Today's Scripture Reading (June 7, 2024): 1 Timothy 6
It has been a bit of a strange week for me. I love the conversations
I have with people not of the faith, partially because it reminds me that I am
on the field of play, not sitting somewhere in the stands. It also reminds me
that my job has never been to be a critic. Many years ago, I remember forming a
committee to examine the church's future, and one person I had invited to the
meetings responded that they would prefer not to be on the team so that they
could act as a critic of the process. The statement took me back. I know the
Christian Community has a lot of critics, but I don't believe that we are
called to be one of them. We are players on the field. We are not the ones who
stand back to applaud the righteous, but players on the field who are to pursue
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
Speeches can shift our thinking. Paul shares that hope in his
writing. One of the speeches that impacted me included Martin Luther King's speech
"I Have a Dream." It is a speech that speaks of a radical racial
equality that is still part of my core belief.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today
(Martin Luther King).
It does not matter whether my children are white and yours are
brown. Color shouldn't enter into the equation; character should. It is the way
I want my world to work. This is part of what I believe is essential about our
presence on the playing field. It is the truth that I should live, not just
something I think is a good idea but not applicable to me.
Another speech that has shaped me was the "We Choose to Go to
the Moon" speech by John F. Kennedy.
We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon...We choose to go to the Moon in this
decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are
hard (John F. Kennedy).
I love the idea that we choose to do what is hard. As
Christians, it is easy to be part of the audience; it is hard to stay in the
ring. As Christians, it is easy to kick the ball off at the beginning of the
game, but hard to score a touchdown. But we choose to do what is hard, not just
talk about difficult things.
Theodore Roosevelt delivered another speech that has made an
impact on me on April 23, 1910. The speech was delivered in Paris, France. Roosevelt
left the presidential office in 1909, and in the following year, he traveled
extensively and spoke to various audiences. The speech was titled "Citizenship
in a Republic" and was 35 pages long. At the time, Roosevelt was returning
to the United States after a year-long expedition he'd had taken
on behalf of the Smithsonian Museum. The speech covered many ideas and comments
on the New World (America) and the Old World (Europe). The former President was
keenly aware of what was occurring politically in the world.
The most often quoted section of "Citizenship in a Republic"
reads:
It is not the critic who
counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer
of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who
strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the
great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause;
who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails,
at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
This
is who I choose to be—the man in the arena. The one who errs repeatedly, gets
dirty, and knows both the thrill of the win and the despair of defeat. I chose
to pursue the things of God and the things that God wants for me, even though I
often fail to achieve what I set out to do
One
of my friends sent me this sign a couple of years ago.
Help Wanted:
Every athletic team should have a man who plays every position, who never makes
an error, and who knows just what the opposition is planning… But so far there's
been no way to get him to put down his popcorn and coke to come down out of the
stands!
My
response to my friend was simple. I choose to be a player on the field and not
a critic in the stands. That is my choice. What is yours?
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Peter
1
No comments:
Post a Comment