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“Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers in their generations.  The Lord apportioned to them great glory, his majesty from the beginning. . . . There are some of them who have left a name, so that men declare their praise.  And there are some who have no memorial, who have perished as though they had not lived . . . But these were men of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.”

– From the Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 44

In February 2006 I wrote the following that bears repeating:

“Do you remember any of the following:  The 1974 Super Bowl champion, the winner of the 1963 World Series, the Academy Award winner for Best Picture in 1988, the Grammy Award for best female vocalist in 1995, the NCAA men’s basketball champion in 1990, the Gold Medal winner for the bobsled in the 2002 Winter Olympics?  How many did you answer right off the top of your head?  Few, I suspect, yet these represent the pinnacles of fame, don’t they?

“Do you remember B. F. Jordan? . . . I didn’t think so.  I do, though.  He was my seventh grade history teacher and principal of the junior high school I attended.  Mr. Jordan was one of those special teachers who touched my life with his wisdom, wit, character, and passion for teaching.  He never had a student, to the best of my knowledge, in whom he did not see great potential.  Well into young adulthood he remained my counselor, advisor, and friend – until his sudden and untimely death.

“B. F. Jordan never had aspirations for glory, victory, fame and fortune that I could ever tell.  He seemed quite content with who he was – pretty much unknown beyond the city limits of our small community.”

We may not remember all the champions, award winners, and record-holders during our lifetime, but history will.  Yet I doubt history will remember B. F. Jordan and others like him, but I do and you do; for “. . . these were men of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.”  They through their righteous deeds have inspired us and live in our hearts forever, forming the legacies we will one day pass along to the next generation.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

–          John 15:13 

One evening on my way home from work I stopped by the supermarket to pick up a couple of small items.  Being impatient and self-absorbed, I had failed to notice that the checkout lane I was in was closing.  When the lady at the register reminded me that her lane was closed I became angry and spoke rudely to her.  But that wasn’t the end of my shameful behavior; for the lady later sought me out, going completely out of her way to apologize for my inconvenience.  What did I do?  Rather than accepting her kind gesture I responded with another unkind remark.  It has been almost thirty years since that occurred, but what I did still haunts me.

Our behavior is the result of choices we make, and those choices will always impact someone else for better or worse.  Sadly this past week we all witnessed the worst and the best choices in human behavior to the extremes.  The evil violence of the bombing that occurred during the Boston marathon senselessly killing and maiming scores of innocent, unsuspecting victims no doubt represents human behavior at its worst.  Yet the response showed humanity at its best – caring, compassionate and heroic, people laying down their lives for their fellow man, not only in the Boston bombing episode but also in the equally devastating explosion in West, Texas just a few days later.

None of us I pray will ever be exposed to such extreme tragic experiences as those of this past week.  But what about our behavior in the everyday, the ordinary?  Consider my own cruel, reckless and shameful remarks toward the supermarket lady.  It may seem minor in comparison, a mere misdemeanor.  Perhaps, but not as far as I’m concerned.  My behavior, too, was the result of a choice I made, a poor one; and I am still haunted by the pained expression on her face.  Likewise her behavior toward me was a choice – the right choice to reach out in an act of apology and kindness, which I shamefully rejected.  Yet we both impacted each other’s lives.  I know I wounded her that day for which I will forever feel ashamed.  She, on the other hand, by her kind and compassionate gesture rescued me from my self-centeredness.  “Greater love has no one than this . . .”

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.”

–          The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) 

It’s known as The Gathering, an outdoor church service that takes place each Sunday in downtown Dallas serving the homeless who reside in and around that area of the city.  It was the brainchild, or I should say inspiration, of my friend and officemate Jim Webb.  Partnering with him in this endeavor is another close friend, Charlie Keen.  Charlie serves as pastor of The Gathering.  After having spent most of his adult life in parish ministry he thought he had deservedly retired.  Not so.  Instead he has been called back into service doing what may arguably be his finest work ever.

Charlie lives by The Golden Rule as closely as anyone I’ve ever known, treating others as he would want to be treated.  He arrives each Sunday wearing a scruffy beard and black t-shirt with some clever slogan or scripture hand painted on the back and could easily be mistaken for one of his congregants.  But everyone knows who he is, not by his appearance but because of his compassion.  Charlie doesn’t just serve, Charlie befriends, he bonds with people.  He sees himself no different than those to whom he ministers; only by God’s grace is he in a different circumstance.

“The Golden Rule is probably the most powerful human relations strategy in the history of the world,” according to Charles Manz in his book The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus.  “Its practice can indeed produce valuable, golden results.  The aim of treating people as we would like to be treated is to honor others as inherently valuable beings, as miraculous unique creations, no matter how seemingly imperfect and unworthy they are in their humanity.”  That’s Charlie.

What Charlie does goes beyond Sunday.  He tends to the needs of those he serves – with transportation, addiction recovery, and visiting the incarcerated to name a few.  Charlie lives by The Golden Rule.  As Manz says, it’s “the most powerful human relations strategy in the history of the world.”  If that’s true, I wonder why we don’t all live by it more than we do.

“God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.”

–          Eugene Peterson, The Message (2 Timothy 1:7)

How often it is that we fail to even recognize and acknowledge our God-given gifts, much less develop and utilize them boldly.  I remember when our son, Cecil, was in high school he would audition each spring for the school play.  Invariably he would be chosen for a significant part, having a real gift for acting and a strong, clear, distinct voice.  On more than one occasion I tried to encourage him to pursue this obvious talent he possessed only to watch him shy away at my suggestion – being a teenager and all.

Fast forward to the present and now being a high school teacher rather than a student, he has rediscovered the gift of that strong, clear distinctive voice and the animated talents he shied away from all those years ago, utilizing them in perhaps even more productive ways than he ever could have before.  The classroom is now his theater and his role is “sage on the stage” rather than actor on the stage.  Occasionally he shares with us some of the creative activities he does with his students that often draw the attention of his principal and fellow teachers.  No longer is he shy with his gifts, but uses them boldly, lovingly and sensibly.  Needless to say I’m proud what he’s doing with his gifts.

In his bestselling book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell notes that among highly successful people – from artists, musicians, and athletes to professionals from across the spectrum – the one common characteristic is the time spent developing and perfecting each one’s specific gifts.  Ten thousand hours invested seems to be the minimum requirement for extraordinary success, and that includes everyone from the Beatles to renowned pianist, the late Van Cliburn, to hockey players to lawyers and airline pilots.  Success in any field requires first of all a recognition and passion for one’s God-given gifts, then a bold commitment to developing those gifts to their highest potential.

“You are a child of God.  Your playing small doesn’t serve the world,” according to a famous quote often attributed (mistakenly I’m told) to Nelson Mandela.  Absolutely true; for “God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible”

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  – Matthew 6:34  

There was a television commercial a year or so ago that featured a little fuzzy faced dog scurrying around the backyard with a bone in his mouth frantically searching for a safe place to hide his prized possession.  As the cute little mutt went from one place to another in the yard – the doghouse, the shrubs, to digging a hole – all the while the TV audience heard these imaginary words rolling around in his head:  “Worry!  Worry!  Worry!”

Don’t we all do that?  Worry, worry, worry about how a thief might steal or some other disaster might befall our stuff, ourselves, or our loved ones.  But Jesus challenged us about worrying.  “Look at the birds of the air,” He says, “they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. . . And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”  Charles Manz in his book The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus further explains it this way:  “Indeed, birds and flowers of the field don’t scurry around driven by worry about yesterday’s failures or tomorrow’s potential disasters, and they do just fine.  In fact, they do more than fine as they soar through the air and grace the earth with arguably life’s greatest picture of beauty and most sumptuous fragrances.”  So why worry, Jesus asks?

Rather than reality, worry is something that is contrived in the imagination.  That may be why Jesus addressed it, though not as a moral issue but as a wisdom teaching.  Worry serves no purpose.  Instead it is distracting, and can even become paralyzing.  The insurance company that sponsored the TV ad understood that too.  Their message seemed to say, “let us manage your risk rather than worrying about it.”  Things do go wrong, of course.  Thieves steal and disasters befall all the time.  But worrying will not prevent such things from happening.  “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”  We must instead move forward one day at a time rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted, even paralyzed, by events that have not occurred but are only contrived in our imagination.