Do you know how the great composer Tchaikovsky died? There is more than one version of the story but according to one reliable source the end of Tchaikovsky's life is said to have occurred four days after one of his symphonies received an unfavorable reception in St. Petersburg. The great composer, despondent some said, already feeling ill according to others, deliberately drank a glass of unboiled water in the middle of a cholera epidemic. His friends who witnessed this were appalled. Tchaikovsky told them that he was less afraid of cholera than other illnesses. Cholera, however, did not share his opinion and it soon finished him off.

How sad. How tragic. How utterly criminal. One of the world's leading musicians snuffed out by such a fatalistic act. And yet there are people everywhere who are slowly killing themselves because they have grown hopeless about their lives. They may not drink unboiled water but they are killing themselves nonetheless. Unhealthy lifestyles, senseless risk taking, oppressive stress, and all because they have lost hope. But here is the good news for the day: Change is possible! Baptism tells us so.