Today’s Scripture Reading (January 1, 2026): Proverbs 17
There is a story in Elton John’s autobiography
of a night that he was throwing a massive party at a house he was renting in
Los Angeles. According to Elton, he invited everyone that he could think of to
this party. Here is how Elton tells the story.
By the middle of the evening, I was flying, absolutely out of
my mind, when a scruffy-looking guy I didn’t recognize wandered into the party.
Who the h*** was he? It must be one of the staff, a gardener. I loudly demanded
to know what the gardener was doing helping himself to a drink. There was a
moment’s shocked silence, broken by the sound of Bob Halley’s voice: ‘Elton,
that’s not the (bleeping) gardener. It’s Bob Dylan.’
Elton is still horrified, but now for
a different reason. And he tries to recover from his gaffe by inviting Bob
Dylan into the house, where he could take off his scruffy clothes and fit into
something out of Elton’s Closet. And now it was Dylan’s turn to be horrified,
because there was absolutely nothing that Dylan wanted less than to wear
anything out of Elton John’s closet.
Despite a rough beginning,
the two music icons became friends. They appreciated each other's creativity
and were willing to complement each other on what they liked. I can’t imagine two
more divergent men. Yes, they dressed very differently. However, even the way
they write is different. Dylan is a fantastic lyricist; spending time with the
songs he has written is to find something new every time you approach one of
his projects. John doesn’t write lyrics; that has been Bernie Taupin’s job
throughout much of Elton’s career. Elton John is the one who brings Bernie’s
lyrics to life. Elton John might be horrified by Dylan’s dress, but Dylan is
equally horrified by John’s dress. And yet they have still found themselves living
as friends.
And maybe that is the way
it is supposed to be. Proverbs says that a friend loves at all times. They also
love through significant differences. I have no idea where the idea came from
that says we can only be friends with people who agree with us on everything.
Or that if someone disagrees with us on one point, even a significant point,
that everything else they do and say is worthless. I don’t believe that. In
fact, we need people in our lives who disagree with us because they challenge
and strengthen us, even on the things on which we disagree.
Welcome to 2026. And I
hope you have friends in your life who are as different from you as Elton John
is from Bob Dylan. Because then you will be an even stronger person when 2027 stumbles
in.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 18
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