One morning, the following prayer greeted me at my fax machine:

Dear God,

So far today I've done alright.

I haven't gossiped.

I haven't lost my temper.

I haven't been greedy, grumpy, unpleasant, selfish or overindulgent.

I've been very thankful for that.

But in a few minutes,

I'm going to get out of bed;

And from then on,

I'm probably going to need a lot more help. Amen.

William Wilberforce lived in England more than two centuries ago and the consuming passion of his life was to end the slave trade in the British Empire, but most saw him as one of the most unlikely persons of that painful period to do so.

Wilberforce was in poor health, suffering from such physical distress and deformity that a journalist of that time wrote of his twisted body. Nevertheless, he became convinced that God had given him the task of freeing Britain’s slaves, so he began working toward that seemingly impossible goal.

The introduction to my book, Staying Positive in a Negative World, begins with the following personal experience:

The Sunday Morning Service had just ended.

Members of the congregation were filing out of the church, shaking hands and exchanging greetings. The bond between us was new but familiar.

Then one of the worshippers stopped to ask if I might consider writing something to help those struggling with negative attitudes.

I’m so negative, he said. I’m negative about the church-about everything.

I’ve had it with national negatives. Perhaps the news ribbon running across my television screen alerting me to every major crisis in America has something to do with it. Whatever the cause may be … please tell me something good about my country.

Tell me about Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston being appointed by the Continental Congress to write the Declaration of Independence and did so recognizing their responsibility as an appointment from God, writing: