"THE SECRET INGREDIENT OF SUCCESS"

A Sermon By

Philip A. C. Clarke

Park Avenue United Methodist Church 106 East 86th.Street New York, New York 10028 March 26, 199.5

41 THE SECRET INGREDmNT OF SUCCESS"

INTRODUCTION That secret ingredient of success is what we're going to be thinking about here this morning. And you'd think

that people when submitting a resume would want to put their best foot forward and at least check carefully for any typo's. Yet, according to Accountemps, here are some real-life excerpts from resumes of some real-life people.

"Dear Sir: I am a rabid typist". (Well, I hope she doesn't end up biting anyone in the office).

"I'm a quick leaner". (Probably his last job was with the Highway Department •••• and that's probab~ why they let him go.)

"I seek challenges that test m;r mind and m;r body because the two are usually inseparable". (Sounds like something that Shirley MacLaine might have had on her resume.)

"Here are my qualifications:ii:!Ol!'d_put;.,tor.ro'V_~ l11obk•" { O(~K., I will ••• ) .

"Hope to hear from you shortYG' Sincerely ••• " (Takes one to know one.) ·

Most of us know by this time what it takes to "make it" in this life. It takes hard work, discipline, patience and perseverance and a few other things. It takes doing it right the first time. As someone has said, you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression. People sometimes talk about working smarter and not hard~;, but that can be deceptive. People who make a difference in this world do both. '!'hey usual.ly have a passion, a vision, a burning desire to be the very best they can be.

DEVELOPMENT Remember baseball •••• what use to be our great American pas,~t'ime. Some of you remember it and some of you may even

recall the name of Brett Butler. According to an article in Youth magazine Brett Batler was a t~ kid whom all the rest of the g~s picked on. Butler did not have a fun time as a youth. He once said in an article,

"Every day for two years the other kids in Junior High School would chase me around the playground and try to pull my underwear up above my pants. I would run and run and finally just run home. Every day it happened•"

For Brett Butler, the perils of being small didn't end at the age of 12. When he. played football in highschool, they had to run over to the :'J~nior.~·'l!_igh and find some pads for him because he was so small. He played quarterback and had to roll out just to see over the offensive line. And his voice was so high it squeaked and cracked when he called the signals. The opposition t-Tould laugh. But you know his father told him something he would never forget, something that motivated him to do and to give his very best. It was#

"If' you don't believe in yourself, nobody else willl"

- 2 -

. This same article in Youth magazine went on to tell us that his high school coach ridiculed h~ when he had the nerve to say that he wanted to play baseball at Arizona State, one of the top "baseball colleges" in the colllltry, but Brett grabbed his glove and trotted off to Arizona State anyway. He wound up as the leading hitter on the Junior Varsity, but didn't get the scholarship he was hoping to get and so he transferred to tiny Southeastern Oklahoma State where he eventually became a "two-time All .American". In 1979 he was drafted by the Braves in the 23rd ro11nd. Now Brett is only 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs about 155 and wears a size 7 shoe which they say is the smallest in baseball.

Today Brett Butler is with the LA Dodgers and is recognized as one of the best players pound for pound and inch far inch in the game. An All Star in 1991 and one of the top hitters in 1992, he is a manager's dream for a lead-off hitter. He seldom hits into a double play. Did Brett Butler make it to the big leagues on the basis of pure "athletic abilit7?11 I think not. Of course not. Here is the secret truth we med to tell every young person in this land. The very best work harder. It's trae in sports, in' business, in music ••• in every endeavor in life. The secret of success in life is passion, and determination and desire. 11Hov do you get to Carnegie Hall?" You ,:practice, you,~p!a,~ti~"'~n._d you practice.

Jesus told a parable long ago aboat a man who owned a vineyard. And in that vineyard was a fig tree - a fig tree that had no fruit on it. The ovner one day said to the vinedresser~

"Cut it down. For three years I have been looking for fruit on this tree and have found none. Cut it down. lilh.y should it use up ground?"

Time and time again Jesus shoved a bit of impatience with people who do not take the advantages of the opportunities that God has given them. They are ni~· people but they are not producing fruit. And then Christ comes before us and asks:

"What is it that you are passiona~ about? What is it that you are giving your life to accomplish? What fruit are you bearing?"

FIG TREES AND BANANAS Several things to note here. First of all, note that Jesus isn't'''asking''the fig tree to produce·

bananas or apples. He isn't asking aqything extraordinary out or this fig tree •.. He isn't asking the fig tree to become an oak or a redwood. Jesus is asking only that it accomplish what fig trees oaght to accomplish and that 1B to bear f'igs. let's think about this in terms of our lives •••

You and I have di.f'fertng~ng gifts. ··Some of us have been given great singing voices. Some have graceful bodies. Some have high IQ•s. Some are artists, painters, sculptors. Some are good with numbers; others are good with people. Some knov just how to teach others. A:l - hav~ ,.;iome natural abili'Ly '~y abilit.) w::.. .... ::. be different r:om yours.. Each of us has some natural ability. The secret is to find our natural abilities and then give them "all we've got". That '.s ~t genius is. When we say that someone is a GENillS, all we're saying is that they gave maximum effort in that area or their lives where they" have some natural ability. That's it.

-------

- 3 -

That_!s the secret ingredient of success. Find what you're naturally' good at and the~. give it your vert best. A per~Jon who can't carry a tune will never sing with the Met no matter how hard they wor~.~· bat on the other. hand, there are maqy performers who as young people had quite ordinary voices, bat through hard work ••• tbrough thousands and thousands of hours of practice ••• have became accomplished singers. It was not that they had extraordinary talent to begin with. It was that they took what they had and used it to the utmost of their ability. Who was it •••• Enrico Caruso •••• who was once told by one of his music teachers, "You can't sing ••• you have no voice at alll" And he went on to became one of the best-loved singers of all times.

And Be~hoven 1 s music teacher once said of him, "As a composer he is helplessl" An editor told Louisa May Alcott that she was incapable of writing anything that would have popular appeal. That, or course, was before Little Women. Walt Disney was fired· by a newspaper Editor because he was thought to have "no good ideas". Imagine that? Tell that to the millions of people thrilled by a Disney movie. And when F. W. Woolworth w•s 21 he got a job in a store, but was not permitted to wait on customers because he "didn't have enough good common sense".

Each of these famous people proved to have a touCh of genius, but was it "innaten. or did it grow out of their dedication to developing what they bad been .given,,? In his autobiography, Summing Up, Somerset Maugham, writes:

"I knew that I had no lyrical quality-, a small vocabulary, and little gift of metaphor. The original and striking simile never occured to me. Poetic flights were beyond my powers. On the other hand, I had an acute power of observa­tion, and it seemed to me that I could see a great ma~ things that other people missed. I could put down in clear terms what I saw •••• I knew that I should never write .. as well as I could wish, but I thought, with pains, that I could

·arrive at writing as well as rrrr natural defects allowed."

And therein, Somerset Maugham discovered the secret of genius. And the point is this that life does not ask us to became what we are not. That. fig tree was being asked on],y to produce some figs. No more. You and I are asked onJ¥ to accomplish what our natural girts allow •

.,!!!& WE ARE ASKED TO ACC<JotPLISH THATI

fail at that yer~tpoint.

But, dear friend, we are asked to accomplish that. And ma~, I fear,

A man was. walking through the countr,yside when he noticed a young fellow standing at attention in a field. Later in the day, the walker came back along the same path and notieed that this man was still there. Somewhat curious, he approached the y-oung man and asked him what he was doing. He replied, "I'm practicing, air, for the Nobel Prize". "What was th.at ••• how's that. ••" asked the eurious visitor. Said the yoUng man,

"Well, sir ••• one of the criteria for the Pri-ze is to be 'outstanding' in your chosen field."

It may take a while to reach the back of the roam ••• "out ••• standing ••• in a chosen field". If yott and I are going to be "outstanding" in our chosen field, then we're going to have to do more than stand around ••• and sit around ••••

--- ------------

-4-

For example~ how's your memory? Did you know that most of us do not have really- poor memories? What we have are wttrainecl memories. Remember Jerry LUcas who use to play for the Knioks ••• 20 years ago. They say he trained him• self to memories pages and pages of telephone numbers of the Manhattan directory. Don't ask me why'. That feat took him hours of practice. And we'd probably' say of him, "hey ••• what a memory£" But, no. What dedication. Success is taking what we have and giving it our very best. You can develop your memory if that is your desire. Or a vocabulary. We can develop vocational skills. All we have to have is the desire. The passion. The drive. The determination.

AN AREA WHERE WE ARE ALL EQUALLY GIFTED Of course, there is one area of life where all of us are

equally' gifted. And that is in following Jesus and bearing some spiritual fruit for Him. The question that comes into play-~ of course, is: IS IT THAT IMPCRTANT TO US? Are we willing to give it our best? To Jim Mertz, a member of one of our "main-line" protestant denominations in this country the question is phrased like this:

"DO WE REALLY LOVE JESUS THAT MtJGH?"

He tells us that one day he was watching ·a~t-oleviaibnlmovtea .• in which he saw a Muslim fall on his tknees in the dust and heat of the day •••• five times a day this Muslim stopped, faced the holy' city of Mecca and worshipped Allah. Jim found himself wondering if he'd do' the same for Jesus, onJ,y he put it this way-: do I really' love Jesus like that?

Some time later on Jim read of a young mother who was seen thrcming her precious, new-born infant child into the Ganges River. She told someone that her child was a sacrifice, a love offering to her God. She said,

"You see ••• we always offer our very best in sacrifice--to our God."

Again, Jim found himself asking the question: "Do I reall,y love Jesus that much?" ''What have I sacrificed for Him. Have I truly given my best to Him?"

Jim once lay in a hospital for ten days recuperatingf:t.l"C:R-~ar::boV.t-'-wtth. pneumonia. - It was a Saturday morning in the wintry days of January. He glanced out the window ••• looking at the cold~ gray skies and watched the blowing sleet that kept comirg down all day. How thankful he was to be inside. Then he happened to see at a busy intersection of the city, below his hospital windOW'1 a young lady ••• perhaps a teenager •••• standing on the street corner selling flowers. She never stopped smiling all day in that cold, miserable weather, in the midst of the congested traffic~ in spite of jeers and sneers of those who occasionally came close to running her down. She stood there all day selling flowers for her cult leader, the Reverend Sun YWJg Moon. Again, Jim asked himself that same ouestion: do I really' love Jesus that mach?

Early one Saturday morning Jim's doorbell rang. He hastened to the door and was met there by two lovely, enthusiastic young people from Utah who were anxious to talk to him about the doctrines of their religious sect. They were smiling and friendly. They were not doctrines that Jim felt he could accept and yet, these two young people were so sincere •••• so dedicated to their cause that Jim couldn't help but feel impressed. As Jim closed the door, he peered

- 5-

out his living room window and watched them as they slowly walked away. He looked down at the literature they had· put into his hands and once again he found himself wondering: Do I really love Jesus? Would I go out and knock on doors and talk to others about Him? Is there something in me that tends to make me uncomfortable or ashamed of telling others about Him?

For us, it's not a matter of opportunity, is it? And certainly, it's not for want of ability, is it? Or, is it a matter of time? Some will hide behind that, but let's face it •••• we find time for those things that are important to as, don't we? The "bottan line" has something to do with passion and with desire and feeling, and of giving one's best to the work of the Master.

CLOSING Of that barren fig tree, the owner of the vineyard said to his vinedresser:

"Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?•

And he answered him, "Let it alone, sir, this year also ••• until I dig around it and put on some fertilizer ••• and if it bears fruit next year, well and good£ But if not, you can cut it dawn.•

It comes across to us as a bit harsh. God is the "owner" and Jesus, I sense, is the "vinedresser11 • Perhaps we. need to hear a sharper word as we·, approach the events of Ho~Week and stand before the Cross. There's still some time, friend, .and some present may need to hear that. But for all of us this is a good time and place for us to stop and ask ourselves whether we're bearing sufficient fruit in His name - in our jobs, 1n our homes, in our communities, in our ehurch •••• in serving Him. He's not asking us to be some­thing we are not, bat He is asking us to be the very best we can be. And therein is the secret ingredient of success. The time is now. The place is here. Go forth and bear good fruit in His name.

PRAYER Confirm within each of us, 0 God, the feelings and intentiens, the decisions and resolutions at work here in these moments.

We remember how Jesus said that to whan much is given, of hill. • .of her will mttch be required. Help 11s to be faithf11l and ever awake to ways to be better disciples •••• to be ready when He comes and to bear good fruit as a faithful follower ••• for

"Lord, we are able. Our spirits are thine. Remold them, make us, like thee, divine. "

In the spirit of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

"THE SECRET ItllREDIENT OF SUCCESS"

A Sermon B.r

Philip A. C. Clarke

Park Aven11e United Methodist Church 106 East 86th.Street New York, New York 10028 March 26, 1995

.,THE SECRET INGREDIENT OF SUCCESS"

INTRODUCTION That secret ingredient or success is what we're going to be thinking about here this morning. And you'd think

that people when submitting a resume would want to put their best toot forward and at least check careful~ tor any typo's. Yet, according to Accountemps, here are some real-life excerpts from resumes ot some real-lite people.

"Dear Sir: I am a rabid typist". (Well, I hope she doesn't end up biting aqyone in the office).

"I'm a quick leaner". (Probably his last job was with the Highway Department •••• and that's probab~ why they let him go.)

"I seek challenges that test my mind and my body because the two are usually inseparable". (Sounds like sonething that Shirley MacLaine might have had on her resume.)

"Here are 11\Y qualifications ·for, TQU. to over look•" (OK, I will ••• )

"Hope to hear from you shorty& Sincereq •• •" (Takes one to lmow one.)

Most of us lmow by this time what it takes to "make it" in this lite. It takes hard work, discipline, patience and perseverance and a few other things. It takes doing it right the first time. As someone has said, you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression. People sometimes talk about working smarter and not hard.er, but that can be deceptive. People who make a difference in this world do both. They usually haTe a passion, a vision, a burning desire to be the very best they can be.

DEVELOPMENT Remember baseball. • •• what use to be our great American pas·ttbte. Some or you remember it am sane of you may even

recall the name of Brett Butler. According to an article in Youth magazine Brett Ibtler was a tiny' kid whom all the rest of the guys picked on. Butler did not have a fun time as a youth. He once said in an article,

"Every day tor two years the other kids in Junior High School would chase me around the playground and try to pull my underwear ap above my pants. I would run and run and finally just run home. Every day it happened•"

For Brett Butler, the perils or being small didn't end at the age of 12. When he played football in highschool, they had to run over to the Unior High and find some pads tor him because he was so small. He played quarterback and had to roll out just to see over the offensive line. And his voice was so high it squeaked and cracked when he called the signals. The opposition would laugh. But you know his rather told him something he would never forget, something that motivated him to do and to give his very best. It was,

•It you don't believe in yourself, nobody else willl"

-----~~~--~------~-- --- -----

- 2 -

. This same article in Youth magazine went on to tell us that his high school coach ridiculed h'tm when he had the nerve to say that he wanted to play baseball at Arizona State, one or the top "baseball colleges" in the cowttry, but Brett grabbed his glove and trotted ott to Arizona State 8.IJ1llaT• He wound up as the leading hitter on the Junior Varsity, but didn't get the scholarship he was hoping to get and so he transferred to tiny Southeastern Oklahoma State where he eventuall.y became a "two-time All .American". In 1979 he was draf'ted by the Braves in the 23rd round. Now Brett is onl1' 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighs about 1.5.5 and wears a size 7 shoe which they say is the smallest in baseball.

Today Brett Butler is with the IA. Dodgers and is recognized as one of the best players pound for pound and inch far inch in the game. An All Star in 1991 and one or the top hitters in 1992, he is a manager's dream for a lead­orr hitter. He seldom hits into a double play. Did Brett Butler make it to the big leagues on the basis of pure "athletic ability?" I think not. or course not. Here is the secret truth we med to tell every young person in this land. The very best work harder. It's true in sports, 1n business, in music ••• in every endeavar in lite. The secret of success in lite is passion, and determination and desire. "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" You work, work, and work!

Jesus told a parable long ago about a man who owned a vineyard. And in that vineyard was a fig tree - a fig tree that had no fruit on it. The owner one day said to the vinedresser 1

"Cut it down. For three years I have been looking for fruit on this tree and have found none. Cut it down. Why should it use up ground?"

Time am time again Jesus showed a bit of impatience with people who do not take the advantages or the opportunities that God has given them. They are noce people but they are not producing fruit. And then Christ comes before us and asks:

"What is it that you are passiona~ about? What is it that you are giving your lite to accomplish? What fruit are you bearing?"

FIG TREES AND BANANAS Several things to note here. First or all, note that Jesus isn't asking the fig tree to produce

bananas or apples. He isn't asking an,thing extraordinary out of this fig tree. He isn't asking the fig tree to become an oak or a redwood. Jesus is asking only that it accomplish what fig trees ought to accomplish and that is to bear figs.

You and I have differening gifts. Some or us have been given great singing voices. Some have graceful bodies. Some have high IQ's. Satl9 are artists, painters, sculptors. Sane are good with numbers; others are good with people. Some know just how to teach others. All or us have some natural ability, though. My ability will be different from yours. Each of us has some natural abUit7. The secret is to find our natural abilities and then give them "all we've gotn. That's what genius is. When we say that someone is a GENITJS, all we're saying is that they gave maximum effort in that area of their lives where they have some natural ability. That's it.

- 3 -

That's the secret ingredient or success. Find what you're natura~ good at and th n give it your very best •. A person who can't carry a tune will never sing with the Met no matter how hard they workd, but on the other ham, there are mB.D3' performers who as young people had quite ordinary voices 1 but through hard work ••• through thousands and thousands of hours of practica ••• have became accomplished singers. It was not that they had extraordinary talent to begin with. It was that they took what they had and used it to the utmost of their ability. Who was it •••• Enrico Caruso •••• who was once told by one of his music teachers, "You can't sing ••• you have no voice at all1" And he went on to become one or the best-loved singers or all times.

And Be~thoven's music teacher once said or him, "As a composer he is helpless1" An editor told Louisa May Alcott that she was incapable or writing anything that would have popular appeal. That, of course, was before Little Women. Walt Disney was tired by a newspaper Editor because he was thought to have "no good ideas". Imagine that? Tell that to the millions of people thrilled by a Disney movie. And when F. W. Woolworth was 21 he got a job in a store 1 but was not permitted to wait on customers because he "didn't have enough good common sensa".

Each or these famous people proved to have a touCh or genius, but was it "innate" or did it grow out or their dedication to developing what they bad been given. In his autobiography, SUIIIIIling Up, Somerset Mangham, writes:

"I knew that I had no lyrical quality, a small vocabular,y, and little gift or metaphor. The original and strild.ng simile never occured to me. Poetic flights were beyond J'tJ7 powers. On the other hand, I had an acute power or observa­tion, and it seemed to me that I could see a great man.r things that other people missed. I could put down in clear terms what I saw •••• I knew that I should never write as well as I could wish, but I thought, with pains, that I could arrive at writing as well as lftT nataral defects allowed."

And therein, Somerset Maugham discovered the secret or genius. And the point is this that lite does not ask us to become what we are not. That fig tree was being asked onlT to produce some figs. No more. You and I are asked onl.T to accanplish what our natural girts allov.

]!!: WE ARE ASKED TO ACCOOLISH THATl

fail at that point.

But, dear friend, we are asked to accomplish that. And matV, I rear,

A man was walking through the countryside when he noticed a young fellow standing at attention in a field. Later in the day, the walker came back along the same path and noticed that this man was still there. Somewhat curious, he approached the young man and asked him what he was doing. He replied, "I'm practicing, sir, for the Nobel Prize". "What was that ••• how's that. ••" asked the curious visitor. Said the young man,

"Well, sir ••• one or the criteria far the Pri~e is to be 'outstanding' in your chosen field.•

It may take a while to reach the back of the room ••• "out ••• standing ••• tn a chosen field". If you and I are going to be "ontstanding" in our chosen field, then we're going to have to do more than stand aroun:t. ••• and sit around. •••

-4-

For example, how's your memory? Did you know that most of us do not have reailT poor memories? What we have are untrained memories. Remember Jerry Lucas who use to plq tor the ICnicks ••• 20 years ago. They sa.y he traimd him­self to memories pages and pages of telephone nlllllbers of the Manhattan directory. Don't ask me why. That teat took him hours of practice. And we'd probabl.T say of him, "hey ••• wbat a memor.rl" But, no. What dedication. Success is taking what we have and giving it our very beat. You can develop your memor7 if that is your desire. Or a vocabular7. We can develop vocational skills. All we have to have is the desire. The passion. The drive. The determination.

AN AREA WHERE WE ARE ALL EQUALLY GIFTED or course, there is one area of life where all of us are

equally' gifted. And that is in following Jesus and bearing some spiritual f'ruit for Him. The question that comes into play, or course, is: IS IT THAT IMPCRTANT TO US? Are we willing to give it our best? To Jim Mertz, a member of one of our "main-line" protestant denominations in this countr,r the question is phrased like thisz

"DO WE REALLY LOVE JESUS THAT MUCH?"

He tells us that one day he was watching a.:tel9vision.mov1e•·:-j .• 1n which be saw a Muslim fall on his :knees in the dust and heat of the day •••• five times a day this Muslim stopped, faced the hol,y city of Mecca and worshipped Allah. Jim found himself wondering if he'd do the same far Jesus, onl,y be put it this way: do I reailT love Jesus like that?

Some time later on Jim read of a young mother who was seen thr~ring her precious, new-born infant child into the Ganges River. She told someone that her child was a sacrifice, a love offering to her God. She said,

"You see ••• we always offer our very best in sacrifice to our God.•

Again, Jim found himself asking the question: "Do I reall.T love Jesus that aa.ch?" "What have I sacrificed for Him. Have I truly given yq best to H1Dl?11

Jim once lay in a hospital for ten days recuperating frcn a -bout with pneumonia •. It was a Saturday morning in the wintry days of January. He glanced out the window ••• looking at the cold, gray skies and watched the blowing sleet that kept comi:rg. down all day. How thankful he was to be inside. Then he banpened to see at a busy intersection of the city, below his hospital window, a young lad.Y•••perhaps a teenager •••• standing on the street corner selling flowers. She never stopped smiling all day in that cold, miserable weather, in the midst of the congested traffic, in spite of jeers and sneers or those who occasional~ came close to running her down. She stood there all day selling fiowers for her cult leader, the Reverend Sun Yung Moon. Again, Jim asked himself that same auestion: do I really love Jesus that much?

Early one Saturday morning Jim's doorbell rang. He hastened to the door and was met there by' two lovely 1 enthusiastic young people from Utah who were anxious to talk to him about the doctrines of their religious sect. They were smiling and friend.IT. They were not doctrines that Jim felt he could accept and yet, these. two young people were so sincere •••• so dedicated to their cause that Jim couldn't help but feel impressed. As Jim closed the door, he peered

_,_

out his living room window and watched them as they slowly walked away. He looked down at the literature they had put into his hands and once again he found himself wondering: Do I really' love Jesus? Would I go out and knock on doors and talk to others about Him? Is there something in me that tends to ~~ make me uncomfortable or ashamed of telling others about Hill?

P'or us, it's not a matter of opportunity, is it? And certainly, it's not for want of abUity, is it? Or, is it a matter of tiJRe? Soae will hide behind that, but let's face it •••• we find time for those things that are important to us, don't we? The "bottan line" has sanething to do with passion and with desire and feeling, and of giving one's best to the work of the Master.

CLOSING Of that barren fig tree, the owner of the vineyard said to his vinedresser:

"Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?•

And he answered hill, "let it alone, sir, this year alao ••• until I dig around it and put on some fertilizer~ •• and if it bears .fruit next year, well and goodl But it not, you can cut it down.•

It comes across to us as a bit harsh. God is the "owner" and Jesus, I sense, is the "vinedresser". Perhaps we need to hear a sharper word as we · approach the events of Holy' Week and stand before the Cross. There's still some time, .friend, and sane present may D!ed to hear that. But for all of us this is a good time and place tor us to stop and ask ourselves whether we're bearing sufficient .fruit in His name - in our jobs, 1n our homes, in oar communities, in our church •••• in serving Hbl. He's not asking us to be some­thing we are not, but He is asking us to be the very best we can be. And therein is the secret ingredient or success. The time is now. The place is here. Go forth and bear good .fruit in His name.

PRAYER Confirm within each of u, 0 God, the feelings and intentions, the decisions and resolutions at work here in these moments.

We remember how Jesus said that to whall much is given, of hill ••• or her will much be required. Help us to be faithful and ever awake to ways to be better disciples •••• to be ready when He comes and to bear good .fruit as a faithful follower ••• fT

"Lord, we are able. Our spirits are thine. Remold them, make us, like thee, divine. "

In the spirit of Jesus, we prq. Amen.