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Flick the switch
Contrary to what many people think, those gigantic power stations that light up our cities don’t store electricity for later use, but rather produce energy to meet the immediate demand. Their huge...
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Smouldering disobedience
Norman Vincent Peale, author of the Power of Positive Thinking, tells how as a young boy he found a cigar behind his house, lit it up and puffed away, not enjoying it but feeling very grown up. Then,...
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If you want the light to come on…
Someone once told me about going into a telephone booth in America after dark and not being able to read the telephone directory because the light wasn’t on. Fortunately someone saw his predicament and...
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Do what comes naturally
Jean McMahon, writing in the Reader’s Digest, described a church service in Kentucky, where she watched an irate father carry a boisterous child out of the service, slung under his arm. No one so much...
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Not Alone
A few years ago, best selling writer Philip Yancey wrote these words: ‘For all its faults and failures, the church offers a place to bring wounds and to seek meaning in times of brokenness and...
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The essence of a great prayer
The essence of a great prayer is not in the majesty of its phrases but in its honesty; like the one that says: Dear God, So far today I’ve done all right. I’ve kept my mouth shut, I’ve not gossiped and...
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The Becalmed Oasis
John Hopkins University in Baltimore, in a study of the effects of prayer sessions among black women with breast cancer, concluded that there is evidence that the meditative states produced by group...
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Access to the very top
An Icelandic teenager, some years ago, created quite a stir when he phoned the White House in Washington to speak to President George Bush. To get through security, Vifill Atlason pretended to be the...
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You can talk to God anytime – for free
Loneliness is a growing problem in our society, especially for divorced people, single mothers, and the elderly. One example of this human tragedy is an advertisement in an American newspaper that...
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Hold the line
A woman once phoned a theatre to say she’d lost a valuable diamond brooch and thought it might have happened there the night before. The manager told her to hold the line while he went to look. He...
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Prayers that become a curse
The ancient Greeks had a story about Aurora the goddess of the dawn, who fell in love with Tithonus, a mortal youth. So Zeus the king of the gods, offered her any gift she might choose for her lover;...
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Photographing the presence of God
The famous neurologist Professor Andrew Newberg actually takes photographs of what believers call ‘the presence of God’. He invites people to meditate and pray in a secluded room. Then, when they are...
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Thank God for professional car thieves
A woman whose baby urgently needed medicine drove to a pharmacy to get the medication. Unfortunately, she then locked her keys in the car. She searched around and eventually found a wire coat hanger,...
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Don’t people say grace in this place?
Celeste Sibley got an insight into the effect of childlike faith when she took her children to a diner for breakfast. It was crowded and her eight-year-old daughter Mary had to sit alone at the far end...
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The essence of prayer
The most universal expression of spirituality is prayer. Even in the secular western world most people say they pray – but probably for things to change for their benefit. However, real prayer is about...
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‘What about us?’
An Army chaplain I know took part in a battle simulation exercise prior to his unit deploying overseas. He entered a tent where four supposed bodies were lying, and checked their identification discs....
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The God of peace
Robert Frost said: ‘More people die of worry than die of work, because more people worry than work.’ Someone else said that you should only worry if your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the...
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Handfuls of grace
When I was a small boy there was a shop that would sell kids a handful of lollies for a penny. The shop was owned by a married couple, and of the two the husband was by far the most generous. So we...
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The peace that comes from talking things over with your best friend
The greatest enemy of joy is anxiety. To a certain extent anxiety is natural; it helps us avoid danger. Sometimes, though, it becomes a type of mental illness because it bears little relation to...
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What do we gain by praying?
There are some things in life that we just do automatically, even though we later wonder why on earth we do them. One of them is praying. Even in this very secular and materialistic age most people...
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