MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (Joe Goodspeed)

Tonight's entry is by another Joe, this time, Joe Goodspeed. Joe is a wonderful long time preacher of the Gospel. He is also the father of our awesome WCS librarian, Diane King, and the father-in-law of Randy King, my insurance agent and my brother's college roommate! I get on a plane tomorrow to head home from Vietnam- please pray for me!

Many babies were born the very day I was. Think of all the birth defects that might have happened, and the sad way some things could have "gone wrong." A lot of those born on that day fell prey to a lifetime illness or even death, but thank God, I made it to a safe arrival.

I nearly drowned once, playing in a lake, pretending I was really swimming but keeping my feet securely on the bottom. But reality set in when I came to a drop off, and my dad was there to pull me to safety.

As a teen-ager, I often enjoyed hunting, even unsupervised, and though there were many fatal hunting accidents throughout the country, I never came close to being a fatality.

When I was in high school, five of my classmates were killed in an auto-train accident, but I wasn't one of them. I've survived childhood diseases from which others didn't make it, four auto collisions, and a couple of heart attacks.

As Lloyd C. Douglas taught us, the proper way to show gratitude for such blessings is to thank our Loving Lord for our spared lives by having a "Magnificent Obsession". Douglas wrote a novel by that title which Universal Pictures made into a popular movie in 1935 and remade it in 1954.

In the classic story a spoiled rich kid foolishly wrecks his boat. To save the playboy's life, rescue teams borrow expensive personal equipment from a local doctor. Unfortunately the doctor experiences a heart attack and without his equipment, he didn't survive. The sobering experience was character changing. The playboy traded his search for thrills for a "magnificent obsession" of looking for ways to help people.

Had you thought of it? A dentist is bound to see teeth everywhere he goes. A dermatologist is trained to notice skin. I knew a man in the roofing business who said in a Toastmasters' speech: "I never see houses, only roofs." We see what we "want" to see, what we are trained to see.

So, the opportunities to serve are there. It need not be anything earth-shattering! It could be lifting someone's spirits from a sad or negative mood. It could be giving an encouraging word to someone who has just goofed, or bringing some sunshine into someone's cloudy day. The opportunities are limitless. Maybe Jesus had something like this in mind when he said, "Seek and ye shall find." May God bless us all with eyes to see and a willingness to respond to opportunities for service.

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com