"Are you concerned about others or just yourself?"

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A mouse saw a farmer and his wife open a package, and it was a mousetrap! Running out to the farmyard, the mouse shouted, "There’s a mouse trap in the house." The chicken said, "This is of no consequence to me." The pig said, "There is nothing I can do about it but pray." The cow said, “Am I in grave danger?"

That very night the mousetrap caught a poisonous snake, but the farmer’s wife didn’t see that it was a snake and it bit her.

So the farmer rushed her to the hospital. She came home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer went to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. Her sickness continued so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock and to feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. She died, and so many people came to her funeral the farmer slaughtered the cow to feed them.

The next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that  it doesn’t concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

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"Are you in a storm?"

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 You can usually hear the rumble in the distance before you can see any of it. And you can usually smell it in the air. And then you can see it quite some ways away. And only after all of this happens, you can see it coming at you, watching it move like a curtain unfolding across the landscape.

What am I talking about? A summer thunderstorm at the beach.

It rumbles in the distance before you can see it. “Where did that come from?” you ask.

You smell it in the air, the heavy dampness. “Smells like rain,” you say.

And when you look out across the sand and surf, you see that large black cloud. “Looks like a big one,” you say. Shortly you see the rain coming and you go inside to wait it out.

Like summer thunderstorms at the beach, you can hear and smell and see some of life’s storms before they assault you. When you do, go inside of God’s protective love and wait it out. As you make a life, not just a living today, be sure to listen to life for what God has to say about your storms.

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"Do you discover things to be grateful for?"

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 Yesterday I told you about a friend who listened to his life and discovered that he was grateful to God for being able to go home and cut the grass since his cousin with polio couldn’t.

He shared his gratitude with his coworker at the table. And the coworker said something like, “Yea, I know what you mean. I’m grateful just to be here.”

“What do you mean?” my friend asked.

“Well,” the coworker said, “I played football for Marshall University back in the early 70s. In fact, I was a freshman in 1971. Back then, they didn’t let freshmen travel with the team. So I wasn’t on the plane that crashed coming back from East Carolina University, killing everyone on board. And I had to help identify the bodies. At first, I didn’t want to. Then I realized how blessed I was not to be on the plane, even though I wanted to go with the team. I’m grateful to be sitting here with you today.”

What are you grateful to God for? Some things you may know about, but others you have yet to discover. Listen to life for what you have to be grateful to God for today.

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"Are you grateful?"

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 A friend of mine told the story recently of eating lunch in a cafeteria with a coworker. The conversation was casual and went something like this:

“What are you doing after work today?”

“Oh, I have to go home and cut grass.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“Yea, sure; a whole lot of fun.”

Well, about that time, a cousin of the guy who has to go home and cut grass comes into the cafeteria. He’s in a wheelchair and has been most of his life. Polio struck his body as a child and he’s been in that wheelchair ever since.

So the grass-cutting coworker gets up to visit with his cousin, and when he comes back to the table stops eating for a moment, and then says to his friend, “You know, that’s my cousin in the wheelchair. He contracted polio as a child. He never could cut grass to make money in the summer. I’ll bet he’d love to be able to go home and cut grass after work today. Guess I should be grateful I can…”

So which do you do more of: complain or be grateful to God?

Today, when you’re talking about something you have to do, think about this guy, his cousin, and mowing grass. Then listen to your life and make a life, not just a living.

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"Are you ever tempted to gossip?"

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Sarah was a gossip and the self-appointed supervisor of her town’s morals, which means she kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Most of the town’s residents didn’t appreciate her activities, but feared her gossiping enough to stay quiet.  

Sarah made a mistake, however, when she accused George, a newcomer to town, of being an alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck parked in front of the town’s only bar one afternoon. She told George, in front of others, that everyone seeing it there would know that he was an alcoholic. George, a man of 
few words, stared at her for a moment and just walked away. He said absolutely nothing.

 But George was a man of action. Later that evening, George, quietly parked his pickup in front of Sarah's house…and he left it there all night long.

 The next time you’re tempted to gossip, remember to be careful whose business you stick your nose into. It could wind up in your own.  

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