Topic(s): Humor

• Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

• Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.

• Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg.

• Lincoln’s mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands.

• Question: What is one horsepower? Answer: One horsepower is the amount of energy it takes to drag a horse 500 feet in one second.

• We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation. Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.

• To most people solutions mean finding the answers. But to chemists, solutions are things that are still all mixed up.

• You can listen to thunder after lightning and tell how close you came to getting hit. If you don’t hear it, you got hit, so never mind.

• Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the sun. But I have never been able to make out the numbers.

“For I say . . . not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” —Romans 12:3

They Are All Numbered

Topic(s): Blessings, Priorities

A person 20–30 years of age has about 615 hair follicles per square centimeter. A person 50 years of age has around 485 hair follicles per square centimeter. People aged 80–90 years have approximately 435 hair follicles per square centimeter. This shows an average of about five percent hair loss per year. The average hair loss for an individual is 50–100 hairs per day.¹

If you are a Bible student, then you already know where this is going. Jesus said: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29–31). When I got older and started losing my hair, I knew that God must have to change His count at least hourly in the case of some of us.

People two thousand years ago had the same types of problems that we have today. Jesus warned, “Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” (Matthew 6:31). What was His response to those whose worldly concerns had overridden spiritual necessities? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Jesus closes His discourse on worldly cares by saying, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34). In other words, there are enough problems in one day to deal with, without compounding them by concerning ourselves with things that are out of our control.

Physical food fills our bodies temporarily, but in time we will hunger again. Jesus fills another kind of hunger. He said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). We should take comfort in the fact that we serve a God who knows us personally. He even knows things about us that we don’t know about ourselves—like the number of hairs on our heads.

¹From the AAD Web site: www.aad.org/public/Publications/pamphlets/Hairloss.htm. People with certain sicknesses and genetic hair loss conditions lose more than these averages.

Anyway

Topic(s): Christian Life

• People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway!

• If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway!

• If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Do good anyway!

• Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank any- way!

• The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest minds. Think big anyway!

• People really need help, but they may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway!

• Give the world your best, and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the best you’ve got anyway!

“Let all your things be done with charity.” —1 Corinthians 16:14