Predictable Success

DateLine (7/5/06 – Green Pond, SC)
A call to heaven from Green Pond is a local call, anywhere else it’s long distance.

July 4th is a week when we honor the birth of our country and our forefathers who in their wisdom laid the political and moral foundations that have served us so well for 230 years. Wow, seems like yesterday that we had our bicentennial celebration. This is the season when we need to be reminded that the outcome that we enjoy was not a foregone conclusion for the brave men and women who carved this country from the wilderness and wrenched it from the arms of tyranny. We’re also rightly reminded of the brave contemporaries who are sacrificing time, relationships, and perhaps lives to maintain our hard fought freedoms. Nothing in life is cheap. Everything has a price tag.

When I contemplate our past my hope for the future is invigorated. The reason is simple: I have a historical example. I’ve related the story before that when I was “playing” carpenter during the construction of our home, it was a long difficult struggle. Most every task brought a challenge because I had never done it before. I tell people that I learned to lay brick in my great room; literally on the hearth where the wood stove now sits. I was grateful for the experience that my Dad and Harriett’s Dad brought to the task; the “been there and done that” perspective.

Some persons reject the wisdom of prior generations, thinking that if it’s not new and original thought then it’s somehow adulterated. From my view the shortest route to success and progress is not having to personally sort through all the failures of previous generations but innovating off of the platform of the successes. I’m often emboldened to try my hand when I have the ability to observe someone else doing something that I aspire to or knowing through history that it is doable. It gives me confidence in the possibilities.

One of the strengths of the Christian church as an institution is that by design it is multi-generational. Young and old, experienced and novices, strong and weak, all thrown together in common pursuit of God’s will. Paul acknowledged that the church in Thessalonica had become imitators of himself, the church fathers in Judea, and of God (see Eph. 5, I Thess. 1 & 2.) and they were the better for it. Your testimony (i.e. matter of living) is just as important inside the church as it is outside of the church; maybe for different reasons.

As we wind down from July 4, 2006 let us never forget nor allow our respect to wane for the foundation that has been laid by our political forefathers. Let us also never forget the foundations of the Christian church. Our country and the freedoms it affords are important. Our church and its contributions are eternal.

“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” I Cor 3:10-15

Quality materials, time tested techniques, and a solid foundation; now’s that predictable success.