PEOct87 HOW NOT TO GROW OLD -- DOUGLAS MacARTHUR Youth is not entirely a time of life -- it is a state of mind.  It is not wholly a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips and supple knees.  It is temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a vigor or emotion, a freshness of the deep springs of life.  It means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of appetite for adventure -- over loss of ease.  Nobody grows old by living a number of years.  People grow old by deserting their ideals.  Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.  Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair -- these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the spirit back to dust.  Whatever your years, there is in every being's heart the love of wonder, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what next, and the joy of the game of life.  You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubts, as young as your self-confidence, as old as your despair.  In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber, so long as it receives messages of beauty, cheer and courage, so long are you young.  When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism -- then, and only then -- have you grown old.  Douglas MacArthur, submitted by Jim Schibsted, Congregational Church, Anaheim, CA.+

PEAUG91 Age/Goals/Enthusiasm/Learning/Life:  TOO OLD TO FLY?  This story is of my father and the years immediately following my mother's death.  My dad, alone in a small town he had never liked, made the usual mistakes: sold the house, changed cities, projected his loneliness outward into anger with the world.  And then, at 70, he did something he'd been wanting to do since he was a lad.  He signed up for flying lessons.  The aircraft pushed his reflexes, his endurance and his patience.  The ground school pushed the edges of his mind.  But he WANTED TO FLY.  He stuck with it.  And at last there was only a physical between him and the solo flight.  He went to the doctor, passed the medical exam, only to have his hopes dashed when they said, "Sorry, we can't let you solo.  You're 70 years old."  As it turns out, there were no regulations about maximum age so my father pushed it.  He went to higher and higher authorities, submitted to more and more stringent physical examinations.  Everybody agreed tat he was physically fit, but still they said, "We can't let you solo. You're 70 years old."  Finally my dad found a bureaucrat of high enough rank to admit there were no laws about maximum age.  "Pass one more test and you're in."  So my father took yet another round on the treadmill, and at the end the physician handed him a piece of paper -- "Harry Killoran, Qualified for Solo Flight."  My dad shook the doctor's hand, put the paper in his wallet and started to leave the office.  "Wait a minute," said the doctor.  "When are you going to fly?"  My dad looked at him, and I expect he grinned, "Do you think I'm crazy?  I'm not going up in any airplane alone.  I'm 70 years old.  M. Maureen Killoran, First Unitarian Society of Salem Oregon, Salem, OR+

Bergsteigen an der Hand Gottes

Widerstände in der Kraft Gottes überwinden

Berge des Lebens: Müdigkeit, Erschöpfung, Mutlosigkeit, menschliches Versagen, usw.

Wo ist die lebendige Quelle?

Sach 4,6     Und er antwortete und sprach zu mir: Das ist das Wort des HERRN von Serubabel: Es soll nicht durch Heer oder Kraft, sondern durch meinen Geist geschehen, spricht der HERR Zebaoth.

Sach 4,7     Wer bist du, du großer Berg, der doch vor Serubabel eine Ebene sein muß? Und er soll aufführen den ersten Stein, daß man rufen wird: Glück zu! Glück zu!

Sach 4,8     Und es geschah zu mir das Wort des HERRN und sprach:

Sach 4,9     Die Hände Serubabels haben dies Haus gegründet; seine Hände sollen's auch vollenden, daß ihr erfahret, daß mich der HERR zu euch gesandt hat.

Sach 4,10   Denn wer ist, der diese geringen Tage verachte ? Es werden mit Freuden sehen das Richtblei in Serubabels Hand jene sieben, welche sind des HERRN Augen, die alle Lande durchziehen.

Der Schlüssel zum Weitergehen: Nicht durch menschliche Macht und Gewalt wird es dir gelingen, sondern durch meinen Geist, spricht der Herr.

Nicht aus eigener Kraft, sondern an Gottes Hand,

In der Kraft des Heiligen Geistes,

Im gemeinsammen Feiern über jeden kleinen schrit, den wir gehen.