“Which of these . . . do you think was a neighbor to the man? . . . The one who had mercy on him.”   –  Luke 10:36-37 

We once owned a small cattle ranch.  One fall afternoon we were about to leave the ranch when we noticed one of our young heifers lying on the ground tangled up in a hay ring.  How she got that way is anybody’s guess, but I suppose the hay was so tasty that she simply wanted to crawl inside the metal ring and wallow in it, like we sometimes do with a bowl of ice cream that is so delicious we wish we could jump in the bowl and swim in it.  Anyway, we needed to get that poor cow untangled and set her free, but the challenge was that neither the steel ring nor the cow’s leg was very flexible.

Fortunately, this whole incident occurred at the front of our property about twenty yards from the highway where we noticed a car had pulled off the side of the road and this fellow was climbing over the fence.  “Ya’ll need some help?” he asked as he studied the young heifer’s predicament while lighting up a Marlboro.  Lonnie was his name, he said, and he was headed to work in the nearby village where he was employed at a deer processing facility (only in rural Texas!).  His car was old and dented up, his clothes were dirty and tattered, he had on a pair of ragged rubber boots with his pants tucked inside.  And as I recall he didn’t smell very good.  You get the picture?  But that day Lonnie was an angel, our Good Samaritan; for without Lonnie’s help I’m not sure we would have ever been able to untangle that poor cow from the hay ring and get her back on her feet.

Among the many parables Jesus told, none is as often quoted as the story of the Good Samaritan.  It is about a man lying on the side of the road, robbed, beaten, and left for dead until a stranger happened by, saw his predicament, treated his wounds, and carried him to safety.  But Jesus added one other small subtle detail, that the stranger also happened to be a Samaritan, who in those days was an outcast from society.  (In case you didn’t pick up on it, Lonnie was probably an outcast from society as well.)

Seems to me, the moral of the story of the Good Samaritan points out the most basic humanitarian act any of us can ever do, that is to have compassion and provide help when we see a fellow human being in need, no matter which side of the tracks they are from.  Who is our neighbor?  The one who shows mercy, and Lonnie was our neighbor that day.

“. . . seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  Matthew 6:33 

One of the great challenges we faced back in the days when I was working on a bond trading desk in the Wall Street world, as I did for thirty years, was the urgency of everything.  Phones rang non-stop during trading hours and every one of those calls was something urgent, which was the nature of the business.  And while in one sense the high level of activity was energizing and exciting (one never lacked for something to do).  On the other hand – and this was the challenging part – it was easy to get caught up in the frenzy – the urgency – and lose sight of the greater purpose and the mission and goals of the business.

Among his countless nuggets of wisdom the late management guru of the twentieth century, the great Peter Drucker, emphasized the importance of making the “important” rather than the “urgent” our priority in life.  But like most of us he struggled with it too.  “If I look back,” he once lamented, “my greatest frustrations are probably, in retrospect, this is hindsight, that I have, far too often, made the urgent rather than the important my priority and that as a result, some of the books I should have written I haven’t written.  And I have written books that were urgent, or I have taught the things that they needed at the moment rather than the things that were needed five years since.  I have been willing to run shorter rather than long-term.”

It’s a tough call because urgent matters do matter, but they should never be allowed to cause us to lose sight of the greater purpose and the longer-term mission.  That is why clear concise mission and vision statements are so critical for organizations and that that mission and vision be instilled in the organization’s culture.  Thus, the most successful organizations over the long haul are those who do.

Jesus himself reminded us that we should first seek God’s kingdom – the “important” – then deal with the other matters of life – the “urgent”.  By doing so we guard ourselves from being caught up in the frenzy of the urgent; or as Drucker put it, we must make the “important” rather than the “urgent” our priority in life.

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life . . . so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.”  – 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 

Does the name Oceola McCarty ring a bell with you?  To jog your memory, or in case you missed the flurry of publicity some years back, Oceola McCarty of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, a “washer woman” with only a sixth grade education, gained notoriety following her death at age 91 when it was revealed she had left her estate of $150,000, an astonishing amount for someone of such modest means, to The University of Southern Mississippi to establish an endowment to fund scholarships for deserving students in need of financial assistance.

A Google search reveals that “McCarty never owned a car; she walked everywhere she went, pushing a shopping cart nearly a mile to get groceries. She rode with friends to attend services at the Friendship Baptist Church. She did not subscribe to any newspaper and considered the expense an extravagance. Similarly, although she owned a black-and white-television, she received only broadcast transmissions. In 1947, her uncle gave her the house in which she lived until her death. She also received some money from her aunt and mother when they died, which she placed [in] savings” as her mother had taught her.

But let’s be realistic.  While $150,000 is an amazing estate for someone to leave behind who had to rely on doing other people’s laundry to make a living, yet in today’s inflated economy with college tuitions being what they are it doesn’t seem that $150,000 would go very far.  But imagine if it only helped a few earn a college education who otherwise would not have been able to do so, and those few became doctors, nurses, teachers, and entered other professions that saved lives or helped others to also pursue higher goals, would Oceola’s estate not have multiplied, in a sense, way beyond its original value?

For most of my life, I’m afraid, I have misunderstood what it means to be successful, believing it to mean rising to the top of the corporate ladder, becoming wealthy or famous, the top expert in one’s field.  Not that those things aren’t good, and we need people pursuing them.  But if we really want to make an impact, the Apostle Paul says instead to “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life . . . so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.”  God bless Oceola McCarty.  She certainly won my respect.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  – Romans 12:21 

When I was in high school there was this character in our school named Jim.  I suspect I may have mentioned him before in these writings.  Jim was perpetually getting in trouble, one of those people who spent more time in the principal’s office than the classroom.  But unlike the class clown whose mischief made everyone laugh, Jim’s antics were not especially humorous, just disruptive.  He had few friends and was a bit of a loner, yet quite intelligent, if only he had channeled his intellect toward academics or other constructive activities instead of mischief.  I knew little about him or his family to dare speculate whether his behavior was environmental, emotional, or due to some sort of medical or mental condition.  All I know is Jim was always causing trouble.

There are two kinds of people, a wise friend of mine once observed, those who create problems, and those who solve them.  I think he was referring to the contrast between people like Jim – admittedly an extreme example – versus those who, in keeping with the high school theme, played by the rules, were captains of the sports teams, student body and class presidents, studied hard to prepare for college, cheerleaders, members of the marching band, held jobs after school and over summer break, or otherwise participants in constructive activities and leaders in one way or another.

There may indeed be two kinds of people, as my friend suggested, but I think he would also agree that no one is a hundred percent one or the other, as most of us tend to be little bit of both.  Who among us has not created a few problems along the way, even as we may have endeavored to be problem solvers?  And as for Jim, the consummate troublemaker, while I don’t know what became of him, he surely had some good qualities as well that hopefully emerged after growing out of adolescence.

As we embark on this new year I am thinking that rather than attempting more sure-to-fail resolutions, perhaps I might instead focus on moving the needle more in the direction of solving problems versus creating them.  The Apostle Paul says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  I think he is right, for good people doing good deeds are the only ones who can right this crazy world when it gets out of whack, and the only ones who can sustain it for a brighter future – always have been.  Happy New Year!

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  – John 1:14 

“It was thousands of years ago and thousands of miles away, but it is a visit that for all our madness and cynicism and indifference and despair we have never quite forgotten.  The oxen in their stalls.  The smell of hay.  The shepherds standing around.  That child and that place are somehow the closest of all close encounters, the one we are closest to, the one that brings us closest to something that cannot be told in any other way.  This story that faith tells in the fairytale language of faith is not just that God is, which God knows is a lot to swallow in itself much of the time, but that God comes. Comes here.  ‘In great humility.’  There is nothing much humbler than being born: naked, totally helpless, not much bigger than a loaf of bread.  But with righteousness and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.  And to us came.  Is it true – not just the way fairytales are true but as the truest of truths?  Almighty God, are you true?

“When you are standing up to your neck in darkness, how do you say yes to that question?  You say yes, I suppose, the only way faith can ever say it if it is honest with itself.  You say yes with your fingers crossed.  You say it with your heart in your mouth.  Maybe that way we can say yes.  He visited us.  The world has never been quite the same since.”  (Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry)

I must admit that even after being taught this story since infancy and hearing its re-telling thousands of times, I still sometimes think it must be a fairytale.  No wonder there are so many cynics, skeptics, non-believers, scoffers, and persecutors.  I stand with them at times; for who in his or her right mind could believe such a thing, that God (if there is one) visited earth, born as an infant like the rest of us, and lived alongside us experiencing everything we humans experience.  It’s outrageous!  Except for this one undeniable historical fact that even the cynics, skeptics, and non-believers cannot dispute.  When “The Word become flesh and made his dwelling among us,” the undeniable fact is, as Buechner points out, “the world has never been quite the same since.”  Fairytales don’t have that kind of impact, only the truest of truths.

As is my custom, this issue number 50 will be the final one for 2023.  May you have a joyful and blessed Christmas season!  Abundant Living will return in January.