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Taking Me Home

9/22/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
A pastor had been on a long flight between church conferences. The first warning of the approaching problems came when the sign on the airplane flashed on: Fasten Your Seat Belts. Then, after a while, a calm voice said, "We shall not be serving the beverages at this time as we are expecting a little turbulence. Please be sure your seat belt is fastened."

As the pastor looked around the aircraft, it became obvious that many of the passengers were becoming apprehensive. Later, the voice on the intercom said, "We are so sorry that we are unable to serve the meal at this time. The turbulence is still ahead of us." And then the storm broke . . .

The ominous cracks of thunder could be heard even above the roar of the engines. Lightning lit up the darkening skies, and within moments that great plane was like a cork tossed around on a celestial ocean. One moment the airplane was lifted on terrific currents of air; the next, it dropped as if it were about to crash.

The pastor confessed that he shared the discomfort and fear of those around him. He said, "As I looked around the plane, I could see that nearly all the passengers were upset and alarmed. Some were praying. The future seemed ominous and many were wondering if they would make it through the storm.

"Then, I suddenly saw a little girl. Apparently the storm meant nothing to her. She had tucked her feet beneath her as she sat on her seat; she was reading a book and every- thing within her small world was calm and orderly.

"Sometimes she closed her eyes, then she would read again; then she would straighten her legs, but worry and fear were not in her world. When the plane was being buffeted by the terrible storm when it lurched this way and that, as it rose and fell with frightening severity, when all the adults were scared half to death, that marvelous child was completely composed and unafraid." The minister could hardly believe his eyes.

It was not surprising therefore, that when the plane finally reached its destination and all the passengers were hurrying to disembark, our pastor lingered to speak to the girl whom he had watched for such a long time. Having commented about the storm and the behavior of the plane, he asked why she had not been afraid.

The child replied, "Cause my Daddy's the pilot, and he's taking me home."

There are many kinds of storms that buffet us. Physical, mental, financial, domestic, and many other storms can easily and quickly darken our skies and throw our plane into apparently uncontrollable movement. We have all known such times, and let us be honest and confess: it is much easier to be at rest when our feet are on the ground than when we are being tossed about a darkened sky.

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 6 (2008).


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Quit Fighting

7/5/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
Often sheer effort and determination are not enough to reach our goals. Accurate knowledge is necessary.

For example, the ancients who attempted to fly by strapping feathered wings to their arms and flapping with all their might as they leaped from high places invariably failed. Despite their dreams and hard work, they were fighting against some very powerful forces of nature.

No one could be strong enough to win such a fight. Flight became possible only after people learned to understand the relevant natural laws and principles that made flight possible—the law of gravity, Bernoulli’s principle, and the concepts of lift, drag, and resistance.

When people designed flying systems that recognized or harnessed the power of these laws and principles, rather than fighting them, they were finally able to fly to heights and distances that previously were unimaginable.

“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. And  swing!”  Leo Buscaglia

Courtesy of the “Howe Herald.”  Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 6 (2008).


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The Oyster

6/6/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
There once was an oyster whose story I tell,
Who found that some sand had got into his shell.
It was only a grain but it gave him great pain,
For oysters have feelings although they're so plain.

Now, did he berate the harsh workings of fate
That had brought him to such a deplorable state?
Did he curse at the government, cry for election,
And claim that the sea should have given him protection?

No − He said to himself as he lay on a shell,
Since I cannot remove it, I shall try to improve it. 
Now the years have rolled around, 
as the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate destiny − stew.

And the small grain of sand that had bothered him so
Was a beautiful pearl all richly aglow.
Now the tale has a moral;
For isn't it grand what an oyster can do
With a morsel of sand.
 
What couldn't we do 
If we'd only begin
With some of the things
That get under our skin.

Author: David Cohen 


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Weakness or Strength

5/23/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
Sometimes your biggest weakness can become your biggest strength. Take, for example, the story of one 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn't understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.

"Sensei," the boy finally said, "Shouldn't I be learning more moves?"

"This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you'll ever need to know," the sensei replied. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened.

"No," the sensei insisted, "Let him continue."

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.

On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

"Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?"

"You won for two reasons," the sensei answered. "First, you've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm."

The boy's biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

 

Author Unknown, Bits & Pieces, August 15, 1996, Economic Press Inc.  Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 6 (2008).


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Ever Have One of Those Days?

4/3/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
Sometimes we start out with the best of intentions and then things just don’t go the way we planned. It’s like the letter the bricklayer wrote to his boss requesting sick leave:

“I arrived at the job after the storm, checked the building out and saw that the top needed repairs. I rigged a hoist and boom, attached the rope to a barrel and pulled bricks to the top.

When I pulled the barrel to the top, I secured the rope at the bottom. After repairing the building, I went back to fill the barrel with the leftover bricks. I went down and released the rope to lower the bricks, and the barrel, which was heavier than I am, jerked me off the ground.

I decided to hang on. Halfway up, I met the barrel coming down and received a blow to the shoulder. I hung on and went to the top, where I hit my head on the boom and caught my fingers in the pulley.

In the meantime, the barrel hit the ground and burst open, throwing bricks all over. This made the barrel lighter than I, and I started down at high speed. Halfway down I met the barrel coming up and received a blow to my shins. I continued down and fell on the bricks, receiving cuts and bruises. At this point I must have lost my presence of mind, because I let go of the rope and the barrel came down and hit me on the head. I respectfully request sick leave.”

I’m sure we all have empathy for this diligent worker. Some days are like that. I’ve heard people say that they are at the end of their rope. We find that often the only answer we can find is just to “tie a knot in the end and hang on.”



Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 5 (2007).

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Wet Pants

2/19/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
Come with me to a third grade classroom . . .  There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants is wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.
The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!"

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else -- Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. “You've done enough, you klutz!"

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Susie whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 5 (2007).


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Don't Quit

1/22/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
and you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is odd with its twist and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
the silver tint of the clouds of doubt.
You never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far.
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst,
that you must not quit.

Author: C. W. Longenecker.  Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 5 (2007).


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God's Embroidery

1/8/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was, the underside. I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand.

She would smile at me, look down and gently say, "My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side."

I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view.

A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother's voice say, "Son, come and sit on my knee."

This I did, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset.  I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then Mother would say to me, "My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top.  It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing."

Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, "Father, what are You doing?"

He has answered, "I am embroidering your life."

I say, "But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can't they all be bright?"

The Father seems to tell me, "My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side."

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 5 (2007).


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Enough

1/2/2014

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
I saw a “Twilight Zone” television program years ago where a man was granted one wish. He wished that he would always win at everything he did. He had always loved to gamble but was a perennial loser. Now he discovered that regardless of the odds or the game, he couldn’t lose. He made ridiculous bets but always his number came up. Soon he tired of that and ventured into other avenues of pleasure and pursuit. Still his “luck” held and all he found was success. In time he became very depressed and unhappy. Without the possibility of losing, winning lost all meaning. Happiness was as elusive as ever.

Life consists of a delicate balance of opposites. A friend recently sent me a “five day” weather forecast from Seattle, Washington, which creatively predicted five days of continuous rain. As awful as that sounds, remember that by the end of May each year we in Florida are begging for a good soaking. We need both to be happy.

So, for this year,

“I wish for you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
For you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
Happiness to keep your spirit alive.
Pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
Gain to satisfy your wanting.
Loss to appreciate all that you possess.”

I wish you enough!

© 2003, John C. Fitts, III.  All Rights Reserved.  Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume I (2003).


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Do What You Love

11/18/2013

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Picture© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.
Steve Jobs started Apple Computer when he was 20. He started the company in his parent’s garage and in 10 years Apple grew to be a $2 billion company with 4,000 employees. At age 30, one year after creating the Macintosh, Jobs got fired. How did he get fired from his own company? As Apple grew, Jobs hired someone he thought to be very talented to run the company with him. And at first things were great. But then their visions of the future of the company started to diverge and Apple’s  Board of Directors sided with the other guy. At age 30, Jobs found himself fired. (He regained the helm of Apple Computers two years later in 1997.)

Job’s failure was very public. And he thought about getting out of Silicon Valley altogether. But then something happened. It began to dawn on him that he still loved what he did. And so he decided to start all over again.

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”

Jobs went on to found two more successful companies, met his wife, and started a family.

“I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was an awful-tasting medicine. But I guess I needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love.”

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 5 (2007).


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    John Fitts is a retired hospital chaplain and a contributor & publisher of Grace Drops. John lives in Palm Harbor, Florida with his artist wife, Patty. 
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