Stories Inspiring

A young and foolish pilot wanted to sound cool and show who was boss on the aviation frequencies. It was his first time approaching a field during the night time.

Instead of making any official requests to the tower, he said: “Guess who?”

The controller switched the field lights off and replied: “Guess where!”

It important for a pilot to be able to see the place where he is landing! There is a true story about a pilot who was flying a fighter jet in bad weather and was about to make his instrument approach to an airport. The air traffic controller called and asked how much fuel he had. — “Plenty,” he said.

“Well,” the controller said, “We’ve got a little problem. There’s a young pilot who is not instrument rated. He’s lost in the clouds, and we were wondering if you could intercept him and lead him back to the airport.”

“Sure,” the pilot responded. He found the lost plane and pulled up beside it. He called on the radio and told the pilot to look out to his left. When the pilot of this small plane saw the powerful jet, he burst into tears of relief. As far as he was concerned, his life was about over. He would soon run out of fuel and crash.

When William Stidger taught at Boston University, he once reflected upon the great number of un-thanked people in his life. Those who had helped nurture him, inspire him or who cared enough about him to leave a lasting impression.

One was a schoolteacher he’d not heard of in many years. But he remembered that she had gone out of her way to put a love of verse in him, and Will had loved poetry all his life. He wrote a letter of thanks to her.

The reply he received, written in the feeble scrawl of the aged, began, “My dear Willie.” He was delighted. Now over 50, bald and a professor, he didn’t think there was a person left in the world who would call him “Willie.” Here is that letter:

To improve efficiency, a company hired a consultant, who called a meeting of all shop personnel. Stressing the need to listen to experts, he said, “Imagine you’re on the Titanic, and it’s sinking. You climb into a lifeboat. Which direction would you row?” Then he asked, “What if you had the ship’s navigator with you? Now which way would you go? You’d row the way the navigator told you to, right?”

There were murmurs of agreement until a guy in the back piped up, “Well, I don’t know. He’s already hit one iceberg!”

You need discernment concerning whom you’ll take advise. The book of Proverbs urges us to get advice from the wise (1:2-7). Wisdom in the Bible is “skill for living.” Some people know how to make a living but don’t know how to make a life, which is a shame for it is better to make a good life that a good living.

The book of Proverbs is about godly wisdom, how to get it and how to use it. It’s about priorities and principles, not get rich-quick schemes or success formulas. It tells you, not how to make a living, but how to be skillful in the lost art of making a life.

During a Sunday-morning worship service, a mother tried everything she could think of — including rewards, scoldings, and threats — to get her fidgety 7-year-old son to be quiet.  Nothing worked.  Finally, about halfway through the sermon, she leaned over and whispered something in the little boy’s ear.

He immediately stopped fidgeting and sat quietly for the rest of the service.  Afterward, a friend sitting in the row behind asked the young mother what she had said to her son.

The mother smiled and replied, “If you don’t be quiet, the preacher is going to lose his place, and then he’ll have to start his sermon all over again.”

As much as little boys (and most of the rest of us) dislike the idea of having the preacher “start over”, it’s not something that any of us like to do in our own lives.  But there are times when we need to start over.

It’s been said that a smile is the lighting system of the face, the cooling system of the head and the heating system of the heart. But a smile is also a powerful weapon against toxic attitudes of all kinds.

Lisa Gurnsey, of Portland, Oregon, wrote to me about a man whose smile quite literally changed her life: “I was having a horrible day — hating my job, tired of the weather, tired of trying to keep up on bills, and just completely stressed out. I stopped at the post office in the morning and, as I was entering, an older business man commented to me that it was going to be a good day and life shouldn’t be as bad as I make it look. I glared at him and simply said, ‘I wish it was Friday.’

“I felt better about my day when I left the post office…that man’s smile and comment, although irritating at first, made me think.

“The second time I ran into the man I went out of my way to say ‘Happy Friday’ to him and to smile. I saw him a few more times and always he was cheery and ‘made my day.’

Bob had finally made it to the last round of the TV game show $50,000 Question TV.  Given his choice of a category, he told the host MC that he wanted a question on American History.

The big night arrived.  Bob made his way onstage in front of the studio and TV audience.  He had become the talk of the week.  He was the best guest this show had ever seen.  The MC stepped up to the mike.

“Bob, you have chosen American History as your final question.  You know that if you correctly answer this question, you will walk away $50,000 dollars richer.  Are you ready?”

There’s a story about a proud young man who came to Socrates asking for knowledge.

He walked up to the muscular philosopher and said, “O great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge.” 

Socrates recognized a pompous idiot when he saw one. He led the young man through the streets, to the sea, and chest deep into water. Then he asked, “What do you want?”

“Knowledge, O wise Socrates,” said the young man with a smile. 

Socrates put his strong hands on the man’s shoulders and pushed him under. 

Thirty seconds later Socrates let him up. “What do you want?”he asked again. “Wisdom,” the young man sputtered, “O great and wise Socrates.” 

I heard someone say, “Forget love…I’d rather fall in chocolate.” I guess I’ve never liked chocolate that much. It was author Linda Grayson who said, “There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” Sorry. You can leave the chocolate out of my friendships. I’m just not a great fan. I know…what kind of monster dislikes chocolate? Well, you’re looking at one, I suppose.

But I am passionate about some things. I love music – don’t think I would want to live without it. And I care quite a bit about some big things, like living my life fully and helping others to do the same. I care about the welfare of people and building a world where people matter. All people, not just some. I believe it is important to care deeply about a few things that matter.

In the fall of the year, Linda, a young woman, was traveling alone up the rutted and rugged highway from Alberta to the Yukon. Linda didn’t know you don’t travel to Whitehorse alone in a rundown Honda Civic, so she set off where only four-wheel drives normally venture. The first evening she found a room in the mountains near a summit and asked for a 5 A.M. wake-up call so she could get an early start. She couldn’t understand why the clerk looked surprised at that request, but as she awoke to early- morning fog shrouding the mountain tops, she understood. Not wanting to look foolish, she got up and went to breakfast. Two truckers invited Linda to join them, and since the place was so small, she felt obliged. “Where are you headed?” one of the truckers asked. ‘Whitehorse’

In West Texas is a famous oil -field known as the Yates Pool. During the Depression, this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Ira Yates. Mr. Yates was not able to make enough money on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family like many others had to live on government subsidy.

Day after day, as he grazed his sheep, he wondered how he would be able to pay his bills. Then a seismograph crew from an oil company came into the area and told Mr. Yates that there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.