Have you ever wondered who Santa would go to for a very special present? You will find out just who he trusts and the extraordinary person that will receive a portrait from Santa.
Come join us for an art show and celebration of Triangle legends. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be joining us during their off-duty season to share behind- the- scenes stories of working with families and children. Aimee Cuthrell is also going to be unveiling a portrait painting she did for them.
The community is invited for this free Portrait Unveiling and Art Show that is planned for Saturday, November 4 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Medlin Farm located at 507 Woodland Church Road in Wake Forest, NC. Expect to see more of Aimee’s artwork that includes examples of Traditional Portraits that honor the unique essence of family as well as Elevated Moments that are cherished times with loved ones.
The biggest legacy we can leave for children is to capture the wonder of a moment through a portrait. Enjoy this holiday kick-off as you enjoy a heartwarming portrait unveiling, hear stories, see the wonderful Medlin Farm property, and see art that captures the love of family and friends. Kick off the holiday season as you enjoy sips and light Hors D’oeuvres while making and meeting new friends. RSVP to aimeecuthrell@gmail.com.
“I got a portrait done by Aimee about 10 years ago and it is something our family will be able to treasure always,” said Santa. Watch this video to hear Santa explain why he picked Aimee for this special project. It’s not too late to commission something special for your family.
About Aimee Cuthrell’s Work
For over 20 years Aimee Cuthrell has been a commission artist painting timeless portraits and memorable moments for clients and future generations. Aimee believes that our special stories and the important people in our lives are part of the fiber that makes us who we are. A commissioned painting is a way of elevating these moments, preserving them so you can go back in time again and again as you share them with friends and family. Commissions capture treasured moments for this generation and serve as inspiring legacies for the generations to come.
You don’t want to miss the biggest community impact celebration of the year! Judging with the Stars Dance competition with local Chamber Members and Celebrity Judge Panel is Saturday, September 23 at the City Club Raleigh located at 150 Fayetteville St. Suite 2800, Raleigh, NC.
This evening among the stars includes local chamber leaders showing off their dance skills on the dancefloor on the arm of Fred Astaire Dance Academy Cary instructors. The panel of judges will consist of local celebrities who will crown our winner!
Community Leader Dance Competitors: We have representation from the following Chambers: Raleigh (Shani Seidel), Cary (Wendy Coulter), Apex (Mayor Gilbert), Morrisville (Alicia Coleman) and community leaders Ralph Ashworth (Ashworth Pharmacy) and Paul Hodges (Bailey’s). Dance Competitor images and bios are at the bottom of this blog.
Celebrity Judges included at this time: Raleigh Mayor Baldwin, Amber Freeman (My Carolina Host), TJ Thorpe (Former NFL), Bryan Lord (WRAL), Dana Reason (Former Miss NC), Mike Dempsey (former NFL), and MC Beth Wood.
The evening starts at 6 p.m. with six food stations and a drink pairing. Live auction, sleight of hands and entertainment in the Grain room. We will transition to the ballroom at 8-10 p.m. for the dance competition, DJ, MC and a halftime show with Flopballs. Enjoy a grand finale with a special dance from Gabi!
This special event is presented by Travis Wright Colopy, Ralph Ashworth and City Club Raleigh, along with our local Chambers of Commerce and community leaders.
Thank you to the wonderful Auction Sponsors including Aimee Cuthrell Portraits and Fine Art, Luminae Spa, and NC Theater.
Gabi’s Pals – Mission
Gabi’s provides workforce training, education, and other support programs to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to help them secure employment, contribute to society, and live a purposeful, rewarding life.
Together, we can make an impact!
Jacques Gilbert – Mayor of Apex
Jacques Gilbert is a native of Apex, North Carolina where he currently resides. In April 2019, he retired from the Apex Police Department at the rank of Captain with 29 years of service.
In November 2019 Jacques was elected the 32nd Mayor of Apex, North Carolina and was sworn in on December 3rd 2019 making him the first black mayor to be elected in the 150 year history of Apex.
Shani Seidel – Raleigh Chamber
Shani Seidel is a proud graduate of Meredith College and a Proven Sales Leader and Top Achiever with 20+years of sales, account management and keen business development expertise (Education, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Finance and Nonprofit) Shani joined The Raleigh Chamber team as a Relationship Manager in June 2021. Shani is a Valued Partner and Trusted Resource for Raleigh Chamber members and companies that are relocating to the region and seeking networking and marketing opportunities the Chamber provides.
Ralph Ashworth – Title Sponsor
Ralph Ashworth, Cary Community Leader and founder of Ashworth Drugs. Ralph is known as a legend in Cary for his deep commitment that shines in everything he does. Here are just a few of his many contributions to Cary:
– 2017 Cary Hometown Spirit Award winner with his wife Daphne
– Ralph was a charter member of the Cary Chamber of Commerce and served as President in 1964 and 1994.
– Founding member of the Heart of Cary Association and served as President two terms
Wendy Coulter – Cary Chamber
As CEO of Hummingbird, a brand strategy agency founded in 1995, Wendy Coulter is committed to providing clients insightful BIG IDEAS, intuitive innovation and inspired creative solutions. Wendy has served as Chair of the Board of the Cary Chamber of Commerce in 2022-2023. Wendy also founded the NC Women Business Owners Hall of Fame in 2018 to honor North Carolina’s most successful female entrepreneurs and advocates who have made significant and enduring contributions to impact women’s entrepreneurial development in North Carolina.
Paul Hodges – Community Leader
Paul, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina and graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has spent most of his adulthood working in the fitness and hospitality industry; most recently transitioning into the jewelry business, with the locally owned and operated, Bailey’s Fine Jewelry. When Paul is not offering the best customer satisfaction in the country, he can be found living his best life in downtown Raleigh, indulging in fine dinning, men’s fashion, hot yoga and traveling to anywhere there’s a beautiful, ocean view beach. Most importantly, his main focus is supporting local charities and creating a sense of community within his vast networking of friends and businesses, in his beloved “City of Oaks!”
Alicia Coleman – Morrisville Chamber
Alicia Coleman grew up in North and South Carolina and therefore is a self-proclaimed true Carolina girl. She attended Clemson University for both her undergrad in Psychology and her Masters in Business administration. Alicia’s professional background includes 25 years of leadership at a nonprofit in Durham that provides job placements, job support, and vocational training for adults with disabilities.
In her second career at ALICIA KNOWS, Alicia now supports businesses to maximize the efficiency of their HR structure whether they are adding HR for the first time or need an overhaul. Alicia can provide guidance, forms, checklists, policies, procedures, audits, and new HR training.
Baboons, crocodiles, hyenas and robbers keep 8-year-old Mellissa awake at night. These are not Mellissa’s nightmares. These are her realities. Mellissa is the primary caregiver for her family of five and lives in a rural area near Zimbabwe, Africa. It’s been about a year since Cary resident Katrina Morrocco was part of a church mission trip to Zimbabwe when she met Mellissa. At the time, Mellissa was living with her 10-year-old sister in a goat house that didn’t have a roof or a door, the floor was dirt, and the walls were made of clay, rocks and broken bricks. The goats were long gone. No one is sure if they were stolen or sold as a way to provide for the family. “They couldn’t have blankets or anything of value, because without a door to lock, robbers would steal from them,” said Morrocco, who was on her second ZOE mission trip with First United Methodist Church of Cary in 2015.
Mellissa struggles to take care of the family. Her parents and sister have physical and mental limitations and aren’t able to work or help with basic needs of food. Her brother is just starting to toddle. Due to local custom, the rest of the family sleeps in a separate structure that has a straw roof, but the structure is crumbling. “My husband, Joe, was so taken aback by the sights of the area that he couldn’t even look into the structure to see where the girls slept,” Katrina Morrocco said. Mellissa was filled with hope when she became a part of ZOE (formerly known as the Zimbawbe Orphans Endeavor), that gives children training and materials to grow their own food or funding to start another income-generating project.
ZOE is a three-year effort that includes teaching Mellissa and other participants about healthy lifestyles, clean drinking water and how to use the mosquito nets that are provided to protect them against disease. “Orphans and vulnerable children accepted into this program work so hard to improve their lives,” said Helen Papageorgiou, lead organizer for First United Methodist Church’s ZOE effort. When Mellissa graduates from ZOE’s program, she will be able to care for her family by having a secure, dependable source of food. Even more important, safe housing was made available. While Katrina and Joe Morrocco were in Zimbabwe, they were a part of the team that included local boys who built the family a new home.
“We dug the foundation using pick axes,” said Katrina Morrocco. “It was hard, hard work, but such a blessing to see the home being built.”
A STARK CONTRAST
The harsh realities of Mellissa’s life are in stark contrast to the lives of children in Cary. It’s understandable that Katrina would take the time to help Mellissa enjoy the simple pleasure of laughing when bubbles are blown. It’s also understandable why Katrina and her husband would take First United Methodist Church’s Income Generating Project Challenge to quadruple a $150 grant to provide more funding for children like Mellissa. “At first, I just wanted to write a check, but then realized by doing a project, we could feel more of what it’s like for Mellissa to be a part of ZOE,” said Katrina, who is selling raffle tickets to paint a custom oil painting of a pet on an 18”-by-24” canvas. Katrina Morrocco has raised $800 so far and has a goal of $1,000. Joe Morrocco is offering a bicycle cleaning service that gives a complete bike cleaning of the frame, cassette, chain ring, rear and front derailleurs and chain. The Morroccos’ garage has turned into a bike shop and so far, Joe has raised $500 for ZOE. The biblical model of ZOE is appealing.
“The mission truly reaches out to ‘the least of these’ as we are asked to do,” said Katrina Morrocco, who plans to return to Zimbabwe in 2017 when Mellissa will graduate from the program. “The children’s spirit, hope and determination to achieve self-sufficiency and a better future is contagious, inspiring me to want to do more,” said Papageorgiou, who has been involved with the effort for more than six years. This fundraising phase of the ZOE project ends Oct. 30. The church hopes to generate enough funds to support an entire working group of 25 orphan-led families, which is about 75 to 100 people for three years. “It’s amazing to see how this project transforms the hearts of people here while helping children in Africa move from barely surviving to thriving,” Katrina Morrocco said.
It was a beautiful day to celebrate the groundbreaking of Summit at Sawyer. This 154-unit neighborhood will offer affordable housing options in the heart of Southeast Raleigh. This day has been many years in the making with partnerships that include the City of Raleigh, Mills Construction, and Mount Pleasant Worship and Outreach Center. Some of the funding for the community initiative come from the Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program.
“Something unique is happening on Sawyer Road in Raleigh,” said Apostle Phillip Walker, Mt. Pleasant Senior Leader. In the past, this road was known as “the worst and most dangerous street in the city of Raleigh. It was a haven for gun violence, crime, drug dealing, illegal sale of alcohol and vice,” said Walker. The church has made great strides in the last 50 years including shutting down prostitution on the very ground of the building sites.
The sounds of automatic gunfire during church services have stopped for Mount Pleasant Worship and Outreach Center located on Sawyer Road in Raleigh NC. Now, you can hear the incredible sounds of bulldozers making the way for affordable homes to be built across the street from the church.
The community being built on Sawyer Road represents the highest point (“Summit”) of living in Raleigh (City of “Oaks”) – making affordable housing possible and will be a stepping stone for home ownership. The units are expected to be available Fall of 2024.
Watch the video to hear remarks from Apostle Walker, Senior Leader Mt. Pleasant Worship and Outreach Center. Additional pictures from the event are at the end.
Thousands of journal notes, poems, and pictures have been captured in Sheila Ogle’s Pink House Post Journal. “We are truly in awe of the amazing outpouring of heartfelt messages from friends as young as seven and up to 97-years-old who live down the street and from across the world. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, your love, your prayers, and ideas!” Sheila
It’s been a year since we celebrated the opening of the Cary Pink House Post, a mailbox with a journal for friends to write a note of inspiration, a memory, a poem, a wish for the future or whatever would be honoring of our community.
The response to writing in the journals was slow at first, but since about September, your outpouring has filled three journals! Here’s just a sampling of the messages that range from love for the beautiful Cary Pink House to prayers for passing a math test:
The Pink House is a memory that is loved, admired, and treasured by so many! Thank you for sharing it for so many causes, as well as super special gathering place for friends! Dru and Bill Smith
The Pink House, so tall and slender, filled with the wishes, the dreams of those who came before. The stained glass sparking from the early spring. The chimney once warm and full of life, now cold and empty waiting for someone to come. The Pink House, the hopes and dreams, a child’s cry, a mother’s prayers. The Pink House, a wish waiting to come true – the CA
The Haughn family visiting from Indianapolis. Our local family took us to see the lights in downtown Cary. The Pink House was our favorite! Sabrina, David and Henry
A little house
A little love
A few good friends
A happy child
A simple life well-lived
-Michelle
I feel sad and things have been hard lately. I want things to get better. I hope things well be okay. I feel really bad and it has affected my relationships. I’ll try to keep trying to fix things. Wish me luck – anonymous
We saw this walking and loved the sign, “Curious? Open me!” Thanks for making our evening! Catie and Derrick
I hope to write a story the whole world would want to read. And I hope I never lose single one of my friends. I hope that every wish written and every desire hidden comes true – anonymous
I want to travel the world with my daughter and my husband and spend long lazy summers exploring Italy and all of Europe. Eating delicious food, listening to church bells, sleeping peacefully each night – anonymous
During times like these, there never is a time spent wondering how to create new memories. After living in Cary for almost 22 years now, I love the little ways such as these to stay interconnected in a now not so small town. Here’s to growth and love! Happy New Year – Naneshea
Happy to visit from Miami! Blessed to celebrate 29 years with Rick, Lauren, and Kiki – Nikki B
I hope that I can pass my next math test, and so can my friends – anonymous
We are so blessed to be able to live in Cary. It feels like a real community with all of the little things that connect us. This post is just another think that warms me when I see it. The pop-up installations are so fun also! KD & Bob
Walking down the street, cold crisp December night looking at the pretty lights. So much has changed in downtown Cary, but the Pink House still stands beautifully! Happy New Year and all the best for 2023 – anonymous
We love this sweet Pink House and we love cookies from the Blue Moon Bakery! Chris, Gus and Julian
I feel okay now. It makes me glad. I’m happy today. I’m spending time with the guy I love and we are having a good time. It’s nice. I hope you have a nice evening as well – anonymous
Thank you Pink House owner for putting out this cool book for Cary to share memories! Anonymous
I am really sad today and I hope things get better. Pray for me…
Things will get better even though it feels like the word is ending right now. It will get better – you will see.
UPDATE – Things have improved and my friends are being supportive. Thank you Andie, Logan and my brother for being here during this hard time. You mean a lot to me 😊
Love this beautiful Victoria treasure! Enjoying the beautiful sunny weather today in Cary! Anonymous
Thank you for being here for us!
Always be true to yourself. Love and accept yourself for who you are. Show kindness, love, and empathy towards others – always.
Make Amends
Laugh often
Be open to the signs and in life generally.
Explore nature.
Eat GOOD food – drink well.
Trust in the universe.
Enjoy the ride
XO Alyssa A. DeRita
4:44 p.m. April 2, 2023 In loving memory Nancy W. Tobin AKA Mom. I love you and I miss you
This house is beautiful! We have been to the Kindred Spirit Mailbox! Thank you for the Pink Post! Stephanie
See God in all things big and small and in-between. Remember when I forget. Remind when others have forgotten. Trust. In a gentle way you can shade the world – Hope
My dream is to have a farmhouse on a few acres in the country with a beautiful view. It will have a huge front porch with a swing and rocking chairs. I hope that my children and their families will visit frequently and we can laugh and make beautiful memories. I desire to travel to beautiful places all over the world with my soul mate – Lisa Weeks
Be a lighthouse for others in a world of oceans! Share light and reflect others back to them – Maya, Nicole and Vishal
You did not wake up today to be mediocre – S
About the Pink House Post
The Pink House Post is self-service with community friends able to open the box for the journal they can write in or leave a note for the Pink House. We are sharing some of the notes and journal entries left in our Pink House Post on our Facebook and Instagram pages. The captured messages may be published in a book.
The historic Guess-White-Ogle House is located in downtown Cary, NC at 215 S. Academy Street. The home was built in 1830, on the national historical registry and received an Anthemion Award for its restoration in 2002.
Although known locally as the Cary Pink House, this home has had many owners throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1880, railroad “roadmaster” Captain Harrison P. Guess and his wife, Aurelia, purchased the land to build the original home from Allison Francis “Frank” Page, Cary’s founder and local businessman.
John White, a local Baptist minister, bought the house from the Guess’ in 1896 and substantially remodeled and expanded it. He transformed the house into a Queen Anne structure by adding a three-story tower to the façade, a front bay window and much decorative woodwork.
Carroll and Sheila Ogle bought the property in 1993 and renovated it, adding onto the house, building the outside steps and repainting the exterior.
In 2019, Sheila Ogle published “The Pink House” to not only tell the story of the renovation but also her memories of living there with her late husband Carroll.
“The book is a little bit about Cary history, but very personal and talks about the process of renovating the house,” Ogle said.
When Ogle writes about her experiences and memories, the Guess-White-Ogle House becomes a character on its own, as “The Pink House” describes in third person how the house felt when Sheila and Carroll first came there and how it felt during events such as Thanksgiving parties.
“I based her on my personality. She speaks and she tells stories,” Ogle said. “The words just came through the house and feels as if you are talking together.”
For over 20 years Aimee Cuthrell has been a commission artist painting timeless portraits and memorable moments for clients and future generations. Aimee believes that our special stories and the important people in our lives are part of the fiber that makes us who we are. A commissioned painting is a way of elevating these moments, preserving them so you to go back in time again and again as you share them with friends and family. Commissions capture treasured moments for this generation and serve as inspiring legacies for the generations to come.
In this video, Aimee describes how she worked with a picture of Bonnie to create the beautiful portrait of my granddaughter and the chickens. This portrait is a timeless treasure for our family.
About Aimee: Though Aimee is a native North Carolinian, she also lived in South Carolina and Georgia. Aimee went to high school in eastern North Carolina and graduated from Meredith College in 1984. She lives with her husband, her mother, two cats, and one dog in their forever-home located in Raleigh. She also has two amazing grown children, Shannon and Brad, who have chosen to stay near to family in their home state of NC. In the early 1990’s Aimee began studying portraiture. Since then she has continued with excellent training from some of the best art instructors in the country. With great excitement and a desire to share her paintings with others, Aimee launched Aimee Cuthrell Portraits & Fine Art in 2001. Since the beginning, Aimee has been fortunate to work with numerous kind and generous clients. She has found joy and deep connections while collaborating with her clients to create paintings that allow the beauty of their unique stories to come alive on canvas.
Life in prison puts everything in stark contrast to life outside prison. Connections to family and friends are lost. Time passes slowly.
Mike Shank, founder of Pardoned by Christ, knows this experience all too well. He was 22-years-old when he was convicted of trafficking cocaine and a served three and a half years in prison. In the last 40 years, Mike has walked the road of reconciliation and restoration in his personal and professional life. The greatest thing about Mike is his love for the Lord and how the Holy Spirit orders his steps. Mike wants to see lives changed and to give back.
A pardon from the governor in 2001 was the first of many steps that led Mike to create Pardoned by Christ in 2005. “Many inmates want to turn their lives around and maybe, someday, receive a pardon from the Governor of North Carolina. At the end of the day, it is Christ’s pardon that we need for true freedom,” said Mike.
PBC Ministries volunteers help inmates and families in several ways. They provide Bible studies, family support groups, mentor services and other resources including 4 transitional homes for up to 27 men, most have just been released from prison.
PBC Transitional Homes
Residents at the transitional homes are chosen for their commitment to Christ and to pursuing a positive life.
“I noticed that when guys got out of prison, most had nowhere to go that would help them get a fresh start,” said Mike.
At the transitional homes, volunteer counselors work with the men on a plan to rebuild their life such as getting help finding a job, learning how to pay bills, and connecting to local agencies who can help with clothing, discounted cars from Wheels of Hope, and job training.
In return, residents must help with chores and follow the house rules. Keeping the men focused on Christ is at the center of the mission.
“The blessings of this ministry come from the smiles when the residents get their first paychecks out of prison,” Shank said. “It helps build their self-esteem and get a fresh identity.”
Family Support Ministry
The Family Support Ministry encourages family who have a loved one that has been incarcerated or in any way has been affected by incarceration. The group meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday at 7 p.m. to strengthen and encourage those in need. The gatherings are facilitated with speakers, group interaction, and development of one-on-one relationships.
Ministry at Youth Development Centers
Youths who are adjudicated for offenses that occurred prior to their 18th birthday may be committed to a Youth Development Center (YDC) for mentoring, education, and therapeutic treatment to prepare youth for a fresh start when they re-enter their communities.
PBC Volunteers share the word and serve as mentors for girls and boys in Chatham YDC in Siler City the 2nd and 4th Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m. and boys in Edgecomb YDC in Rocky Mount on the 3rd Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m.
It has been one of my life’s most memorable time volunteering with PBC at the YDC in Siler City. The image shown above is from a few years back with the volunteers. Seeing a young person transition from serving time for offenses to finding hope and healing through this process is truly a gift to know I made an impact.
PBC Ministries Impact
The need for groups working to offer criminal offenders a second chance is revealed by the high re-incarcerated rate, known as recidivism. When many prisoners return to communities, they lack the skills “to find jobs and stay out of trouble,” according to a NC statewide initiative. Many end up back in prison.
Here’s the breakdown from a 2020-2021 NC DPS report.
More than 34,000 people are in state prisons and another 77,763 offenders are under the supervision of the Division of Community Corrections. The majority (82%) were under probation (Source N.C. Department of Public Safety). The highest percentage of those incarcerated are male.
During FY 2020-2021 the highest age category of females entering prison was 30-39 (N=944). In this age group, 82% were White Female, 14% Black Female, 2% Hispanic Females, 2% Other Female and less than 1% Indian/Asian.
During FY 2020-2021 the highest age category of males in prison was 30-39 (N=8,148). In this age group, 61% were Black Male, 28% White Male, 7% Other Male, 2% Hispanic Male and less than 1% Indian/Asian Male.
Overall recidivism rates. Of the 47,000 people covered by the report, 41 percent were arrested within two years. Probationers (37 percent) were less likely to be re-arrested than prisoners (49 percent). The recidivist incarceration rate for inmates released from prison was 36 percent.
Only 7% of the 178 PBC Transitional Homes returned to prison. The savings of having that many men not be re-incarcerated translates to about $2 million a year.
These numbers help underscore the importance of finding ways to help ex-offenders become productive citizens.
“Everybody has done things wrong, some have to go to prison,” Shank said. “Everyone should be given a chance for forgiveness and a redemptive process.”
Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
Luke 12:13-21
In the older sections of this country may be seen old buildings which have housed the same family for three or four generations. When our great grandsires, in some instances our grand sires as lads played around the old building, nowhere in the world a R.R., telephone, no matches, no gas or coal ranges, no electric lights, no sewing machines. Letters were written with quills and dried with sand because there were no blotters and of course there were no typewriters, radios, victrolas, bicycles, autos or airplanes.
It is amazing when we think about how absorbed the past three or four generations have been in inventing and producing the external paraphernalia of civilization. To phrase the situation in convenient terms used by the sociologist, “Man’s life can be divided into two distinguishable – the closely interrelated areas – civilization and culture.”
Civilization is the complex of devices by means of which we live. Culture is the realm of spiritual ends, expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion for which at our best, we live. Civilization is made up of things which we utilize to get something else. Culture is made up of values which we desire for their own sake. Civilization is what we use. Culture is what we are.
For three or four lifetimes, we have been busily engaged in building a civilization. This is a vast complex of implements by means of which to live, but we have not with any similar intelligence and care been engaged in creating a culture of spiritual ends, personal and social, for which to live.
Mankind stands, it hands full of devices, but as bewildered and unhappy as mankind has been for centuries. In the words of G. L. Dickinson, “We have spurned spiritual values but in love with devices.”
Listen to Jesus, then, though he did live 2000 years ago, speaking as if to us, “A man’s life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesses.” What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul.
The meaning of those words constitutes a searching diagnosis of our social ills. Though mankind amasses things without end, achieving even the marvelous apparatus of modern civilization, that by without worthwhile ends to live for – a material civilization without a soul to guide it. It is like a magnificently furnished ship without an idea of what port it is headed for. This situation underlies every lesser problem of mankind today. Here lies the explanation of the optimism which characterized our American fathers but which among us has collapsed into disillusionment. Whatever else our fathers were – they were optimistic.
Progress was the real religion. They as well as ourselves lived in a time of the first of so many marvelous and astonishing devices that life became eager, standing on tiptoe, wondering what new marvel would arrive tomorrow.
We believed Herbert Spencer when he told us that man’s progress toward perfection was an inevitable necessity. And because this multiplication of means by which to live was our serious aim, we thought we were successfully headed toward a great end, and our lives were pitched on an optimistic key.
Now however, we have plunged headlong against a stubborn fact – all this boasted civilization we have gloried in is nothing but means, only implements to be utilized, and the more powerful the implements become, the more insistently the question rises on the answer to which man’s destiny hangs. “To what end will mankind use them?” To that question civilization does not possess the answer. The answer to the question is found not in a nation’s civilization, but in its spiritual culture. For civilization is what we use; culture is what we are.
Some in those old days foresaw the danger in which the trend of things was leading. Thoreau said, “with all America busily engaged in producing the paraphernalia of living improved means to an unimproved end.” He was referring especially to the new and marvelous Atlantic cable, concerning which he said, “The first news that will leak through the American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.”
Now many improved means to unimproved ends we have today! The phrase suggests to create the device and degrade morals with it. Create the radio and give nonsense a wider hearing with it. Create the automobile and implement gangster with it, and the countless ways in which the old Bulgarian and the old barbarian reach out controlling hands for the new devices. The phrase suggest also that society can as a whole use the amazing devices so as to plunge millions into unemployment and poverty, or furnished with world-wide intercommunication, can make of them world wars, armed with techniques that would cause the very devils of Milton’s hell to blush with shame. ‘Improved’ means? No doubt. But to an unimproved end.
For three or four lifetimes, we have been busily engaged in building civilization, as though man’s life could consist in the abundance of things. But the other realm where man’s real life lives, the spiritual culture, the profound faith that alone gives life meaning, the great goal that gives life direction has so often been treated as a decoration, an afterthought.
And now the God of judgment speaks – the end of the road on which you travel is perdition. If you love your children, recenter your attention.
One thing supremely matters to mankind today. The quality of spiritual life which will use these amazing implements. “What shall It profit a man or a nation, or the race, to gain the whole word and lose his soul.”
There is one clear difference existing between civilization and culture. Civilization is easily handed down. Devices invented in one generation are taken for granted in the next. They are improved, expanded and they go marching on. But profound spiritual culture is not so. It must be re-experienced by every soul. Its insights, devotions must be individually produced. Values inwardly possessed and assimilated. No one can love great music for me. There are no proxies for the soul.
While the apparatus of civilization piles up and moves on, there is an appalling lag in spiritual culture. Mankind stands with vast new implements to use and the old barbarian using them.
The houses in which we live come from civilization, but the homes for which we ought to live are the fruit of spiritual culture. And as one sees some houses and some homes within them the description holds good, “Improved means to an unimproved end.”
For happiness and for peace we yearn. But such not found in the means by which we live, but in by the ends for which we live.
The church will accomplish its mission in the world not by the means – organization – theology – creeds – and opinion, but in that for which it exists. Not by might – but by His spirit.
Christ is still waiting and still saying, “For a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.” And what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul.
The problem of salvation lies here – in our spiritual culture.
The chief purpose of man is to know God and enjoy him. We were made for God and not satisfied until we find him. He has set eternity in our hearts.
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. Psalm 138:8
God has great thoughts concerning each of us. Upon this physical basis he means to rear a life that will reach up to the skies and will be so beautiful and beneficent, so broad in sympathy, so fruitful in divine ministries. So exalted in character, that through the years it will grow into a temple beautiful, adorned with all the graces that will at last bring us into the image glorious of God himself.
We determine our own destinies by the choices that we make. By the lives we live, by the laws we obey or disobey.
Some have claimed that it would have been better if man had never been created a free agent and given the power of choice. But man as a clock run by springs, is one thing, and man endowed the kingly powers of choice, having dominion over all the earth, rising into God-likeness, is another thing, a Godlike thing.
How can God take this life and train it and develop it and finally perfect it, and transform it into his own image?
In order to develop your life and mine and make it what it ought to be, God began ages ago to plan and labor with reference to your life today. God brings to bear upon us the best that all the centuries have been able to bring forth. All the toil and the struggles, and the battles and the tragedies are summed up in us. We are the result of the best thinking and the doing, and the best agonizing, of the best men of all times.
We are what we are because of Christian parents, because of the family alter in the old home, and the inspiration, we have received from Christian teachers, and from God’s children, who have walked as the God’s angels by our side in humble disguise. In the perfecting of our life today, God is using all the weapons of the ages have forged, and all the discoveries and inventions and all the learning and the spiritual experiences of the generations who have gone before.
A second great agency of the perfecting of our lives that God uses is inspirations that transform our souls. From some divine place there must come sweeping in upon the soul tides of inspiration, teach us that there is something, higher and better beyond.
Miss Sullivan, the teacher, sought to open up communication with the darkened mind of Helen Keller. Now this is just what God is seeking to do; he is trying to find a way to open up communication with the darkened mind of man. He is seeking in a thousand ways to communicate to the soul of man a true, knowledge of his love and grade to teach Him to spell slowly the meaning of all things in life around him.
When a man comes to understand that God is trying to speak to him and revel to him his mission and immortal destiny, then his life is changed and he becomes a different kind of man.
Mark this: If you soul is not on fire, and if you have not a consuming desire to life to do good, you have not yet learned your mission. Unless you have that great desire to use your life for God and the good of your fellowmen, you have not yet understood your life’s purpose.
Then again, God uses ideals as the third agent in perfecting of our lives. Our inspirations are behind us; our ideals are before us, beckoning us on. God opens up communications and reveals to use the meaning of life, our eternal destinies, that our future is being determined during these days here at the beginning of our immortal career.
God sets before us the ideal life Jesus choice and says, “Copy that.” Look at a class of students studying and copying the work of great masters. Some will have very imperfect sketches while others imitate the copy before them. Some of God’s children are following the copy very poorly. But though you fail and sometimes make miserable work of it, keep the copy before you.
Maybe after many failures we will resemble somewhat the master’s life. Keep Christ the ideal man before you.
The fourth divine agency in the perfecting of life is service. Inspiration and ideals are useless unless there is service. Jesus spent the most of his time in bringing His twelve disciples to new inspiration and ideals, and then sent them into the world to begin their service, and finally the ignorant peasant men of Galilee turned the word upside down.
Theses inspirations and ideals that are set before us must be put into practice. Our faith will grow strong only as it is manifested through faithful service.
Discipline is the fifth agency God uses in the perfecting of our lives. Christianity introduces man to conflict. It provided weapons for his warfare, but he must use them on the battlefield. Where does God’s part come in you say? God equips us with Godly heritage, in furnishing us with the inspirations, in setting before us the lofty ideals, in furnishing us opportunities for service, in walking by our sides and assuring us of his sympathy, friend Christians.
There is the discipline of pain-sorrow. Even the dumb beast learns the lesson on pain. When we are well, we feel strong, but when sorrow comes we reach out our hand for help.
God has great thought for your life. He means to make your life a glorious one. To this end He has endowed you with all the precious inheritance of the past.
He is setting before you new inspirations. You may see some vision and come to some splendid purpose.
He sets before you new ideals and He came himself and lived in the human flesh that you might have the ideal to copy.
He sets you at work in this world and perfects your life in service. Through the tears and the heartaches, and anguish of life, he means to teach us our best lessons and perfect us in the school of trials.
God gives to every man a splendid chance and the rest remains with him.
Are you doing your part? Are you working with God? Are you giving him an opportunity to perfect that which concerns you?
If so, God will bring out the divine and you will leave behind sin and follies. Through the years, you will grow humble in spirit and sweet in soul, and come finally into the beautiful image of God himself.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second like it is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other greater commandment than these. Mark 12:30-31
The Christian life is an active life. There are various kinds of activities. There is the activity of the circus clown. This is physical. There is the activity of the man of business – that is intellectual, systematic, and methodical. There is an activity that gets its motive or impulse from far within – from a source from far within. That is spiritual, and that is what I mean by the “Christian life being an active life.”
The outward look. As you enter into the life and spirit of Christ, and they enter into you as you read his words and become filled with his purpose, you being to discover that the extent of His love for the universe is not bounded by any age, people or time.
You find that the world is large – not as large as his sacrifice. That it is sinful. But not so sinful as his forgiveness is powerful. That is lost – but not so far lost that it cannot be found by the good shepherd.
As these things begin to dawn upon you, you find yourself not living in your little town, but that you are living in the world. Your little town is just a mere spot where a few of God’s people have been redeemed from the power of evil and blessed with the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
It wakes a man up to the fact that there is something outside himself – of a world beyond his little horizon. And he thinks of a world having some sort of a future to it.
He may keep right on at what he is doing, but all his physical and mental activity will be shaped and colored by his belief in the divine meaning of human life.
As such, one cannot be busy with everything except that which ought to demand a large share of our thought and life. But what a little circle the most of us move about in.
I wonder if you have found this to be true. The people who know the least about God are the very ones who have so much to say about his system of government – that it is all a blunder. The people who know the least about the church are the ones who are everlasting talking about its failures, but do very little to help matters. The people who know the least about the woes and sufferings of the world talk the most complainingly about their own. The people who think the least about other people are the ones who think the most about themselves.
If you feel sure that God made this universe and put you in it. If you can rest your heart’s faith on the atonement as a great fact, it will simply take it off your heart and cause you to want to rush out in the street and compel men to listen to the story of the gospel.
For if you tell them how to make ten dollars, they will be interested. If you tell them of politics and matters of state or education, they are interested. So why not interest them in the fact that God loves them enough to have suffered for them; that he has promised eternal life to all me. and the only price to be paid is loving obedience and faith.
There is nothing that will wake a man up so thoroughly to a sense of the power and beauty and exhilaration and triumph of living, as the full knowledge of Christ as a personal savior, a personal redeemer from evil.
It does not mean perfection – far from that. It does not mean freedom from anxiety and depression and fits of the blues.
It does mean this:
A peep through God’s telescope.
A growing belief in the final triumph in God’s kingdom.
A more unselfish and active life.
A lifting of the man upward with increasing hopefulness and usefulness in the world.
A knowledge of Christ as a personal redeemer broadens a man’s view of himself and starts him up to develop unused powers within. This is the inward awakening.
The inward awakening is two-fold. Unworthiness. The most satisfied man in the world, self-satisfied man, is the man who thinks that he does just about what is right. They have no burden of sin resting upon them. They can go to the temple on Sunday and pray like the Pharisee of old. While the man who sees the bleeding Christ and feels the touch of his divine mercy, stands in some obscure place and cries out “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
The more a man knows of Christ and his love, the more he knows of himself and his inward imperfection and the more willingly is he to acknowledge it. The burden of sin like Christian in the pilgrim’s progress has rolled away at the foot of the cross. Not that any more. But you are carrying is a keener knowledge of yourself, a finer conscience. A cleaner look at the real nature of right and wrong. A more luminous comparison between what I am and what I might be.
A Christian is always awake to a knowledge of his own worthiness. A sense of unworthiness does not mean what some make of it, constant confession of sin and groaning of past deeds. It means more knowledge of the inner man. It means a higher standard. It means humility but not humiliation. It means that the Christian is awake to his worthiness. Not contradictions here; for the same light that has shown him his sinful, selfish heart has also shown him the possibilities of that heart for progress in all high and noble things.
A look within, monsters of selfness and impurity and greed of all sorts. But I am equipped to subdue and be victorious. I am capable of doing what these evil demons say I can’t do. Christ the savior has lifted the curtains and I see a host of the redeemed and I take courage.
It is time we were looking for a text. Now suppose we take these words; “Though shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all they soul, and with thy mind, and with all thy strength. And thy neighbor as thyself.” Mark 12:30-31.
That covers the ground of Christian activity. A command that demands your best self. If lived up to what a change in society and government there would be!
To sum up: The Christian life is an active life because a thorough knowledge of Christ wakens a man outwardly to a knowledge of the world as a universe of sinful but savable humanity. It wakens a man inwardly by showing him the state of his own heart and its capacity for good or evil. Unworthiness and worthiness.
Christian activity rests upon love to God and love to men. Love to God for he gave his son for our redemption. Love to man, because he is our brother in the same redemption.
Upon such a basis the Christian sets his life and builds upward to God and out toward man. The deity is enthroned in his heart, and humanity swaying the scepter of his great hope for a final triumph of soul over matter.
FRS Communications 