March 31, 2002: Doctor on Call, A Plan for life

Hi,

Happy Easter! This morning at Easter service, my church's choir sang the
Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah". It was the first time that I
ever heard this piece sang at Easter, but it was pretty inspiring.

As I mentioned last week, at my friends Steve & Winnie's wedding, we made
Steve & Winnie play a few games. In one game, they sat back to back and
had to answer 15 questions. For each question that their answers did not
match up, they had to kiss. One sample question was, "What was Winnie
wearing on your first date together?" Actually, Steve and Winnie did
extremely well in this game. I thought that the questions that I came up
with were fairly difficult, but they really knew each other well.

For the second game, I modeled it after something I saw years ago at
another friend's wedding. Steve had sent me the names of all the people
attending their wedding banquet. I pulled out the names of 30 married
couples at his banquet, and put them on small pieces of paper. We then
randomly picked out 10 of the married couples, and had them come up to the
front. We arranged the 10 couples from the longest married to the most
recently married. Then, each couple had to demonstrate a way of showing
affection to each other. They could kiss each other on the check, give
each other a hug, do a quick dance, or give each other a passionate kiss.
Then Steve and Winnie would have to do exactly what the couple just did.
As I expected, those couples who were married more recently gave each other
a more passionate kiss, which Steve and Winnie did a good job in emulating.

I based the game on what I saw at my friends Lisa and Vandy's wedding.
They put the names of all the married couples in a glass. Whenever people
started to knock on their glasses for them to kiss, they would pull out the
name of a married couple. That couple would come up to the front and
demonstrate a kiss. Then Lisa and Vandy would have to do the exact same
kiss. Part of the reason why these games are fun is that it gets some of
the audience involved, and gives the other married couples a chance to
demonstrate their affection towards each other.

This week's thought provoking question: "If you could run any single
company, institution, or organization in the world, which would you choose?"

This week's humor piece was forwarded from Anna Man. The inspiration piece
is about Easter, which was forwarded by Serena Chen.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
_________________________________

Doctor on Call

A doctor answers his phone and hears the familiar voice of a colleague on
the other end of the line.
"We need a fourth for poker," said the friend.
"I'll be right over," whispered the doctor.
As he was putting on his coat, his wife asked, "Is it serious?"
"Oh yes, quite serious," said the doctor gravely. "In fact, there are three
doctors there already!"
_________________________________

A Plan for life

Once there were three trees on a hill in the woods. They were discussing
their hopes and dreams when the first tree said, "Someday I hope to be a
treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I
could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the
beauty."

Then the second tree said, "Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take
kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world.
Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."

Finally the third tree said, "I want to grow to be the tallest and
straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and
look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to
them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will
always remember me."

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of
woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said,
"This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood
to a carpenter," and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because
he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree the woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree, I
should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The second tree was happy
because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because
he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of
the woodsmen said, "I don't need anything special from my tree, I'll take
this one," and he cut it down.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box
for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was
not at all what he had prayed for.

The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of
being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree
was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark. The years went by,
and the trees forgot about their dreams.

Then one day, a man and woman came to the barn. She gave birth and they
placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first
tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this
manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event
and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second
tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the
water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough
to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and He stood and said
"Peace" and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had
carried the King of Kings in its boat.

Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the
streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to
a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the
top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was
strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was
possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.

The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your
way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in
Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted,
just not in the way they had imagined. We don't always know what God's
plans are for us. We just know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways
are best.