Thomas Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer of the
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company tells a good story on
himself. He says that while he and his wife were out driving he
noticed they were low on gas. So he pulled off at the first exit
and came to this dumpy little gas station with one pump. There
was only one man working the place, so he asked the man to fill
it up while he checked the oil. He added a quart of oil, closed
the hood, and he saw his wife talking and smiling at the gas
station attendant. When they saw him looking at them, the
station attendant walked away and pretended as if nothing had
happened. Wheeler paid the man and he and his wife pulled out
of that seedy little station. As they drove down the road, he
asked his wife if she knew the attendant. Well, she admitted she
did know him. In fact, she had known him very well. For it
seems that they not only had gone to high school together, but
they dated seriously for about a year. Well, Wheeler couldn't
help bragging a little and said, "Boy were you lucky I came
along. Because if you'd married him you'd be the wife of a gas
station attendant instead of the wife of a Chief Executive
Officer." His wife replied, "My dear, if I had married him, he'd
be the Chief Executive Officer and you'd be the gas station
attendant."
I know there are many wives out there breathing a hearty,
"Amen."
Jesus warned us time and time again not to think more
highly of ourselves than we ought to think. The overall
impression we get from the Gospels is of a man who disliked
"stuffiness." How else do you explain prostitutes going into the
Kingdom before Pharisees--the best people in the community? How
else do you explain, "I was hungry and you gave me nothing to
eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink...I was
naked...sick and in prison...." Does that sound like he
identified with the best people in town? What kind of kingdom is
it in which the first shall be last and the last first? Let's put
it to a vote. How do you feel about it? Sounds kind of radical to
me. Almost unAmerican.
Of course, for those who believe God is an American--and
middle-class at that--there is another way to look at it.
Americans love an underdog--and so does God. And that's Good
News.
FIRST OF ALL, IT IS A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT, BECAUSE FROM
TIME TO TIME ALL OF US ARE UNDERDOGS.
None of us is at his or her
best all the time. There are times when all of us are inadequate
to the task at hand.
I was reading about something hilarious that happened
when television was "live." STUDIO ONE was one of the most
popular shows in the golden days of live television. During one
memorable broadcast, the scene was the interior of an airplane
cabin. The scene called for the plane to be at an altitude of
30,000 feet, flying over the mountains of Tibet. Three men were
in the cabin talking, when suddenly there was silence. One of
the actors had forgotten his lines. Being a live production, of
course, there were no retakes, no stopping of the action. That
was it. Millions of eager viewers were glued to their
black-and-white screens, waiting to see what would happen next.
What did the actor do? He got to his feet, in an airplane cabin
supposedly 30,000 feet over the mountains of Tibet, and voiced
this immortal line: "Well, here's where I get off." He left the
set and walked into history.
No wonder they videotape all the shows now. It would be
interesting to know how the other actors covered his exit.
Sometimes we all get ourselves into situations like
that--situations in which the most we can hope for is a graceful
exit.
At the beginning of the Spanish siege of Gibraltar, which
lasted from 1779 to 1783, the Queen of Spain sat on a hill facing
Gibraltar and, believing that the seige would be a short one,
declared that she would not move until she had seen the Spanish
flag flying above Gibraltar. As the days passed and there were no
signs that the fortress would fall, her vow came to be highly
embarrassing. Eventuallly, the British commander took pity on
her and gallantly waved the Spanish flag for a couple of minutes
so that the Queen could move without losing face. We've all been
there. Even royalty sometimes looks foolish. Indeed no one looks
more foolish than a proud person trying to hide a boo-boo.
Abraham Lincoln's line makes us all feel better: "The
(person) who is incapable of making a mistake is incapable of
anything."
I'm glad that God loves the underdog. What a relief it is
to know that He does not expect perfection. What a word of
encouragement.
EVEN MORE THAN THAT, IT IS A STATEMENT OF FAITH. Do you
remember the wonderful story of Gideon back in Judges 6-8? The
armies of the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the
East were amassed against the people of Israel. The writer tells
us that these "armies lay along the valley like locusts for
multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand
which is upon the seashore...." It must have been an impressive
and terrifying sight to face such an army.
God called a man named Gideon to rally the people of
Israel and to lead them against this invading horde. Thirty-two
thousand men volunteered for Gideon's army. Gideon must have felt
pretty good about that. But God said, that's too many. God's
reason: If Israel wins with a big army, the people will say,
"This is a victory that we have won." They will not understand
that God gave them the victory.
"Tell those who are afraid to go home," God said.
Twenty-two thousand men breathed a sigh of relief and headed
home. Now there were ten thousand.
"Still too many," said God. "Take them down to the
water." (The story is coming back to you, isn't it, from your
childhood Sunday School class?) "Let them drink. Those who lap up
the water with their tongues like dogs you shall keep. Send the
others back home."
Now they were down to 300. God said, "That's more like
it." God loves underdogs. God much prefers Davids to Goliaths.
Why? Paul tells us in I Corinthians, the first chapter: "So that
no one can boast in the presence of God." (v.29) God is glorified
in our weakness! When we are weak, we learn to depend on Him.
When we depend on Him, we find out how strong we can be.
In his book, LOVING GOD, Charles Colson gives a powerful
example of human weakness and divine power. He tells about a
Russian Jewish doctor by the name of Boris Nicholayevich
Kornfield, a Russian Jewish doctor who was sentenced to a most
inhuman Russian prison for a political crime in the 1950s.
Because he was a physician he did receive some privileges in the
prison in return for treating other prisoners. Still he suffered
much abuse. His treatment would have in fact been unbearable
except that he developed a friendship with another prisoner who
through the quality of his witness brought Kornfield to a
Christian commitment.
Kornfield felt a great inner freedom after this in spite
of his oppressive environment. Still, he knew that his days were
numbered. He felt a great, almost overwhelming, need to share
this inner freedom with someone else.
He had a patient, a cancer patient, who was awaiting
surgery. Even though the patient was drifting in and out of
consciousness because of anesthesia, Kornfield shared with him
what Christ had done in his own life. Kornfield was so
enthusiastic about this change in his own life, that he caught
the patient's attention in spite of his brief lapses brought on
by the medicine. Late into the night, the doctor stayed with his
patient, sharing with him the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Later that night someone slipped into the doctor's quarters and
brutally bludgeoned him to death. From a human standpoint that
should be the end of the story--a tragic story ending only in
grief. However, it is not.
The patient recovered from his surgery and resumed his
life for a while in the prison. However, he was a changed man.
Because of Kornfield's testimony, he became a Christian--and what
a Christian he became. His name--Alexander Solzhenitszyn. Boris
Kornfield, in his weakness--in a prison, testifying to a cancer
patient semi-conscious from anesthesia only hours before himself
being brutally murdered--could not know that he was touching
someone who within a couple of decades would become one of the
world's most influential voices for Christ. (2) To God be the
glory. He is glorified in our weakness. God loves underdogs. What
a message of encouragement. What a statement of faith. But one
thing more.
WHAT A WORD OF WARNING.
If it is true that God loves the
underdog, what does that say to the inhabitants of the wealthiest
and most powerful nation in the world?
Someone has noted that the Scripture that people use most
in the condemnation of homosexuality is the story of Sodom and
Gomorrah. The usual reason given for the destruction of these
cities was sexual immorality--and that certainly was one reason
for it. Yet, when the prophet Ezekiel talked about this
destruction, he said: "This was the guilt of your sister Sodom:
she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous
ease, but did not aid the poor and needy." (Ezek. 16:49).
We live in a rapidly changing world. Consider the
movements occurring behind the Iron Curtain. Who could have
predicted them even a year ago? Who could have foreseen that
Japan, buried under the rubble of our bombs merely a generation
ago, would be perceived as the greatest threat to our national
prosperity today? It takes less time than we might think for the
world order to reverse itself and the last to become first.
Perhaps we need to think harder than we have ever thought before
about our relationships with the other peoples of this
world--particularly our neighbors who have so little.
As individuals, we also need to heed this word of
warning. Leo Tolstoy wrote the story of a Russian cobbler named
Martin Avdyeeich. Martin lived in a cellar with a single window.
From his vantage point he saw mostly boots of those who passed
by. Few there were that had not been touched by his hand.
While Martin was still a journeyman his wife died. Their
one son grew to be the pride of his life. Then he too died
suddenly, leaving Martin despairing and murmuring against God.
One day Martin was visited by an old peasant passing
through his city. He said to Martin, "Thy speech, Martin, is not
good. How shall we judge the doings of God? It is because thou
wouldst have lived for thine own delight that thou dost despair."
"But what is a man to live for" inquired Martin. The old
pilgrim answered, "For God, Martin. He gave thee life and for
Him thou must live. Then thou wilt grieve about nothing more,
and all things will come easy to thee."
The story continues with Martin finding fulfillment in
serving God by serving others. Many of us would find life
more fulfilling too if we understood that we have been blessed
primarily so that we can be a blessing. If we hoard our
possessions and despise our less fortunate neighbors, we will
discover too late that we have missed the Kingdom.
So be careful the next time you are invited to a banquet
that you sit in a position of lesser honor so that your host, Who
is God, can call you up to a more honored position. After all,
God loves underdogs.
