Category: Words To Live By

I received an inspirational story in e-mail some time ago that I felt was worth sharing here. While it may be fictional, it really is a testament to the power of unconditional love….

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There once was a man who was sentenced to death. Before he was taken away, the condemned man begged the king, “Please allow me three days’ time to put my affairs in order and to make sure that my family is taken care of.”

“How will I know that you will come back?” asked the king. Almost immediately, the condemned man’s best friend raised his hand and said, “I will take his place. If he doesn’t come back, you can hang me instead.”

Three days passed, and the condemned man had not returned. When it came time for the hanging, the king’s guards turned to the man who had offered himself as a substitute and said, “You will have to take his place.”

Just before the noose was slipped over the man’s head, a voice suddenly rang out in the distance. “I’m here! I’m here! Stop! Stop!” The condemned man ran forward from the crowd to take his rightful place on the gallows.

At this point, however, the friend had already made up his mind to die in the first man’s stead. “You were late,” he said. “So maybe this was meant to be my destiny. You have a family who needs you. I’m alone, already here and ready to go.”

The two friends argued back and forth, each one choosing to die for the other. Seeing this, the king declared a stop to the hanging, saying, “My sentence was meant for one man, but I see that if I were to kill one of you it would be as though I were killing two people. Both of you can go free.”

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The point of this story is that each friend was willing to face death for each other and through that act of love, it moved the king’s heart enough to set them both free. For any of us to grow spiritually in life though, it doesn’t necessarily require something this profound to take place either. Nor is it mandatory to diligently attend some form of weekly worship service, study a religious book, or pray fervently. While each of those can hold an important part of one’s spiritual journey, the more decisive actions that help to place us on that path is when we tap into our time, money, or talents and offer them unconditionally to others.

It’s easy for all of us to be in a receive mode, but there are many opportunities every day for us to extend ourselves lovingly to others in a selflessly giving one. A few days ago I was at a light waiting for it to change and there was a homeless man standing there in the steamy heat of the day with a cardboard sign asking for money. The unspiritual, unloving, and selfish me would have thought the person should get a job or that they are going to just take any money they get and go buy alcohol or drugs. But the spiritual and loving me that I’m trying to become today has removed much of those judgments and took action by giving a dollar out of my pocket to the man and telling him “God bless” as I drove away. None of us know just how profound even something like this smallest action of unconditional love could change a person’s life.

And while the story I originally shared above is an extreme example of how an act of unconditional love held great depth and weight, it is a parable that was written by someone to show the potential of love within all of us. Maybe each of us could start seeing that same potential within ourselves by shifting some of our thinking away from what God’s love can do for us in this world, and focusing that energy instead on what actions we can take to start unconditionally loving all of God’s people a lot more.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

We’ve all had to do it at some point in our lives and we often dread doing it. And it usually happens when it’s most inconvenient to us. Something readily relied upon suddenly isn’t working quite right or maybe it’s downright broken and we’re forced to contact a technical support desk for help. But what happens all too often during that phone call is an expenditure of our anger and impatience at a person that is only trying to do their job.

A very long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I was one of those technical support staff at a small firm that handled check processing for convenience stores. This company that I was employed at had various computer equipment that was placed in each of those stores. Part of my job description at that time was to troubleshoot issues that occurred in the field with that equipment. Sometimes the people that called for help had no technical background and asked me things such as where to find “the anykey” when the computer prompted them to “press any key”. And other times I had to help people even understand what a mouse was. But there was one time I remember a frantic guy calling me as he was trying to get his system working. He kept screaming at me that his screen was blank and he didn’t let me get a word in edgewise. When I finally did, I discovered his computer wasn’t even turned on and that was how simple that call got resolved. Most of the problems I ever had in resolving any customer issue was due to them being unable to remain patient and talk in a clear manner while I tried to dissect what was going on. The name calling, swearing, and rude behaviors that often arose with impatient consumers never helped. In fact, it worked the opposite by blocking my ability to fix their problem quickly and efficiently.

Most people today have such little patience with anything, especially when it comes to something they readily rely upon that suddenly isn’t working the way they need it to be working. So sadly, before even that person dials some technical support desk, they are already very tense and ready to do battle over their issue. And with much of the technical support for things today being in other countries such as India, accents can create a communication barrier and further complicate the issue with more stress and tension. But what most people forget when they call any place for technical support, is that there is a human being with a heart and soul on the other end who is just trying to do their job by offering their help.

Ironically, this morning I had a technical issue with a new e-mail address that I set up in iCloud. The whole phone call from beginning to end took more than an hour. But throughout it all, I remained very patient and understanding and had an extremely pleasant phone call the entire time. I finally did get everything working with only a minor glitch that a support ticket had to be opened on. The best part about it though was that at no time before, during, or after did I lose my cool, nor did I ever falsely blame or accuse the people helping me for any of the minor inconveniences I had.

I’m glad I’m not part of any technical support desk these days though because the stress levels can be extremely high in those types of jobs. I do my best today to respect when I’m talking to one of them because I was once in their shoes too. I also try to remember that those people have a heart and soul and their own life conditions to deal with. As devastating as it may sound, the person I’m talking to could have just tragically lost a loved one or had some other terrible thing happen in their life. Yet they are still trying to do their job by helping me and that thought usually makes any of my issue seem a lot more trivial which often will give me a lot more patience too.

If you have to make a technical support phone call today, try to take a moment today and take a deep breath before you do so. Realize that your kindness and patience will lead you to getting your issue resolved much easier. But most importantly, don’t forget you are also dealing with one of God’s children who has a heart and soul just like you.

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

While I’m not a church goer, I have to admit that I do love passing by those that take the time to put a truly inspiration slogan on their welcome sign for all those driving by to see. Sometimes I see ones that bring a great smile on my face or even a joyful laugh. Other times I have quite honestly just rolled my eyes. Irregardless, I decided to pool some of them together that I felt were noteworthy and have touched my own life. Here they are in no particular order:

1. A fellow who says it can’t be done is likely to be interrupted by someone doing it.

2. A half truth is a whole lie.

3. A person is never so empty as when he is full of self.

4. Could God nominate you for Best Actor or Actress?

5. aonvatlis – Let God unscramble your life.

6. Don’t let the littleness in others bring out the littleness in you.

7. Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell your storm how big your God is.

8. Forbidden fruit creates many jams.

9. God can turn your world of broken pieces into many other peaces.

10. God has way more savings than Walmart.

11. God wants spiritual fruit not religious nuts.

12. Honk if you love God, text it if you want to meet God now.

13. If God brought you to it, God will bring you through it.

14. If your mouth is out of order, so is your life.

15. Ipad? Iphone? Ipod? Try Ipray.

16. Pointing out faults? Look in the mirror and not through a telescope.

17. Moses was once a basket case too.

18. Most things wrong in your life started by forgetting what things were right.

19. People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.

20. Screaming “Oh God! Oh God!” in bed really isn’t quite the same thing as praying.

21. Thank God for those dirty dishes, at least you have food to eat.

22. Try God, not Google for the real answers you’re seeking.

23. What you thought was coincidence may have been a God incident.

24. When you feel down to nothing, God is really just up to something.

25. You have one new friend request. God Accept/Deny.

While those are just some of the many church slogans that I have seen on their signs and been inspired by, there are many others I’ve also seen along the way that have upset me too. Sometimes they are slanted with hate and propaganda. And generally it’s those types of signs that make me cringe or roll my eyes. One example of a negative church sign I found was “Obama Osama, Humm, Are they brothers?” Another was: “Jews killed Jesus”. And even worse, look at this one: “Santa Klaus never died for anyone”. With free speech, I guess things like this are expected but I know that God is all about unconditional love and definitely not about creating bias like this.

Regardless, I’m just grateful for the many church signs though that are truly about unconditional love and inspiration. It’s my hope that all churches will put slogans on their welcome signs that are not slanted towards one particular point of view but are all encompassing and all loving. I would like to end this article with my own slogan that I’d like to see on a church sign someday. I hope you enjoy it…

“Is your life a puzzle? Let God put the pieces together…”

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson