Taming Tribulation Podcast

By George Matthew Adams "Next to winning yourself, is to lose to a delightful companion."This was the remark I overheard on coming into the clubhouse after a wonderful day at golf. And much as I had enjoyed the day, that remark was worth more to me than all the rest put together. And it has come back to me time and again. Now I give it to you.Next to -I wonder if there is not packed into these little words some of the finest suggestive possibilities for happiness in all this life.Let's see:Next to - winning yourself, to see somebody else win.Next to - breathing life and spirit and wonder and imagination and inspiration into the heart of some instrument of music yourself, to drink in the art of a master.Next to - being a great leader, to be a worthy follower.Next to - writing some great book or painting some great masterpiece, to interpret rightly what the writer or artist has felt; and thus, in living, to make his work a thing of satisfaction and permanence.Next to - being helped, for you to help.Next to - being loved, for you to love.Next to - grandly succeeding, for you to helpbring success to someone else!https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams One strong point about Coming Back is that you are acquainted with that part over which you have to travel again to the point where you began to slip. And nearly always the impetus thus gained on the Coming Back sends one further on than before.The great thing about age is that it teaches us something every day. And the wiser we get, the more happy we are able to be. For happiness is intelligence.I always feel just a little sorry for the man who has never slipped - who has, therefore, never had a chance to Come Back. I think of how much he misses in feeling for the fellow who has slipped - and who has gloriously Come Back — only to face ahead.Fail a dozen times. Be defeated on a score of counts. Lose out on the things that your heart is most set upon winning if Fate dictates that way with you.But then Come Back - with fire in your eyes, with courage burning red hot in your veins and with a jaw set for "game."One drawback to the one who has gone back is the fear to face those who watched him as he went by.But don't let that trouble you. Just tell yourself that you are made of sterner stuff — and that you know how to Come Back.And think of the many great things that you are able to do that nobody has yet done.Oh yes, it's great to keep Coming Back - I mean,going forward!https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams If you were completely understood you would not be worth understanding. In this fact alone lies your greatest latent power, your largest fascination, your surest attraction.No one ever understood Napoleon, Washington, Lincoln, Emerson, Carlyle. They were too great to be understood.The essence of littleness is to be understood.If you were thoroughly understood, no longer would you seek solution to those mysterious forces that drive you on and on. If you were thoroughly understood, no longer would you retain your ability to be a compelling personality. Your life would at once become as a shell at whose tapping would resound hardly more than a hollow murmur.There is waste in the morbid plaint against being misunderstood. Be happy over what you are - and what you may be.Glory in your ability to take the scattered and uncollected items of life and character and happily shape them into the understandable and serviceful.Then you will surely be understood sufficiently to enable you to forget that it is of any value whatsoever to be understood, excepting in a very few things — your desire to be helpful, for instance, and to be some-body.Nobody fully understands you! Don't you mind,for no one else was ever fully understood.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams This is a true story. It was told to me by a big publisher who was a close friend of the man who "wears the clothes of the incident."Many years ago, a boy came to New York as an immigrant. He was very poor. All he had was a good back, a willing head, and useful hands and feet. He had to work hard. But he never complained. One day, he and his "pal" were doing some hard work in the bitter cold. And the boy that this story is about, froze his feet.The years went on. The boy became the important attorney for James J. Hill, the "Empire" builder. One evening he was being dined in the Northwest as the "guest of honor." But his mind seemed far from the table and his associates.Turning to my friend, he said: "There is a place that I want to go." "Where is it?" asked my friend. And the guest told him. It was in a rough neighborhood, and my friend advised him against it."By the way, who is it you want to see?" said my friend."I want to see 'Bill Blank' who is in the barber supply business — do you know him?""Oh, yes," said my friend, "but you'd better put it off.""Oh, I cannot," said the great attorney. "For, you see, it is like this — that fellow was with me when I froze my feet!"The big man is always a human man.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams I am tired tonight, God. Not discouraged, not overwhelmed with heavy weight of work or worry — nothing like that, God, but just tired - tired, tired.Sometimes I think that You were made for tired people, God, because tired people are always yearning for love and the kind comfort of a great Mother-Father, as You always seem to be to everyone, God.I worked hard today, God. I tried to do my work faithfully and well. I know that I did not do it perfectly, but because I am tired tonight, I am very sure that I gave of what I had, with a sincere desire back of my efforts to make all that I did do worth while. So You will overlook where I failed, won't You, God?I am tired. But since I tried to do my best, I feel happily tired. Grant unto me, then, God, that I be given sleep and rest — and that the dreams I have, if they come, may be beautiful and full of pleasant pictures.Lift me into the tomorrows, as I sleep, and lay Your plans for my usefulness, so that when I awake, I may go forth in newness and strength, glad of life and living.Help me to weave and interweave every thought and effort and desire of my own heart into that happy scheme of work and service which, as it is pursued, knits all human effort into one grand and noble plan.I am very tired, God. But there are others who are much more tired than I. Remember them, God. Rest them, too. Lift them from their discouraged and frightened states and grant unto them the ease and help of Your strong arms.Thank You, God.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams I have been thinking about the great unrest in the world. And I have been believing that a lot of it would be cured - if only a great crowd of new mothers might be imported into the world! For, you see, a mother is able to cure almost everything.From the little tot who bumps his head and gets a great big fat "tiss" that immediately heals it, to the strong man who goes to his work in life after the benediction of a mother's last kiss - does this marvelous influence mold and make worth while every effort that a human being is able to perform.It's the "Mother o' Mine" thought the embodies the noblest impulses of which we are capable. I have in mind a wonderful mother, who sent her boy out into the world with these words: "My boy — come back SOMEBODY!"Through the winding paths and ways of strife and pain and sorrow, as well as of joy, does the spirit of a mother follow and lead. A mother never runs out of love or forgiveness — or anything that is helpful.Long years ago my Mother went away. But she comes back with the opening of every day — to tell me what to do. And all that I am of wisdom or of good, I feel that I owe most to her."Mother o' Mine," you look so beautiful to me, where you are! The stars keep telling me about you.It's the mothers who are going to bring this world out all right in the end!https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams Life is like a running stream — with its source far from its destination, its heart hidden from the crowd of men and traffic, among the mountains getting ready!But, like life, the full fervor and power and influence for usefulness of the little far-away mountain stream, is to be found finally in its spreading rivers of commerce — in its oceans of world-knitting help and great works.Coming down the mountain sides from its source, the little river doesn't seem much. But when it gets to its river-bigness and broadness and, later, to the very ocean itself, then we get it in its mightiness. For then it is that commerce comes in and knowledge is carried to the furthermost parts of the earth.The little stream, however, even at its start, is serious. As flowers are, and stones, and trees. And the world. Thus is Life serious. But to be serious is not to be long-faced - but thought-faced!The little stream is serious - but dead in earn-est. But the greatest thing about the little river is that it always — smiles!Did you ever see a river that didn't smile? Why, there are billions and billions of smiles — rivers and rivers of smiles. And they cheer everything and everybody that they pass — stones, sticks, mud, fishes, boats, branches of trees. And they toss out their kisses of smiles (do the Rivers of Smiles) to every passing thing whether man or child or beast or bird or insect or - just the atoms of the air!Like a stream you may be — in walks and talks and works. Just ripple on! Keep moving. Keep doing. Keep cleansing. Keep giving.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams In the Bible there is a story of a young man who thought that his home was not good enough for him. So he went away. He sought thrills, veneered pleasures, and "easy money" — without working for it. It is said that he fed upon the husks of the swine-herd.But the young man soon tired - as all such do. He wanted to hear again the voices of home, and to eat home cooking, and to have a happy bed to sleep in. And so he decided to go back. "I will arise and go to my father," he said.His pride had been broken. He was ragged and discouraged. But he was not so far gone that he was unable to decide to face things definitely anew.As he neared his home, a thrill that he had never known before came over him. His father ran to meet him with outstretched arms. And so glad was the father to see him that he ordered the finest dinner and celebration that he could think up. "For," said he, "my boy, whom I thought was dead, is alive!"Some of the other members of the family didn't seem to like the idea of taking him back. But not the father. Which goes to prove that there is great father love as well as mother love, in the big world.But the lesson in the story, to me, is this: Here was a young man who had made a great mistake - but who still retained the courage to face life anew.Daily must we mend and re-construct. Regrets are vain, indeed. But the holy desire to be right within our hearts is what counts.Each of us must decide for himself - to arise! https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams He thought, he planned, he worked. He never believed that anything was too unimportant not to do right and well. He was always looking ahead.He was willing to go through poverty and hardship. He didn't mind the lack of applause. He had figured out, in terms of his own ideals, the cost of winning, and he was willing to go without the friendship of those who saw not his worth.He always came up smiling. He never crossed a bridge until he got to it — and then if the bridge had been washed away, he swam across!He respected old age. He was kind to the poor and to little children. There was something about him that never repelled, but that drew even the dumb animals to him.He was tolerant. He could see other people's viewpoint. He had no time for other people's business, but he always had time for other people's needs. Because, you see, he understood so much — and so well.He was religious, but not sectarian. He often prayed, because he believed in prayer. He lived in a world of feeling. Therefore, he was sensitive, and felt, as the most responsive instrument, every touch of hurt or of kindness.He was clean in mind. He had his own ideas about being a "good fellow." He made mistakes, for he was intensely human. But he didn't brood. He raised smiles on his love-ranch - in his heart.Now, who was this "He"? Well, I'll tell you who he was — he was a MAN!https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew AdamsHe was the first to bring real democracy into the world. He was born of simple parentage, in a place where cattle were wont to feed. He grew up naturally, took up a trade and was a worker.He liked "common folks" - though He was at ease with anybody, because His was a mission of love in the world, and love cares nothing for clothes or pocketbooks or special classes. He "went about doing good," and judged people by their hearts only.He was always serving. He was always thinking of other people. He was tender and gentle in manner, though His courage was the courage of the Crucifixion. He loved little children. His was a life of teaching and example. Wherever He went, He accomplished something.He never condemned and He never sought re-venge. No one ever left Him without experiencing "newness of life." His ideals worked, because even those who were His enemies saw in Him what His words expressed.He gave a rebirth to Influence in the world. And He placed a valuation upon human character that the world had never known before.But greatest of all, He brought peace and good will into the world. He wanted to see everybody happy. And so, all over the world, His spirit is ever binding up wounds, feeding the hungry and breaking the chains from those bound in slavery.So to Him — to Jesus, the "Prince of Peace" — be all glory and honor and love — forever!https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams Every thought you think either builds or tears down.Positive thought builds, negative thoughts tear down. Here is a positive thought for you — just for today —"I am not afraid!"Fear for the things that never happen has kept this great big world asleep, and groggy, and trembling fully half the time.Say this — right now — "I am not afraid!"Life is a thing of problems — little ones, big ones, funny ones, strange ones, mysterious ones.But all of them may be solved aright if you will but say, as you look each one squarely in the face: "I am not afraid!"No harm can possibly come to you so long as you feel that you are not afraid - so long as you can say: "I am not afraid!"Jesus once said something like this: "Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." For two thousand years the words and works of this Man have lived. Jesus knew how to say: "I am not afraid!"So you say this today: "I am not afraid!"https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams Are you ever thrilled by some fine thought in a book or newspaper, or from some speaker?Haven't you felt like going right to the author and telling him how much you appreciated the thrill?Well, you just do it.The man never lived who did not appreciate appreciation. No man ever gets so great or famous that he does not long for this very thing.If you read a book or article anywhere that helps you, or that makes you happy, tell it to the author. If you do not know his address, write to the publisher of the book or magazine or newspaper and he will gladly forward your appreciation.I sat talking in the study of a very famous writer and he said: "Just listen to this wonderful gem." As he read it to me, I thought to myself, how wonderful if the author could but hear and know.The story is told of Richard Harding Davis that he had a habit of writing, or even of wiring, an author whose story or book he especially liked.There is not a writer or publisher in the land who does not welcome, with a wide open heart, every expression of appreciation from his readers. It's this that keeps him going.If anybody or anything helps you, tell it — far and wide. Give it the wings of a dove, or of an eagle. But tell it.And "after many days" (maybe just a few) renewed knowledge and happiness is sure to come back to you.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,The eternal years of God are hers;But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers."William Cullen BryantI learned these lines when but a boy. They made a great impression on me. They have inspired me a thousand times. They have taught me that only one thing is permanent — the thing that is right and good.There is always one consolation, even in utter failure, to a man of spirit, and that is that such a failure is but temporary. The lower such a man is thrown into failure, the higher he may aspire to climb.And the longer one trains and prepares, the mightier is one's strength.My friend, do they tell you that you are "down and out"? Prove to them that you may be down — but out — never!Rise again, over the dead past, with your mistakes as the ladder-rounds upon which you climb to a higher goal. Honest effort is eternal.At the very moment you feel tempted to quit— don't. For that is the point at which you should determinedly decide to begin again. Rise again, my friend, rise again.A great spirit never can be beaten. Many an iron soul has been broken, only to be molded anew into something greater and stronger than before.Suppose you are "kicked down." Smile! Then — rise again!https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams He is kind and gentle. Truth plays within his yard during the hours of sun and light, and comes at nightfall to add laughter to the sound of voices that interchange in tales of work and thinking.Being just, he is strong. Being human, he is sometimes weak. But he is always a master!That is why folks of all sorts hunt out his house and like to come and spend hours underneath his roof.Observant, keen, full of ripe intelligence, his knowledge is that of the world much more than that of books. So that his ideas and reflections are always such that the simplest minded may easily understand, and grow in richness therefrom.Often, of an evening in winter, have I seen, with my mind's eye, this master, sitting quietly beside his hospitable fire amongst those whom he loves. And in the dusk of summer have I seen him play with happy children along the singing creek, just a little back of his home.For the master of the house is a father, brother, boy — friend! So all may look to him in love, happiness or sorrow. For interwoven within his experience are all the elements that go to make up a man.The master of the house, whom I have in mind is he whom you may be. The house is the body where you live.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams Under the glass of my work desk is a little phrase that has helped me not to mind, when things looked dark and people misjudged and mis-understood, or when some have proved disloyal.Here it is: "The dog barks, but the caravan passes on." After all, there is a world of sense and philosophy to be gained from animate things that "move and have their being" but which do not talk.Horse sense? Well, dog sense is pretty helpful, too.Have you never seen a great dog meander its way through a street, followed by a troop of small dogs, barking and snapping at the big dog? Such an incident has given me many a thought and many a smile. For the big fellow just walks on - and doesn't mind. And soon the little snappers drop away.Never mind!There is one big principle that counts in the formation of character and a life success, and that is to stick to the "main chance." To swerve neither to the right nor to the left, but to do the things at hand that bear upon the greater things to be — and then to pass on.Mind not the little daily irritations. They come to us all. "The dog barks, but the caravan passes on."Gossip is poisonous? Oh, yes — very. But it poisons the other fellow infinitely more than it poisons you. And besides, you are able to be so big that the poison is soon thrown off, and forgotten."The dog barks, but the caravan passes on."https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams The face that you carry everywhere with you is the only one you will ever get. But it is possible for you to give it a lot of change.Your face is a sort of publicity agent for you. It tells people a great deal that you do not imagine it tells. Also it publishes volumes of things you are glad to have known.Your face is the most important "ware" that you exhibit. Usually you pass for your "face value."So do you see how important it is not to spoil your face?Here are some of the things that rebuild faces. First, smiling at every stage of your day makes a wonderful face. It can never be spoiled by smiles. So learn the art of smiling. Believe in better things. A face grows in beauty and power under the working of a mind that sees the good in everything. Change not your expression in the front of defeat; look for victory and you are sure to see it.Worry not. More faces are lined and creased and folded up through worry than any other thing. Worry is a worse disease than the small pox and leaves deeper scars.You are no older than your face. Clean thoughts and purposes made plain, stamp a rainbow of youth and promise across the planes of your face that nothing can erase - least of all, mere years.It's a good thing to believe in your face.And if you do, it's not liable to spoil.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams Owen Wister, in his novel "The Virgin-ian," tells of how every man carries around within his heart a baby!We really never "grow up." Age is simply relative, anyway. And since reading that wonderful truth, I have come to the feeling that none of us, after all, may be cheated of greatness and happiness — save only by being childless in heart.For it's the baby in his heart that drives a man to work and service in the world, and that leads him on — hardly knowing how or why.It's the baby in your heart who is ever trusting, believing and, in openness, taking to the simple, natural ways — the baby that is so easily hurt, so quickly made happy, so ready to forget injury.But the baby, nevertheless, always is wanting to be loved, always seeking encourage-ment, always inspired by kindly correction.However, since there are babies and babies — what kind of baby are you carrying around in your heart? Are you bringing it up in the way that it should go (you being so much wiser)? Are you imitating its life of laughter and play?Millions of lives sleep today in silent places — that the baby in the hearts of men might never be crushed out. Great aspiration is not a thing to be brought about through might - but through right.And it's the baby that is the rightest of all!https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams There is an infinite tenderness about an unseen form in the world that compels us to be led — whether we wish or not.As a child, we enter into this following of leadership - because we do not know. And yet, even in our blind following, there is that beauty of rightness, that inexorable fierceness of unknown knowledge, that compels us to follow.And then, as life steps on a little more, our development causes veil after veil to be taken from our eyes. We still feel that we must follow, not knowing, yet surer than ever that there is in that Unseen Leadership something great and definite.And so, while we stumble here and there, and rebel -sometimes resisting and often, in a sort of despairing bitterness, asking that we be freed from this leadership that so ties us to our fate — still there ever lurks within us that almost unconscious consciousness that we must not stray too far.Through childhood and youth and far into manhood, we are led. For our Inflexible Guide has a will and a directness so superior to our thinking, that we could not resist if we would!So to that Unseen Form who knows so much of pain, so much of tears, so much of joy, so much of - All, we unconditionally surrender.For that which leads is — Love! And only those who know it, are able to step apace.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams Nearly a century ago, in a rural cabin in southern Indiana, a mother lay dying. She knew that her last hour was at hand and asked for her ten-year-old boy. She pressed him close to her and whispered: "Be somebody, Abe!"The mother was Nancy Hanks. And the boy did become somebody. For he was Abraham Lincoln and he became not only President of the United States but, eventually, one of the most deeply loved figures in all history.Throughout the years of struggle, and later when honors came fast to him, Lincoln often remarked that those last words of his "angel mother" came to lead him on.It matters very little who you are or what you do, so long as you decide to be somebody and carry through your determination with honor.The main thing is to be somebody."The world will little note nor long remember what we say here," said this immortal Lincoln at Gettysburg, "but it can never forget what they DID here."What we say is easily forgotten. But what we do remains as a monument to what we were.Just do something worth while. Just be somebody.https://linktr.ee/questorpods

By George Matthew Adams First, it's very individual, this Me of mine. It eats, it walks, it plays, it works, and it sleeps. Also it plans and thinks and dreams and loves.This Me of mine gets lonely, too, even in the midst of work. It looks around itself and marvels at time and space and things. And grows into a warm ecstatic mood at the feel of life and all its tasks.I like this Me of mine, because it is understandable. Good and bad both — but honestly abreast, for true things are passing by at every hour of every day.I talk to this Me of mine. And it talks to me. And the world of action all around stirs the blood in this Me of mine. For it is wakeful and alert.I run errands for this Me of mine. I risk, I work, I sorrow, I sympathize with this Me of mine.This inside one, this outside one, this everywhere one — this Me of mine — it's all that I may keep and call my own. But I shall stick, with loyal pride, and gladly strive to better make, to stronger wield - the brain, the heart, and the soul of this Me of mine.So that to serve may prove the end of all that there is to this Me of mine.https://linktr.ee/questorpods