"Why, could it be? Grumpy, is that you!

    "Well, does it look like me?"

    "Oh, Grumpy, it is you!  And what about Sleepy and Happy and . . .?

    "Well, if it isn't Snow White. By the looks of your diamond tiara and fur-lined stole, I'm guessing you married a loan shark."

    "No, you silly dwarf! I married Prince Charming and I'm living happily ever after."

    "So, your name is now . . . Snow Charming?"

    She giggled, "Why, yes."

    "What a stupid name."

    "Actually, I don't mind my name at all. Didn't anyone tell you what happened after I ate the poisoned apple?"

    As the bluebirds twittered around them, they sat on a garden bench by a fountain, and the princess told her story.

    "One of my old classmates had a crush on me since high school. When he learned that love's first kiss would awaken me, and the breaking of the evil spell would put me in a mood for marriage, he dropped his shovel where he cleaned the village sewers and raced to the cottage where I lay sleeping."

    "And?"

At the Olympics, two athletes reach the podium. Who will be happier: The athlete who won the bronze medal or the athlete who took silver?   

Not too difficult to answer, is it? The athlete who won the silver medal did better than the athlete who won the bronze, so obviously he or she is happier.   

But Richard Wiseman, professor at the University of Herfordshire, UK, suggests otherwise. He believes that those who win a bronze medal are happier about their achievement. Why? The silver medalists looks to the top of the podium, and tends to think, “If only I had done a little better, I could have won the gold. But I fell short.”   

Bronze medal winners tends to look in the other direction. They see that, if they hadn’t outperformed the other competitors, they wouldn’t have made it to the podium at all. The difference in attitude between silver and bronze medalists is not accomplishment, but perspective.   

Christians aren’t supposed to believe in luck, but I do.  

Look at every civilization and you’ll find good luck charms, talismans, and the notion that some rituals bring luck while others bring misfortune.  The only problem with charms and superstitions is that they’re bogus – they don’t work. As a matter of fact, trust in a lucky object tends to make you unlucky.  In 2003, British researchers asked 107 financial investors to play a game that simulated a live stock exchange. They mentioned that pressing certain random keys on the keyboard might affect the index.  Those who used the “lucky” keys to gain an advantage performed the worst in the game.  

Nevertheless, 77% of people are at least a little superstitious. And, to be honest with you, I would feel just slightly creepy about getting married on Friday the 13th.  Even though I don’t believe it on the inside, it still clings to me on the outside like a bad smell.  

Whenthey blow up your buildings and strafe your house with machine guns,  you begin to get the feeling that some people really don’t like you.  

     Clarence Jordan became a Baptist minister with a Ph.D in New Testament Greek. In 1942, Clarence, and his wife, Florence, went to Sumter County, Georgia, because they wanted to live out the teachings of Jesus.   

     They started a farm, called Koinonia(the Greek word for “Community”). Their goal was to bring both blacksand whites together, to share their goods with each other, and to helpthose poorer than themselves.   

     In those days of racial segregation, many objected to Koinonia Farm. The Baptists kicked Jordanout of their church. Vandals cut their fences, stole crops from thefield, dumped garbage on their property, put sugar in their gas tanks toruin their truck engines, chopped down nearly 300 pecan trees.   

Most of us have had the fear of failure ingrained in us.  We view failure as something to be avoided at all costs.   

But our fears are based on a limited truth.  There are situations in life where failure means disaster.  As the saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving is not for you.”   

But there are other times where we must learn to embrace failure as the inevitable process of growing.  Every musician knows that, in order to master their instrument, they must be willing to fail, and to repeatedly play wrong notes in order to learn.  Any basketball player knows that they will miss many more shots than they make before they begin to refine their shot.   

There is, of course, a way to avoid failure.  You will never hit a wrong note, you will never strike out – if you never pick up an instrument, if you never step up to the plate and swing.