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Destiny Image Books by Jim Stovall
The Lamp A Christmas Snow
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Joye
Discovering Uncovering the Treasures Inside Ordinary People, Places, Things and Ourselves
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Jim Stovall
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© Copyright 2013–Jim Stovall All rights reserved. This book is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. This book may not be copied or reprinted for commercial gain or profit. The use of short quotations or occasional page copying for personal or group study is permitted and encouraged. Permission will be granted upon request. Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. DESTINY IMAGE® PUBLISHERS, INC. P.O. Box 310, Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310 “Promoting Inspired Lives.” This book and all other Destiny Image, Revival Press, MercyPlace, Fresh Bread, Destiny Image Fiction, and Treasure House books are available at Christian bookstores and distributors worldwide. For a U.S. bookstore nearest you, call 1-800-722-6774. For more information on foreign distributors, call 717-532-3040. Reach us on the Internet: www.destinyimage.com. ISBN 13 TP: 978-0-7684-0354-1 ISBN 13 Ebook: 978-0-7684-8484-7 For Worldwide Distribution, Printed in the U.S.A. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 / 17 16 15 14 13
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This book is dedicated to the memory of two great men: Dr. Harold Paul and Coach John Wooden. Both were men of learning and leadership. They mentored me and gave me a lifelong appreciation of poetry.
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Hold On To Your Dreams
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by Jim Stovall �old on to your dreams and stand tall, Even when those around you would force you to crawl. Hold on to your dreams as a race you must run Even when reality whispers, “You’ ll never be done.” Hold on to your dreams and wait for the miracles to come, Because on that miraculous day, Your dreams and your reality will merge into one.
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Contents Chapter One: Discovering the Treasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Chapter Two: Discovering the Gift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter Three: Discovering Life and Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Chapter Four: Discovering Laughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Chapter Five: Discovering Seasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 Chapter Six: Discovering Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Chapter Seven: Discovering Money . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Chapter Eight: Discovering Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
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Chapter Nine: Discovering Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Chapter Ten: Discovering Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Chapter Eleven: Discovering Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Chapter Twelve: Discovering Dreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Chapter Thirteen: Discovering Giving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Chapter Fourteen: Discovering Gratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Chapter Fifteen: Discovering a Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Chapter Sixteen: Discovering Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Chapter Seventeen: Discovering Holidays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Chapter Eighteen: Discovering Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Chapter Nineteen: Discovering Your Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
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Chapter One
Discovering the Treasure
S
ometimes people, places, things, and life itself hold hidden treasures and blessings that are not apparent at first glance or, maybe, for many years to come. We deal with packaging, facades, and veneers as we stumble through this life judging every book by its cover. As a blind person myself, I store visual images in a memory vault within my mind. I remember, as a 10-year-old, before losing my sight, my fifthgrade class got to go and visit an art museum. Like most 10-year-old boys, I had very little interest in art, but they took us to a small theatre within the museum and showed us a film about a painting being restored. I remember the scene unfolding on the movie screen as a white-coated technician placed
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a painting of a clown on the workbench in front of him. The clown seemed ordinary and unremarkable. The painting was something you would imagine a high school or college student might produce. Then, the technician began gently rubbing the painting with a white cloth he had dipped into a clear solution. Slowly, the clown began to disappear, and a fabulous landscape masterpiece emerged. Then they took us down the hall into the art gallery and showed us that masterpiece landscape fully restored. I remember looking at that glorious painting, and I can still see it in my mind as I dictate these words. I felt as if I knew that artist and understood his thoughts and feelings. That 200-year-old French master’s impression of a springtime landscape connected with me in a way no other painting ever did. The masterpiece had been discovered in a garage sale and had been hidden behind the painting of the clown for many decades. Joye Kanelakos came into my life in much the same way. I never met her in person nor did I or
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anyone else comprehend the masterpieces inside of her until after she had passed away. Joye Kanelakos was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma in 1915. She married at age 23 and raised three children. By all accounts, she was a good wife and mother. She held several nondescript, clerical and office jobs throughout her lifetime. Later in her life, her husband suffered a debilitating stroke, and Joye remained by his side as his nurse, companion, and caretaker until she passed away at age 83. I only knew of Joye while she was living as the mother of one of my colleagues and coworkers. Joye’s daughter, Dorothy Thompson, types and edits all of my weekly syndicated columns, the screenplays for my movies, and each of my books including the one you are reading right now. Through Dorothy, I sent several notes and autographed copies of my books to Joye, and she reciprocated by having Dorothy bring homemade baklava back to me. This was much more than a fair trade from my perspective. Dorothy took some time off when her mother was hospitalized, and at a point when her death
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was imminent, Joye told her daughter Dorothy about a special box at the house. After Joye passed away, Dorothy and her siblings had the opportunity to go through that box, and they discovered an incomparable creative treasure. The box was filled with Joye Kanelakos’s life’s work as an amazing poet. Imagine the experience of burying your mother and holding close all of the thoughts and memories of this special person you thought you knew completely, but then you discover a treasure chest of poetry like this:
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The world awaits as morning breaks Above the rim of a shimmering hill; Color showers the skies awake, And the trees stand restless and still. Silence reigns with a gentle hand As life, still cradled in its hold, Stretches to greet the waking land All sprinkled now with silver and gold. 14
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Joye’s poem carries my memory back over 40 years to that landscape painting by the French master in the art museum. As a blind person now for over a quarter of a century, I have to accept the fact that my visual images and the memories I carry with me of my life as a sighted person have dimmed and faded. When Dorothy first discovered the box of poetry representing her mother’s heretofore unknown creative life’s work, she read the poem above to me, and that French landscape masterpiece came back into my memory, brightly lit and fully in focus. It was as if the masterpiece that the technician had revealed when he removed the clown and restored the painting had been uncovered and revealed again on the canvas of my mind through Joye’s poetry. DISCOVERY: People and things in this world are rarely as they first appear. We must be willing to dig down to the treasure beneath, and then dig deeper still to reveal the masterpiece inside of other people and ourselves.
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About Jim Stovall Jim Stovall is the president of the Emmy Award-winning Narrative Television Network. He is the author of the bestselling book, The Ultimate Gift, which is now a major motion picture starring James Garner and Abigail Breslin. He has authored 20 other books that have been translated into over two dozen languages. He can be reached at Jim@JimStovall.com.
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S ow T hiS B ook i nTo S omeone ’ S L ife Don’t let the impact of this book end with you! Call us today and get a discount when you order 3 or more books to sow into someone else’s life. 1-800-987-7033 _____________________________________________
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