One of my friends is having an actual party for his friends at a country club here in Phoenix for his blogging anniversary.

I am just continuing to post!!!

Just a note of Thanks to all those who have come and commented on my blogs.

Also I have met many nice people who I would have never met if I had not started to blog here on the stream. Thank you to my many new friends.

ron

"The soul of man, left to its own natural level is a potentially lucid cyrstal left in darkness. It is perfect in its own nature, but it lacks something that it can only receive from outside and above itself. But when the light shines on it, it becomes in a manner transformed into light and seems to lose its nature in the splendor of a higher nature, the nature of the light that is in it.

So the natural goodness of man, his capacity for love which must always be in some sense selfish if it remains in the natural order, becomes transfigured and transformed when the Love of God shines in it."

Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain, p. 179.

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals.

Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farm hand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!" The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No, sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.

Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

When you're prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.

We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God. We don't need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.

Are you ever tempted to 'judge the book by its cover?'

There are various studies which show that people often 'judge the book by its cover'. Teachers were given a series of essays with the names of the students attached. Students who had certain names like Bridget, Maude, Mildred, George, and Harry were given lower grades than students with names that sounded 'smarter'. The teachers were then given a series of essays by the same students with the names blocked out. The same students who were graded down the first time now received better grades. Similar studies have been done with employers who were sent applications with unusual names or unfamiliar names. These applications were rejected without a interview because the employer perceived as unqualified simply because of the name. Similar studies have been done with persons who were overweight, had various unusual physical features, age, gender and racial features.

Apparently, many people in our culture are judged by their name, size, gender, color or age.

According to the Bible, God is no respector of persons. I wonder why those who claim to follow Him fall into the trap of judging his creation?