Thoughts of Grace

Philippians 3:7-9
But what things were gain to me,
those I counted loss for Christ.
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
And be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith:

The Swedish Nightingale, Jennie Lind,
won great success as an operatic singer,
and money poured into her purse.
Yet she left the stage
while she was singing her best,
and never returned to it.
She must have missed the money,
the fame, and the applause of thousands,
but she was content to live in privacy.
Once and English friend found her sitting
on the steps of a bathing machine
on the sea sands with a Bible on her knee,
looking out into the glory of a sunset.
“Oh, Madame Goldschmidt,
how is it that you came to abandon the stage
at the very height of our success?”
“When every day,” was the quiet answer,
“it made me think less of this
(laying a finger on the Bible)
and nothing at all of that (pointing to the sunset),
what else could I do?”