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“For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to give you hope and a future.”

• Jeremiah 29:11 

Our friend Lisa had had a trying week recently, and by Friday found herself both exhausted and discouraged, so on her way home she decided to do something she rarely allowed herself to do, indulge in her favorite fast-food meal, the #8 at McDonald’s.  Soon enough she was in the drive-thru lane, and with her permission I share how she described what happened next.

“After placing my order, I approached the pay window, where a young woman greeted me with a radiant smile.  Her joy alone lifted my spirits.  To my surprise, she excitedly revealed that the car ahead of me had paid for my meal, wishing me a great day.  In that moment, I felt as if God was sending me a message.  My doubts about hope melted away, and the heaviness I carried began to lift. . . The person in front of me didn’t know anything about my gender, race, faith, or political beliefs; they simply wanted to spread joy, and they succeeded!”  It was in that moment it hit her, “There is hope!” she realized.

Hope!  It has been said of human beings that we can live forty days without food, four days without water, and four minutes without air.  But we cannot live four seconds without hope.  Whether that is scientifically accurate I cannot say, but what I do know is that hope is essential to living.  As Dostoevsky put it, “To live without hope is to cease to live.”  Think about that in terms of the impact that kind person had on our friend Lisa in paying for her #8 order.  That generous stranger not only bought her meal, but in doing so performed CPR, breathing new life into a discouraged soul.

These are troubling times we are living in, when hope seems in short supply, especially when we look for it in all the wrong places – the internet, social media, political parties, world leaders, and the like.  Yet hope is alive and well as ever, just not “out there,” rather right in front of us, like that stranger in the car ahead in the drive-thru lane.  God, of course, is our ultimate Hope, as He promised through his prophet Jeremiah, “For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans to give you hope and a future.”  But since we are created in God’s image, so must we share that hope with each other. . . And would you like to guess what Lisa did for the stranger behind her in that drive-thru lane?

“Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” – 1 Corinthians 10:24 

I was just a little tyke when this occurred, maybe four or five, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  It was just before Christmas and we had gone over to visit my parents’ longtime close friends, Millie and Jack, when just as we stepped in their front door I spied two bushel-baskets beneath their lavishly decorated Christmas tree overflowing with every sort of toy you can imagine.  My eyes glazed over as I figured Santa Claus must have arrived early at their house – and on my behalf no doubt.  Just as I was about to dive into the middle of those bountiful baskets of treasures I heard that all too familiar voice stop me in my tracks.  “No, darling,” Millie lovingly chided, “those toys are for . . . [a certain needy family in our community.]”  Instinctively I knew, even at that young age, exactly the family she was referring to, and that they were indeed needy – and that I was not.  I’ve never forgotten the lesson I learned that day.

For over fifty years Millie labored long sometimes erratic hours caring for people as a nurse.  (She was the delivery room nurse when I was born.)  Even after retirement she had a heart for caring for others in one way or another.  Jack was a prominent grocer, and I’ve been told that during the darkest days of drought and depression in our small farming community he continued to sell groceries on credit knowing many could never afford to pay, his concern always being about feeding families rather than lining his pockets.

Millie and Jack’s lives were driven by the kind of purpose Rick Warren described in his best-selling book a few years back, The Purpose Driven Life, as not about them, but about others, being leaders in every sense of the word, unafraid to take on responsibility for the welfare and betterment of the children and citizens of the community.

Millie lived well into her nineties, and during those last years of her life I would often make the long trek out to West Texas to visit her, to “sit at her feet,” as they say, listen to her stories, absorbing her wisdom.  In the end what I learned is the same thing she taught me all those many Christmases ago when I was a little tyke, and what St. Paul expressed in that great scripture passage, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”  What I learned from Millie and Jack was a gift from God, and as someone once said, “God’s gift to you is often God’s gift to others through you.”  I pray that to be so.

“Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.”  – Psalm 37:27 

I recall sitting in the office of an executive with the Wall Street firm where I was once employed discussing the challenges of dealing with unethical or marginally ethical people within our industry.  (Every profession has them, by the way.)  The executive with whom I was meeting made a comment I will never forget.  Bad people never last, he assured me.  Eventually they go too far, step over the line, and get caught resulting in disciplinary action, firing, revoked licenses, law suits, or prosecution – and on rare occasions all the above.  I disagreed; for it seemed these clever shysters were ever present in my world placing an enormous burden on my staff and me to constantly monitor and police their activities – not the best use of our time and energy.  It’s just a fact of life, though, that from petty dishonesty to crime to terrorism to murderous dictatorships, evil is forever among us, and indeed has been throughout the history of mankind.

Someone once said that no matter how things may appear, there is no future in evil, only in good.  Pondering that has caused me to take heart; for discouraging as it is when it seems the bad guys win, when we consider that throughout history when evil actually is defeated – and it always is eventually, though not necessarily within our lifetimes – it is because in some way good has prevailed, thus validating that there is no future in evil, only in good.  Or as my old Wall Street executive friend assured me, bad people never last.

On Mount Sinai Moses received the same assurance from the Lord himself who said, “. . . for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

So we should take heart in doing good, for by doing so we are paving a path for the future; as there is no future in evil, only in good.  Or as the Psalmist affirms, “. . . do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.”

“This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24 

I recall once asking my mother what it was like living through the war years, World War II that is.  My question was not about the war itself, but domestic life during those times with so many young men, mostly, away serving in the military, not to mention the rationing and sacrificing required by everyone to support the war effort, and the dreadful fear people must have felt with practically the entire world engaged in bloody conflict.  I’m a baby-boomer born after the war, yet not too long afterwards, but still close enough to have felt a connection to it, which raised my curiosity to ask my mom that question.

Her answer was surprisingly simple.  “We just lived every day one day at a time,” she said.  Over time I grew to understand what she meant in her brief response, that people still got up every day, sent the kids off to school, went to work, and tended to chores.  Kids came home in the afternoon, played with their friends, families shopped for groceries, socialized with neighbors, maintained their homes, planted gardens, and lived ordinary lives as much as possible despite the efforts and inherent tragedies of war – simply put, living every day one day at a time.

In his book Run with the Horses Eugene Peterson poses a question we must all consider during difficult circumstances:  “Will I focus my attention on what is wrong with the world and feel sorry for myself?  Or will I focus my energies on how I can live at my best in this place I find myself?”  Peterson goes on to point out that “it is always easier to complain about problems than to engage in careers of virtue.”  Thinking back on my mother’s seemingly flippant response that day, I think she was using it as a teaching moment in terms of what Peterson wrote.

Peterson later added this:  “There are two kinds of people: some look at life and complain of what is not there; others look at life and rejoice in what is there.”  The Psalmist expressed it even more beautifully, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it,” for every day is a day the Lord has made, and we can choose to either complain about it or rejoice in it.  Credit those courageous citizens back then living one day at a time and the impact they had on the outcome of the War.  May we be inspired by that great generation to do the same in our own difficult and chaotic times.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”  – Proverbs 27:17 

Since everyone these days, from politicians to prognosticators to preachers, seems to be talking about, and writing about, artificial intelligence (AI), I thought I might as well throw in my own two cents, which honestly has not changed in almost forty years, long before anyone even knew of such a thing as AI.  But it is a hot topic and rightfully so, for it is upon us, and it is revolutionary, which is both exciting and frightening.  I’ll begin by sharing something I had written ten years ago about the technology revolution.

“The CEO of my former corporate employer, a large Wall Street investment firm used to say,” I wrote back in 2015, “that ‘people will always be in need of the advice and counsel of a fellow human being.’  When he first said that it was exactly what everyone needed to hear, for it was in the late 1980’s just when the internet was gaining traction in revolutionizing all sorts of commerce, creating chaos and fear in almost every industry that the new electronic age would replace humans altogether.  The financial services industry being at the leading edge of that fear needed to hear our CEO’s inspiring reassurance more than ever, that human beings will always need other human beings.”

I still marvel at how prophetic my old boss was back then.  Yes, the coming of age of the internet was revolutionary and disruptive to the way we were accustomed to things being done, just as AI is today.  What did not change was the need for human interaction.  In fact, if anything that need – it seems to me – has increased rather than diminished.  An example is my current profession of Executive Coaching, a rapidly expanding profession I might add, yet one that did not even exist back then. Indeed, people seem to be seeking advice and counsel and interaction from and with fellow human beings more than ever.

“As iron sharpens iron,” the old Proverb reminds us, “so one man sharpens another.”  Indisputably, AI is capable of many things that can potentially advance mankind (also do it harm).  But if my experience over the past twenty years in Executive Coaching is any indication, I can’t imagine how AI can replace the need for one human being helping another, interacting with another, being face-to-face with another, or touching one another.  Can you?  So, for what it’s worth, that’s my two cents on AI.