And Then There Was Light
The moment I get home from work, I change into comfortable clothes and begin striking the keys of my desktop computer. I have in front of me, neatly arranged within the slots of my portable workstation, an assortment of electronic equipment designed to make life and work easier.
I use a Pentium 233 MMX computer. I have a flatbed scanner and a set of very good speakers. Recently, I also got a zip drive that stores all my important data. Of course, there is also my reliable colored inkjet printer.
One day, I looked at all these gadgets in front of me and I realized that despite their astounding capabilities, the one I like most is still my old and faithful table lamp. I may have all those adcanced machines, but without that table lamp providing light, I wouldn't be able to work at all.
The world may not realize how significant Thomas Edison is to our lives. As the inventor of the incandescent lamp, he provided the world with light needed to carry on life and progress. Let me tell you something about him.
On October 18. 1879, the young inventor Edison sat in his laboratory after 13 months of repeated failures in his search for a filament that would stand the stress of electric current. To add to his problems, the men who had been giving him financial aid now refused to put up any additional funds.
Having tried every known metal in his experiment, Edison was baffled. Casually picking up a bit of lampback, he mixed it with tar and rolled it into a thin thread. Suddenly the thought struck him - why not try a carbonized cotton fiber? For five hours he worked on the first filament, bit it broke before he could remove the mold. Edison used two entire spools of thread in similar fruitless efforts. At last a perfect strand emerged, only to be ruined when he tried to place it inside the glass tube.
Still Edison refused to admit defeat. He continued to work without sleep for two more days and nights. Eventually he managed to insert one to the crude carbonized threads into a vacuum-sealed bulb. "When we turned on the current," he said, "the sight we had so long desired finally met our eyes!"
Thomas Edison had endured failure after failure, and his finances were in jeopardy. He was under tremendous stress. But his persistence in the face of the most discouraging circumstances gave the world one of its greatest inventions - the electric light.
A great American, Booker T. Washington, had this to say about stress: "No man should be pitied because every day of his life he faces a hard, stubborn problem. It is the man who has no problems to solve, no hardships to face, who is to be pitied. he has nothing in his life which will strengthen and form his character, nothing to call out his latent powers and deepen and widen his hold to life."
Rich McLawhorn sats something encouraging, too: "In the midst of stress and tension, direct your trust toward heaven. The wind of God is always blowing. THat wind can bring you countless blessings, including peace. But one's sail must be raised to catch the wind. Hoist your sail, and catch God's wind."
And the Word of God comforts us in saiah 26:3: "He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!"
When you encounter stress, keep these words and Edison's example in mind. They will help you keep your equilibrium. As stress exerts its force on you, seek true peace. And what is true peace? Not the absence of conflict, but rather, the absence of inner turmoil.
- Francis J. Kong
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Lessons learned:
1. Quitters don't win.
2. Whiners, together with the quitters, DON'T WIN.
3. Failure is delayed success.
I use a Pentium 233 MMX computer. I have a flatbed scanner and a set of very good speakers. Recently, I also got a zip drive that stores all my important data. Of course, there is also my reliable colored inkjet printer.
One day, I looked at all these gadgets in front of me and I realized that despite their astounding capabilities, the one I like most is still my old and faithful table lamp. I may have all those adcanced machines, but without that table lamp providing light, I wouldn't be able to work at all.
The world may not realize how significant Thomas Edison is to our lives. As the inventor of the incandescent lamp, he provided the world with light needed to carry on life and progress. Let me tell you something about him.
On October 18. 1879, the young inventor Edison sat in his laboratory after 13 months of repeated failures in his search for a filament that would stand the stress of electric current. To add to his problems, the men who had been giving him financial aid now refused to put up any additional funds.
Having tried every known metal in his experiment, Edison was baffled. Casually picking up a bit of lampback, he mixed it with tar and rolled it into a thin thread. Suddenly the thought struck him - why not try a carbonized cotton fiber? For five hours he worked on the first filament, bit it broke before he could remove the mold. Edison used two entire spools of thread in similar fruitless efforts. At last a perfect strand emerged, only to be ruined when he tried to place it inside the glass tube.
Still Edison refused to admit defeat. He continued to work without sleep for two more days and nights. Eventually he managed to insert one to the crude carbonized threads into a vacuum-sealed bulb. "When we turned on the current," he said, "the sight we had so long desired finally met our eyes!"
Thomas Edison had endured failure after failure, and his finances were in jeopardy. He was under tremendous stress. But his persistence in the face of the most discouraging circumstances gave the world one of its greatest inventions - the electric light.
A great American, Booker T. Washington, had this to say about stress: "No man should be pitied because every day of his life he faces a hard, stubborn problem. It is the man who has no problems to solve, no hardships to face, who is to be pitied. he has nothing in his life which will strengthen and form his character, nothing to call out his latent powers and deepen and widen his hold to life."
Rich McLawhorn sats something encouraging, too: "In the midst of stress and tension, direct your trust toward heaven. The wind of God is always blowing. THat wind can bring you countless blessings, including peace. But one's sail must be raised to catch the wind. Hoist your sail, and catch God's wind."
And the Word of God comforts us in saiah 26:3: "He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!"
When you encounter stress, keep these words and Edison's example in mind. They will help you keep your equilibrium. As stress exerts its force on you, seek true peace. And what is true peace? Not the absence of conflict, but rather, the absence of inner turmoil.
- Francis J. Kong
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Lessons learned:
1. Quitters don't win.
2. Whiners, together with the quitters, DON'T WIN.
3. Failure is delayed success.
posted by FRANZ LIM at 12:58:00 PM
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