Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Strange, isn't it, how we tend toward extremes? What begins as self-improvement becomes self-enslavement . . . what starts as merely a mellow change of pace leads to a marathon of fanaticism. We're nuts! Left to ourselves, we'll opt for extremes most every time.

I laughed my way through Judith Viorst's How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities. I've long since passed the half-century mark, so it seemed reasonable that I should at least face the music of being forty.

If you are involved in church or religious activities to the point that your home life is hurting, you're too involved—and you're heading for trouble. Look at what you're doing in the light of eternity. God is primarily interested in the quality, not quantity, of our spiritual fruit.

God has ordained and established three great institutions: the home (Genesis 1:27–28; Ephesians 5:22–31), the church (Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:41–47), and government (Romans 13:1–7). There is no question regarding our belief that the church and state (government) should be separate and distinct.

When it comes to physical healing, often confusion reigns. To combat it, I'd like to point out five "laws" of suffering. These "laws" will do more to help the hurting and erase their confusion than perhaps anything else they could read.

"Have you heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?" That question, found in a small booklet, has been asked and answered thousands—perhaps millions—of times in our generation. These "laws" have been used by God to introduce His plan of love and forgiveness.

What a beautiful scene in the soul is Lake Contentment! Undisturbed by outside noises brought on by the jackhammers of exaggeration, those who enjoy the lake know what relaxation is all about. They know nothing of any winter of discontent.

A number of years ago I read that, believe it or not, the average American is exposed to about three hundred advertisements a day. Today that number has very likely increased!

We've been talking about the rare but essential quality of tact. I mentioned that the classic example of tactless humanity is the abrasive Christian who feels it is his or her calling to fight for the truth with little or no regard for the other fella's feelings.

Wisely labeled "the saving virtue," tact graces a life like fragrance graces a rose. One whiff of those red petals erases any memory of the thorns. Tact is like that. It's remarkable how peaceful and pleasant it can make us.

God often delivers His best gifts to us in unexpected ways . . . with surprises inside the wrappings. Through apparent contradictions. Somewhat like the therapy He used when Elijah was so low, so terribly disillusioned. How did the Lord minister to him?

Tom Landry, the late head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was once quoted as saying something like this: "I have a job to do that is not very complicated, but it is often difficult: to get a group of men to do what they don't want to do so they can achieve the one thing they have wanted all their lives."

It's true: there's no substitute for the family! Yesterday I related a rather amusing story about mine. I'm sure you can recall times in your own family that make you chuckle. Other times those family memories are deeply profound and stabilizing.

Try all you like, you simply cannot find a substitute for the family. God planned it that way. In spite of all we're reading and seeing these days designed to make us think we've entered the family-phase-out era, don't you believe it!

Yesterday I told you a story about an amazing feat by Harry Houdini in which he escaped from locked handcuffs before a roaring crowd—incredible stuff! He later admitted that he stopped repeatedly to address the crowd because he needed their applause to keep up his enthusiasm!

Erich Weiss was a remarkable man. By the time of his death he was famous around the world. Never heard of him, huh? Maybe this will help. He was born of Hungarian-Jewish parentage at Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1874.

As we discussed in Part One, Martin Luther, hero of the Protestant Reformation, was a maverick, a classic shaker and mover. Alone . . . independent . . . invincible. He needed no one but God to lean on. Or did he?

Up-front heroes are often seen as being larger than life. Overstated. That's unfortunate. Because they are public figures, folks think of them as broad-shouldered giants who can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Grandparents. What amazing gifts from God. Generation after generation He provides a fresh set of them . . . an ever-present counterculture in our busy world. Lest everyone else get so involved they no longer stop to smell the flowers.

It's bad enough that, until recently, Webster omitted "parenting" in his dictionary . . . but continuing to disregard "grandparenting" is somewhere between incompetent and inexcusable! Okay, okay, so it isn't an official word.