On my way home from work driving along Route 55 all of a sudden the car in front of me stopped. It seemed to be for no apparent reason. Well, I noticed that to the right, in the brush was a little fawn still with its spots. The car in front continued to sit still and then I craned my neck to see around the car in front and spotted the mother, the doe. She stood right next to the road’s shoulder--very determined--waiting.
The cars came rushing from the other direction. ‘Oh, no!’ I thought, ‘disaster!’ But they, too, saw the doe and fawn. And stopped. Just at that moment the mama crossed busy Route 55 leading her babe. On the left side of the road they entered an old overgrown apple orchard. Dinner!
I admired and marveled at the doe. She seemed to have full knowledge of the danger of crossing the busy route and stood her ground until all commuter traffic had stopped!
So, it is with our Lord. He gives some of us the blessing of a loving mother to guide us through the harrowing circumstances of life safely—to dinner.
I thank the Lord for my mother, who is now in her heavenly home. Her work of guiding my brothers and I safely to supper now done. “Bless you, Mom. Thank you for the safety of your guiding hand.”
“Hudson Discovers River." So could be the newspaper headline 400 years ago in the Hudson River Valley. 1609. This year our area of New York State is celebrating what happened here 400 years ago-- the arrival of the explorer, Henry Hudson. One day last week I stood by the Hudson River in Hyde Park, NY, with a crowd anticipating the arrival of a flotilla of boats. One was a replica of the Half Moon, the ship that carried Henry Hudson on his fateful journey where his supposed northwest passage to the Orient turned out to be the huge estuary now named after him.
“The boat is small,” I said to my friend, “but look at the impact it made on the entire world.” At 85-feet-long, the vessel impressed the Native Americans (some of whom were my ancestors) as a “great floating bird.” It’s shape did resemble that of a perky Mallard duck, a grand one at that, with great extended white sails, carved lions heads around the portholes, a stained-glass window at the rear, and various other painted markings, as well as the half moon carved on her stern.
How did these ancient mariners do it? Well, there are many books that can explain it out for you in all its glorious details, but, you know, it all came down to this: Human beings decided to search out the world and worlds impinged upon other worlds.
Remember St. Paul? His missionary voyages around the Mediterranean and his final days in Rome and the letters he left were truly monumental in the life of Christianity even to this day! Life changing.
Think about what we do in praying for one another through OurPrayer. Do you ever wonder, “What kind of impact can I have?” Faith helps us believe that by praying to a mighty and loving God we as individuals can pray reaching across many situations that are otherwise impossible. “The proof is in the pudding,” my mother used to say.
So, the proof is in the answers. Answered prayers are written daily by rejoicing people. I love to read them and “hear” the joy in the words as people revel in the love and care God has for them.
Psalm 107, verses 23 and 24 say, “They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.” So Henry saw the works of the Lord in our beautiful Hudson Valley. So, too, we who navigate stormy seas of prayer eventually will see the wonderful works of the Lord in hearts of people who humble themselves and pray.
I saw the angels shrouded in the morning mist as I drove across the City of Poughkeepsie to my doctor’s office.
“What?” you ask. “Sybil sees angels?”
Well, they aren’t actually heavenly beings that I saw that morning, but they stand head and shoulders over the mighty Hudson River and some like to think that they even guard the city. They are actually the “negative” space in the bridgework of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. This morning they were very pretty being circled about by the morning mist—huge figures, but yet delicate in the veil of puffy whiteness. I thought of another day I heard someone talk about angels. That was Mrs. Peale. She stood up before a full church and said, “I believe in angels.”
Ruth Peale was speaking at her husband’s, Norman Vincent Peale’s funeral. It was an amazing admission spoken with honesty, boldness, forthrightness. And the audience was truly glad that she poured her heart into the speech with passion and told that she imagined that Norman was having a great time with the angels. We all tried to imagine the same.
I think angels help us and keep us from doing some very stupid things. One day I was driving around a curvy road that snakes around the lake near my parents’ home. An 18- wheel truck was oncoming and I knew the truck driver was quite near the center line, but I did see that his rear wheels would actually be over on my side if I kept moving along the curve. I moved my car near to the guard rail on the right side of the road and kept on the gas, but my car did not move. The truck was a hair breadth away from my car. It was a terrifying moment and the metal on metal was oh so close. I gunned the gas wanting to move, but the car still wouldn’t budge. I was in panic mode and wanting to run but there was nowhere to go since there was only a few inches of margin, the guardrail and then the lake.
All I could see was truck. To move forward would have been foolhardy. The truck passed, and then I pressed on the gas—again—and the car moved with no trouble.
As I thought about it later, I realized when I pressed the gas the first time, it seemed like a force kept my car from moving forward and from being crushed into the guard rail by the truck. Then, when the truck was no longer in front of me and passed, my car moved as it normally would when I applied the gas again. Really strange. There seemed to be a pressure on the front of my car restraining the wheel from moving and the whole car was impeded from moving forward and into grave danger. I now believe angels restrained my car so I wouldn’t be crushed by the truck, thank you, God.
So, we have around us, whether it be an angel pin, a little statue, or a large bridge span over a mighty river—whatever reminds you that the real angels are here. Please say with me word of thanks for God’s heavenly helpers.
The other day I was being interviewed by the Sound of Life Radio network. They were talking with me along with our archivist at Guideposts, George Hart, about the life and times of our Guideposts co-founder, Ruth Stafford Peale. It being a year since her death.
George shared a story that I thought most interesting about Ruth Peale.
One day he chanced upon Mrs. Peale sitting alone in the chapel at the Peale Center. She was staring at the beautiful stained glass window that adorns the front wall above the altar of this tiny jewel of a room. She said to him, “Isn’t that stained glass window beautiful? This is my favorite place in all the world.”
Ruth Stafford Peale and her husband, Norman Vincent Peale, had seen so much of our world. Yet here she sat in a little room in an upstate village of no great size (6,000 living souls) and said it was her favorite place in all the world. She reflected on the Lord and how the depiction showed a dear little lamb sheltered up underneath His arm. How blessed could any sheep be?
Ruth was blessed and she was a blessing, helping people direct their prayer requests to our ministry and lifting them up to the Lord. So many blessed. And we’re still here, able to be a blessing. Won’t you join in prayer today for those who have requested it? Thanks.
An aside: One of the interesting things about working as the Peale’s secretary was discussing the planning of world travel they pursued as part of their ministry of speaking, as well as vacations. When I was privileged to begin helping them with secretarial work, I was amazed to see file after file kept on all the trips they had taken. These were complicated trips to the Orient, Round-the-world cruises, safaris to Kenya, speaking trips to Australia and South Africa, attending a board meeting in Budapest, Hungary. The list goes on and on of places one only dreams of traveling.
And travel vicariously I did, through my imagination—coordinating the logistics of these journeys. I would imagine each step they took and what was needed at each point. The only thing that went wrong was my not picking up the tickets at the travel agent prior to a long speaking tour—and later that night getting a call from Mrs. Peale at the school where I was taking a night course! I never forgot their tickets again.
A friend of mine recently was in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a missions trip. During her stay she experienced the arrival of a child of a king--preparations for a daughter of the King of Thailand. The princess was coming to this hotel to participate in a special luncheon honoring Red Cross volunteers. The preparations for her visit were vast. Purple fabric festoons were everywhere lushly draped all around the hotel. Gold festoons were draped over the grand staircase. A garden with a double brick wall suddenly appeared where there was none before! The floral displays were lavishly placed throughout the hotel’s property. An army of security guards swarmed through the hotel making sure everything was as it should be. The coming of a daughter of the king was being heralded. How wonderful, I thought. My friend was duly impressed even though she had to leave the hotel and did not see the actual coming (or going) of the Princess!
So it was one year ago the 6th of February--a daughter of the King of Kings, a deeply spiritual soul, co-founder of Guideposts, Ruth Stafford Peale, entered into her heavenly home. How the angels must have rallied; and the colorful banners went up and the floral displays were laid out—spiritually speaking, that is.
Why do I call Ruth a daughter of the King of Kings? Those who believe in Christ our Lord are indeed children of the King. She knew Him and believed in His goodness throughout her life—101 years!
I worked with her over 27 years, and was amazed at her depth of strength, spirituality and, of course, executive talent. She made many things “work” and work well they did. But right now I want to focus on her prayer life.
Prayer was as natural to Ruth Peale as breathing and, talented as she was, she even learned to organize that. She was able to found the Foundation for Christian Living, printing her husband’s sermons for distributed. This evolved into the Guideposts Outreach ministry program, and the prayer ministry, now called The Ruth Stafford Peale Prayer Power Network, which OurPrayer.org is part of.
Ruth Peale’s talents were called to the fore when she was asked by Billy Graham to organize the prayer cells of people supporting his significant 1950’s Madison Square Garden crusade. Talk about swarming security guards—these prayer cells were an all-out frontal security maneuver throughout New York City--spiritually speaking, that is—to enable the Holy Spirit to move in a great way throughout the tri-state area. Many people were saved during this experience and churches soon swelled with the fruits of Dr. Graham’s labor—and Ruth’s prayers.
Probably one of the most important prayer sessions Ruth Stafford Peale ever had was with a less than confident husband on a garden bench in Keswick, England when he doubted about returning to a one-third filled church during the Depression. It was 1933.
Well, she told him, “You are not only my husband. You are also my pastor, and in the latter department I’m frank to say I am becoming increasingly disappointed in you. I hear you from the pulpit talking about faith and trust in God’s wondrous power. But now I hear in you no faith or trust at all. You just whine your defeat. And to put it bluntly, what you need is a deep spiritual experience. You need to be converted.”
“I have been converted,” Dr. Peale countered
“Well, it didn’t take,” she snapped, “so you had better get really converted.”
They meditated in silence until Norman meekly asked, “How do I do that?”
“You, a pastor asking how you do it,” she commented. “Tell the Lord you are totally lost, without strength, that you have no power within yourself, and that you are humbly throwing yourself on His divine mercy and that you are asking Him to change you now.”
The story goes that she took his hand in a strong grip and urged, “Ask Him now aloud, and I am praying for you, too.”
Well, Norman prayed the prayer she had so outlined and he felt it answered instantly! He was enthusiastic and reborn. He felt nothing could defeat him. He wanted to get back to work in New York City immediately! And so, the rest is history.
Ruth Stafford Peale was born September 10, 1906 and fulfilled her days until February 6, 2008. She was beloved wife of Norman Vincent Peale and loving mother to Margaret Peale Everett, who married Paul F. Everett, and John Stafford Peale, who married Lydia Woods Peale, and Elizabeth P. Allen, who married John M. Allen, and eight grandchildren and many great grandchildren.
I was thinking of Dr. Peale today. His sermons were meant to touch the people of their day, and I think they can touch us today, as well.
Norman Vincent Peale’s sermon given on New Year’s Day 1956 was called “New Life for the New Year.” Here is an excerpt from his sermon delivered at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City:
Years ago I was a student in Boston University School of Theology. Sitting at my desk one day--when I should have been studying some theological assignment--my mind became fixed on one dynamic sentence which I never forgot. The corner bookstore at Mt. Vernon and Charles Streets used to distribute blotters to the students. And on this blotter, in addition to the plug for the bookstore, was a quotation from William Ewart Gladstone, once Prime Minister of Great Britain. It said, "It is a dangerous thing for any young man to start out in life without the thought of God." If I may paraphrase, I would like to say, "It is a dangerous thing for anyone to start out a New Year without the thought of God." Turning that idea around from the negative to the positive, we might say, "It is a glorious thing if, from the very early hours of the New Year, a person will take for his motto, 'In the beginning God.' " Regardless of what life may bring to you in the twelve months to come, with that philosophy you can be victorious.
Let us take that text apart. "In the beginning God." Christianity is the philosophy of the beginning. It is the philosophy of a new start. It is the philosophy of forgetting yesterday and going forward into the future. The Bible is filled with this philosophy. We read in Philippians 3:13-14, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark . . ."
Of course we must learn our lessons from the things we want to forget. But it is a very great mistake to go into tomorrow lugging the accumulated weight of past mistakes. Have you made a mistake? All right. Learn from it and then forget it. Have you committed a sin? Get it forgiven and walk away from it. Have you failed in some undertaking? Be sorry, then be glad and grateful for a new opportunity. Forget and go forward; that is the philosophy of the new beginning.
The other day I decided to pull my audio copy of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol off my book shelf hoping that it would help me acquire some of the spirit of Christmas.
It was a rainy, desperately foggy day as I drove along in my car listening to Dickens. But I heard words from this classic Christmas story I had never heard before. They were in a scene where Scrooge is being visited by his business partner’s ghost, that of Mr. Marley, who is all entangled in chains. Remember the classic line, “I wear the chains I forged in life!” So, he did.
Ghost Marley details the plan to his business partner of the three ghostly visitors Scrooge is expected to entertain later that night. Scrooge gives the ghost perhaps a modicum of credence because he does “recognize” him. But as the scene moves on Marley takes Scrooge to the window thereupon they view many phantoms who are whirling through the night sky. Not only does Scrooge see the ghosts, but he recognizes some! People whom he knew that had died in latter days.
One ghost, a very successful business person, wore a white waistcoat and had tethered around his ankle “a monstrous iron safe.” He had been part of Scrooge’s circle!
But here this poor ghost in the white waistcoat “cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below upon a door-step. The misery with them all was clearly, that they sought to interfere for good, in human matter, and had lost the power for ever.”
I had never heard that phrase before—“They sought to interfere for good.”
Interfere…for good….but had lost the power.
Was interfering a power? Do we, as human’s have a power to interfere? I think we only need to look as far as the news to see interfering for evil. And we, hopefully, can look no farther than our prayer closets to see when we’ve exercised the power to interfere for good. Thank the Lord for those time He enables us to move ahead to assist where we can.
Interfering for good. In A Christmas Carol how did Mr. Scrooge interfere after he awoke on Christmas morning? It’s a fun list. A delightful list. A won-der-ful list!
Dispatched a boy to buy the prize turkey at the poultry shop around the corner
Hired a cab for delivery of the turkey to Camden Town for the Cratchit family
Recognized walking on the street the fundraiser who visited on Christmas Eve that he dismissed. Promised to give a whispered amount in his ear
Patted children
Questioned beggars
Went to church
Made a surprise Christmas Day visit to his nephew’s home and spent a lovely time with his family and guests
Increased Bob Cratchit’s salary
Promised to assist the struggling Cratchit family
Invited Bob C. to discuss particulars over a bowl of smoking bishop!
Became a second father to Tiny Tim—who did not die.
Interfere for good. It brought a wonderfully complete redemption to the miserly soul, Scrooge. What could it do for me today?
Pray along with me today that The Power of Positive Interfering (in deference to Norman Vincent Peale—who loved A Christmas Carol, by the way) would invade our hearts, souls and minds.
How wonderful to be associated with the Peales who were people of prayer, and now that continues on through Guideposts and OurPrayer.Let me please share with you now a story from the Norman Vincent Peale Archives about hope and faith from Dr. Peale’s sermon delivered in December 1964 “Wise Men Still Seek Him.”
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One year I was on a Christmas Night radio program with Vincent Tracy. Vincent has done more good for alcoholics than almost any man I know. He himself once "hit the skids," as he describes it. And one thing about this man is he sure talks freely over the air. If he were standing in the pulpit of a church he would tell the congregation his whole story and have no sense of inhibition about it. He is so overwhelmed by what God did for him that he just can't stop telling everybody all about it. I've been with him many times, and it's everlastingly inspiring because this man is an enthusiast for God.
Well, when he and I were together for that Christmas Night program he said to me, "December 23rd is a spiritual birthday of mine." And he related, "Back in 1948 I was in Brooklyn on December 23rd and I had had it. Life and my weaknesses were more than I could take. I didn't have it in me to go on struggling with myself. So I started across the BrooklynBridge, headed for the Bowery, where I could get a handout.
"And on the bridge I stopped and looked down at the cold waters of the East River, and I thought to myself, 'If I just got up on that railing it would only take half a minute to end it all and I would be at peace.' I wondered, 'Or would I be at peace? How do I know I would be at peace? Well, at least I'd be out of this hell I'm in now.'
"The urge to get up there and jump was very strong. But something kept saying to me, 'Keep on across the bridge.' And afterwards I knew that as I crossed the BrooklynBridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan that night I was crossing into heaven itself, for over on the Bowery, standing at a chilly corner, I suddenly started praying to God and the Lord Jesus.
"I prayed, 'Please dear Lord, I can't save myself. Won't You come to me and help me?' Instantly a great light burst into my mind, and I felt warm in my heart. I walked away from the Bowery saying the Lord's Prayer, with my hand in the hand of Jesus.
"And I've been walking along the road with Him," he concluded, "ever since. Without Him I wouldn't be anything."
"With Him, Vincent," I said, "you're a very great deal." Vincent Tracy is an ultra-modern man. But he was humble enough to be wise. He came to Jesus and became a wiser wise man.
--------------(end of sermon excerpt)
May we all become wiser and seek Jesus every day during this Advent Season.Guideposts offers an on-line service to those in Recovery at www.Sober24.com.Please share this web site with friends and family.
“She asked what she could pray for on my behalf--specifically!”
Pat Planeta, a co-worker and talented editor for Peale Center who died last year after over a decade and a half of valiantly fighting a battle with leukemia, one day at work she described to me a conversation she had with Ruth Stafford Peale. Pat had received results from a medical test and Mrs. Peale wanted to pray in a way that would most benefit Pat’s health. How amazing to be asked this question—to be prayed for specifically!
Mrs. Peale was a firm believer in prayer. She had definite ideas on how prayer worked and how God was listening. She exercised her belief that all things should be brought to God in prayer and the more one prayed with exactitude the more answers came.
Many times over the years I heard Mrs. Peale tell an interesting story that illustrated this fact better than any other. A mother was burdened about her son. He had a family and lived across the country, but he had developed a serious drinking problem and now had martial problems because of it. He had pressure from a job he felt locked into because their young family—three children under age 5—needed the support, of course. To add to the stress, he had an hour-long commute on the bus each way. In the evening, he was so discouraged when he got off the bus that it became his routine to stop at the neighborhood bar. He could not seem to have strength or will power to bypass the bar and go straight home.
For days this woman worried about her son and his marriage, his family, his job, his drinking problem, and asked God how she could reach him. She had the thought, “If only I could be there with him. If only I could ride the bus with him and get him home safely to his family each night.” Then she got the idea, “Why not ride the bus with him?”
So, each night she would meditate and pray at the exact time he rode the bus in the morning and then in the evening—10:00 a.m. in her time zone and 7:00 a.m. in his time zone, and again in the evening allowing for the time difference. She communed with God and prayed about the pressures he felt
After some days of “commuting” with her son, she started to feel a lift in her spirit. She kept up the commuting schedule via prayer, but there was a new faith and confidence. When her son arrived for a Christmas visit, she learned that Dan wasn’t drinking anymore. He told his mother, “You know, I have a long bus ride back and forth to work. One day I got to thinking about my drinking and that bar. I’d thought of it other times, too, but somehow, day after day, morning and evening, the drinking kept coming up in my mind while I was riding that bus. Finally, I made the decision to stop, and once I did, even the bar on the way home didn’t tempt me.”
So next time you need to pray for a friend or loved one, pray—specifically!
The invitation was there: “Come over to the apartment and play our Steinway on your lunch hour. It needs to be played, you know.” So said Mrs. Peale. One of the things I have loved since I was 11 was to study and play the piano; however, my career as an assistant to Norman and Ruth Peale did not allow as much time for play and practice. Their secretary in New York had retired, so I “volunteered” to cover the office at 1025 Fifth Avenue, as well as my duties at the Peale Center in Pawling. We worked out a 2 day in New York and 3 day in Pawling schedule.
So, it was that I found myself in the Norman and Ruth Peale’s New York City apartment during one lunch hour. I knew that their apartment was actually the church owned provided living space for pastor and family, in other words, “the parsonage.” The apartment had a very classic design. A small seating area with stuffed couches and chairs was placed in front of a fireplace. Did the fireplace actually work? I wondered. The draperies were damask and hung in classic style framing the windows that overlooked Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
There in front of the windows sat the Steinway and it was in a beautiful walnut case. It was in perfect tune. Mrs. Peale told me how she kept the piano tuned and serviced by Steinway & Co. (Oh, and there in the corner sat a lovely gold harp that their daughter Elizabeth used to play. I understand she played a wonderful solo live on television when her father was recognized by Ralph Edwards on the program “This is Your Life!”)
The Peales obtained the piano in an effort to provide their children with the opportunity to study music. Through a member of Marble Church, Mrs. Peale, ever the bargain hunter, attended an auction at a large concern in New York City where she valiantly entered into a bidding war for the lovely Steinway in the walnut Art Deco case. Of course, she won. Today the instrument resides in Pawling in the lovely Surbeck Auditorium available to use for any special event that may be conducted there. I enjoy playing it quite often.
Anyway, playing the piano during lunch hour at the Peales apartment in New York City was such a centering event in my day and I can vividly remember it so well. It was as if I transcended to a place of peace and contemplation above the bustling noise and jostling crowds of the city. I decided to open the hymnal which sat upon the music stand and, as Dr. Peale sat and listened, I played this:
“O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul on Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.”
Dr. Peale looked as though he were meditating during the playing of the hymn. He was praying, I knew it. He prayed with his eyes open, you know. “God is there whether we close our eyes or not,” I once heard him counsel a man. So, I was happy playing the old hymn and Dr. Peale was happy to pray and meditate on that love, that Divine love that meets us wherever we are—at the piano keyboard, or at the typewriter keyboard (in those days!). The Lord was there then--and still is now--sustaining us with His grace…me here and the Peales in their heavenly home. Amen.
(The picture at the top of this entry is Dino Kartsonakis as he plays Mrs. Peale's piano in Pawling, NY.)
I saw the angels shrouded in the morning mist as I drove across the City of Poughkeepsie to my doctor’s office.
A friend of mine recently was in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for a missions trip. During her stay she experienced the arrival of a child of a king--preparations for a daughter of the King of Thailand. The princess was coming to this hotel to participate in a special luncheon honoring Red Cross volunteers. The preparations for her visit were vast. Purple fabric festoons were everywhere lushly draped all around the hotel. Gold festoons were draped over the grand staircase. A garden with a double brick wall suddenly appeared where there was none before! The floral displays were lavishly placed throughout the hotel’s property. An army of security guards swarmed through the hotel making sure everything was as it should be. The coming of a daughter of the king was being heralded. How wonderful, I thought. My friend was duly impressed even though she had to leave the hotel and did not see the actual coming (or going) of the Princess!
The invitation was there: “Come over to the apartment and play our Steinway on your lunch hour. It needs to be played, you know.” So said Mrs. Peale. One of the things I have loved since I was 11 was to study and play the piano; however, my career as an assistant to Norman and Ruth Peale did not allow as much time for play and practice. Their secretary in New York had retired, so I “volunteered” to cover the office at 1025 Fifth Avenue, as well as my duties at the Peale Center in Pawling. We worked out a 2 day in New York and 3 day in Pawling schedule.