Enthusiastic Ideas

Gary Henry

5.0 (1)
CHRISTIANITY
UPDATED DAILY

Let’s make room for better thoughts. On Enthusiastic Ideas, Gary Henry shares a daily reflection focused on a single, positive word. It takes just three minutes to explore a concept that can benefit your character and enrich your life. Join us in finding ideas that deserve a home in your heart.

3H AGO

Fairness (April 7)

FAIRNESS (APRIL 7) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/fairness-april-7/ "Fair play is primarily not blaming others for anything that is wrong with us" (Eric Hoffer). FAIRNESS CAN’T BE SEPARATED FROM PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. It would be unfair of me, for example, to blame you for something that was my responsibility. In fairness, I can’t ask you to accept any more responsibility than is actually yours. And the opposite is also true: I can’t expect you to take any less responsibility than your own. Fairness and personal responsibility go hand in hand. We all prefer to live in nations, communities, and neighborhoods where justice prevails, but large-scale justice will never prevail in those areas if ordinary, small-scale fairness doesn’t prevail in our everyday dealings with the particular people we come in contact with. “A man who deals in fairness with his own, he can make manifest justice in the state” (Sophocles). So it’s a helpful exercise to ask ourselves from time to time: if everyone in the world treated people exactly as I do, what would the world be like? Out of all the things we might want to be known for, fairness would be one of the most admirable. Whatever else might come to people’s minds when they think of us, if they think of fairness, that’s a reputation we should be glad to have. In fact, if we ever had to choose between being loved and being respected (for things like fairness), being respected would be the better choice. If those who know us can take it for granted that, come what may, we can be counted on to do what’s fair, that ought to give us a very good feeling. In the long run, it’s foolish to deal unfairly with anyone. Doing so is morally wrong, certainly, and that should be reason enough to stay away from it, but the fact remains, unfairness is also foolish. It doesn’t work. Sooner or later, it proves to be ineffective. We may take advantage of somebody today and think we’ve gotten away with it, but sooner or later that person will realize that we’ve been unfair, and the repercussions at that time will outweigh any short-term benefit we may have gotten from acting unjustly. In the matter of fairness, as in all else, the law of the farm rules: we reap what we sow. "Since nothing is settled until it is settled right, no matter how unlimited power a man may have, unless he exercises it fairly and justly his actions will return to plague him" (Frank A. Vanderlip). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min
1D AGO

Constitution (April 6)

CONSTITUTION (APRIL 6) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com "[Our nature] is constituted for the practice of what is good" (Mencius). IF MOST NATIONS HAVE A CONSTITUTION, SO DO EACH OF US PERSONALLY. In its most literal sense, the word “constitution” means the composition of a thing, and when it’s used in reference to a human being, it usually means that person’s physical makeup, as in the phrase “a man with a strong constitution.” I’d like to use the word in a broader sense, however, and suggest that all of us have some sort of general constitution. Thinking not just of our bodies but also of our characters, all of us have come to have a particular constitution. If we said, for example, “She’s made out of pretty strong stuff,” we wouldn’t just mean the physical components of that person’s body. We’d mean that she had a strong character. So at this point in life, what kind of constitutions do you and I have? What qualities have we allowed to become the basic ingredients of our makeup — courage or timidity, discipline or indulgence, honesty or compromise? We start out in life with a number of good things going for us. Potentially, we all have the makings of a strong constitution, and I agree with Mencius’s statement that our nature “is constituted for the practice of what is good.” Along the way, however, most of us have let some less-than-desirable “stuff” get into our constitutions, and not only that, we have failed to develop the good potential that was there all along. So we should be careful about our constitutions. To be strong, they need to be cared for, protected, and enhanced. Even physically, we need to adopt lifestyles that contribute to a stronger, rather than a weaker, constitution. Socrates, for example, said, “A man should inure himself to voluntary labor, and not give up to indulgence and pleasure, as they beget no good constitution of body nor knowledge of mind.” There is an intimate relationship between character and physical condition, and we need to nurture both of these aspects of our being so that they interact in a healthy way. When you compare yourself to others, you may think you don’t have a very strong constitution. But if you were suddenly thrown into the midst of certain circumstances, you might surprise yourself. All of us are made of stronger stuff than we realize. It pays to be grateful. "By my physical constitution I am but an ordinary man . . . Yet some great events, some cutting expressions, some mean hypocrisies, have at times thrown this assemblage of sloth, sleep, and littleness into rage like a lion" (John Adams). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min
2D AGO

Conscience (April 5)

CONSCIENCE (APRIL 5) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/conscience-april-5/ "Conscience is the impulse to do right because it is right, regardless of personal ends" (Margaret C. Graham). NOT A DAY GOES BY THAT OUR CONSCIENCE DOESN’T TEST US. Some of the tests are big while others are little, but the question is always the same: “Will we do what our conscience tells us is right, or will we do something else, perhaps something less difficult or more pleasant?” These tests, however insignificant they may seem, are important for two reasons: they demonstrate what kind of character we presently have, and they move our character further down one path or the other: either the path of goodness or that of evil. Every time we say yes or no to our conscience, we add a little more evidence to the record that will someday be our legacy. Joy. If you’ve never experienced the joy that comes from saying yes to your conscience, you really ought to try it. “A good conscience is a continual Christmas” (Benjamin Franklin). I’ve lived in the world long enough to have enjoyed many of its pleasures, but I’ve yet to find one that compares to the good feeling of going to bed at night knowing you’ve done what your conscience said was right. Stability. There is no way to tell what any of us will have to deal with before our lives are over. If we haven’t already done so, some of us may experience significant and unexpected hardship, and we may think we can’t find anything steady to hang on to. But a clear conscience is an amazingly stable thing, despite the twists and turns of life in this vale of tears. “There is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life throughout its course, a quiet conscience” (Euripides). We admire those who, in the great hours of historical crisis, have taken a heroic stand on the basis of conscience. Most of us, however, will never stand in the spotlight of history, and even if we did, our moment there might not be the most accurate measure of our character. A truer indication of that would be whether we listen to our conscience in the quiet, personal moments — those times when God alone knows what we’ve chosen. Faced with such private decisions (which, in the real world, can be extremely complex), we should never do anything less than what is right — just because it’s right. "I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other, so help me God. Amen" (Martin Luther). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min
3D AGO

Expediency (April 4)

EXPEDIENCY (APRIL 4) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/expediency-april-4/ "No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency" (Theodore Roosevelt). The word “expediency” is unusual in that it’s often used in two different senses, one negative and the other positive. In addition to their denotation or explicit meaning, many words also have a connotation, a more indirect meaning consisting of a positive or negative aura or atmosphere that surrounds them. “Expediency” has two basic meanings, but these two meanings have two different connotations. One is negative while the other is positive. The first meaning of “expedient” is “serving to promote one’s interests,” and this meaning does not give us a good feeling. This kind of expediency is the kind that we associate (whether rightly or wrongly) with politicians. Pontius Pilate, for example, apparently decided to go ahead and have Jesus of Nazareth executed because it was politically expedient. But as Theodore Roosevelt argued, “No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.” With regard to this kind of expediency, William Morley Punshon summed it up like this: “Cowardice asks, Is it safe? Expediency asks, Is it politic? Vanity asks, Is it popular? Conscience asks, Is it right?” But the second meaning is “appropriate to a particular end or purpose,” and this meaning not only has a positive connotation, but it also contains an idea that’s quite valuable for us to think about. Used this way, the word “expedient” means that which is “fitting, proper, beneficial, or helpful.” And in this sense, we ought to consider the expediency of every action that we consider engaging in. With any decision, the crucial question for an honorable person is not simply “Is this permissible from a legal standpoint?” but more importantly, “Will this help others? Will the outcome be profitable?” Laws are important, and we can’t do without them. But laws are no more than a minimum standard for us to go by — within the law, we must also be concerned with what is expedient. The fellow who is willing to do “anything the law allows” is not the person you want for a next-door neighbor. But our neighbor shouldn’t have that kind of neighbor either. So we’ve always got to ask, “Is what I’m about to do beneficial? Will it be a blessing to those around me?” "'All things are lawful,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful,' but not all things build up" (First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min
4D AGO

Peacefulness (April 3)

PEACEFULNESS (APRIL 3) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/peacefulness-april-3/ "In our rough-and-rugged individualism, we think of gentleness as weakness, being soft, and virtually spineless. Not so! . . . Gentleness includes such enviable qualities as having strength under control, being calm and peaceful when surrounded by a heated atmosphere, emitting a soothing effect on those who may be angry or otherwise beside themselves" (Charles R. Swindoll). PEACE IS ALMOST UNIVERSALLY PRAISED, BUT THE PEACEFULNESS THAT LEADS TO PEACE IS NOT ALWAYS ADMIRED. People who have adopted the character trait of peacefulness are sometimes perceived as being weak rather than strong. But genuine peacefulness is anything but weak. In fact, conflict is easy compared to constructiveness. Bridges are much easier to blow up than to build. To be sure, if a person were to pursue peace at any price, that would not only be weak but weak in the worst possible way. There is no honor in sacrificing our principles merely to appease an angry enemy, and Dag Hammarskjöld, who served an illustrious career as Secretary-General of the United Nations, was correct when he gave this advice: “Never ‘for the sake of peace and quiet’ deny your own experience or convictions.” But whether we’re honest enough to admit it, it’s often not our principles that have to be sacrificed to establish peace — it’s merely our personal preferences and privileges. The real test of whether we have a peaceful character is not how well we deal with adversaries who are cooperative in spirit, but how effectively we work with those who aren’t (as Jesus taught in Matthew 5:46,47). Peacefulness requires more than the ability to reconcile with a dear friend after a minor disagreement. As Yitzhak Rabin once said, “Peace is not made with friends. Peace is made with enemies.” And so, as Thomas à Kempis said, “To be able to live peaceably with hard and perverse persons, or with the disorderly, or with such as go contrary to us, is a great grace.” It should be obvious that if peacefulness is to characterize us, we’ll have to learn patience. Establishing constructive, if not friendly, relations with those with whom we have serious disagreements calls for the highest and best within us. And we can’t let ourselves be discouraged when our efforts don’t yield immediate results. Peacefulness is costly, and the cost spreads out over many years. "Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures" (John F. Kennedy). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min
5D AGO

Anticipation (April 2)

ANTICIPATION (APRIL 2) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/anticipation-april-2/ "There is something new every day if you look for it" (Hannah Hurnard). ONE OF OUR MOST REMARKABLE ENDOWMENTS IS THE ABILITY TO FORETASTE PLEASURE. The literal meaning of “anticipate” is to “take before,” and we have it within us to look ahead (at least a little) and take enjoyment from our experiences before they arrive. To make this choice and welcome the future with joy is an act of courage. It’s also an act of considerable wisdom. Not everything about the future will be pleasant, of course. But even so, anticipation is a wise choice. As a positive character quality, anticipation gives us a more constructive outlook. By believing the best and acting on our hopes, we find a better future than if we expected the worst. For this reason, Albert Schweitzer, who spent his adult life dealing with life’s rough edges, once remarked, “My knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.” So, how can we heighten our anticipation and relish the future? Ironically, the primary thing we can do is pay attention to what’s happening in the present moment. As I write these lines, for example, it is early spring, and the trees outside my window are beginning to bud and blossom. It would be difficult to look at these things thoughtfully and not anticipate (or “take before”) the greater, more fully developed beauty they’ll have tomorrow morning. So whatever death and decay there may be in this old world, let’s also see the evidence that many good things are moving, growing, and reaching forward. If we taste deeply the present truth about these things, our minds will tingle with anticipation for what lies ahead. As Brenda Gantt always says, “It’s gonna be good, y’all.” Even when we have no idea what will happen tomorrow, there are still reasons to anticipate it. The intriguing mystery of it all — the possibility that tomorrow’s path may take a surprising turn — can energize us. If life could be completely planned and programmed, we might be “safe” in certain ways, but in our hearts we know we want more than mere safety. Like the inquisitive, once-upon-a-time children we used to be, we want to learn more than we know and do more than we’ve done. There’s a bit of the adventurer in all of us. Still round the corner there may wait,A new road, or a secret gate.(J. R. R. Tolkien) Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min
6D AGO

Amusement (April 1)

AMUSEMENT (APRIL 1) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/amusement-april-1/ "Anyone without a sense of humor is at the mercy of everyone else" (William Rotsler). ON THIS DAY EVERY YEAR, PRACTICAL JOKES ARE TRADITIONALLY ACCEPTED AND EVEN ENCOURAGED. Today of all days, “anyone without a sense of humor is at the mercy of everyone else.” Some of us need more than one such day a year. We take ourselves too seriously, like Queen Victoria of England, who would cut off individuals guilty of being humorous in her presence with the stiff reply, “The Queen is not amused.” Thus, the Victorian Age, which is named for her, is remembered for some good things, but amusement is not one of them. The Queen was not a comedian. Not many of us would like to discover that we’re perceived as a stuffed shirt or a killjoy. We like people who can be easily amused, and we’d prefer to be viewed that way ourselves. Too often, however, we let the weighty issues of life drag us down into a place where there’s very little amusement. Our faces freeze into a frown. So we could profit from a day once in a while, like today, when a bit of humor is forced upon us. “Humor,” as Jan McKeithen said, “is a hole that lets the sawdust out of a stuffed shirt.” The ability to amuse and be amused is a quality worth cultivating if it’s not already a part of our character. It may seem inconsistent to talk about “working on” our amusement, but that may, in fact, be what we need to do. Making some conscious decisions to loosen up and learn how to be both the amuser and the amusee is wise. Doing so pays worthwhile dividends (for example, contributing to health and longer life). The breaking-in period may be uncomfortable, as when we’re learning to like a new pair of shoes, but eventually the capacity for genuine, healthy amusement will be worth acquiring. Amusement is a part of what makes for rich relationships with other human beings. If we want our relationships to be multi-layered and many-dimensioned, we should aspire to having more than one kind of influence. We certainly need to work on being able to teach, inspire, and encourage. But, personally, I also want to be able to amuse. And those whom I count as my dearest friends are those whom I know I can amuse now and then. How about you? "We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for our ability to amuse them" (Evelyn Waugh). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min
MAR 31

Justice (March 31)

JUSTICE (MARCH 31) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/justice-march-31/ "The just hand is a precious ointment" (Latin Proverb). ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TREATED WITH SERIOUS INJUSTICE CAN FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT A “PRECIOUS OINTMENT” JUSTICE IS. Frankly, there aren’t many things in life more valuable than the simple treasure of fairness. And no matter who we are, we would do well to examine ourselves honestly from time to time and make a new commitment to this virtue, which is one of the greatest. But when we are meditating on justice, which is the more profitable question: whether we’ve received adequate justice from others or whether we’ve done adequate justice to others? In a culture where we almost compete for the status of “greatest victim,” we seem always to be concerned that others haven’t given us what we deserve. But if our lives as a whole were to be taken into consideration, would we really want what we deserve? Before we say yes, we should probably reconsider. “Use every man after his desert, and who should scape whipping?” (Shakespeare). If we ever really got what we should get, most of us would want to return to the “unfairness” we thought was so unbearable. H. L. Mencken was right when he said, “Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.” What most of us want is mercy — and to the greatest extent possible, that is what we should want for others also. Perhaps we should spend more of our time questioning the justice we extend to others. Here, most of us ordinary folks will find lots of room for improvement, especially when we consider that we may do injustice as much by what we leave undone as by what we do. A few days’ trial of Benjamin Franklin’s rule (“Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty”) will show us how challenging it is to make a real-life commitment to justice. Above all, however, we must take care not to limit our defense of justice to those who make a favorable impression on us or those we think “ought” to be treated justly. If we have a most common failing in the matter of justice, it is probably that we show favoritism in dispensing it. But to be authentic, justice must be “blind,” in the honorable sense. Everybody deserves to be treated fairly. "Do justice to your brother (you can do that, whether you love him or not), and you will come to love him. But do injustice to him because you don't love him, and you will come to hate him" (John Ruskin). Gary Henry - WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com

3 min

Let’s make room for better thoughts. On Enthusiastic Ideas, Gary Henry shares a daily reflection focused on a single, positive word. It takes just three minutes to explore a concept that can benefit your character and enrich your life. Join us in finding ideas that deserve a home in your heart.

Creator

Gary Henry
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

98
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Copyright 2026 Gary Henry & WordPoints
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Enthusiastic Ideas