THE NEXT TIME YOU FEEL HOPE SLIPPING AWAY, remember the true story of the “Brownie.” It goes like this: A number of years ago, in a mental institution outside of Boston, a young girl known as “Little Annie” was locked in a section of the hospital reserved for those who were considered to be hopelessly insane. Doctors saw no hope for Little Annie so they separated her from the other patients and locked her in a small cage, down in the dungeon which received little light and even less hope. She was treated like an animal.

However, hope was about to shine through this bleak environment and cast its ray upon this unfortunate little girl, for an elderly nurse took compassion on her. She felt there was always hope for all of God’s children, so she stayed beyond retirement just so she could help Annie. She started taking her lunch and eating outside Little Annie’s cage. She felt perhaps she could communicate some love and hope to the little girl.

On several occasions, Little Annie would attack the person who came into her cage. At other times she would completely ignore them. When the elderly nurse started visiting her, Little Annie gave no indication that she was even aware of her presence. One day, the nurse brought some brownies to the cage and left them just outside and when she returned the next day, the brownies were gone. From that time on, the nurse would bring brownies when she made her Thursday visit.

Soon after, the doctors in the institution noticed a change was taking place in Little Annie for the better. After a period of time they decided to move her out of the cage and place her upstairs. Finally, the day came when the “hopeless case” was told she could return home. But Little Annie did not wish to leave. She chose to stay, to help others, just as she was helped. Eventually, it was she who cared for, taught, and nurtured Helen Keller, for Little Annie’s name was Anne Sullivan. She decided to express a similar love that had been shown to her.

It’s true, you know. God still places brownies beside those who are deemed hopeless. He sends loving hands to supply them. With Him there are no hopeless cases. “We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield” (Psalm 33:20).

MOST OF US GET A FULL EIGHT HOURS SLEEP EACH NIGHT to perform at peak the following day. Others get along quite nicely with as little as three to four hours. But it is universally agreed that a human being must eventually sleep, just as he must eat or drink. In fact, doctors are fond of saying that “sleep is the brain’s food”; starve the brain and you die.

So what are we to make of the strange case of Al Herpin? A 90-year-old handyman of average intelligence and excellent health? Herpin lived in a tarpaper shanty outside of Trenton, New Jersey, in the 1940’s. He claimed he had never slept! Legions of doctors marched to his door, determined to expose the fraud and thus buttress their own medical theories.

Inside Mr. Herpin’s house, they found a rocking chair and a table---but no bed, no hammock, no cot, nothing on which a man might lie down. For weeks on end, medics attended Herpin in relays, waiting for the man to sneak a few winks. He never did. Naturally, after a hard day’s work at odd jobs, he would be tired. But his way of resting was to sit in his rocker and read seven newspapers thoroughly until he felt refreshed.

Obviously this man’s condition was an anomaly. His brain was simply wired differently than most humans. Helpin himself contended that the cause of his lifelong insomnia was an injury his mother had suffered just a few days before delivering the infant Al. He finally closed his eyes for eternal sleep on January 3, 1947, at the age of 94.

In Psalm 121, we are told that the LORD watches over His children perpetually. He doesn’t slumber. Ever. He is always awake—24-7! How much better we can sleep, knowing that He is constantly watching over us. He is the rock of our salvation, our firm foundation, and our everlasting security.

FLYING CAN CERTAINLY CHANGE ONE’S PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE. I was returning from a trip to British Columbia on a commercial jet, cruising at 39,000 feet. I gazed out the window at the Rocky Mountains below and they seemed so small, even though I knew that some of them were as high as 14,000 + feet. I remembered that the previous summer I had hiked into those same peaks and was awed by their vastness. That’s when one of life’s lessons came to mind.

We all face mountains of a different kind---mountains of declining health, financial burdens, relationship problems, and so on. The list is almost endless. Often they are so huge that we cannot see how we can scale them. But if we were to look at them from God’s perspective, they would seem like little mounds of dirt. In Mark 11:23-24, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Here, our Lord makes use of hyperbole to make a point. If we stand at the base of a mountain and can’t see a way over or around it, we are to employ the prayer of faith. The higher we go in our faith journey, the less formidable the barriers of life will seem.

Often we’re satisfied with our limited view of life. But Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us, “‘I know the thoughts that I think toward you,’ says the Lord, ‘thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’” With God’s omniscient, panoramic view, He sees the people He wants us to help, the things He wants us to accomplish, the character traits He wants to develop in us.

Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” Our view of life is restricted by our humanness, but we can trust ourselves to the One who has an unlimited view! —

The next time you’re flying, take a look below and see what I mean. It will change your outlook. Imagine that you are viewing life from God’s vantage point. See if it doesn’t make a difference!