only served to open a new world about her in which she saw Christ as her ever-present Helper and Friend. Refusing to be pitied, she lived a most happy and useful life, making other lives better by her sweet songs. Believing that this was the work to which God had ordained her and for which He had providentially permitted the loss of her natural vision, she entered upon her lifework with such wholehearted zeal that she produced and published more than 8,000 gospel hymns and songs. She became America’s best-loved gospel-song writer. Throughout her songs runs a note of certainty and assurance which stems from faith in God and His Word. Often the lines came to her as fast as they could be dictated. The words for “Blessed Assurance” were written as a result of a visit that Mrs. Joseph F. Knapp paid to her. Mrs. Knapp wrote the tune, took it to her friend, and after playing it asked, “Fanny, what does that tune say to you?” Fanny thought for a few moments and then replied: “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.” Another hymn was on its way to bless humanity. This one, Ira Sankey declared, was one of the most popular and useful of gospel hymns in the great Moody-Sankey revivals. In her declining years “Aunt Fanny” loved to recite these words: “This is my story, this is my song, “Praising my Saviour all the day long.” Though sightless, Fanny Crosby had, nevertheless, experienced the “beatific vision” and was able to translate her faith and assurance into lines that have enriched the world. Source: Signs of the Times, Copyright (c) June 1984, Pacific Press, http://www.signstimes.com More about Fanny Crosby: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby Words and Audio Files for over 400 of her songs: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Albert Einstein: You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way. You send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat. ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: The parishioners are talking with the minister at the back door of the sanctuary. "We were so glad to hear you say you didn't know where the money for the budget was going to come from. For a while, we thought you were going to ask us for it." ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: In 1894, Smuggler mine in Aspen Colorado produced a silver nugget that weighed 2,054 pounds http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2004/2820/pdf/LeadvilleMapScreen.pdf More information (with a different weight – 2,350) http://www.aspenhistory.org/smg.html