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An UpWord Glance
With Fr. Stephen Powley
An UpWord Glance is a weekly article of simple stories meant to uplift and provoke thought. If something touches you, we would love to hear back from you. Hope you enjoy them...Just click on the image or date/title for the full article. By your prayers...Fr. Stephen Powley
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| December 21, 2011: A Nativity Homily St. John Chrysostom was born in Antioch in the year 354. His father, Secundus, was an imperial commander and his mother's name was Anthusa. Studying Greek philosophy, John became disgusted with Hellenic paganism and adopted the Christian Faith as the one and all-embracing truth. Read on for more about St. John and his Nativity Homily...
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| December 14, 2011: Word became Flesh God’s richest blessings to each of you as we head toward the Holy Day of Christmas. Our Advent journey has been meant to prepare us for the celebration of this Holy event. Here is a simple story by an unknown author that brings to light the amazing wonder of what Christmas is all about.
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| December 7, 2011: Helping Someone in Need How would you like to “get” the very ultimate gift this year?? It is so very possible. And what is that ultimate gift you can receive?? To be rewarded by God for what you have given to help someone in need... it really doesn’t get any better than that!!” Christmas is indeed a time for giving!!
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| November 30, 2011: A True Rose The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
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| November 23, 2011: Giving Thanks "Thank You!" Those are two words that all of us love to hear. Sometimes, a simple "thank you" can change the course of a day. I have seen a grumpy, bummer day suddenly become a good day because someone took time to say thank you.
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| November 16, 2011: Every day in your life is a special occasion We can get so caught up with the grand importance of what we are doing, that we miss out on the truly important things of life. How sad it would be to arrive at the end of our lives and feel it was worthless. God didn’t give us the gift of life to have it be spent in a meaningless way...
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| November 9, 2011: Courage Courage is a strange concept. We often confuse it with the boldness or even fool-heartedness we see in the movies. True courage is not simply being bold; it is a combination of both mental and moral strength that is able to withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. It is that additional factor of moral strength that makes something truly courageous...
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| October 26, 2011: These Hands Have you ever paused in your busy day to take a look at your hands? Sounds kind of silly, but perhaps this story will help put it into a whole different light.
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| October 19, 2011: Everything God Does is Done With Perfection With the Baseball World Series begins tonight, I find myself thinking of those glorious days of Little League...both of my days playing and my sons playing. We’ve all likely heard or seen the fights and cursing that can take place in the crusade to win a game. True greatness should be defined by our character and not at our ability to win at all costs...
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| October 12, 2011: Today: Let Us Rejoice and Be Glad In It! Do you spend time, perhaps too much time, reflecting back on the past or dreaming about the future? A danger exists for all of us when we spend too much time in such reflections and dreams. We forget to enjoy the day called today! We hold a precious gift in our hands each and every day. The question really is: How will we live today?
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| October 5, 2011: On Being a Role Model Like it or not, all of us are role models to others. It happens all the time. In our work, we look to those over us to see how people in those positions should talk and act. This is an awesome responsibility that most try to avoid or explain away. Being a role model may be the single most important responsibility of our job!
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| September 28, 2011: Miracles Miracles come in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes the miracle is something many can see; other times it is a miracle that takes place in a person’s heart. Here’s a story (author unknown) that touched me... hope you enjoy it
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| September 14, 2011: Symbols in Our Lives We are very much people of symbols. If you are into sports at all you recognize the “check mark” symbol as the Nike brand. You can be driving down the freeway and see the “Golden Arches” off in the distance and immediately your children have a craving for a MacDonald’s Happy Meal. For Christians, the one symbol that stands out above all the others is the Cross...
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| September 7, 2011: The Whole Earth is Full of His Glory Have you ever stopped and looked around you at the incredible place we call home: the earth. What unbelievable diversity we live in: animals of so many varieties, birds of wondrous colors and amazing voices; sea life that can boggle one’s mind with its variety; insects that fly or crawl and some that undergo amazing transformations like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly…WOW!!
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| August 31, 2011: The Lord is Merciful In our daily lives all of us make “mistakes”... sometimes big...sometimes small. I’m not talking about the forgetting to cross your t’s or dot your i’s kind of wrongs. I mean those “mistakes” that do damage to our souls...take us out of where we could be spiritually in our lives. Sometimes those “mistakes” took place years ago, and still are having a horrible impact on our spiritual lives...
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| August 24, 2011: We Need to Be Watchful A family that I know recently lost their son in an accident. His death caused many people to come to grips with just how fragile our lives really are. The truth of the matter is that even if we should live to be 100, life is still so very short. I read a story that helped me in thinking about how I should live this precious gift of life that has been given to me.
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| August 17, 2011: Priceless to God In God’s eyes, every human being has great value. It doesn’t matter how crumpled up they may get; it doesn’t matter how ground into the dirt they may become! Amazingly, they are still just as valuable to God as when they were first born. What is that value: Priceless!! What about you? Yes, you are priceless to God!
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| August 10, 2010: On How We See Things I received much good feedback on last week’s UpWord Glance about the eyes being the windows to the soul. Thought I would share some more thoughts along the same lines. First though, I wanted to again point out the differences on how people look at things differently. Two people can look at the same thing and see two different things. This little test will clarify the point...
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| August 3, 2011: Eyes Are the Windows of the Soul People can look at the same thing and see two different sights. So often what we see is a result of who we are... an artist type person sees things much differently than an engineering type of mind. Sometimes, we see things in a different way because of what we have been taking into our minds. What we take into our minds can definitely influence how we look at other people too...
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| July 27, 2011: On Living in the Present Would you believe the average man or woman will spend 50,000 hours at their job during a lifetime? That’s just average...you are no doubt above average! How much better it would be for us to find satisfaction in our daily lives rather than living for the future. This is true rather one is living for retirement or a promotion. Sometimes the best laid plans (of men and women) can go astray. Take for a good example the following story:
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| July 20, 2011: Using the Wings God Gave You Did you ever have that feeling inside that things in your life could or should be better?...that you were meant to do something more with your life, day in and day out? Could it be possible that God has a plan and a purpose for our lives that we haven’t quite arrived at yet? If you have ever felt that way, then the following might be of help.
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| July 13, 2011: Facing Giants Back in the days of Moses, the Israelites had escaped from bondage, crossed the wilderness and were ready to enter the Promised Land. Spies returned with news that he land was beautiful, but there were also giants, along with powerful armies. They stirred up fear in the Israelites by talking about the hopelessness of trying to fight these “giants”. Rather than trust God and His ability to guide their lives, they rebelled against Moses and God. There can be times in our lives when the future seems to hold many of those “giants”...
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| July 6, 2011: A Fork in the Road, Part II The UpWord Glance from two weeks ago received a lot of good feedback from folks. It seems like a lot of people are looking at two paths diverging from their lives and wondering which one to take. Sometimes those “forks in the road” are so small they seem insignificant at the moment. Once you’ve chosen one path over the other and gone down it a ways, you find that it really was an important choice you made. Here’s an example...
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| June 22, 2011: A Fork in the Road All of us face forks in the road on a regular basis; the most obvious are decisions about work. Should we take that new job...should we transfer...should we stay where we are? All of these and more are forks in the road and all decisions lead us one direction or the other. Wouldn’t it be great to travel down both roads; but that can never be our story.
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| June 16, 2011: The Measure of Success Those of us, who are fathers and grandfathers, hopefully recognize the role model we play for the little ones charged to our care. Children's values in life are shaped early on by the example of the parents. Parents want their children to be successes in life. But success is one of those tricky terms; how does anyone really know when you've achieved "success"?
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| June 08, 2011: There Is No Charge for Love! I found myself thinking about the difference from how I love others and how God loves people. I often set conditions...I will love those who love me or are nice to me or do good things for me or agree with me...basically my kind of love is all about me...not others. In my own way, I charge for love so very often, setting my own kind of price on who I will love. God on the other hand pours out His love without conditions...
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| June 02, 2011: Delight in the Law of the Lord "You can't soar with the eagles if you're walking with the turkeys!" Some "wise" sage said that...sometime in the past…someplace unknown to me, but there is some very important truth there. This saying is illustrated really well by a story in the Old Testament (1 Kings 12-14) about the son of King Solomon.
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 May 25, 2011: A Story About Courage Courage is a strange concept. We often confuse it with the boldness or even fool-heartedness we see in the movies (one guy taking on an army of bad guys with guns blazing in both hands). True courage is not simply being bold; it is a combination of both mental and moral strength that is able to withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.
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| May 18, 2011: St. Photini: The Rest of the Story This coming Sunday, the Samaritan Woman at the Well is remembered. Her encounter with Jesus can be read in John 4. And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story as it was passed down through the centuries.
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| May 04, 2011: A Strong Woman Mother’s Day is coming quickly...May 8th. This UpWord Glance is going out to those ladies that all of us have in our lives. It is incredible to consider the hard work and pressure women face each day as they try to juggle a full-time job and all the responsibilities of the home. Today’s women need to be women of strength!
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| April 27, 2011: Doubting Thomas This coming Sunday will be the Sunday of Saint Thomas. Most folks focus on his doubt, hence the term: “Doubting Thomas!" However, it might be better for us to focus on Thomas’ ultimate belief. When he came into contact with the Risen Jesus, he had only one thing to say: “My Lord and my God!!” He embraced Jesus as God come in the flesh and his entire life went a different direction…eventually becoming a martyr for that belief!
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| April 20, 2011: Behold the Bridegroom If you have been involved this week with the wonderful services of Holy Week in the Orthodox Church, as we head toward the celebration of our Lord’s Glorious Resurrection on Sunday, then you know that the first three nights are times for serious introspection. Those first 3 nights of Holy Week we have what are called the Bridegroom Services. These services remind us that our Bridegroom Jesus will one day come for us. The readings and the hymns challenge us to take a close look at our lives and to be ready for His coming. The main hymn begins with these words: “Behold the Bridegroom comes in the midst of the night; and blessed is the servant, whom He shall find vigilant.
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| April 13, 2011: Staying Connected to the Body of Christ There is a movie out right now about a young man who gets his arm trapped by a rock. He finally has to cut off his arm in order to survive. He lives but his arm dies. That might seem like a silly statement… of course his arm dies. Unless that arm stayed connected to the body, where it is nourished and given oxygen through the flow of blood, it couldn’t possibly survive. The death of that arm holds an important spiritual truth for us.
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| April 6, 2011: The Ant and the Contact Lense There are times in life when it seems that a person has to carry an awful heavy load. This is not something any of us desire. We can always ask the usual question: “Why me Lord?” or we can pray, asking for His help and strength, and then give it our best. The following true story illustrates this in a most unusual way...
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| March 29, 2011: Battling Evil Thoughts As most of you know, I was a prison chaplain for almost 26 years. In counseling men over those years, there is one area that seemed to stand out as a common problem: the battle that went on in their minds...battling evil thoughts.
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| March 23, 2011: A Divine Appointment In my work as a prison chaplain, I would often have an encounter with one of the men or one of the staff members that at first I described as a Holy Moment. God’s presence became obvious during our time together, so much so in fact, that I would say I had been “on holy ground” during my time with that person. I came to look on these encounters as “Divine Appointments”. I eventually found myself praying in the mornings that God would grant me a Divine Appointment in the day ahead.
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| March 9, 2011: The Spiritual Marathon Great Lent is really a small picture of the overall “race" we are in throughout our whole life. All of us want to be able to weather those spiritual trials and come out on the other side victorious, but it can seem so impossible in the midst of them. I recently read a story that inspired me along those lines...
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| February 23, 2011: Making Music With What We Have In the midst of budget cuts and financial problems for so many folks around this country, many people are feeling the stress of doing more with less. Yet, within all of us there is that drive to do our best and be our best no matter what situation we find ourselves in. This story brings home that point in a most excellent way. May it be an inspiration to you in the midst whatever may be coming your way.
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| February 14, 2011: The Gift of Love I received an email and thought you might be interested in the response. It is written to couples, but the idea of showing our love in tangible ways can certainly be applied by everyone in many everyday situations.
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| February 8, 2011: Feed the Mule! Blessings to you all. I can’t remember where I first ran across this wonderful article...author anonymous, but I reworked it a little for this Upword Glance. I pray it is a blessing to you as it was to me!! I am sending this out early this week as I will not be able to do it later. Have a great week!!
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| February 2, 2011: Guarding the Senses Last week, as you will recall, An UpWord Glance dealt with the battle for our minds..."garbage in...garbage out". A dear friend sent me a response to that article and the following well done article. It was such a wonderful article that it needed to be shared with you all. It was written for the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) by Father Geoffrey Korz, Orthodox Christian Chaplain.
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| January 26, 2011: Garbage In, Garbage Out I'm sure most of us have not only heard that phrase before, but, most likely, we've used it ourselves. Whatever we take into our minds will likely come out of our mouths or be in our actions in some way...
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| January 12, 2011: Compartmentalizing Faith A few weeks age I wrote about watching what comes out of our mouth for our consideration when it comes to our 2011 New Year resolutions . The Psalmist says: “Set a watch O Lord before my mouth!” The following story will no doubt bring a smile to you, but at the same time it illustrates well why we should be praying that verse of Psalms daily...
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| January 5, 2011: The Four Wives Once upon a time there was a rich King who had four wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest of delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best and was always concerned for her well-being...
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| December 28, 2010: On Controlling One's Tounge Happy 2011!! Incredible! With the New Year upon us, many people will be making their annual resolutions. These usually range from what we eat, drink, smoke, and wear...to the shape of our bodies and what we plan to do about it. With the vast multitude of resolutions that we have available, I would like to add one more for your consideration: What comes out of our mouth!
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| December 22, 2010: Christian Remember Your Dignity The Great Saint Leo, one of the early Church Fathers, was a bishop in the middle of the 5th century and is especially renowned for his preaching on the mystery of the Incarnation. This excerpt is from one of his most famous Christmas sermons, the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ, on December 25.
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| December 15, 2010:The Magi: following that guiding star Each Christmas, songs are sung about the Wise Men or Magi that came from the east looking for the one who had been born. Their story can be read in the Gospel according to St. Matthew (2:1-12). The story is an old familiar one to most of us. Sometimes it's easy to pass over some spiritual gems because we've heard the story so many times. So let's take a closer look.
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| December 6, 2010: A Visit from St. Nicholas This is an important day in my home each year. The “why?” is best answered by sharing this true story with you. If you are a fan of the Paul Harvey radio programs, you will be familiar with one of his shows called "The Rest of the Story". This story could easily be one of those stories. I would like to share this true story with you about a man who made his mark on the world, not with power, or money, or great writings...but with his life.
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| December 1, 2010: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...With all those memories and with the present day traditions going on, most folks don’t have a clue as to why we even have a Christmas tree. The most common myth that we hear is that the Christmas tree is part of a pagan ritual from their Yule celebration that was picked up by Christians. Actually, that is not the case. It had its beginnings within Christianity...here’s the story
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| November 24, 2010: Giving thanks every day It is good to have a Thanksgiving Day, but it’s even better to give thanks each and every day. Today is a good day to begin (or continue) to make the giving of thanks a regular part of our daily lives. Even in the midst of what seems to be the absolute worst of times in our lives, pausing to give thanks to our Lord can truly help us. It can bring a perspective that we may not have been thinking about.
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| November 17, 2010: When you find yourself in a storm It dawned on me that in life...just like in the world...there are storms we know we should prepare for and we are foolish if we don’t. Some kinds of storms make absolutely no sense and do not fit into anything we have ever seen before...those that can suddenly rip through your life. At times like these all your preparation can seem so very inadequate...you can only try to hold on to the Lord’s hand and cry out for His mercy and comfort.
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| November 3, 2010: Alice In Wonderland...Spiritually Speaking! In that timeless tale, Alice in Wonderland, Alice meets up with two strange characters who ask her very pointed questions. Their questions and Alice's answers give us food for spiritual thought. First, Alice meets up with the Great Caterpillar, sitting on a mushroom, smoking a hookah. "Who…are…you?"
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| October 27, 2010: The Search for Truth When those pains of life or tough questions come our way, may we all humble ourselves and seek the Lord. There is only One who claimed to actually be the TRUTH…not simply to teach the truth or to point us toward the truth…Jesus Christ said: “I am the Truth…” (John 14:6). He is the One, Who has the healing touch and the answers.
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| October 20, 2010: Laying Down Our Lives We can lay down our lives in a great variety of ways: It could be going to a nursing home; or perhaps to a sick friend’s bed-side; or visiting someone in prison; or being with someone at their court appearance; perhaps sitting with a friend while their baby’s operation is underway; perhaps attending a funeral... anything that will cause us to squirm and be out of our comfort zone could qualify as “laying down our life for a friend.”
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| October 13, 2010: Good Fruit Fruit, fruit, and only fruit does the Lord seek from every living tree...and we are those living trees! Good fruit is a God-loving heart that seeks to do good and bad fruit is a self-loving heart that seeks after self-exultation. A good, God-loving heart is within every Christian and God desires us to use that heart to produce good fruit.
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| October 5, 2010: The Golden Rule Here’s the point Jesus was making...if you are one of those folks who have experienced hatred...you need to treat that person the way you would truly want to be treated by him or her. Not returning hate for hate. Imagine for a moment how you wish all people would treat you...then treat those who hate you in just that manner...and expect nothing in return.
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| September 29, 2010: How Can I Help? When one of our family members, our friends, our neighbors, or our co-workers is going through some difficult problems...instead of “This doesn’t concern me!” perhaps all of us should be thinking...”How can I help!” “Love your neighbor as yourself” takes on a whole different meaning when one considers what might happen when we don’t do that.
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| September 23, 2010: Be Careful With Hawks. After all this time, this one story has always stuck with me. I was reminded of it again during a drive home...seeing some drivers consumed with their anger over a slower car or an untimely light...and that anger caused them to pass on a double striped line or shake an angry fist at some little ol’ lady. This story holds many applications...hope you enjoy it!!
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