Category: Never Too Late

  • “I will never forgive that man!”

    I stared at the red-faced man pounding the table. Always before, “Henry” struck me as a quiet, gentle man. Now the veins on his forehead bulged with emotion as he poured out his sad story.

    Some years before, he and his wife, “Louella,” invested most of their retirement savings with a trusted business acquaintance who “let them in” on what he promised would bring a great return on their investment .

    A few months and a lot of excuses later, the swindler skipped town. The shattered couple hired lawyers who tried for two years to bring the man to justice. Finally their attorneys told them it was hopeless. Henry and Louella ended up paying all court costs.

    With only a few years left before his retirement, Henry could not begin to make up their financial loss and Louella’s disability made it impossible for her to hold a job.

    Besides, in that small town, jobs were scarce.

    Their retirement dreams and plans had to be set aside 

    I had known this dear Christian couple for a year or so but had no inkling of this. All I could do now was tell him how sorry I was. After awhile I softly brought up Jesus’ call to forgive our enemies.

    Henry was having none of it. Once again he turned beet red and said, “No! It almost kills me that Louella and I have to live the way we do. That scoundrel stole the future we scrimped and saved for. People tell me I need to let it go, but I refuse to forgive him!”

    Then he got up and stomped away from the table. Clearly, the con man took their money, but Henry’s continuing enmity robbed these two of something much more valuable than dollars and cents.

    Their peace.

    The cost of maintaining a heart of stone

    Later that day I remembered the first time I glimpsed the fallout from unresolved anger. I was a high school freshman when my family moved to a new area and a new church. 

    One of the first things we observed was how every Sunday the same two families sat in the two front pews, one on the left and the other on the right. After the last hymn and the pastor’s benediction, both families marched out single file, each one staring straight ahead, never nodding or smiling to each other. 

    When I became good friends with one of the daughters I learned to know and love her parents, especially her smiling, always-had-a-joke-for-me father. But I sensed this was The Subject We Must Not Talk About.

    Over time the gist of the story came together. Each brother lived with his wife and children on farms along the same country road. One mile apart. Ten years or so earlier, for whatever reason, these two brothers had a falling-out. Apparently they had not spoken to each other since then. Neither had their family members.

    We also learned of the unspoken rule in that community: Invite only one brother (or his family members) to any birthday party or the like. A couple of times the hosts risked inviting both, but not telling either one beforehand. That never worked out well. Hardly anyone talked to anyone and the sense of celebration soon fizzled out. 

    You may wonder whether anyone tried to speak Bible truth and healing to these two. I know the answer is yes, but each brother answered, “No!”

    Their families, whatever they thought individually, were caught in the middle.

    The only balm for the pain

    I’ve always loved this quote by Lewis B. Smedes:

    “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

    All the individuals I described earlier went to church and heard clear Bible teaching every Sunday, but they lived as prisoners. They didn’t have to. Even in situations where the other person will not budge, the one who feels wronged can be free. It starts by giving all that pain to Jesus–then leaving it there. 

    Sometimes the hurt and heaviness remains , even when we’ve prayed. That signals we need to take the next step: Deliberately decide to let it go.(Repeat as often as necessary.)

    We may have every right to feel wronged, but to forgive means we give up that right. (I do not for one moment mean to imply that is easy to do!)

    Unless we relinquish “our rights,” even saying, “I forgive you,” will be meaningless.

    Healing that lasts

    Real healing, lasting healing, comes only through the work of Christ’s Spirit. Sometimes it takes awhile to get to the place of feeling free.

    Remember the message of Easter? 

    (Jesus said) “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”    –John 8:36

    “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”     –John 14:27

    Jesus took all our pain to the cross. We still live on earth and we’re still flawed human beings. But we are not alone. He walks with us through each day and our every question finds its deepest answer in Him.
     
    Dear reader, I wish you abiding peace in Jesus, every day of the year!
    Lovingly,
    Lenore

     

    Anger can poison a life. For life.

    Anger can poison a life. For life.

  • We forget sometimes that everything starts with envisioning something that’s not yet reality.

    Still, what sane person would stand before an enormous expanse of rough granite mountain and imagine he could hammer it, beat it or blast it into submission?

    Blog. Mt-Rushmore close up. 1.3.11Only one: Gutzon Borglum and he was 60 years old when he began this project in 1927.

    People called him a fool–and worse–but that didn’t stop him. Neither did South Dakota’s howling winds, thunderstorms, rain, frigid temperatures or blizzards, all of which he and his helpers experienced.  

    Borglum simply refused to give up on his dream. His vision for that enormous expanse of granite became a burning passion. It took over his life until he drew his last breath in 1941.

    (To get some idea of the scale, take a look at those pine trees at the bottom of the photo. They’re not seedlings.)

    We visited Mount Rushmore National Park when our four girls were growing up 

    For a long while we stood there transfixed while eagles circled high above our heads. 

    Before us were these four faces, each one 60 ft. high. It seemed we could look into the eyes of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

    Somehow it felt as if their eyes followed us when we walked from one side to the other. We spent a lot of time there, poring over the information booklet.

    The inescapable question: How on earth did they do that?

    “They” wouldn’t have done any of it without one man and his “crazy dream”

    Gutzon Borglum and his determination made it happen. It’s that simple. Borglum, age 60, drilled the first holes in 1927.  

    Over the next 14 years he and 400 other men blasted away and chipped away more than 450,000 tons of granite from the face of the mountain. One exhausting day followed another.

    Yet they kept on. Finally, in October, 1941, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial was officially declared done.

    Sadly, six months before that date, Borglum died of an embolism. His son Lincoln Borglum headed the faithful group of family members, craftsmen and laborers who brought the project to completion.

    Because Gutzon Borglum refused to give up his “crazy dream”, the United States of America has this national treasure, Mount Rushmore. 

    What’s your dream?

    Some of us have kept chasing around a tired old dream for years. By now we’ve convinced ourselves our “mountain” is ay too huge and we waited too long. We have no chance of succeeding.

    Or maybe we’ve said, “But that will take ___ years. If I start now, by the time I finish I’ll be ___ years old.”

    Find your obvious answer in another question. “How old will I be in ___ years if I don’t do it?”

    Here’s a promise of God that we can cherish at any age: 

       As your days, so shall your strength be.  –Deuteronomy 33:25b

    Maybe it’s not too late

    For starters, here are five people who got a late start. 

    • Andrea Bocelli was told he was “too old” to sing at age 48, but he started singing anyway.
    • Susan Boyle, an unknown woman from a very small town in Scotland, made it on “Britain’s Got Talent” at age 48 and wowed everyone. You know the rest of her story.
    • Julia Child didn’t start cooking until age 40 and began her long-running PBS cooking show at age 51.
    • Harlan Sanders had a couple of other careers before he founded Kentucky Fried Chicken at age 65.
    • Grandma Moses never picked up a paintbrush until she was 75–and never took a lesson, yet she became famous.

    How about you? If not now, when?

    It doesn’t matter whether your dream is as big as Mount Rushmore or as small as mastering the perfect batch of fudge. 

    What matters is that we don’t assume we’re licked before we start, just because we didn’t begin years ago. At any age and any stage of life, goals and dreams give us a reason to keep going.

    As for strength needed to do so, only one Source never gives out. That’s what the Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:13. Some of us know the truth of this promise first-hand, because we trusted it when we thought we had no strength left within us:   

     I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.   

    Who knows what you and I may yet do or how we may bless the world?

    As someone put it, “If you woke up this morning it’s a sign God still has something for you to do on this earth.”

    That “something” might sound small, such as aiming to be one of those people who cheers everybody up simply by speaking about what’s good and hopeful. (Don’t you love people like that?)

    But first we need to get in the habit of looking for what’s good. Any of us could do better at that if we simply stay aware and put in a bit of effort. It gets easier if we remember it is God who guides and enables and gives strength for each day, to all who trust him and ask in faith.

    Now let’s be ready to get outside our personal comfort zone. And let’s get going!

    Working on it, too,  

    Lenore

    Who Declared Your Dream Is Impossible?