Heart Hope by Olga

Birthdays are supposed to be your own special day with people pampering you, and showering you with greetings and well wishes. Leading up to the big day, that’s what had been happening. Cards, phone messages, Facebook posts, three birthday cakes and even a stand-up paddle boarding lesson followed by lunch. Today was going to be an extraordinary day. Until…I arrived at church.  I’m one of those people who likes to get there early in order to greet people and make them feel welcome, so when a friend spotted a guest with two children and tasked me with assisting them, I was on it. Upstairs to the children’s wing we went and then got the teenage son situated when the director of the children’s Sunday School program asked me if I would check in on the infant room. She said I didn’t need to stay and that she would be down in a few minutes. I raced downstairs halfway thinking that someone would be awaiting; after all it was my birthday. There was someone there, but not exact...

I’m not sure where I got this and don’t know who wrote it, but I thought you might enjoy it. People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. When you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the FINAL analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway. www.hearthope.org

Spotted at the Rec Center recently was a t-shirt that said, “There is no finish line.” As I completed my workout, I thought about the saying. It was my assumption that it meant that we are not ever to think we are finished because there is always another race or something to accomplish.  If that is what the wearer meant by it, I am completely on board, however, in life there is a finish line. It might be one that we don’t really want to face, but it is looming never-the-less. The final finish line for all of us in this life is ultimately death. No matter how hard we try to stay young, and fit and healthy, one day this body will turn back to dust.  The only hope we have beyond death is the certainty of eternal life, but that involves an either/or situation. It means eternal life with our Lord and Savior forever or it means that we are separated from Him for all eternity. The choice is yours. He invites us to be in His family. He has paid the price so that we can be with Hi...

It was to be the event of the season...the wedding of a young woman that I am close to was taking place. The event was special because the young couple is loved by many people in our community and in their hometown communities and God had brought them together.  My desire was to preserve the memories of the evening by taking lots of pictures, so I took the battery out of my camera in order to have it fully charged. However in my haste to get to the church to participate in all of the fun of getting the bride and her attendants dressed, picking up treats as bribes for the little children participants and reviewing all of the things I was to do during the day to make things run smoothly, I left my house without the battery. I had the camera, but the battery was still on the charger. The instrument was there to do its job, but without the source of energy, it was useless.  That camera is like our lives… we can show up, but if we don’t have the source of power that gives joy we...

It was the last leg of my trip home. I had spoken at a retreat and due to the preparation for the speaking engagement and a busy week ahead; I was looking forward to some quiet time on the plane. Occupying the window seat I thought I might be safe from having to make small talk since the lady in the aisle seat had immediately pulled out her magazine. Maybe I could just be to myself, but God had other plans in store for my afternoon when a man asked if he could sit in the middle seat.  You could tell he was a hard working man, a bit rough around the edges, with fresh growth on his cheeks and calloused hands. That part was fine, but as he eased into the seat next to mine I caught a whiff of the awful reeking smell of too much alcohol from the previous night that seemed to be emanating from his pores. He wanted to chat and so I asked where he had been and he told me he was on a quick turnaround trip just for the day to take his four year old daughter back to her mother. He lived a...