Even the Smallest Roles and Responsibilities Are Important

Recently our church sponsored a three-day youth camp attended by nearly 700 young people. It’s amazing all that goes into planning and conducting such an event. 

The daily speakers, worship leaders and musicians were just the icing on the cake. There was all the pre-planning, including schedules; registrations; communications; making T-shirts, ball caps and other camp ‘swag’; training of volunteers who would oversee different groups; arranging for three meals each day plus snacks; handling details for transporting the students from point A to point B during the weekend. 

 

Then there was the actual event, herding hundreds of high-energy young folks and striving to keep their attention in ways both fun and spiritually meaningful. Many adults participated not only directly but also in offering prayer support throughout the three days. The event had a powerful impact on many lives, and it was a marvel how smoothly things went.

My wife and I played a very small part, volunteering to help with serving at two of the lunch sessions. She assisted in passing out the food as the kids came through; my job was to fill cups with ice for their drinks. As the kids came by and took the ones I had already prepared, I filled more cups until the thirsty hoards were ready to return to their next session. Upon arriving both days, I put new meaning to the phrase, “the iceman cometh.”

 

Reflecting on this afterward, I thought about the passage in 1 Corinthians which uses the human body as a metaphor for how God equips His Church. Here are portions of what it says:

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body…. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many…. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be…” (1 Corinthians 12:12-18).

 

At the youth camp, the program presenters might have received the most attention, but all the behind-the-scenes workers were just as necessary, ranging from the people who drove buses for the various off-campus activities to the folks who swept floors in the gyms after meals had been served.

 

The context for the apostle Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 12 concerned how God distributes spiritual gifts to His children, the body of Christ. The passage mentions a number of the gifts, as do other passages in the New Testament. Using the human body as a metaphor is spot-on.

 

Think about it: In discussions of health, we often think in terms of the brain, the heart, our limbs and our joints. But our liver, kidney, lungs, pancreas, spleen and other organs are just as vital. Problems with any of them are what we call disease – or just as accurately, bodily dis-ease. A serious attack on any of these will land us in a hospital, or worse.

 

This concept is significant for many reasons. We tend to focus most of our attention on the ‘stars,’ even in Christian culture: Pastors, popular conference speakers, best-selling authors, chart-topping singers and musical groups. The Pope, from the moment he makes the transition from “who’s he” to “he’s the Pope,” is a celebrity wherever he goes. Now that faith-based films and TV presentations are cool, we have a whole new set of ‘American idols.’

 

But have you ever thought about the importance of the behind-the-scenes folks who help to make everything possible? The maintenance staff who keep the air conditioning running and the toilets flushing in the church. Custodians who clean up after we’ve spilled the contents of our coffee and communion cups. The audio-visual people who uncomplainingly ensure the lyrics from each Sunday’s praise songs are on the screen, and that the vocals and instruments of the worship band are properly balanced.

 

When Dr. Billy Graham was conducting his many evangelistic crusades, volunteer teams coordinated the events, did advance publicity, got programs printed, operated the sound systems, invited guests who needed to hear his messages, and then arranged for follow up on people who responded. They received little attention. Yet they all were crucial to the success of the campaigns.

 

Perhaps most important, no matter what role God has assigned to you in your church or ministry, you’re important! Whether stuffing envelopes, changing diapers in the nursery, teaching Sunday school for a bunch of first-graders with attention spans of 10 seconds, setting up chairs for the women’s retreat, or cooking food for the expected throng of 200 for the church social, you’re important!

 

The Scriptures make this clear: “On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor…our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it…” (1 Corinthians 12:22-24). Whether you’re seen or behind the scenes, thank you for all you’re doing!

Drawing Straight Lines With Crooked Sticks

Reviewing the paths that many of our lives have taken, you could probably summarize them by saying, “You can’t get there from here. You have to go somewhere else first.”

 

Looking at my own life, it seems a lot like a traveler whose GPS has gone haywire. Born overseas while my father was serving in the U.S. Army, I spent most of my childhood in New Jersey. My college years took me first to Texas, and then Ohio. My career as a journalist also followed a somewhat erratic path, beginning in Ohio, followed by a brief sojourn in Pennsylvania, back to Ohio, then Texas, and finally, Tennessee.

 

If plotted on a map, this would resemble an extremely crooked stick. And my spiritual pilgrimage has been just as “crooked” as my life’s path. But from the God’s point of view, I believe it looks pretty much like a straight path, proceeding exactly as He planned. 

 

Martin Luther said, “God can draw straight lines with crooked sticks.” Indeed He does. There are myriad examples we could choose from, but among those that come to my mind are two of the world’s greatest mass evangelists, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham. During the 1880s, Sunday compiled a reasonably successful eight-year major league baseball career; for most of that time he wouldn’t have been voted “most likely to become known as a winner of souls for God.” 

 

But then the Lord got a hold of him. Several years after committing his life to Jesus Christ, Sunday left baseball and began a career as a itinerant evangelist, long before the advent of electronic sound systems. His much-celebrated career spanned about four decades, touching countless lives.

 

Graham was considered Sunday’s successor, although well into his young adulthood such an idea never crossed his mind. In fact, the story is told that when Graham was about 12 years old, a group of Christian businessmen gathered at the farm of his father, William Franklin Graham, to pray for God to “raise up a man who would take the Gospel to all the world and turn people in far places to Christ.” 

 

Upon hearing of the men who had assembled, young Graham reportedly said, “I wonder what those fanatics are doing here.” And yet, as a young man he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus and he became one of “those fanatics.” During his lifetime Graham spoke the saving message of Christ to millions around the globe – in person, over the radio and on TV.

 

The Bible, in its unvarnished candor, presents dozens of examples of “crooked sticks” the Lord has used to accomplish grand things. One of them was Jacob (later renamed Israel), who despite being a schemer and a conniver became patriarch for the nation of people named after him. Jonah, a petulant prophet, was called to preach to people in the pagan city of Nineveh. However, he chose instead to flee and found his means of transportation shifting from a ship to a huge fish. In time, the Ninevites did get the message from the reluctant evangelist and a citywide revival resulted.  

 

King David, described as “a man after God’s own heart” in the Scriptures, had more than his share of sinful detours. Yet he has been intimately identified with the Jews through the centuries, and from his pen we have a wonderful collection of writings in the Psalms. His son, Solomon, started his reign as king in a most humble manner, and his wisdom was unparalleled. He contributed much to the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, but his path became more crooked as time went on and he failed to finish particularly well.

 

In the New Testament we meet a number of other “crooked sticks. There’s Simon, whom Jesus renamed Peter; despite his impulsive nature he became a pillar of the early Church, even writing two of the Bible’s epistles. Matthew, who had betrayed his fellow Jews as a tax collector, also was selected to be one of Christ’s unlikely disciples. What we know most about Matthew’s life after becoming a follower of Jesus is that God chose him to be the author of one of the four gospels. 

 

And we can’t overlook Saul, the zealous Pharisee and persecutor of followers of Jesus, fully convinced that what he was doing was right. After his Damascus road encounter with the Lord, however, Saul was given a new name, Paul, and spent the remainder of his life proclaiming Christ to anyone who would listen, despite many hardships. All amazing stories of how God through the centuries has used some very curious, crooked-path people to accomplish His purposes.

 

Personal experience, along with learning the faith stories of many other people, have taught me the course God has for us is rarely a direct one. Maybe that’s why Proverbs 3:5-6 admonishes us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” 

 

Have you ever found yourself wondering why your life has taken an unexpected detour? Maybe more than a few? They’re often God’s way of saying, “Don’t try to figure it out. The course I’ve put you on will take you exactly where I want you to go.”

 

The key for us, as crooked, broken people trying to find our way through lives of uncertainty, is simply to trust rather than wearing ourselves out trying to comprehend what the Lord is doing or why He’s taking us where He chooses. As we’re promised in another passage from Proverbs, "I will guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble" (Proverbs 4:11-12). He knows the way.

Legacy: The Impact That Keeps on Giving

The term “legacy” isn’t going away any time soon. It became a fixture of my own vocabulary in 2001, when I joined the team of a non-profit named Leaders Legacy. Since then, it seems just about everyone has jumped on the legacy bandwagon. We hear about it on TV and radio, online, and many businesses have made it a focal point for their planning.

Despite living in times that encourage a right-now, gotta-have-it-immediately mindset, there’s a growing awareness of the need for a longer term view, that what we do and say today can live on many years after we’ve checked out of this life.

Maybe it’s a Baby Boomer thing, members of a generation aging and wondering whether they’ve made any difference at all in this world. I heard legacy discussed again recently when Mart Green, board chair of Hobby Lobby, spoke at a local leadership prayer breakfast.

Legacy has been defined, Green said, as “something transmitted, or received by others.” He elaborated that one’s legacy consists of “something someone’s achieved that continues to live on after they die.” He likened it to passing a baton during a foot race. A relay team can have a big lead, but if the baton fails to pass from one runner to the next, all is lost.

One’s legacy can come in many forms, including success in the workplace, fame, or contributions to society. Some people regard their estate or net worth at their time of death as their legacy. But many successful business people, celebrities, and wealthy individuals from decades or centuries ago aren’t even dim memories today.

So how do we build a lasting, meaningful legacy? Dr. Billy Graham, who surely left a legacy that figures to continue for a long, long time, offered this view: “The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.”

Simply put, but it says a lot. Proverbs 10:7 seems to agree: “The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.” If that sounds too blunt, consider Proverbs 13:9: “The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.”

Lots of people may come to mind that are remembered for unsavory reasons, but who designs to do that? We all hope to leave a mark in life for positive reasons, don’t we? That’s why striving to build an eternal, spiritual legacy is wise.

The Israelites – and all of God’s people today – were given this admonition: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7).

One of the greatest investments we can make isn’t measured by dollar signs. It’s our children and the kind of people we’ve helped them become. As Proverbs 17:6 states, “Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children." But the Scriptures make clear that physical offspring aren’t the only source of an enduring legacy. Spiritual children can be as well.

Years ago a friend showed me a special verse, Isaiah 43:4, in which God tells His followers, “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.” Sounds like a fair trade to me. 

And 2 Timothy 2:2 gives a multi-generational picture of what this looks like. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will also be qualified to teach others.” That, from the Lord’s point of view, is a legacy that matters.

The Perverse Pleasure of Demeaning and Diminishing

“If you can’t say something bad about somebody, don’t say anything at all!”

It seems this twist on a familiar adage unfortunately has become a motto for many these days, whether on social media, the news media, or even in casual conversation. Never miss a chance to demean, disparage, denigrate or diminish. Whatever you do, don’t say anything nice.

Case in point, within hours of Dr. Billy Graham’s passing, a major newspaper published a feature article about his family, implying that as he was aggressively preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in various parts of the world, he was failing his children at home.

Just because we know something,
that doesn't obligate us to say it.

One might explain this as the periodical’s attempt to present an accurate, three-dimensional portrayal of the famed evangelist, including his flaws. They certainly had the right to do so, as our Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees. I have no quibble with this; it was the timing that troubled me.

Having been a journalist for many years, I know it’s common practice to prepare obituaries of the famous and infamous well in advance, in the event of their passing, expected or not. I’ve written some of those myself. So this “news” story of struggles within the Graham family obviously had been poised for publication, knowing the preacher’s advanced age and declining health. Even though these accounts were hardly breaking news, having already been acknowledged in books by Dr. Graham and several of his offspring, it seemed clear the intent was to emphasize his feet of clay. (Which we all have.)

This is just one example among many of society’s eagerness to expose the darker side of any well-known individual, sometimes even before the flesh has grown cold or the body’s been interred. But one need not hold qualifications for “Who’s Who” to receive similar treatment.

We’ve all felt dismay about the rise of social media bullying, individuals verbally pummeling anyone they choose, cowardly acts committed with computers and smart devices in the safety of their homes. What an curious practice, seeking to enhance one’s self-image by attacking others.   

Technology has conveniently placed at our fingertips the capacity for demeaning other individuals – and groups. But it’s hardly a new phenomenon – it’s as old as humankind. In fact, the Bible has much to say about this timeless form of antagonism.

Proverbs 12:18 tells us, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Elsewhere in the same chapter we read the antithesis, how encouraging words can have a profound, uplifting impact on the hearers: “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up” (Proverbs 12:25).

This isn’t calling for a Pollyanna perspective on life, ignoring problems, pain and peculiarities. But it takes little or no talent to identify faults in others – even as we ignore or minimize flaws of our own. It may take a bit more effort to form expressions of kindness and compassion, but they can do far more than we might imagine to help in making our world a better place.

As Proverbs 16:21 declares, “The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction.” When we hear juicy reports about others, whether it’s someone we know only through programs like “Entertainment Tonight” or our neighbor down the street, it’s easy to rush to a friend so we can let them in on the “news.” But as we’re cautioned by Proverbs 18:8, “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels, they go down to a man’s inmost parts.”

Rather than succumbing to that temptation, it might be far better to remind ourselves that, “He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends” (Proverbs 17:9). There’s something tantalizing about knowing “inside information” we can share with others, but that doesn’t obligate us to broadcast it to everyone else. “A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered” (Proverbs 17:27).

We might not be the editors of an established publication making decisions about what to print and not to print about someone. But we all have it within our power to determine what we say about others, what we don’t say – and even how we say it. As Proverbs 15:23 notes, “A man finds joy in giving an apt reply – and how good is a timely word!”

Succeeding at Finishing a Life Well-Lived

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

These words were penned by the apostle Paul toward the end of his life, sent to his young protégé, Timothy. But they could just as easily have been authored by Dr. Billy Graham, who last week passed from this life into the next at the age of 99. It’s hard to think of another human who had as much influence on as many lives as did Dr. Graham during his ministry of more than six decades.

Dr. Billy Graham, faithful to the end.

Even though his evangelistic ministry came to an end years ago, and before then had been curtailed sharply because of declining health, there remain millions of men and women around the world who can trace the beginnings of their spiritual journey to attending one of the Billy Graham crusades. Through those meetings, his TV and radio broadcasts, and many books, Dr. Graham was steadfast to the end in affirming that Jesus’ declaration was true when He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The revered evangelist cut through denominational, social, cultural, ethnic and even political boundaries, remaining true to his call to preach the gospel to peoples in all nations, a mission he began in the 1940s. For many years Dr. Graham ranked at or near the top of lists of the most-admired people in the world, but it wasn’t an honor that affected him.

I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Graham once, in the early 1990s. He was a guest speaker at a convention of the Evangelical Press Association in Asheville, N.C. As a member of the EPA board, I had joined other directors at the head table and we greeted him as he arrived, one at a time.

What impressed me most about Dr. Graham was not his stature, although he was a tall man, nor his resonant voice. It was his humility. As a journalist for many years, I’ve had the opportunity to meet many famous people. In the majority cases, I’ve had the sense they were thinking, “What a pleasure it is for you to meet me!” But not with Dr. Graham. He and I talked perhaps for two minutes, but he looked straight in my eyes and for that brief moment, showed genuine interest in me, not simply shrugging me off as one of the countless millions with whom he had shaken hands over the years.

Billy Graham, of course, was just a man, not some superhero. But perhaps more than anyone I have encountered in life – more than most of us might encounter in life – he exemplified what the apostle Paul declared to an eclectic bunch of Greek listeners at the famed Areopagus, “For in him [Jesus Christ] we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

One of the most difficult things, if not THE most difficult thing, for followers of Jesus Christ to accomplish in their lives is to finish well. Anyone can get off to a good start, doing and saying the right things as they embark on their walk with Christ. But many fall by the wayside – some quickly, others many years later. Dr. Graham, however, succeeded. He finished well.

In another letter toward the end of his ministry, the apostle wrote, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Dr. Billy Graham has reached his goal and won the prize; he didn’t stop before reaching the finish line. One day, may the same be said of us.