Inspiration

List member John L. lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You may have read about the fact they're having a spot of trouble with a bit of water these days. And by "bit of water," I mean there were several Noah sightings this past week and a run on gopher wood at the local Home Depot.

It was my turn to lead our worship music at church yesterday and, coincidentally, just as John's email arrived, I was working on a song called "Kindness," by Chris Tomlin. The first verse:

Open up the skies of mercy
Rain down the cleansing flood
Healing waters rise around us
Hear our cries, Lord, let 'em rise...

Please join me in praying that the floodgates of God's mercy would open and fall upon the good people of Iowa, who desperately need some dry weather and solid relief.

In his email, John asked if I would offer a bit of inspiration in today's post. I don't know if there's a lot of motivational quotes on overcoming natural disasters, John, but there are certainly a gang of them on overcoming adversity. Here's a few to which your spirit can cling.

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A MOMENT FOR INSPIRATION

"I beg you, take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster." (Catherine II)

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." (Napoleon Hill)

"Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves." (Sir William D'Avenant)

"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests." (Epictetus)

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity." (John Flavel)

"When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped." (Samuel Johnson)

"Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things." (Henry Ward Beecher)

"Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent." (Mignon McLaughlin)

"Never, never, never, never give up." (Winston Churchill)

[thanks to About.com and several other quotation websites]

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WORD for YOUR WEEK: We saw "The Hulk" this past weekend, which reminded me that movie critics are coining new words for these type of films. First we had sequels (second movie in the series, such as "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"), then prequels (such as the new Star Trek movie coming out next year, with a plot featuring the crew of the Enterprise that takes place *before* the television series timeline), then came threequels (the third movie in a series, such as "Shrek the Third"), and now we're getting "requels" which is a "re-imagining" of a character or movie that was recently done ("The Hulk" and "Batman Begins" from two years ago fall into this category).

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