Greta Sheppard's Blog

"Tiger is clearly no longer deserving of being seen as a role model or a hero and he has needlessly squandered his unique potential to be a positive force in our country and in the world," Ziegler said, according to the AFP – which also noted that Ziegler was breaking one of the church's own commandments: "Thou shalt pay no attention to Tiger's apparent flaws."

Public popularity does not change human nature . . . from the pauper to the preacher,  the politician to the sports figure, sin is inherent.  Power Corrupts!  It is possible, having climbed the ladder of success, to be distracted by what's on the ground below. Just one tiny slip and you plumett.   Regarding Tiger's slippage / downfall, my own feelings said to me: "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall".

Jesus message to His followers was and still is 'cease' from condemning and judging; considering your own self lest you be judged for the same thing!  Rather...forgive.

It's in the Gospels of the Bible! 

 Let's not point the finger!

Rather, pray for the family and the man to be restored. And stop watching the channels that thrive on and promote the glee of the paparazzi ...

To download an audio copy of my book: Excuse me, Your Unforgiveness is Showing, go to  www.cdbaby.com/cd/gretasheppard . 

Shine on . . .

The senior man lived alone with his beloved cello.  He played it when he was distressed and sad, and he would play it when he was happy and filled with gratitude.  Sometimes he would play it for no reason at all, just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Like all instruments, the old cello got out of tune from time to time.  When it did, he would call the local radio station, asking the announcer to broadcast the true and precise tone of an A.  By that authentic tone the elderly man would tune his cello and he was ready to play again.

What a brilliant metaphor for the Christian.  Jesus is the Announcer.  I get my pitch from listening to Him every day. He seems to know when I'm flat, or when I'm high pitched. He knows that for me to be in tune with my surroundings there has to be a certain amount of tension in my strings. Every so often I feel the stretch of His fine-tuning process.  I know then He is preparing me for a 'concert of teaching' where I must publicly 'preach in pitch'.  Speaking His Word demands true tone.  It's agony to sit by someone in church who sings off-key!  I have found that when I turn my voice towards them they soon slide into sync with me. My voice becomes the tuning fork they need to hear. Same goes for my spoken words; they must be in sync with the Divine tuning fork of the Word in order to tune up another's life.

  I am quite sure that is what Jesus meant when he said:

"I have given you this as an example,

so that you in turn should do what I have done to you." 

John 13:15…AMP. 

Thinking it over . . .

        A Chinese Philosopher insisted on riding his mule backward so he would not be distracted by where he was going and could instead reflect on where he had been. The past, for him, was an important source of information, knowledge and wisdom.

Adlai Stevenson said, "You can chart your future more clearly and wisely when you know the path which led to the present."

Where you have been holds important and significant meaning for the present and for the future.  When you evaluate the past you see its teaching and learn its lessons.  When you value the past you acquire its power.

Your quiet moments with God give you a chance to mull over the meaning and purpose of what has already taken place.

"I remember you while I'm lying in bed; I think of you through the night. You are my help. Because of your protection, I sing." 

Psalm 63:6-7.  NCV

Prayer: Dear God, I turn back to understand how you have blessed me day after day. . . Amen.

Thoughts that found their way into my head from the book "Quiet Moments" while meditating this morning.

HEADLINES

   THE PROVINCE NEWSPAPER . . . SUNDAY, AUGUST 16/2009

A  CLASS ACT

"Former street kid offers $1 million in scholarships to 10 students to live and learn in B.C. Find out how you can be one of them."  

Dean Duperron was 18 and living on the streets of Vancouver's downtown inner city.  He had just  enough money in his pocket to buy five one-cent candies – his sole sustenance for the next five days.  A man standing in front of him brandished a five dollar bill under his nose.  Duperron saw the fiver as a fortune.  He could have grabbed it and ran.

 "In that moment you get a chance to see who you are,' says Duperron.  'At that point, there was no chance I was going to be able to eat for the rest of the week."

But despite overwhelming hunger, the Alberta-born homeless young man says old fashioned values kept him from acting on his impulse to grab the money and run.

It would have been easy to steal, he says, and it would have been easy to beg for money. He did neither that day, nor any other day for the next six to eight months

on the streets after his father kicked him out of the family home. Cold nights, food eaten from a dumpster, and the occasional luck of the finding of a quarter on the pavement were the things that got him thinking.  

 Those dark times spawned in him a desire to be educated.  The desire pushed him to get a job….first as a janitor at McDonalds, then as an assistant manager at the local K Mart, followed by a brief reconciliation with his father.  In that time he moved back into the family home and persued an under-graduate degree at the University of B.C.  During his third year he took a job as a computer instructor at Mackay's Business School.  A few years later he found himself at Control Data Corporation; an American super computer firm.

"I realized people's lives are shaped by who they are and what they do rather than what they have done," says Duperron, now 53. " If you have an education you can choose what you want to do, rather than life choosing for you".

Duperron and his wife were eventually able to buy 95 percent of the then fledgling Sprott-Shaw Community College.  He transformed the College into a profitable operation with 22 campuses ( 20 in B.C. and 2 in Alberta) 250 employees and an estimated $50 million in annual revenue.

Word of the contest has already made its way around the globe through Internet chat sites and word of mouth. The contest begins Thursday, August 20^th.

The 10 winners will be announced December 1^st. 

"Education changed my life", says Duperron; 'if this works we will be able to say we have helped people to succeed world-wide".

"Any one living in poverty or with extreme challenges has a door open to them, to not only change their own life but to change an entire community".

What a story!

And it could be yours . . . if you're bored and unhappy with circumstances, you must first get out of your chair; stand up; cut forward; make a decision to walk away from where you are and go in a new direction.  Make things right with those who have offended you; go back to school or college.  It's your decision and no one else's. God helps people who are willing to step out and go where they have never gone before!