Lead a vivid life that does good

Month: October 2010

Dead and Useless?

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James said, “What good is it, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well’—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?

So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”

This is a photo of Charles Mareu talking to a resident of Wailea Settlement in Suva. Charles & Tina don’t have much, and yet they don’t talk about compassion and caring for the poor, they live it.

Their faith is proved real.

Their faith is alive!

This morning I asked God to convict people as we talked at CBC about being compassionate.

Instead He convicted me.

Deeply.

364|365 Dead End

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The tedious drive from Auckland turned into an expedition of sorts as I tried new ways home. Unfortunately heading down unfamiliar roads without a map can easily lead to a dead-end.In one such dead-end as the road narrowed I spotted a small cemetery and paused to take photo 364. Strolling around the bleak relics of other peoples memories for loved ones, I stumbled across this
gravestone for Olive.

‘Beloved wife of Thomas Nicol, Died 17 August 1907, Aged 23. Thy will be done’.

I wondered if Olive and Thomas were distant relatives of mine, then pondered how she might have died at such a young age. I thought about how unlikely it was that anyone remained alive that remembers
Olive.

Driving back out of the dead end road I resolved again not to let my life be a dead end.

I’m not so much worried if people don’t remember me in a 100 years time, but more worried if people will remember me for what I have done in the last 10 years, or perhaps more importantly, will
they remember me for what I will do in the next 10 years of my life.