The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.
Helen Hayes (at 73)
I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows.
Janette Barber
My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.
Erma Bombeck
A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't.
Rhonda Hansome
The phrase "working mother" is redundant.
Jane Sellman
Every time I close the door on reality it comes in through the windows.
Jennifer Unlimited
Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.
Charlotte Whitton
Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.
Caryn Leschen
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.
Jennifer Unlimited
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.
Catherine Aird
I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb...and I'm also not blonde.
Dolly Parton
If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them.
Sue Grafton
I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on.
Roseanne Barr
When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country.
Elayne Boosler
Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.
Maryon Pearson
In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man-if you want anything done, ask a woman.
Margaret Thatcher
If men can run the world, why can't they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a noose around your neck?
Linda Ellerbee
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.
Eleanor Roosevelt
It all happened so fast. One day, people's retirement funds and even life savings were seemingly doing fine, even appreciating - and then, in one shocking announcement, they were gone. Enron, the energy giant, the seventh largest corporation in America - the trusted guardian of the futures of millions - was suddenly declaring bankruptcy.
It seemed as if almost no one had foreseen Enron's impending collapse. People continued to invest in the company right up to the announcement of their meltdown. One news report indicated that virtually all investment analysts were recommending investing in Enron almost to the end.
Who could have guessed that this apparently rock-solid investment could turn out to be worth nothing in the end? So many have been hurt ... so much has been lost. The ancient words of King Solomon sound as if they were written in the last few days: "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle." (Proverbs 23:5)
The stunning collapse of financial security tied to Enron is a macro-instance of what has been happening to people for a long, long time. A previous generation saw their security erased in a day with the stock market crash that launched the Great Depression. Who would have thought that all those banks could fail so suddenly? And for many, the sudden calamity comes quietly and personally - with a layoff ... the loss of customers on whom the business depended … a crushing report from the doctor. And with the awful events of September 11, all of us were wrenchingly reminded how quickly it can all be gone.
It almost makes a person ask, "Are the words 'financial security' an oxymoron? Is there really any such thing?" But then, is there really any earth-security that cannot, sometimes overnight, "sprout wings and fly off"? Even people who are our security can be suddenly gone.
Economic upheaval ... betrayal ... abandonment ... sudden change ... a health crisis ... a breakup ... a funeral - they remind us how vulnerable, how "losable" our life-anchors really are. How vulnerable we are. And for many of us, that's when we start reaching for something we cannot lose. Which earth doesn't have. We need hands to hold our future that won't drop us, go bankrupt on us, leave us, die on us. We'll never be secure until we find those hands that will never let us go, never let us down.
Hands like those are within your reach ... you'll recognize them by the nailprints in them. It's Jesus - and Jesus alone - who can keep a promise like this - "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5) In a world where so many have let us down, how do you know you can trust Jesus? Those nailprints - they show how much He loves you ... and how much you can trust Him.
In the words of the Bible, "God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) Most people know Christ died - and how He died, nailed hands and feet to a cross. But the discovery that can literally change the rest of your life is why He died. He died for us. He died for you.
It turns out that His death is our only hope for ever having a personal relationship with our Creator, for ever having the ultimate security - knowing you're going to heaven when you die. Without a relationship with God in our unpredictable, sometimes unbearable, lives, we are like ships adrift without an anchor ... and with no safe harbor from the hurricanes. And according to the Bible, we all are away from this God we were made by and made for. We've essentially lived our lives saying, "God, You run the universe. I'll run me, thank You." We have done it our way, not His way. That's what makes us, again in God's words, "sinners."
But "Christ died for us" - "while we were still sinners." Because the only way to remove the sin-wall between us and God was for our death penalty to be paid, the spiritual death penalty that we have earned by running lives God was supposed to run. But Jesus literally opened up the road to God by removing our sins' death penalty the only way it could be removed - He died for us ... in our place. In your place.
And today - in a world whose headlines scream with reminders of vulnerable we are - Jesus is extending His hand toward you. He's ready to introduce you to His "never leave you, never forsake you" love. To secure your future forever. And to care for you every day between here and eternity.
We spend so much time, so much effort, trying to secure our next thirty or forty years. But that is a blink of the eye compared to securing your eternity. To neglect your forever is life's most costly mistake. To grab the waiting hand of Jesus is to find what you can never lose. You can belong to Him this very day - just tell Him, "Jesus, I've run my own life long enough - I'm Yours beginning right now. You died for me - I'm putting all my trust in You."
In a very uncertain world, you can know your life and your future are in hands that will never hurt you, never drop you, never let you go. "We who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." (Hebrews 6:18, 19) That anchor is within your reach, this very moment.
--Written by Ron Hutchcraft, based on his popular
radio broadcast, "A Word With You" .
Copyright (c) 2002, Ron Hutchcraft. Used by permission.
A Fun, Faith 'n Funny Bone Feature 
