Insight for Today

Read Numbers 30:2

March 11, 1942, was a dark, desperate day at Corregidor. One island after another in the Pacific theatre had been buffeted into submission. The enemy was now marching into the Philippines as confident and methodical as the big band in the Rose Bowl parade. Surrender was inevitable. The brilliant and bold soldier, Douglas MacArthur, had only three words for his comrades as he stepped into the escape boat destined for Australia: “I shall return.”

Read James 4:14–16

He was brilliant. Clearly a child prodigy, the pride of Salzburg, a performer par excellence. One of the most brilliant and gifted composers of all time left earth at the young age of thirty-five. The man lived most of his life in abject poverty. He died in complete obscurity!

His official name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Amadeus Theophilus Mozart. With a handle like that, he had to be famous.

We call him Mozart.

Read 2 Corinthians 11:13–15

My friend ate dog food one evening. He was at an elegant student reception in a physician’s home. The dog food was served on delicate crackers with a wedge of imported cheese, bacon chips, an olive, and a sliver of pimento on top. It was hors d’oeuvres a la Alpo.

Read Psalm 56:8

Tears have a language all their own, needing no interpreter. In some mysterious way, our inner-communication system knows its verbal limitations, and the tears come.

Eyes that flashed and sparkled moments before are flooded.

Tears are not self-conscious. They can spring upon us when we are in public or standing beside others who look to us for strength.

Tears may flow during the singing of a majestic hymn or when lost in some nostalgic memory or wrestling in soul-searching prayer.