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“As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” – Genesis 9:7 

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, located only three blocks from the White House is where President Lincoln and his family chose to attend Sunday worship services most of the time during his presidency. There’s an old story, though, that sometimes on Wednesday evenings Lincoln would sneak in a back entrance of the church and slip unnoticed into the pastor’s study during mid-week services, then leaving the door slightly ajar he would sit and listen to the sermon.  On one such occasion, so the story goes, as Lincoln and his aid where leaving the church through the same back entrance the aid asked the President what he thought about the sermon.  “It was eloquently delivered,” Mr. Lincoln replied, “the preacher did an excellent job interpreting the scripture, and used great examples to make his points.”  “Then would you consider it to have been a great sermon?” the aid inquired.  “No!” the President responded, “Because he failed to challenge the people to go out and do something great.”

In his telling of the Parable of the Talents Jesus was challenging his listeners to go out and do something great. It’s a story about three stewards who were each put in charge of certain talents (money) while their master was away. “To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability,” scripture tells us.  Later when the master returned the first two stewards had doubled the master’s money by investing it wisely.  But the third steward had buried his in the ground, essentially doing nothing with it for fear of losing it.  Two of the stewards, in other words, did something great with their talents, while the third failed to do anything.

Like the stewards in the Parable, the charge given to mankind from the beginning of time has always been to “be fruitful” and “multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” Lincoln recognized that the pastor had missed an opportunity to challenge people to do something great, not necessarily “headline making” great, but great in the sense of simple goodness that bears fruit and multiplies.  Lincoln understood that a great nation depends

“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.” Psalm 126:2 

Life is either a great tragedy or a great comedy. Shakespeare wrote about both, didn’t he?  Actually, life probably is both, but how we view it is a matter of perspective.  For most of my life I’ve had the good fortune of living in the perspective of the latter. Both my parents maintained a great sense of humor about life as has my spouse of forty-three years whose morning activities have always included reading the comic section of the daily newspaper.  Seldom is there a morning in our household that does not begin in laughter.  Cowgirl, our beloved Blue-Heeler for example, cracks us up by the way she begins the day.  An early riser, she is always up before the crack of dawn dancing around wagging her tail, demanding that we get up and join her in the day’s activities.  Her enthusiasm is so infectious we have to laugh.  She’s just so dog-gone funny!

What is it about pets and comic strips that make us laugh? Could it be that they cause us to laugh not so much at them but at ourselves?  Dogs after all are just dogs except that we tend to personify them by imagining human thoughts going through their heads, the same silly thoughts that go through our own.  And comic strips, well that is their purpose to magnify human absurdities making us laugh at ourselves.

The ancient story about the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden tells of the origin of this big mess we are in that is both tragedy and comedy. It is tragedy because no matter how hard we try we can never completely straighten it out.  Yet it is comedy because as the comic writers and jokesters help us see, we humans are pretty hilarious characters when we get too full of ourselves thinking we are gods – or God – believing we DO have all the solutions.  So, we must choose to either laugh or cry.

Me? I prefer laughter.  I figure that even though we people of “good will” do endeavor to make the world a better place we ultimately fall short.  So we need to be able to laugh at ourselves.  And the good news is that God loves us anyway.  So when our mouths fill with laughter and our tongues with songs of joy, that in and of itself helps others do the same, which in turn makes the world a better place.

“They will still bear fruit in old age . . .” – Psalm 92:14

“Old age is not for sissies,” my mother would often say in her later years. It would seem that remark was made mostly in the context of her declining health, but I think there was a deeper meaning than simply enduring the suffering brought on by health problems. I also think it meant that in order to live out one’s remaining years effectively and productively requires courage.  And among those I have observed who have “finished well” as the saying goes – including my mother – have indeed been people who exhibited great courage.  That is they were not faint hearted about expressing love, cherishing friendships past and present, sharing their wisdom, and giving generously of themselves.

In her marvelous book The Gift of Years Sister Joan Chittister says, “The gift of years comes to many more than realize that these later years are gift, not burden.  Not everyone who lives them either understands them or welcomes them. . . This is a special period of life – maybe the most special of them all. . . . Life is not about age, about the length of years we manage to eke out of it.  It is about aging, about living into the values offered in every stage of life.”

We live in an achievement culture, “A culture of people striving and trying to win success,” said New York Times columnist David Brooks in a recent speech.  He went on to explain, “The way I express this contrast, this hunger for success is by two sets of virtues, which you could call the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues.  And the résumé virtues are the things you bring to the marketplace which you put on a résumé.  And the eulogy virtues are the things you get expressed in your eulogy. . . So the eulogy virtues are to give courage, to give honor, what kind of relationships do you build, did you love.”

So as my own years increase I find that I too am less burdened by an endless pursuit of success – not that I’ve yet achieved everything I set out to do – but because I am free to live for what really matters, those things described as eulogy virtues. I’m free to share my wisdom, love my family, enjoy my friends, teach my grandchildren, to leave a meaningful legacy.  It is the gift of years.  And “They will still bear fruit in old age . . .”

“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria.” – Amos 6:1 

That famous quote by Henry David Thoreau, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” is a rather sad commentary about mankind, don’t you think? What it says to me is that there are two types of people, those – “the mass of men” – who with no real sense of purpose are complacent to simply take whatever they can out of life for their own comfort and survival.  That’s one group.  But then there’s another group who seem to be on a mission to enrich the world and make it a better place than they found it.

My friend Gary Barkalow in his book It’s Your Call contrasts these two types of people by imagining yourself boarding a cruise ship for the vacation of your dreams only to become disappointed by bad weather, turbulent seas, poor service and so-so food.  Then imagine yourself boarding a battleship with a different set of expectations – hard work, rough weather conditions, food that isn’t great though it sustains you.  You’re there, though, because you are on a mission to do good, to make the world a better place.

“In the first story,” Gary writes, “the theme was rather small – personal comfort, enjoyment, peacetime: vacation.  In the second story the theme was large – great mission, transcendence, a time of war:  the battle for freedom and life.  Most of us live under the illusion of the first story,” he goes on, “while assenting to the reality of the second story. . . . We have made our lives about being on a vacation cruise liner, rather than about realizing we are on a battleship heading toward a great mission.”

The “mass of men” Thoreau refers to have boarded the cruise liner which is never as fulfilling as one would hope or expect, at least not in the long term, which is why they tend to lead lives of “quiet desperation”. The person on a mission, on the other hand, the one who embarks on life with a sense of purpose expecting there will be sacrifice and hardships along the way, that person is the one whose life is abundant.  “Woe to you who are complacent . . .”  But it doesn’t have to be that way; for we each have a choice.  We can board the cruise liner, or we can board the battleship.  Which have you boarded?

“Every prudent man acts out of knowledge . . .” – Proverbs 13:16 

For a professional bond trader, which I was for many years, there is very little time for in depth statistical analysis before making a decision, decisions that involve large sums of money, often millions of dollars. Instead the fast pace of the financial markets require that decisions be made on the fly.  There are, though, people who are better equipped than others to quickly analyze.  Such was the case with my former boss from many years ago.  He was much more adept at analyzing potential market opportunities than me, my own style being more that of gut instinct.  Once I recall he asked my opinion about investing in a substantial position for which he made a very logical analytical argument.  While I was convinced by his logic, something deep down inside just didn’t feel right, yet being unable to articulate a reason for my feelings I went along.  Turns out – in this instance!! – my gut instinct was correct; for shortly after taking on the position the market took a downward turn resulting in a hefty loss in the position.

For those familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) you’ll recall that one of the four indexes measures a person’s preference in how one makes decisions. Some are “thinkers” (objective, analytical) while others are “feelers” (from the heart or “gut”).  In the story I just described it’s pretty obvious that my old friend is a “thinker” and I’m a “feeler”, as indeed we are.  And in that instance had we followed my gut “feeler” instinct instead of his “thinker” logic we would have been much better off – but not always.  Studies, in fact, have proven comparable results from both styles of decision making.  Thus, our differences actually made us a great team that produced great results.

“Every prudent man acts out of knowledge,” so the Proverb says.  Yet a subsequent Proverb states that, “In his heart a man plans his course,” (Proverbs 16:9).  One seems to favor the “thinker”, the other the “feeler”.  But this is not a contradiction.  God created us with brains as well as hearts that we should use both.  Still, as the MBTI® points out, we each lean toward one preference or the other.  That’s why “feelers” need “thinkers” and “thinkers” need “feelers”, because the best decisions are made when we put our heads (and our hearts) together.