By special request from Mary - here is a Meme.
Please tell every one about it!!!
Time for Reflections - On the radio.
I was discussing with Mary in the comments box the fact that I have a number of old tapes from radio programs I used to present many many years ago. One of the programs was called "Time for Reflections". It was a Christian program lasting half-an-hour, (sometimes more if I had a guest on the show or a special event), and it aired on a Sunday afternoon. The show consisted of Christian music, Bible readings and me talking about something or other. Very little planning took place!
This Blog was named "Time for Reflections" in memory of that program.
Anyway, some time ago I re-visited those old tapes. Sadly, tapes tend to deteriorate with age, like most of us I presume, ... ehm ... what I mean is ... our looks change a bit ... although we remain just as lovable I'm sure ... (Phew ... just about got away with this faux pas I hope!).
As I was saying, tapes deteriorate with time, so I tried as best I could to re-master some of them and record them on CD.
Here's a short clip from an old "Time for Reflections" program ... takes me down memory lane with a tear in my eye!
Collections
Time was when all these movies were on VHS tapes; and our music collection was either cassette tapes or old vinyl. Then the system changed; and we had to change too.
Now it’s DVDs and CDs soon to be replaced by Blu-Ray, MP3s and a variety of other formats no doubt.
And there’s also all those photos we took with our modern cameras. In the old days it was a film which had to be developed and printed on paper. It cost money – so we were careful how many photos we took. Now it’s digital and we can click away to our heart’s content and put all these photos on CDs and build a large collection which we see once and then forget about it.
I wonder, will there be time in Heaven to sit back and see all those DVD movies we never have time to watch? Or our favourite TV shows which ran for several Series? Or all those photos we took of all the holidays and events we went to? And listen to all our music collections we amassed over the years?
And will they have a machine in Heaven which runs all formats regardless whether your memories are saved on Betamax, VHS or the latest digital system?
And how about our lovely shoe collection? One pair for each occasion? Or our lovely handbags … dresses … hats … ties … sets of golf clubs … watches … and numerous other things we buy and collect over a lifetime?
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6: 19-21.
The elephant story.
Well … not quite face to face … he, being a short man and the elephant being as big as an … elephant!
Oh … I forgot to tell you. This short explorer had previously been a doctor. Being so short he became a knee specialist since this is as far as he could reach.
So … to cut a long story short he became and explorer and here he was face to … body … with an elephant.
The elephant was lying on its side with its trunk in the air and flapping its ears … well, he was flapping one ear really, because the other one was under his head as he lay there on his side.
The short explorer also noticed that the poor creature was bleeding from its front paw … or foot I suppose. Do elephants have paws? It’s not a foot either is it? Not like a human foot. Anyway … let’s get on with the story. This is taking longer than I thought!
The short explorer got nearer to the elephant and noticed a big thorn stuck there at the bottom of the elephant’s foot.
“Aha” … he thought, “I remember reading a story about a man who found a thorn in an animal’s paw … it was a lion I think. Then the man took the thorn out and the lion and he became friends. They met again many years later and the lion recognized him and befriended him all over again!”
Cheered by this happy story the man approached the elephant ever so slowly and using a pair of pliers which he happened to have on him …
All right … don’t ask me why a short explorer in the jungle happened to have a pair of pliers on him. Maybe he had been a dentist and this was a tool he had to extract teeth … after he gave up being a knee specialist.
To continue … using the pliers he extracted the thorn from the elephant’s foot.
The elephant was so relieved! He stood up at once and let out a big trumpet sound to say thank you and ran away happily in the jungle.
Many years later the same short explorer was visiting a zoo whilst on holiday and would you believe it … there in the elephant’s enclosure was a majestically big elephant.
The explorer looked up at the elephant. He was still short that’s why he looked up. And the elephant looked down at the man.
Their eyes met each other … not literally, just a figure of speech to say they looked at each other.
The elephant moved slowly forward and put his trunk through the big metal bars of the enclosure and ever so gently with his trunk he caressed the explorer’s head. The short man smiled. A tear ran down the elephant’s eyes as he continued caressing the explorer.
Then suddenly the elephant wrapped its trunk round the explorer’s neck and started to strangle him tightly until he was blue in the face. Luckily the zoo-keepers managed to free the explorer before he was killed.
Why did the elephant behave this way? You may ask.
The answer is simple.
It was not the same elephant!
And the moral of the story is: Not everyone who says he’s a Christian is necessarily so.
Not everyone who calls me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do what my Father in Heaven wants them to do. Matthew 7:21
A hell of a question.
Father Ignatius was at the local Catholic School for his usual Catechism class. This is what happened when a ten years old girl asked him her question.
“Father … is it OK to pray for those people in hell?”
The priest took off his spectacles and cleaned them of imaginary dust in order to gain some thinking time.
“Why do you ask?” he said gently.
“Well …” she hesitated, “we pray for the souls in purgatory so that God forgives them and they go to Heaven.
“Why don’t we pray for those in hell? They were bad when they were alive but now they are dead they are in hell for ever. I feel sorry for them!”
“It’s good of you to feel sorry for them,” replied the priest, “it shows a charitable spirit … it shows you’re very kind and considerate.
“But we must remember this. No one goes to hell by mistake.
“As you say, these people were bad when they lived and they had plenty of opportunities to be good and to do what God asks. They had many chances to repent and ask God to forgive them and to do good. But they disobeyed, time and again, and they turned their back on God.
“God is merciful and He forgives … but He is just too. Those who are in hell have sent themselves there by their behavior.”
Another child raised his hand and asked a question.
“But Father … Sister Josephine when she was here yesterday, she said that Jesus told us to love our enemies. He said to God to forgive them when they put Him on the Cross.
“The people in hell are the enemy of God. Why does God not forgive them? Does He not love them?”
Father Ignatius prayed silently for inspiration before answering.
“Of course He loves them” he replied after a short pause, “God loves everybody because they are His creations. I suspect He even loves those in hell and He is very sad that they are there.
“But there are times in life when people put themselves out of God’s loving nature.
“Let me explain it another way.
“Suppose your parents bought you a puppy for your birthday. You love that puppy very much and you play with him every day. But as he grows up he becomes a little threatening and he growls at everyone. One day he bites your hand. And he continues with this bad behavior to the point where you can’t come near him in case he bites you again.
“For your own safety, and that of others, your parents decide to take the dog away and put him in a Dog Rescue Shelter where he’s looked after by other people.
“It’s the same with us. God loves us all when we’re born and we’re babies. But as we grow up, some people turn against Him and become bad. No matter how often these people are told to do good they never ask God to forgive them and they continue to do bad things all their life.
“When these bad people die they go to hell because of what they have done … God still loves them. Just as you love your dog in the Dog Shelter!
“In fact I believe God grieves for those in hell. He’d rather the place was empty and we were all with Him in Heaven. But some people put themselves in hell by their bad behavior.”
“So do we pray for those in hell or not?” asked the original questioner.
“There is nothing wrong with praying,” Father Ignatius replied, “God will listen to your prayers, as He does all prayers, and will respond in an appropriate and just way. When you pray, say to God how sorry you are that there are people in hell, and ask Him to help you be good all your life.
“Every one of us, young and old, like me, must always pray that we do not give God reason to grieve by behaving badly and ending in hell.”
Bubbles Bubbles.
There I was dressed in my best suit and heading for an important business meeting in the City.
I got out of the taxi and walked on the sidewalk towards the building I was heading for when suddenly I was showered from above by what appeared to be a green “gunge” smelling of disinfectant. I really don’t know where the unpleasantly sticky, semi-liquid substance came from. I looked up at the tall building and there were a few windows open. Anyway … no time to go in and try to complain.
My head, hair, raincoat and suit were totally covered by the substance.
I rushed into the building where I was to have my meeting and headed for the Gents Toilet.
Have you ever tried to wash your hair in those tiny wash basins? Water bounces off everywhere and strategically lands on the front of your trousers with embarrassing results! I can’t go to the meeting like that! What will they think of me?
I tried bending backwards like a limbo dancer and standing under that contraption which blows hot-air to dry your hands in the hope that I could at least dry my trousers a little. But … dash it all … I was interrupted several times by people coming into the Gents so I stood up quickly and pretended to dry my hands. At one stage a lady cleaner came in to clean the toilets and eyed me suspiciously and walked out saying nothing.
I gave up drying my trousers and tried to wash the gunge from my hair instead. It must have been an industrial strength liquid because it started to foam profusely like shampoo on my head. The more I put water on it the more it foamed but eventually I got most of it off. Now to dry my hair under that hot air dryer! Dash it all once again … someone came in suddenly and as I got up with a start I banged my head hard against the infernal contraption knocking my glasses off to the ground.
I now turned my attention to my raincoat and suit. Pointless adding water to them I thought. I have no time and must rush to my meeting. I used a million paper towels and wiped off any excess substance that had not yet permeated into the material and headed for my meeting.
As luck would have it … Oh thank you God, thank you … the meeting had been cancelled due to some other business emergency.
Great … I headed back home.
My return journey on the train was somewhat hot and a strong smell of disinfectant filled the air in my vicinity. A few passengers sniffed at me suspiciously and moved away to other seats, or stood by the open windows. I pretended not to notice.
As I walked back home from the railway station it started to rain and I was forced to put my raincoat on. The water reactivated the green gunge which started to foam. The more it rained the more it foamed as I ran home followed by millions of brightly colored soap bubbles filling the air behind me. People stopped and looked at me thinking I was a walking advert for soap powder. It brought the traffic to a standstill as drivers switched on their windshield wipers to wash away the soapy substance from their cars.
When I got home I threw the raincoat into the washing machine with a good dose of washing powder.
Big mistake!
The green gunge combined with the washing powder to create even more bubbles. I rinsed the garment several times and every time the machine discharged its load through the drains the bubbles insisted in floating away in the garden rather than disappearing with the rest of the water. On and on the bubbles floated away decorating trees, bushes and everything in their way.
I opened the washing machine and more bubbles came out invading my whole house and threatening to evict me from my home.
I grabbed my vacuum cleaner and headed for the garden intent on capturing as many bubbles as possible in mid-air before they covered the entire world.
I put on my Wellington boots which are usually kept just outside the back door for emergencies. No sooner had I walked a couple of paces than I felt a slimy feeling in my left boot. I hurriedly pulled the boot off to discover that a family of snails had set up home in my boot and were now in the final throes of agony around my toes before meeting their Maker.
It started to rain again popping the bubbles in mid-flight; so I gave up and left bubbles and snails to their own fate as I retrieved the raincoat from the washing machine to find it had shrunk sufficiently to fit a Barbie doll … or should that be a Ken doll?
Another Kate to emulate
I must have still been coming down from the royal wedding high when Kate Moss got married last month - the pictures didn't really leave an impression. But I literally want to live inside this new pictorial inside the latest Vogue.
I'm not sure how it manages to give off a vibe of Victorian picnic and rocker-chic at the same time, but it does. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to pick wildflowers and frolic in the woods.
I'm not sure how it manages to give off a vibe of Victorian picnic and rocker-chic at the same time, but it does. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to pick wildflowers and frolic in the woods.
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