I REMEMBER READING OF Leonard Bernstein, the late, legendary conductor of the New York Philharmonic, giving an insightful answer in an informal interview. Following a televised performance, one admirer asked: “Mr. Bernstein, what is the most difficult instrument to play?” With quick wit and without even a thought he replied:
Read MoreCategory Archives: Anger
Nothing New
Remember that suffering is not new. In what is probably the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job, we read, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). Now there’s a statement we need to teach our children.
Read MorePatiently Waiting
My, oh my, did David learn a lesson! “Blessed be God. He kept me from murdering this man—from doing evil. I don’t have to fight that kind of battle, that’s God’s job. If vengeance is required, it is God’s to do.”
Read MoreGod of All My Moments
Wouldn’t you love the ability to go back in time and change something you did or said? I know there have been moments in my life—awful moments when I acted on the impulse of the flesh—that I would dearly love to call back.
Read MoreAnger’s Bitter Fruit
Now, wait a minute! Did we miss something? Where did Moses get the okay to deliver that scathing address? The truth is, he didn’t. Then where did it come from? From anger.
Read MoreIntrusions
I watched a young mother in a waiting room just last week. She was pregnant and had a toddler, plus one in diapers in her arms. Was she busy! Yet with incredible patience, that mother hung in there.
Read MoreDealing with Physical and Emotional Pain
It’s hard for me to read Paul’s words without wincing: “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.”
Read MoreA Realistic Appraisal of Serving Others
We Americans like things to be logical and fair. We not only like that, we operate our lives on that basis. Logic and fairness are big guns in our society. Meaning this: if I do what is right, good will come to me.
Read MoreDealing with Disrespect and Resentment
A man named Naaman was a high-ranking Syrian soldier. He was influential, wealthy, proud—a man of dignity, courage, patriotism, and military clout. There was only one problem: the man had leprosy.
Read MoreMental Barriers to God’s Voice, Part 2
As the Spirit of God attempts to communicate His truth to us, He runs up against the “wall” of our overall mental attitude, our natural mind-set. Along with the wall-like fortresses, we have natural, humanistic reasonings.
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