A lesson for living

I found an old pile of Reader´s Digests from the year of the Ark´s landing and found this article which I felt to be very fitting for me at this time and thought it might be an encouragement to you. ...... enjoy!!


Condensed from PLUS: The magazine of Positive Thinking by Ronald Reagan
(Found in Readers Digest Magazine May edition 1990)

"Everything happens for the best," my mother said whenever I faced disappointment.

"If you carry on, one day something good will happen. And you´ll realize that it wouldn´t have happened if not for that previous disappointment."

Mother was right, as I discovered after graduation from college in 1932. I had decided to try for a job in radio, then work my way up to sports announcer. I hitchhiked to Chicago and knocked on the door of every station and got turned down every time.

In one studio, a kind lady told me that big stations couldn´t risk hiring an inexperienced person. "Go out in the sticks and find a small station that´ll give you a chance."

I thumbed home to Dixon, Ill. While there were no radio-announcing jobs in Dixon, my father said that in a sports department they were looking for a local athelte to manage it. Since Dixon was where I had played high-school football, I applied. The job sounded just right for me. But I wasn´t hired.

My disappointement must have shown. "Everything happens for the best," Mom reminded me. Dad offered me the car to drive 70 miles to the Tri-Cities. I tried WOC RAdio in Davenport, Iowa. The program director, a wonderful Scotsman , told me they had already hired an announcer.

As I left his office, my frustration boiled over. I asked aloud, "How can a fellow get to be a sports announcer if he can´t get a job in a radio station?"

I was waiting for the elevator when I heard the director calling, "What was that you said about sports? Do you know anything about football?" Then he stood me before a microphone and asked me to broadcast an imaginary game.

The preceding autumn, my team had won a game in the last 20 seconds with a 65 yard run. I did a 15 min buildup to that play, and the director told me I would be broadcasting Saturday´s game!!!!

On my way home, as I thought of my mother´s words: "If you carry on, one day something good will happen - something that wouldn´t have happened if not for that previous disappointment."

High Speed Train

Christmas and New Year´s have passed me by.

It´s as if a high speed train would pass in front of me and I would stand there watching it from a distance only to feel a deafening silence and emptiness once the train had disappeared out of sight.

Here I stand, enveloped by the silence of the vast openess that surrounds me and all I am aware of is the ache of disappointment and resignation that resides in my heart.

An overwhelming desire to escape consumes me as my logic can no longer battle against the pain in my heart. It finds no sense to continue and no reason to fight. Year in and year out all my efforts have been futile and my results wanting. How long can the heart withstand? How long can the soul fight failure?

The Bible talks about a hope deferred making the heart sick. My heart is sick. I have not abanonded ship, but the storm is in process. I am waiting for God. I need to learn how to live with this disappointment and not let it steal my hope...although right now .....it feels like it has! Each day gives me the chance to, little by little, grasp on to God inspite of my present state of mind and soul.

I would have like to have been more my jolly self and inspire you over Christmas with light and life, but I am being true to my present state. I am trusting by faith that maybe in a few tomorrows´s my inner self with live up to God´s reality in my life.

The Canary

I have never owned a canary, but my sister has one. He is your classic yellow bird with a tremendous capacity to make a lot of noise! He squeeks, squirks, sings and throws his seed all over the floor -a truly enjoyable pet!

His cage is happily situated in the kitchen where we often sit having a cup of tea and a chat. Naturually we often find ourselves engrossed in different topics of conversation only to discover that our yellow companion joins in! More often than not the bird tends to "out talk" us becoming loud and squirky or simply singing at the top of his lungs! Often we only realize this when we have raised our voices to such a pitch as to hear ourselves over the bird!!!! It´s quite funny actually even though we mutter a somewhat frustrated "shut up" under our breath!

One day, not so long ago, our dear canary friend was strangely quiet. He was still and silent inside his cage and did not join in our conversation or burst into song.

Canaries stop singing for several reasons. They may not sing if they are in the cold or if they are ill. But one of the causes that really caught my attention was that they also stop singing when the molt. This usually happens once a year during the summer and can last between 6 - 8 weeks.

The canary is loosing it´s plummage .... and stops singing. It is stripped and doesn´t find anything to sing about.

Right now I find myself feeling like that molting canary. I feel "stripped" and discouraged and have lost my song.

I wish that I wasn´t writing such a "low" post, but I can't muster what isn´t there into being and felt I needed to be transparent! I am hoping that this time of molting...which I do believe that God is using inspite of the present pain and discomfort I am living... will soon pass.