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DON'T GIVE UP Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. — Galatians 6:9 KJV Do you ever feel like giving up? Perhaps you’re discouraged about your finances or you’re facing problems with your health, your marriage, or your children. Sometimes problems seem so overwhelming that the road ahead seems too steep to climb. We all go through these times. I’ve wanted to give up and quit many times through the years. But when I realized I had nothing interesting to go back to, I determined to keep...

COPPERMAN While walking through San Francisco's Union Square recently I ran into Copperman. He is a street entertainer, a young actor in copper paint from head to toe, who sits motionless as people walk by on the busy street. Many stop, awe-struck to see this statue-like man. You cannot even see him breathing. People leave contributions in his copper pot in appreciation for this fine "performance". Copperman sits for 25 minutes at a time and then takes a break. During the break he is quite animated and eagerly shares his story with his audience. He told us that it...

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before; Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle see His banners go. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before. At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee; On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory. Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise; Brothers lift your voices proud your anthems raise. Like a mighty army moves the church of God; Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod; We...

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE Good morning this rainy Sunday! This morning someone asked me, "How do you like the lousy weather, Chaplain?" I thought a moment about the fact that my uniform was wet, my car had trouble starting, and about all those poor people stuck in the wall of traffic that inevitably occurs when 58 gets drenched. Then later I thought, how would we exist without the rain which makes all life on our planet possible? I remembered the old prayer in my prayer book, a blessing to God for the gift of wind and rain. There is an...

YOU'RE THE ONE Les tells the story proudly now, with an ending that few would have ever predicted when he was in high school. He remembers the turning point as though it were yesterday. Just a chance encounter and an offhand comment... but it changed his life forever. He had slipped quietly into the back of a classroom to wait for a friend that day. The last thing he wanted was to be noticed, but the teacher asked him to go to the board and work out a problem. Les pointed out that he wasn't a student in that...

OBSTACLES "For a long time it had seemed to me that my life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in my way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles WERE my life." Fr. Alfred D Souza

EXAMPLE The most valuable gift you can give another is a good example. "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you." (John: 13:15) In his autobiography, Armand Hammer, known as much for his humanitarian efforts as for being chairman and CEO of Occidental Petroleum, an advisor to presidents from Roosevelt to Reagan, and an industrialist, reveals the roots of his giving spirit: "My father had become a prominent and greatly loved figure in the area. . .It was an almost ecstatic experience for me to ride with him when he...

YOU WILL NEVER BE SORRY FOR: ...thinking before speaking, ...hearing before judging, ...forgiving your enemies, ...being candid and frank, ...helping a fallen friend, ...being honest in your work, ...standing by your principles, ...blocking your ears to gossip, ...being courteous and kind. Unknown br>

KEEPING THE FAITH The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and...

MOVING BEYOND CAPE BOJADOR The early Portuguese explorers believed that the oceans were impassable below Cape Bojador, a point on the West African coast. When sailors set aside their fears and moved past Cape Bojador, they found that their fears were groundless, that their limitations were imaginary. We all have our own Cape Bojador. We fear things that we need not fear. We draw boundaries around areas of our lives and decide that we can't go past them. Since we believe these false paradigms, we will stay within their artificial boundaries and lose whatever experiences we might have found...

AND THIS TOO SHALL PASS An Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which would be true and appropriate in all times and in all situations. They presented him with the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! Abraham Lincoln in an address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society in Milwaukee - 30 September 1859

ARE YOU TOO BUSY FOR GOD? This means we must commit ourselves to hearing the Lord's voice. How else can we know and do the will of our Heavenly Father? It means that we have a particular commitment to the God-ordained transformation that needs to occur within us so that we may reflect the King of Glory's character. When we decide to be open to the Lord of Heaven, He transforms our lives, and we experience a quietness in our spirit, a confidence in our heart, a dogged determination in our mind, and an increasing faith in our soul....

KEEP MOVING A college class was graduating on a hot and humid day. As the graduates walked across the platform and received their diplomas from the president of the college, he smiled, shook their hands, and said loudly, "Congratulations!" Then, in a much lower voice, one that was firm and could be heard only by the graduates, he would say, "Keep moving". He was only trying to keep the line moving across the stage, but his words were good advice for a lifetime: "Keep moving". After every achievement growing up, graduation, marriage, job promotion, even retirement the best advice...

HIGH FLIGHT John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Shortly before his plane was shot down during World War II, he wrote a poem called "High Flight." The last stanza reads: Up, up the long delirious, burning blue I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace, Where never lark, or even eagle, flew; And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God. John Magee was only nineteen years old when he wrote these words. Today this poem is...

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, A time...

"AND LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS" Matthew 28:20 One morning I stood on the bluffs overlooking the coast at Camp Pendleton. I spied an amphibious naval vessel just off shore. As I stood watching, it came into full view, then disappeared as the early morning fog came and went. The ship was always there, but it was only visible part of the time. It spoke to me of the reality of God's presence. The truth is God is always there, but our changing moods affect our ability to see. It's good days and bad days again, or would...

WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM LIFE "I've learned that although it's hard to admit, I'm secretly glad by parents are strict with me." (Age 14) "I've learned that silent company is often more healing than words of advice." (Age 24) "I've learned that the greater a person's sense of guilt, the greater the need to cast blame on others." (Age 16) "I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die." (Age 53) "I've learned that making a living is not the same as making a life." (Age 58) "I've learned that if...

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI Those of you who are more "mature" Marines & Sailors will remember one of the pre-eminent TV series of the '50's, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. Many of these programs were quite scary, but they usually had a good moral and made the point in a rather unforgettable manner. On one episode, an astronaut is readying for his blast off on a fifty-year mission to outer space. He is to be placed in a state of suspended animation and will not age one day by the time he returns to Earth. As fate has it,...

ONLY GOD GIVES PEACE The Lord will give [unyielding and impenetrable] strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace. Psalm 29:11 One of the greatest ways God speaks to us and leads us is through the inner witness. In other words, we just know inside what is right or wrong. It is a deeper level of knowing than "head knowledge". This type of knowing is in the spirit...we simply have peace or a lack of peace. By the presence or absence of peace, we know what we should do. I once spoke with a woman...

THE CRACKED POT A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on the end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of full of water in his master’s house. Of...