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Tuesday Morning Epistles
Welcome to "Tuesday Morning"—Cool thoughts for a warm
summer day, wherever Christians live and serve.
Maybe you were among the millions who tuned in on August
10 (USA time) to watch the finals of the 4x100-meter
relay at the 2008 Olympics, featuring the finest male
swimmers in the world. Better yet, perhaps you were
there in person. Lucky you! If you were there, you saw
history being made, and just maybe you were seated
within a hundred yards of the President of the United
States! Awesome. The bold headline in the morning sports
page in our town on Monday said it simply: INCREDIBLE!
It was
indeed.
Unsuccessful in their quest for a gold medal in the
400-meter relay at last two Summer Olympiads, America's
select team of four seemed motivated and ready. American
swimmers had won the 400-meter free relay at seven
straight Olympics, but they watched teams from Australia
and South Africa win gold at the last two Games. This
time the Americans were nearly flawless. In the
pre-lims, they set a world record by winning their heat.
But in the finals, they faced the young foursome from
France, anchored by perhaps the most impressive physical
specimen of all the men swimming in the finals—the
confident Alain Bernard, holder of the world record in
the 100 meter freestyle. He had predicted a win for
France, and when he entered the water in first place at
the beginning of the anchor leg, everyone
seemed convinced the French would win the gold. So much
for things as they "seemed to be." No one had given
America's anchor swimmer and captain of the team,
32-year-old Jason Lezak, a chance to overtake the
powerful Bernard. It was Lezak who had swum the anchor
lap at the last two summer Olympics—both going to
superior teams. The oldest man on the US swimming team
pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in Olympic
history, lunging ahead of Bernard by the length of a
finger tip at the wall. Nearly a body-length behind the
undefeated Bernard as they made the final turn, Lezak
chose to hug the lane rope adjacent to Bernard on the
final 50 meters, drafting the Frenchman and overtaking
him in their very last strokes. The time? Three minutes;
8 and 23/100s of a second, nearly four seconds better
than the world record they had set earlier in the
semi-finals.
Two past failures for Lezak and his team. One stunning
victory. Incredible. And almost forgotten (except in the
re-runs and medal presentations in Beijing) are the
names of the swimmers who swam legs two and
three—Garrett Weber-Gale and Cullen Jones. History will
remember the fabulous four and will celebrate their
victory for years to come.
In the Christian life, we don't crown champions—at
least in our lifetime. But sometimes we come close to
burying them. We try not to add to the disappointments
of those who fail to measure up to expectations. But a
person's record is a person's record. It is what it is.
And some women and men seem destined to come up short of
society's (and their church's) expectations in their
efforts for the Kingdom. Gone is the cheering crowd of
witnesses that urged them on in their early going. Gone
are the medals to more famous, easily-recognized
champions. Defeats pile up. It's time to move on.
Really? Is it time to leave one place for another, more
attractive place? Maybe. But consider what might happen
positively if you hang in there. This week's epistle is
entitled, "Lift Where You Stand." It may be the very
thing you need to ignite your flame this week. Read on
whenever you are ready. Then prepare to dive into the
water and compete for God's Team. His team always wins.
Tom Barnard
Supporting You
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“Lift Where You Stand” Tom Barnard
ave you ever thought—“I wish I had said that”? Probably. Not many of us are equal in word power to the great public speakers of history. Limiting the list to Americans still requires a large number of speakers and the speeches they made.
Here are a few names that should be on everyone’s list: Susan B. Anthony; Pearl S. Buck; Martin Luther King, Jr.; John F. Kennedy; Ronald Reagan; Patrick Henry; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Helen Keller; Douglas MacArthur; Henry Ward Beecher; Shirley Chisholm; Benjamin Franklin, George Washington.
Does the name Edward Everett ring a bell? He was considered to be the nation’s greatest orator of his time. U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, U.S. Envoy to England, Governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Secretary of State, President of Harvard University—these were among the high-ranking positions he held. In 1863 he was invited to deliver the major address dedicating the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19 of that year. Unfortunately for him, the committee that invited him to speak, also invited President Lincoln to make “a few appropriate remarks” to the gathering of soldiers and other notables present that day. Everyone remembers Lincoln’s address. Few remember Everett’s.
Even Everett knew he had been upstaged by Lincoln. On the day following the Gettysburg dedication, he wrote a note to Lincoln, expressing his appreciation for the President’s brief, but very moving speech. He said, “I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” I believe they call that, “eating humble pie.” But he was right.
However, Everett was no slouch when it came to brevity. One quote attributed to him is this one:
“Lift where you stand.”
I like it almost as much as the modern parallel: “Grow where you’re planted.” What is the essence of those two quotations? Simply stated, it is sometimes easier to move on to other opportunities in your career while under pressure, than to stand where you are and keep lifting. I heard a radio preacher make this observation recently: “Obstinate church members seem able to re-incarnate themselves in every church you pastor.” In other words, your critics (or someone very much like them) will follow you wherever you labor.
In an essay entitled, “Confidence,” the late Konrad Adenauer, former German Chancellor, wrote:
Most of us, in moments of fatigue or discouragement, have taken a look at our daily task and wondered, “What does it really matter?” Precisely at those moments we should tell ourselves what my lifetime has taught me is the one true answer: “I shall keep doing the job, for I matter a great deal.”*
Focus on Adenauer’s last five words: “I matter a great deal.” A young boy, walking barefoot on the beach near his home, noticed an old gent walking along the same beach, a good distance ahead of him. The boy noticed that the man seemed to be walking, haltingly, and stopping every few paces, picking up something from the sand, and tossing it into the tide as it was going out. As he finally overtook the man, the boy saw that the guy was picking up star fish that had washed ashore. It was the star fish that the old man was throwing back into the sea. When he finally caught up to the man, the boy asked, “Why are you tossing those creatures back into the ocean. It’s a meaningless thing; there are so many. It really doesn’t matter.” To that the old gent paused before throwing another star fish into the water and said, “It matters to them.”
Just how important is the work you do for God? And for the Church? And for others? How important are you? What you do matters to someone. It should matter to you. Grow where you’re planted. Lift where you stand. It really matters.
*Chancellor Adenauer’s essay, “Confidence,” can be found in the book, A New Treasury of Words to Live By, edited by William Nichols and published by Simon and Schuster, New York, 1947, 1959; pages 106-107. |