The entire world is watching today and will be for quite a few days to come. Today is the Luckiest Day in China’s history. There has never been one like and never will be another either. It is NOW that matters.Most Westerners will not realize how important today is in China as they open the Olympics on the Eighth Year(of this Century), the Eighth Month, the Eighth Day, at the Eighth Hour and the Eighth minute in China.
I am very impressed with what is taking place at this exact time in China. It is all about preparation. It is all about what you have placed into the building of your world that makes a difference.
It kind of reminds me of “The Carpenter’s Story” that I listened to again yesterday. How appropriate to hear just as the potentially biggest thing ever happens for China. Their country has bounced back – but there are many marks of the past as well.
Here is “The Carpenter’s Story” for those that have not read it yet.
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.
He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you."
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.
So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized that we would have done it differently.
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."
Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.(Author Unknown)
Pause…
Is it all ‘roses’ in China and Beijing today at – 2008-08-08-08-08? How did they get to this place in time? Is it as wonderful as the Television Network’s will demonstrate it to be? Will the Chinese handlers that watch for the bad things that might bring out protests and blemishes of China? What will they do if something comes up that mars the World Show for their country? Will they allow anything to take place that will hurt their image?
I am not a good example of “Green Stuff” by any means. I have polluted my own space often enough that I am ashamed to say much.
But today in Beijing there is a haze hanging over the entire city – smog is heavy. Runners, cyclists, swimmers – all of our athletes of the world will have to suck in huge amounts of yucky air in order to win. Why? It is easy to say – a product of shoddy workmanship over many years.
For most Westerners there are the political issues of the past that hang like a smog over the country of China. Most will be struggling with the Constant Communist din that seems to control everything that China does.
But you need to know more…
The World had a great influence on building China the way that it is today. Much of the Communist power is in a direct opposition to the dominance of unbelievable leaders that could care less about the ordinary person. The Centuries upon Centuries of Emperors that had clouded the future for their people are a horrible legacy. The final years before the Communists upset that “balance” – the Emperors were in bed with the Capitalists of the outside world – that sought their own good rather than the good of these people – that were already subservient to unspeakable hardship by their own dictators.
I will never forget standing in the quiet park of the 72 Martyr’s Shrine in Guangzhou, in Guangdung Province (Canton City in Canton Province) and reading the names of the young people that had died at the unmerciful hand of the Emperor’s men. They would not give their family names because they knew that after they were dead – every single member of their families would be slaughtered to the farthest family blood line – for simply having a political meeting that was against the Emperor and his horrific men.
No this was not a result of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 that was a massacre – it was long before that.
I saw this monument to these murdered workers in Guangzhou – 5 years before Tainanmen happened. There on top of the monument is a gleaming white Statue of Liberty. If you will have read or remember the scene in 1989 – the white statue was there again.
My emotions today is different from the Olympic High we will all be on. It is in a spiritual sense one of the greatest moments ever – for our Christian World. We can now focus on Praying for China like never before – that God will bless it immensely.
Did you know that God loves China – just like the rest of the world? Did you know that God’s love is not conditional on politics and human structures? Did you know that all of us had a great deal to do with what China is today? I hope you do now.
I drop this quote in again – from “The Carpenter’s Story”…
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."
Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
Sources:
Tiananmen Square
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.(Author Unknown)
Pause…
Is it all ‘roses’ in China and Beijing today at – 2008-08-08-08-08? How did they get to this place in time? Is it as wonderful as the Television Network’s will demonstrate it to be? Will the Chinese handlers that watch for the bad things that might bring out protests and blemishes of China? What will they do if something comes up that mars the World Show for their country? Will they allow anything to take place that will hurt their image?
I am not a good example of “Green Stuff” by any means. I have polluted my own space often enough that I am ashamed to say much.
But today in Beijing there is a haze hanging over the entire city – smog is heavy. Runners, cyclists, swimmers – all of our athletes of the world will have to suck in huge amounts of yucky air in order to win. Why? It is easy to say – a product of shoddy workmanship over many years.
For most Westerners there are the political issues of the past that hang like a smog over the country of China. Most will be struggling with the Constant Communist din that seems to control everything that China does.
But you need to know more…
The World had a great influence on building China the way that it is today. Much of the Communist power is in a direct opposition to the dominance of unbelievable leaders that could care less about the ordinary person. The Centuries upon Centuries of Emperors that had clouded the future for their people are a horrible legacy. The final years before the Communists upset that “balance” – the Emperors were in bed with the Capitalists of the outside world – that sought their own good rather than the good of these people – that were already subservient to unspeakable hardship by their own dictators.
I will never forget standing in the quiet park of the 72 Martyr’s Shrine in Guangzhou, in Guangdung Province (Canton City in Canton Province) and reading the names of the young people that had died at the unmerciful hand of the Emperor’s men. They would not give their family names because they knew that after they were dead – every single member of their families would be slaughtered to the farthest family blood line – for simply having a political meeting that was against the Emperor and his horrific men.No this was not a result of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 that was a massacre – it was long before that.
I saw this monument to these murdered workers in Guangzhou – 5 years before Tainanmen happened. There on top of the monument is a gleaming white Statue of Liberty. If you will have read or remember the scene in 1989 – the white statue was there again.
My emotions today is different from the Olympic High we will all be on. It is in a spiritual sense one of the greatest moments ever – for our Christian World. We can now focus on Praying for China like never before – that God will bless it immensely.
Did you know that God loves China – just like the rest of the world? Did you know that God’s love is not conditional on politics and human structures? Did you know that all of us had a great deal to do with what China is today? I hope you do now.
I drop this quote in again – from “The Carpenter’s Story”…
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project."
Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
Sources:
Tiananmen Square
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
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