Finding Hidden Treasure

I've been having a bad start to the new year. Not much to tell, no precipitating event, no specific trauma. Just lots of little things and an emotional roller coaster.

I was looking for a book today and came across my brother's Bible. I brought it home on my last visit with my Dad.

I could have just placed it aside and continued my book search, but I didn't.

I sat on the bed and unzipped the cover. Out of the front fell an invitation to my high school graduation and several remembrance tree lighting programs my mother had placed there in the years between my brother's death (1996) and hers (2004).

I just sat there flipping through the pages remembering when my brother got this Bible in the late 70's as a 15-year old student at a tiny Christian school. I was admiring the large print and thinking perhaps it would honor his memory to use the Bible rather than store it away. Then I saw it.

It was an old yellow newspaper clipping. It was not something my mother tucked away. But it looked older than the age of the Bible. I checked online for the writer's name, Rev. E. W. Rimpo, and found a link to a newspaper archive. It is a paid site so I wasn't able to find out much. The essay was probably from 1955 or there about. E.W. Rimpo was a pastor at First Baptist Church in Fruitland, Maryland. My brother was born in 1966 and lived his entire life in Delaware. So I don't know how he ended up with this clipping in his Bible. Perhaps he found it in our Grandmother's boxes of clippings and mementos and decided to save it. By most standards the article is rather simple and mundane. Why would he save it?

Here is the article:

Have a Good Day
By Rev. E. W. Rimpe


Do you expect to have a good day or do you feel that is out of your hands? If you have felt helpless to do anything about the quality of your day just give it another thought. You have so much to do that you do not know how to crowd it into a day and spend much of your time in needless worry instead of doing some of the things which should be done. The life that began at Bethlehem ended at Calvary thirty-three years afterward. How little time that was in which to do what had to be done yet the world has never been quite the same again.

As we again take a good look at that great life we cannot quite duplicate it but we can continue to learn from Him. In all His busy life He never seemed too hurried to take necessary time. Plan your day so that some time will be given to the things that need to be done and when you do them give yourself wholeheartedly to what you are doing. After you have completed your task move on to the next. If you will follow each task with the next you will find the day's work done before you know it.

Keep in mind the important fact that every hour is made up of precious minutes. Sometimes a task will only take a few minutes and part of the day's work will be done. While what takes only moments to do may not be as important as what takes longer there are times when the moments can count for more so put all of yourself into what you are doing whatever time it takes. Plan your day so that every moment of your day will be made to count.

As you prepare your day's program include a good word or deed for someone else. A good word doesn't cost any more than the exercise of a few facial muscles and that does not cost much but it can do so much good, It can also do good both coming and going. Learn how from the greatest of Teachers and have a good day.

Fifty years ago Rev. Rimpo dedicated a few moments to writing an essay for the local newspaper. While almost all those newspapers ended up at the city dump, someone spent a few moments finding the scissors, cutting out this article and saving it. One day, my brother came across it. Something about it caught his interest, and in a few seconds he tucked it into his Bible. Today I stopped for just a moment to sit and look through a Bible. And just as God knew 50 years ago...the words were there.

Have a Good Day!