THE CAPTAIN OF MY SOUL poem Invictus by W.E. Henley

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishment the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

A pig ate his fill of acorns under an oak tree and then started to root around the tree. A crow remarked, "You should not do this. If you lay bare the roots, the tree will wither and die." "Let it die," said the pig. "Who cares as long as there are acorns?"

July, the seventh month, was named after Julius Caesar. Not to be outdone, the Emperor Augustus called the following month August after himself. Since that month had only thirty days at the time, he borrowed a day from February and added it to August, making sure that his month would not be inferior to Julius Caesar’s.

Who is in control? This is an important question for many people whether in the church or in the home and it reflects a weakness in their thinking. When people grow concerned about whether they have control of a meeting or other activity, they often show their lack of faith in God and their lack of desire to be a servant. Sadly, they also deprive themselves of God's power. A good illustration of this is a nuclear power plant. In such a plant, their are rods called "control rods." Their purpose is to control the flow of power from the nuclear reactor. As the rods are pushed into the reactor they dampen the power and as they are pulled out, the power increases. Likewise, the more people try to push for their own control, the less power God can provide for their lives.

I AM LIKE JAMES & JOHN Charles Swindoll "Improving Your Serve"

I am like James and John.

Lord, I size up other people

in terms of what they can do for me;

how they can further my program,

feed my ego,

satisfy my needs,

give me strategic advantage.

I exploit people,

ostensibly for your sake,

but really for my own sake.

Lord, I turn to you

to get the inside track

and obtain special favors,

your direction for my schemes,

your power for my projects,

your sanction for my ambitions,

your blank check for whatever I want.

I am like James and John.

Change me, Lord.

Make me a man who asks of you and of others,

what can I do for you!'

Recently I laid a small circle of poison around a hill of stinging ants. Thinking the tiny granules of poison were food, the ants began to pick them up and carry them throughout the colony.

I returned later to see how well the poison was working. Hundreds of the stinging ants were carrying the poison down into their hill. Then I noticed a hole in the circle of poison. Some of the poison was moving in the opposite direction - away from the hill.

Some smaller, non-stinging ants had found this "food" and were stealing it from their ant neighbors. Thinking they were getting the other ants' treasure, they unwittingly poisoned themselves.

When we see someone with more than we have, we must beware. The hunger to beg, borrow or steal our way into what is theirs may poison us spiritually.

HOW TO BE MISERABLE

Some unknown writer has given us these practical suggestions on "How to be Miserable"

Think about yourself.

Talk about yourself. Use "I" as often as possible.

Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others.

Listen greedily to what people say about you.

Expect to be appreciated.

Be jealous and envious.

Be sensitive to slights.

Never forgive a criticism.

Trust nobody but yourself.

Insist on consideration and respect.

Sulk if people are not grateful for favors shown them.

Be on the lookout for a good time for yourself.

Love yourself supremely.

THE RICH MAN'S SIN Anthony Campolo

I always have to ask myself what kind of car Jesus would buy if He were presently among us in the flesh. Would the Lord spend $40,000 for a BMW? I doubt it. In the face of the desperate hunger and poverty that exists in the world today, I think that Jesus would live more simply in order to use His resources to help those who are simply trying to live.

I believe that Jesus seriously questions a lifestyle of affluence in the presence of poverty. His parable about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) tells us volumes about His way of thinking. The rich man, dressed in his fine clothing, ate at a sumptuous table.

And Lazarus, a beggar covered with sores, lay waiting every day at the rich man's gate in case he might receive a few crumbs that had fallen from the rich man's table. This pattern continued until one day, as Jesus told it, Lazarus and the rich man both died. Lazarus was taken to the "bosom of Abraham," but the rich man went straight to hell. And the rich man begged, then, for Abraham to allow Lazarus to come give him just a drop of water, but Abraham didn't send him. So he begged that Abraham send Lazarus to warn his brothers what would happen when they died if they didn't change their ways. And, of course, Abraham declined again, knowing it wouldn't work. It's an interesting story. The rich man, at least, was worried about his brothers. Really, he may not have been all that bad, in the way we view "badness." His sin was not that he broke any of the Ten Commandments. He wasn't an adulterer or a thief. He hadn't killed anyone and in all probability, he came by his money through hard work. The sin of the rich man was that he enjoyed a yuppie-like "Good life" while being unconcerned about those around him who desperately needed help.

PHONE COMPANY'S NEEDS COME FIRST - Jan Witsoe quoted by R.Digest 4/84 p. 158

As a frequent user of the pay phone at a popular truck stop, I was greatly inconvenienced when the phone went out of commission. Repeated requests for repair brought only promises. After several days the phone company was contacted and told that there was no longer any rush. The phone was now working fine - except that all money was being returned upon completion of each call.

A repairman arrived within the hour.

THE CAT'S PAJAMAS - from "All My Patients are Under The Bed" by Marilyn and Haskel Frankel as quoted in R. Digest 4/84 p. 185

Vet Louis J. Camuti used to tell of one of his more unusual house calls:

My patient, Mrs. Rouben Mamoulian, wife of the stage and screen director, lived a life of luxury. Her cat, however, was an ordinary gray tabby named Dinah. Or so I thought. Actually, I found out that Dinah was the cat's meow when Mrs. Mamoulian one day asked, "Would you like to see her wardrobe?" She led the way to a room dominated by a large French armoire.

Holding up several tiny outfits, she asked, "Aren't they fine?"

"But your cat wasn't wearing anything when I saw her just now."

Mrs. Mamoulian looked at me as if I were a fool. "Of course not. The cat isn't going anywhere." She kept pulling out more cat-size garments: gowns, petticoats, a cape.

"It's incredible," I exclaimed. "These clothes look tailor made."

"Well, of course they are," she replied, giving me a scorching look. "How else could we get a decent fit?"

SELFISHNESS BOOMERANGS October 1991, p. 12

A very rich merchant died and left his estate to a number of monks with whom he was acquainted. The instructions in the will, however, directed them to give to his only son that which they wished. They interpreted the will to mean that the son should only get what they decided to give him. The estate was $300,000. They got together and decided that they would give the son $10,000. When their decision was made known, the attorney in charge of the will told them that they had misread the will. They felt it was their decision to give the son whatever they decided he should have. But the will stated that whatever they wished for, the son would get. They wished for themselves $290,000 and, therefore, according to the wording of the will, that is what son got - what they wished for themselves.

Paul Simon of Simon & Garfunkle wrote the following lyrics:

Don't talk of love, I've heard the word before;

It's sleeping in my memory of feelings that have died.

I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain.

If I never loved, I never would have cried.

I am a rock; I am an island.

I have my books and my poetry to protect me.

Shielded in my armor,

Hiding in my room,

Deep within my womb,

I touch no one and no one touches me.

I am a rock; I am an island.

Maybe Paul's trouble can be summed up in the little word "I."