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“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

–          Proverbs 11:2 

Sometimes I think back on those early years struggling to support a wife, two kids and a mortgage on not much income.  While we did usually manage to have one decent family car, about all I could afford to drive back then was an old junker.  Most memorable was an older model Volkswagen Square-Back, sort of like a Beetle with the engine in the back, except it was a station wagon.  I had purchased it from a work colleague for a mere five hundred dollars, but even at that I still had to borrow money and make payments to the bank.  The biggest problem with the car was that it had no first gear which required learning a delicate technique of manipulating the clutch in order to start off in second, a particular challenge when going uphill.  Yes, those were lean times.

Although it did break down occasionally, for the most part that old VW was actually pretty reliable as far as getting me to and from work every day.  The problem was not the functionality, rather it was the embarrassment of not appearing to be very prosperous – which, of course, I wasn’t.  But I wanted to look prosperous, you see, like a young executive on the move – which, in retrospect, I was except for the rather meager salary I was making.

Humbling as it was, driving those old clunkers sort of kept things in perspective for me.  I didn’t like it much at the time, but looking back I realize how important humility was in my development.  How desperately I longed for reasons to be cocky like some of my peers at the time, some of whom actually drove fancy new cars!  Humility, though, taught me many lessons such as empathy and patience toward others, things I may not have learned had I not been relegated to driving those old jalopies.

Fortunately, my living standards are a considerably higher now than they were then – including the cars in my garage – yet in some ways things haven’t changed all that much; for there always seems to be something humbling that occurs whenever I start to feel a little overly proud.  I still don’t like it very much, but then I realize that humility continues to play an important role in my ongoing development.  As the Proverb reminds us, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”  – Genesis 1:28 

Fan or not, if you are American you probably have at least a rudimentary understanding of the game of football.  This time of year especially there’s a game being broadcasted on practically every other TV channel.  Here are the basics.  Two teams on the field, each trying to score points by penetrating the goal line of the opposing team.  Each team has an offensive squad and a defensive squad.  The purpose of the offense, which has possession of the ball, is to advance toward the opposing team’s goal.  The purpose of the defense is twofold: (1) to defend against the advancement of the opposing offense, and (2) to regain possession of the ball on behalf of their own team’s offense.

It behooves us to live our lives likewise; for we each have a purpose, something we spend our lives advancing toward.  But there are times when we are not in possession of the ball.  We encounter adversity, requiring us to play defense.  And just like football, the purpose is twofold: (1) to defend against further advancement of the crisis at hand, and (2) to regain possession of the ball on behalf of achieving our real purpose.

At age ninety, after living a remarkably active and purposeful life, my grandmother suffered a mild stroke.  While not terribly debilitating, it nonetheless impacted her health status enough that she was no longer able to live alone.  My mother and her siblings went through that painful process of moving her to a place where she would be properly cared for.  My grandmother immediately went into defensive mode, resisting the change in every way.  Soon, though, she regained possession of the ball and began moving about through the corridors of the nursing home on a mission to lift the spirits of her fellow residents with her cheerful personality and deep faith, exactly what she had been doing all her life.

After creating us in His own image, God delegated us the responsibility of caring for His Creation, and moving it forward.  “Be fruitful and increase in number,” He instructed us, “fill the earth and subdue it.”  Although adversity may sometimes force us into a defensive posture, that should not deter us from striving to regain “possession of the ball” so that we can continue to move down the field – to fulfill our God-given purpose.  Or as the Apostle Paul says, “Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  (1 Corinthians 9:24)

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good . . .”  – Genesis 50:20 

There once was a legendary sports trainer at the University of the South in Tennessee (better known as Sewanee) who had served the school’s football team for over forty years.  At the time of his retirement he was asked what he considered to be the team’s best season.  “The team’s best season,” he replied, “is the one coming up.”

During the years of raising our children I would often seek my mother’s wise counsel when difficult parenting issues arose regarding one or the other of our two sons.  After listening to me for a while she would always tell me the same thing.  “Ah, he’s going to turn out fine.  He’s a good boy.”  She was right, of course; for today they are both fine responsible men with families of their own.  But how did she know?

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” retells the biblical story about Joseph who because of the favoritism shown to him by his father was betrayed by his jealous brothers, only to rise up and become a powerful figure in the Egyptian kingdom who would one day rescue those same brothers from starvation.  The brothers, as you can imagine, later feared retribution from their deceived younger brother.  But Joseph urged them to lay their fears aside.  “Don’t be afraid,” he said, “You meant to harm me, but God intended it for good.” 

The legendary sports trainer was not necessarily predicting a winning season when he said “the team’s best season is the one coming up”.  Nor were my mother’s remarks, “ah, he’s going to turn out fine” meant to condone our children’s misbehavior or our parenting mistakes.  Rather, both recognized, as Joseph did, that “God intended it for good” – that is, God’s goodness always prevails.  Or as the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” (Romans 8:28)

For this very reason, I can predict with certainty that our best season ever, yours and mine, is “the one coming up.”  I know this because God works in all things for our good. . . .   Abundant Living will return January 2, 2017.  In the meantime, wishing each of you a Merry Christmas and a blessed holiday season.

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways . . .”  -Psalm 37:7 

There was a period of time in my life when as a much younger man I got in a big hurry, attempting to fast-track my career in order to keep up with, and move ahead of my peers.  Chalk it up to ambition, but in retrospect my haste sometimes caused more setbacks than advancements, such as the time I uprooted my family for an “opportunity” in another city.  What I thought would surely lead to a giant leap in my career, thus my family’s financial wellbeing, turned out to be a near disaster.  Fortunately – and literally by the grace of God – my mistake got redeemed and all turned out well.  But how much better off I might have been had I remained slow and steady and waited patiently before the Lord.

There is no better illustration of this than the story of “The Tortoise and the Hare”, one of the best known and most beloved among Aesop’s fables.  So the story goes, “The hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals.  ‘I have never yet been beaten,’ said he, ‘when I put forth my full speed.  I challenge any one here to race with me.’  The tortoise said quietly, ‘I accept your challenge.’  ‘That is a good joke,’ said the hare, ‘I could dance around you all the way.’  ‘Keep your boasting till you’ve won,’ answered the tortoise.  ‘Shall we race?’  So a course was fixed and a start was made.  The hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show contempt for the tortoise, lay down to have a nap.  The tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the hare awoke from his nap, he saw the tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race.  Then the tortoise said, ‘Slow and steady wins the race.’” 

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways.”  In my case, it was not that I was the hare; rather it was that I got in a hurry from fretting when others succeeded in their ways, instead of being still before the Lord and waiting patiently for him.  Thankfully that near demise of my career served as a wakeup call, awakening the tortoise within me.  It reminded me to go at my own God-given pace rather than someone else’s.  For as the wisdom of the tortoise teaches us, “Slow and steady wins the race.”

“In the beginning . . .”  – Genesis 1:1 

A professional artist friend in describing his very first attempt at painting explained how with paints on pallet and brush in hand he gazed for the longest time at the blank canvas on the easel set before him.  Where to begin, he pondered, at the edge or in the middle?

One does not have to be a neophyte painter to be faced with such a dilemma.  Do we not wrestle with the same question every time we are challenged by some new or overwhelming endeavor?  It is what Julia Cameron describes in her book The Artist’s Way, being “caught between the dream of action and the fear of failure”.  Frankly, it happens to me every week in writing these messages.  Even after all these years I still sometimes sit gazing at a blank page pondering where to begin.  I know what I want to say (dream of action), but worry about how to say it (fear of failure).

I once asked my Dad, who painted throughout his lifetime, what he did when he made a mistake.  He shrugged his shoulders, “simply paint over the mistake.”  Funny, I never watched my Dad paint, and I don’t know where he began, at the edge or in the middle.  What I do know is that he began somewhere – mistakes and all – otherwise he would never have produced all the beautiful artwork that now adorns the walls of our home.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.”  (Genesis 1:1-2)  Imagine, God himself, like us, once gazed upon a blank canvas!  Did he ponder where to begin?  We don’t know for sure, except that he did (Day 1-light; Day 2-sky and oceans; Day 3-dry land; Day 4-sun, moon and stars; Day 5-birds and fish; Day 6-animals and man), otherwise he would never have created mankind, this magnificent universe, and all the life within it.

Where to begin?  I do not recall whether my professional artist friend began at the edge or in the middle.  What I do know is that he began somewhere with that first brush stroke, thus launching an amazingly successful career.  And that’s where we all must begin when challenged by some new or overwhelming endeavor.  Begin somewhere.