Page 8 - Good News March 2011 paper

isten to the melody of these words: young man of only thirty-eight years. He
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect tried to help every person and he died in
Lpeace, whose mind is stayed on three years, at forty-one. He just couldn't
Thee: because he trusteth in Thee” stand the burden. But before he died he
(Isaiah 26:3). “Perfect peace” - is there said, “I am appalled at the multitudes of
any possession in life more desirable people who have never learned to empty
than that? their minds.”
Many nights I drive a hundred or so miles I know of a man who habitually brought his
to get home after some speaking engage- problems home with him at night. He
ment. Before I go to bed, I like to go to our talked about his problems at the dinner
children's rooms and look at their faces. table, brooded over them during the
They are sound asleep, perfectly relaxed, evening hours, took them to bed to keep
completely at peace. I wonder why the him company during his troubled sleep.
people I've seen that day are not like that. One night, as he turned off the sidewalk to
Once we did have that peace but as we the steps of his home, he hit upon a plan.
grow older our lives become more com- “Tonight,” he said, “I am leaving all my
plicated. worries here on the steps, I'll pick them up
We think of the living we have to make, the again in the morning.”
debts we owe, of what will happen to us in To do a thing like that requires mental
our old age. We worry about the world discipline, but it can be done. That night he
situation, we get cross with other people, enjoyed his dinner, he found his family so
we think about the wrongs we have much better companions; he slept better.
committed, we are afraid for our health. But the best part, he explained, was that
Gradually the peace of our minds is the next morning when he picked up his
drained away and gone. “Whose mind is troubles as he walked down the steps, he
stayed on Thee,” said the prophet, is the found they were not nearly so heavy, and
way to perfect peace! some of them were even gone entirely.
First, we need to learn to empty our Instead of leaving our worries on the
minds. It is impossible to be at peace as doorstep, we need to learn to leave them
long as we hold certain things in our with God. Study carefully these words:
minds. When we come in at night we wash What a Friend we have in JESUS,
our hands, sending down the drain the All our sins and griefs to bear!
dirt we have picked up during the day. What a privilege to carry
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could wash Everything to God in prayer!
our minds as we wash our hands? O, what peace we often forfeit,
After Rabbi Liebman wrote his book, O, what needless pain we bear,
Peace of Mind, he was swamped with All because we do not carry
people seeking that peace. His mail was Everything to God in prayer!
heavy, his telephone rang constantly, [All Things are Possible through Prayer,
people came to his study all day and even Charles L Allen, Spire Books, New Jersey,
to his home at night. He was a kindhearted USA, 1972].

don’t know exactly how old Rings is, but he’s definitely what you would call an old
man. I also don’t know where he was born or what his real name is; he simply goes by
I“Rings”. His home is the cab of his pick-up, which he parks near downtown Ocean
Beach, California. He is a chain smoker, an ex-convict, ex-addict, and ex-alcoholic.
Rings likes to say that if Jesus saved him, then Jesus is able to save anyone and
everyone. So instead of using his monthly cheque to buy alcohol or a hotel room for
himself, he spends all of it on food at the local supermarket. He transfers the food he
buys to coolers in the back of his truck, then he drives to the beach and makes meals for
his fellow-homeless.
While preparing the food, Rings tells the gathering crowd about the freedom that Jesus
brought into his life. He tells them that God is the One Who told him to feed others with
his money and that it’s because God loves each of them. This man gives everything he
has to others - literally everything - because he knows he has nothing that wasn’t given
to him by God!
[Crazy Love, Francis Chan, Published by David C Cook, Colorado Springs, USA, 2008].