Chapel of Optimal Life



A traditional Bible-based Christian church
A Bible-based Christian church for the modern age
A church based on the teachings of all the great thinkers
A new age church for the inquiring mind
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SERMON: Measurement Of Permanent Joy

We've all met many disappointed people along various stages of life's journey. People who didn't get the job they wanted, or were passed over for promotion; people with disabilities, family unrest, failed goals, and lots of regret.

Joy doesn't hinge on getting what we want, but in accepting God's will, realizing that His answers are wiser than our prayers.

Benjamin Franklin observed, "The things that hurt, instruct." We can even face conflict with joy, knowing we do so with God at our side.

Someone joked, "Why pray when you can worry?" More...

EDITORIAL: Unfamiliar Courtesy

What is courtesy? Maybe it is as described by dictionary.com, "excellence of manners or social conduct; polite behavior." We doubt that we are alone in thinking that it should be more common place than it is, particularly since we've all heard of "common courtesy." Is it that our culture no longer holds this value in esteem? Or perhaps we have simply forgotten how to apply it.

Then again, with today's age of big cities and bustling life, it may have been taken advantage of too often, forcing it to become mere "wishful thinking," that it could remain a part of our daily lives.

Yet, regardless of race or religion, it lies within each of us to make courtesy one of our values. More...

OPINION: Any Change

Have you ever felt bored, or that life was somewhat stale and routine?

Most people feel that way to various degrees at points in life. Those feelings tend to make me wish for change, any change, while thinking that anything to break up the monotony would be welcomed.

Now, you may laugh at such a naïve and foolish gesture, but I doubt it's uncommon for a person to think in such a way, despite the flawed logic. In no way am I recommending a complacent or mundane life, in fact I generally advise against it. More...

GOOD NEWS: COOLpix Puzzler: Christie's London

During a lull between auctions at Christie's in London, a clerk does his inventories and, in one of the smaller sell rooms, quiet reigns. Christie's was presumably founded in London, England on 5 December 1766 by James Christie, although there is some question that it may have been even earlier.

In any case, it is not as old as its rival auction house, Sotheby's. Recently Christie's has held the greater market share against its longtime competitor for several years and is currently the world's largest auction house by revenues.

When the chairs are full of important bidders for this group of antiques, tension is in the air and the murmuring can kick up the decibel level several notches. More...

nonFICTION: Barnacles and Bedlam, Part 62

While discussing Winthrop at a shore gathering of JD&P sal­vage and other personnel, Edward Mahoney, the assistant busi­ness manager resident in Massawa, remarked, "If you see anyone running around shaking his head and muttering, 'He shouldn't have done it,' you'll know he's talking about the one and only Winthrop."

Winthrop diligently appeared at meetings of our American Volunteer Guard, but the training sessions were, in truth, a farce.

We did have access to the rifles taken from the Italians when Eritrea was invaded by the British army in 1941. More...

ADVICE: Dear Angel

My husband and I seem to be cursed like Job.

We had four daughters and three of them have come out and acknowledged that they are lesbians. We love them but do not always understand their domestic arrangements. One of them doesn't speak to us because her partner is jealously possessive.

The fourth daughter married and has three lovely children but I believe the boy is going to be gay. He plays with dolls, dresses up in his sisters' clothes and doesn't like boys at all, yet. He would rather put on makeup than play sports.



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"Disillusion is the last illusion."

Wallace Stevens

"Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress."

George Eliot

"St. Teresa of Avila described our life in this world as like a night at a second-class hotel."

Malcolm Muggeridge

"A day is a miniature eternity."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Rust consumes iron and envy consumes itself."

Danish proverb

"You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Don't let yourself indulge in vain wishes."

Rabindranath Tagore

"How can there be so much difference between a day off and an off day?"

Anonymous

"Making a success of the job at hand is the best step toward the kind you want."

Bernard M. Baruch

"Every person supposes themself not to be fully understood or appreciated."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Is discord going to show itself while we are still fighting, is the Jew once again worth less than another? Oh, it is sad, very sad, that once more, for the umpteenth time, the old truth is confirmed: "What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews."

Anne Frank



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