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Higher Ground..!

By Robert Clements. Dated: 6/22/2019 2:01:45 PM

Many years ago, my elder one and I were chatting about people in her age group with good attitudes and terrific personalities and finally ended up agreeing that a strong character was what one should aim to have. As I thought about that conversation today I understand so very well, that such strength does not come about very easily. Just when we think we are becoming stronger, better people, we slip and have to start all over again.
I realise that without help from the One above there was no way I could build character into my self! The words of a song came to my lips and I found myself humming a tune:
Lord lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven's tableland;
A higher plane than I have found-
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
A pilot was flying over the Arabian Desert and landed his tiny aircraft at an airstrip to refuel. After taking to the air again, he was soon over a mountainous area, when he heard a scratching noise behind him.
It sounded as if some animal had gotten into the fuselage of the plane. He became quite alarmed, for he knew if an animal gnawed away at the electrical wiring it could cause a serious malfunction. But there was no place to land in the rugged territory.
Then the pilot had an idea. He pulled the joystick, accelerated the plane and nosed it upward. Higher and higher into the sky the little plane went, until the sound of the gnawing and scratching ceased.
Later when he landed at an airport, he found a huge desert rat that had crawled in unnoticed, when he had refueled at the desert airstrip.
But the unwanted stowaway was dead.
Accustomed as it was to the desert, it could not survive when the plane climbed to the higher altitude.
So it is with our life. As we draw near to God, we put to death our meanness and selfishness and other petty ways. The old patterns of living just cannot survive and character starts forming.
What sort of noises do you hear as you fly through life?
Rumblings of discontentment?
Echoes of sadness?
Shivers of fright and tremors of anxiety?
Start pulling upward and as your feet reach higher ground the rumblings and other sounds will slowly get still till they won't be heard at all.
Arizona state employment officials in Tucson posted an interesting sign over a full length mirror. Directed to all job hunters it read, "Would you hire this person?"
Dare you ask the same question as you look at the person you are, then decide whether it's time to fly to higher ground and leave the 'desert rat' habits behind..!
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