Hope Is Putting Faith To Work When

A Man Without A Purpose Is Like A Ship Without A Rudder - Never Likely To Reach Home Port. To Us Comes The Signal: Chart Your Course, Set Your Sail, Position Your Rudder, And Proceed.

Do We Give Thanks To God 'for His Unspeakable Gift' And His Rich Blessings So Abundantly Bestowed Upon Us?

I Read With Keen Interest The Words Of A Bumper Sticker Readily Visible On The Highly Polished Chrome Bumper Of A Car Which Was Weaving In And Out Of The Traffic Stream. The Words Were These: "honk If You Love Jesus." No One Honked. Perhaps Each Was Disturbed By The Thoughtless And Rude Actions Of The Offending Driver. Then, Again, Would Honking Be An Appropriate Manner In Which To Show One's Love For The Son Of God, The Savior Of The World, The Redeemer Of All Mankind? Such Was Not The Pattern Provided By Jesus Of Nazareth.

Clearly, One Primary Purpose Of Our Existence Upon The Earth Is To Obtain A Body Of Flesh And Bones. We Have Also Been Given The Gift Of Agency. In A Thousand Ways We Are Privileged To Choose For Ourselves. Here We Learn From The Hard Taskmaster Of Experience. We Discern Between Good And Evil. We Differentiate As To The Bitter And The Sweet. We Discover That There Are Consequences Attached To Our Actions.

Sometimes We Can Take Offense So Easily. On Other Occasions We Are Too Stubborn To Accept A Sincere Apology. Who Will Subordinate Ego, Pride, And Hurt-then Step Forward With 'i Am Truly Sorry! Let's Be As We Once Were: Friends. Let's Not Pass To Future Generations The Grievances, The Anger Of Our Time'? Let's Remove Any Hidden Wedges That Can Do Nothing But Destroy.