Oeuvre of Passionate Hands

 A man’s daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.

 When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.

 An empty chair sat beside his bed.

 The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.

 "I guess you were expecting me, he said.

 ’No, who are you?"  said the father.

 The minister told him his name and then remarked,

 "I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up,"

 "Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man.

 "Would you mind closing the door? "Puzzled, the minister shut the door.

 "I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man.

 "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer,but it went right over my head."

 I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus.
 Here is what I suggest."

 "Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ‘I will be with you always’.

 "Then just speak to him in the same way you’re doing with me right now."

 "So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day.

 I’m careful though If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."

 The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey.

 Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.

 Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.

 Did he die in peace?" he asked.

 Yes, when I left the house about two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek.

 When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead.
 But there was something strange about his death.

 Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed.
 What do you make of that?"

 The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said,

 "I wish we could all go like that."

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a  pole which she carried across her neck.

  One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and  always delivered a full portion of water.

  At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot  arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

  Of course , the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

  But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable  that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

  After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the  woman one day by the stream  "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak
  out all the way back to your house."

  The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side  of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?"

  That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower  seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water  them."

  For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate  the table.

  Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to  grace the house."

  Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each  have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

  You’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good  in them.

  SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell  the flowers on your side of the path!

..Well we can’t be sure if there are flowers blooming around us and all because of our existence. It’s pretty amazing to have other people around grow because of you. Equally amazing is the possibility that our flaws have a an important role, not just in our lives, but in others as well. =)

Here’s another one from Pam (a college friend). After reading it I checked out quotes from Google about perseverance and there sure is a lot out there. Even the ancients have something to say about perseverance.