“. . . but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”  – Philippians 2:7 

What makes us laugh at jokes and comedy is that they smack at the truth, do they not?  They’re funny because we see in the mirror our own flaws and absurdities, and how silly we are.  There is a novelty song you may recall performed by country singer Mac Davis back in the early 1980’s that goes like this:  “Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble / When you’re perfect in every way / I can’t wait to look in the mirror / Cause I get better looking each day / To know me is to love me / I must be a heck of a man / Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble / But I’m doing the best that I can.”  

The intention of the song, of course, is to make us laugh at ourselves.  Yet, there is an element of truth in it, at least there is for me.  In fact, I must confess that for most of my life, unlike the song lyrics, I’ve never even tried to be humble.  For humility, as we’ve been taught to believe, is not what gets us employed in the best companies, gets us promoted, or brings in the top clients.  Instead, we’re encouraged to spice up our résumés or create clever websites that boast of our skills, accomplishments and credentials.  Humility, although a great virtue, just doesn’t sell very well in the marketplace.  Or does it?  But it’s hard.

Consider the story about George Washington, who at the conclusion of the American Revolution, many leaders supported to become monarch of the newly formed nation.  What would he do with such power within his grasp?  Would Washington yield to its temptation, or stick to his ideals of freedom and liberty?  But England’s King George III, though himself a monarch, was nevertheless convinced that if Washington resisted the power-pull he would be “the greatest man in the world.”  We, of course, know the rest of the story.  Wonder where we would be today if he had chosen power over humility?

The greatest story, though, occurred two thousand years ago when the Creator of the Universe visited our planet in human form, “but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.”  Yet, in complete humility and with no fancy résumé, He changed the world forever and ever.  So, what does it tell us when the father of our country and the King of the Universe chose humility over power or pride?  Did not Jesus offer the perfect example of how we should live?  But, oh Lord it’s hard to be humble.  Isn’t it?

“But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.”  – Jonah 1:3 

Have you ever run away from something unpleasant you needed to do?  I suspect, if we are honest with ourselves, we all have had our Jonah moments.  A common one might be avoiding going to the doctor when we really need to get checked out.  Even at my age when doctors’ visits occupy more and more of my schedule, I’m still tempted to turn and run the other way, and would if I could.  Except there is a second part of the Jonah story that prevents that from happening, a giant fish that first rescues him, then swims off in the direction Jonah should have been going in the first place, sort of like my wife putting me in the car and pointing it in the direction of the doctor’s office, whether I like it or not.

We all have Jonah stories in which we try to run away, sometimes in a dangerous direction, only to be rescued and pointed back in the right direction.  I remember sometime after going off to college suddenly rebelling against the more or less straight-and-narrow life I had been living, veering off in the wrong direction.  I’m not sure what I was rebelling against – not knowing what I wanted to do with my life perhaps, or simply not wanting to grow up.  Then, after being off course for a period of time, one day I received a letter in the mail from a man who had been sort of a second father to me.  His brief note, no more than three or four sentences, was like that giant fish that swallowed Jonah.  Except, while Jonah only spent three days inside that fish’s belly, I continued to wander for several months, until my life began to slowly steer back in the right direction.

I’ve often thought of the story of Jonah as one of the great comedies in the Bible.  The absurdity of a man being swallowed by a fish and actually living inside the fish’s belly for three days seems more like a fairy tale that belongs in a collection from Mother Goose or Dr. Seuss than sacred scripture.  I laugh every time I read it – a giant fish swimming along out of nowhere and swallowing up that runaway buffoon Jonah.

That is, until I go back to the beginning where it says, “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.”  Suddenly the story becomes personal because I’ve been there and done that.  Then I received the note from the man whose words swallowed me up like that giant fish and pointed me back in the right direction.  Now the big question becomes, if I’ve been Jonah, how can I pay it forward by being someone else’s big fish?

“The noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.” – Isaiah 32:8 

No one does a better job describing the characteristics of a noble person than New York Times columnist David Brooks in his book The Road to Character.  Here are a few excerpts:  “Sometimes you don’t even notice these people, because while they seem kind and cheerful, they are also reserved.  They possess the self-effacing virtues of people who are inclined to be useful but don’t need to prove anything to the world: humility, restraint, reticence, temperance, respect, and soft self-discipline.  They radiate a sort of moral joy. . . They perform acts of sacrificial service with the same modest everyday spirit they would display if they were getting the groceries.  They are not thinking about what impressive work they are doing.  They are not thinking about themselves at all. . . They just recognize what needs doing and they do it.” 

When I stumbled upon this quote while perusing Brooks’ book recently, suddenly I had this vivid image of Press Canon, a man from my small hometown who, based on David Brooks’ description, was the epitome of a noble person – kind and cheerful, yet reserved, skilled, hardworking, but not trying to prove anything to anyone, just saw what needed to be done and did it, while “radiating a sort of moral joy,” as Brooks put it.

By profession Press was an auto mechanic who for many years owned a Conoco station located at the crossroads of the two major highways that intersected in my hometown.  The station, as was common in that day, consisted of two gas pumps, regular and premium, two service bays, a Coke machine, and a small office.  Services included car washes, oil changes, lubes, tire repairs, routine maintenance and minor repairs.  But Press’ real specialty was customer service, helping people; for to him a person’s automobile was not an opportunity to make a buck, but to help ensure that his customers had reliable transportation to get the kids to school, an elderly parent to the doctor, make a trip to the grocery store, and drive to church on Sunday. . . What a role model!

David Brooks may never have met Press Cannon, but he nailed his character.  And while we may be inclined to think such people are rare these days, I think there are more than we realize, we just don’t notice them.  I’ll bet you’ve known a few Press Canons yourself – “the noble man [who] makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.”

“I will also ask you one question.”  – Matthew 21:24 

Most of the classes I took in college are a mere blur at this point, partly because it was so long ago, but more likely that I was not really paying attention anyway.  Except, there was this one unforgettable moment, a rather odd and obscure experience that turned out to be one of the greatest teaching moments of my entire college career.  In freshman chemistry lab we were doing qualitative analysis where we were given a small sample of substance from which we were to run tests to determine its identity.  When my substance turned a reddish shade in the test tube I asked the lab instructor if that was a positive test for ferrous (iron).  But instead of a simple yes or no answer he turned it around on me.  “I don’t know,” he shrugged, “what do you think it is?”

I can’t say I learned much about chemistry that day, a subject I ceased pursuing after my freshman year, but it certainly enlightened me about the purpose of university education, as well as about life, that being that the pathway to deeper understanding is stimulated as much or more by provocative questioning as the accumulation of knowledge.  It is for that exact reason that for those of us in the profession of executive coaching the most effective tool we have in our toolbox is the use of powerful questions to stimulate deeper thought.  It is not at all unusual, for example, for a client who is struggling to resolve a complex issue to ask the coach what the solution is, in which case I often turn it around just like that lab instructor did.  “I don’t know,” I’ll reply, “what do you think it is?”  I recall one client complaining with a wrinkled brow, “But you’re making me think, and thinking is hard work!”  And he was right, thinking is hard work, for the same reason college is harder than high school, and even more so the real world.

There has never been a greater master at asking and handling questions than the Master himself.  Scripture tells of a time when Jesus was teaching in the temple courts and a group of chief priests and elders approached him with a question.  “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked.  And how did He respond?  Just like that clever lab instructor I once had.  “I will also ask you one question,” he replied.  And it was a question that, to their surprise, did not have an easy answer, forcing them to think.  Like that substance I was testing in the lab, yes it turned red in the test tube indicating ferrous, but was it the right shade of red?  I had to think, you see, and thinking is hard work!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11 

I recall walking through our neighborhood several year ago when we encountered a man leaning against a shovel in his front yard.  He appeared exhausted.  As we passed by he stopped us to solicit our advice.  Seems he was planting rose bushes in a large flower bed, several of them perfectly spaced out – until while digging a hole he encountered a huge immovable rock.  That’s why he stopped us, to see if we had any ideas about what to do with this rock that was getting in the way of his perfectly laid out plan.

How many times has that happened to you, you come up with what you think is a perfect plan only to unexpectedly encounter some huge immovable object?  That’s when you begin to understand the old joke that if you want to make God laugh make plans.

Does that mean we should not make plans?  Absolutely not!  The great General and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”  In other words, plans hardly ever work out exactly according to plan.  There’s always some unexpected immovable rock we will encounter.  But planning is critical so that we know where we are headed and what we are trying to accomplish.

Every recent college graduate, indeed anyone seeking or starting a new career should read Daniel Pink’s little book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko; for according to the subtitle it is, The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.  Cleverly presented in comic-book style this little story teaches six essential principles necessary for anyone seeking fulfillment in life and work, number one being (1) “there is no plan”, at least not in the traditional ways we try to lay out plans.  But Johnny Bunko learns from the other principles that (2) we are each given strengths we should focus on rather than weaknesses; (3) life is not about us, but what we do for others; (4) persistence trumps talent; (5) make excellent mistakes; (6) and leave an imprint.  Add them all up together and what is not a plan actually becomes THE plan, that by living by these principles we will find true fulfillment in our life and work.  “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord,” which happens to be His plan too. . .  And by the way, I don’t know what our neighbor did about that rock, but he eventually created a beautiful rose garden.