Action, despair, hero, help for others

The townspeople were in total despair. A fire which started in a diner
was threatening to burn down the entire shopping district. They seemed
helpless to do anything about it. Suddenly, a truck filled with farm workers
came speeding down a hill toward the fire. The crowd moved back as the truck
drove into the flames. The workers jumped out and beat at the fire with their
coats, miraculously bringing it under control. The city fathers were so
grateful for the men's heroism that they gave to each a plaque and a $1,000
reward.
        After the ceremony, a newsman interviewed the driver and asked him
what he was going to do with the money. Without a moment's hesitation the man
replied, "You can be sure the first thing I'm gonna do is to fix the brakes on
my truck."        Brian L. Harbour, RISING ABOVE THE
                       CROWD, (Nashville: Broadman, 1988).
 
 

Our beliefs really matter when we act upon them.
C.H. Stauffacher, UPPER ROOM

A poor man who lived in the country broke his leg in an accident. That
meant he was laid up for a long while, unable to work. His family was large
and needed help. Someone got up a prayer meeting at the church to pray for
this family. While the people were praying and asking God to help the family,
there was a loud knock on the door of their home. Someone tiptoed to the door,
opened it, and there stood a young farm boy who said, "My dad could not attend
the prayer meeting tonight, so he just sent his prayers in a wagon." And there
was the wagon loaded with meat, potatoes, apples, and other things from the
farm.

    A young man had been seeing a girl for several months. He wanted to
ask her to marry him but he couldn't get up the nerve. Finally, he asked his
father. "Dad," he said, "I want to marry Jane but I haven't the slightest idea
of the right way to ask her."

    "Son," said his father, "just ask her. There isn't any wrong way."
Bits and Pieces When Cicero completed an oration, people used to say: "What a
marvelous orator! What an excellent speech!" But when Demosthenes thundered
his denunciation of Philip of Macedon, people leaped to their feet, shouting,
"Let us march against Philip!"
"Lose this day loitering, 'twill be the same story tomorrow and the
next more dilatory. Indecision brings its own delays and days are most
lamenting over yesterday. Action---there is courage, magic in it. Anything you
can do, or think you can, begin it. Once started, the mind grows heated. Begin
the job and the work will be completed."
 

Goethe:   To live is not merely to breathe, it is to act.
 

Rousseau, p.1 "Winning starts with beginning."

John Calvin said, "Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not
alone."
 

    In Meredith Wilson's MUSIC MAN, the professor tried to get Marion the
librarian to go out with him. He asked her to meet him at the footbridge
across the stream running through the park. She wanted to, but she refused.
She said, "Please, some other time. Maybe tomorrow." The professor persisted,
yet she continued to put off their meeting. Finally, in exasperation, he said,
"Pile up enough tomorrows and you'll find that you've collected nothing but a
lot of empty yesterdays."

    In the movie "PAINT YOUR WAGON," Lee Marvin plays a philosophical
drunk named Ben Rumstead. During the closing scene, Ben Rumstead is standing
in the rain of a muddy street talking with the proprietor of a local store.
The store owner looks at the passing wagons, loaded with people and furniture
moving out of town, and says, "There are two kinds of people in this world.
There are those who move on and those that stay. Ain't that the truth, Ben
Rumstead?"

"No, that ain't the truth," Ben Rumstead replies, with a swagger
enlarged by the half-empty bottle in his hand. "There are two kinds of people
in this world. Them that is going someplace and them that is going noplace.
That's the truth."   Herb Miller, EVANGELISM'S OPEN SECRET,
(St. Louis: CBP Press, 1984).
 

"People who want milk should not sit in the field hoping the cow will
back up to them."
German Proverb