Preached August 18, 1991, evening service First Baptist Church, Garrett, Indiana
A prosperous executive whose work required frequent travel decided to buy his own plane. He took flying lessons and was soon quite comfortable with his more convenient transportation. After a few years he decided to purchase a pontoon plane so he could fly back & forth from his beautiful summer home on the lake.
On his first flight in his new plane, he forgetfully started to head for the airport landing strip, just as he had always done. Luckily, his wife was with him & when she saw what he was doing, she chirped, "Pull up, George, pull up! You can't land on a runway. You have pontoons! You don't have wheels!"
Looking flushed & humbled, the businessman quickly hit the throttle and veered off toward the lake. Landing safely in the still blue water, he shook his head ruefully and said, "I don't know where my mind was. I just wasn't thinking. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever done."
Then he opened the door and stepped out into the lake.
My mind operates like that sometimes, does yours? Some people have it so altogether. They never commit a faux pas (foe-paw). They always know the right thing to do. Then there are the rest of us. Those of us who step absentmindedly into the lake.
Actually if you are a bit absent-minded, pat yourself on the back. It simply means that you are preoccupied with great thoughts--at least I trust they are great.
Albert Einstein was so absentminded that he once used a $1,500 Rockefeller Foundation check as a bookmark--& then lost the book. Just tell people you are another Einstein if they wonder why you have misplaced your glasses for the thousandth time.
Actually, being absent-minded is not all that bad--as long as you watch where you walk.
The Apostle Paul wasn't addressing his remarks only to the absent-minded, though, when he writes in our text for the day, "Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil...."
What does Paul mean when he says, "Be careful how you walk ...?" Fortunately, he tells us.
FIRST OF ALL, HE SAYS TO USE OUR HEADS.
He writes, "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery...." In other words, use your head! Don't do anything stupid! Don't foul up your life! I sound like a nagging parent, don't I? I hope I sound like a loving parent.
You see, there are all kinds of foolishness. Some kinds can be avoided, some can't.
A colonel frowned impatiently as he watched a young lieutenant drill his platoon. Sweat was beginning to bead on the young lieutenant's forehead. His voice showed the strain of his superior's scrutiny. He attempted to direct his men thru an intricate maneuver. Eventually, the poor lieutenant had his troops marching 8 abreast toward the edge of a cliff. Completely unnerved, he froze--unable to speak.
Finally the colonel barked, "Good heavens, man, at least tell them good-bye."
That is an example, perhaps, of unavoidable foolishness. Any of us might panic in such a situation.
There is another kind of foolishness, though, a kind that is avoidable. It consists of those little, stupid things in our lives--little things that so often bring us down. Those things that we know need changing but somehow we never get around to. And all the time those "little" things are keeping us from being all God created us to be.
We ought to learn a lesson from the Goodyear blimp Columbia. The giant 192' long helium blimp was recently punctured by a small radio-controlled model airplane. The damage was too slight to cause the blimp to crash, but the hole in the blimp was big enough to cause a constant loss of helium. Hence, the blimp couldn't function the way it was supposed to & could only limp along until the hole was repaired.
Some of us are limping along. We have holes in our lives that we try to ignore. We need to face our problems & get them fixed.
It is interesting to watch the slowly changing attitude in our society toward alcohol. This new attitude isn't coming from the churches or the schools, but from society itself. Even Budweiser is telling us to "know when to say when." Society is starting to wake up.
Don Imus, once one of New York City's leading radio personalities, spoke at Queens College (NY) sometime back at the school's Drug Awareness Day. Imus was simple & pointed. "I'm an alcoholic & drug addict," he said.
Imus had lost his job in New York in 1977 "for drinking Scotch & doing coke." Imus related how his father drank away a fortune before dying in 1954 "with $13 in the bank." "I swore that I'd never be like my father," Imus said. But he was wrong. He became, by his own admission, a "violent, awful drunk...." He was spending $3,000-$4,000 a week on cocaine. Imus said that while he was lying in a stupor in his office, a friend suggested that he might have a drinking problem & should attend Alcohol Anonymous. He did and was able to get his life back together.
Not everybody who abuses alcohol or drugs is that fortunate. Some don't get smart until it's too late. "Do not be foolish...." Paul says. Be careful how you walk. Use your head.
THEN HE SAYS THAT WE ARE TO OPEN OUR HEARTS.
We read, "...be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms & hymns & spiritual songs & making melody to the Lord with all your heart...."
That sounds like a description of the early church at its best. Gathering in each other's homes, rejoicing in their faith, sharing all things in common--the early church experienced God's Spirit in power & in fellowship. That is when God is most real in our lives--when we open our hearts to His Spirit & to each other.
John R. Westerhoff tells a story about the 3 little pigs. Years had passed since the crisis with the wolf. The family of the 3 little pigs had settled down comfortably in their brick house in the suburbs. Gradually boredom set in. Something was missing in their lives. The 3 pigs decided that what they were missing had to do with love. They determined to go out & seek love's meaning.
The first little pig went to the university library & read all she could on the subject of love. When she had finished she had learned a great deal about love, but her life was still empty.
The 2nd little pig read in the newspaper that a famous pig was coming to town to deliver a series of sermons on the subject of love. The second little pig attended all the sermons & was filled with enthusiasm & emotions.
His emotional high lasted 4 days, & then his life became pretty much as empty as it had been before.
The 3rd little pig invited 2 other pig families over to their house one evening & all the little pigs began to share their life stories, continuing until late in the night. They found this so interesting that they decided to meet together regularly to share experiences & life together. In time they came to care about each other very deeply. One evening, after the other families had left, the 3rd little pig said to her siblings "Now I know what love is, for I have experienced it.
That's the kind of love that happened in the N.T. church. That is the kind of love the Apostle Paul yearns for each of us to experience. When the church really is the church, we are visiting in one another's homes. We are breaking bread together. We are worshipping & studying & singing with one accord.
Life cannot beat us down when we are joined like that. Sin cannot mar our lives. Despair cannot take up residence in the open heart. Be careful how you walk. Use your head. Have an open heart--open to God & open to one another.
FINALLY, PAUL SAYS WE ARE TO LIFT OUR HANDS IN THANKSGIVING,
"...always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." That's a great secret of life--to develop the gratitude attitude.
John Killinger tells about one of his parishioners--a man by the name of Ralph Kelly. Killinger describes him as a tall, handsome, white-headed man--a Purdue graduate, an engineer, a businessman, a counselor, a friend bubbling with energy all the time. Killinger's description of Ralph is a winning one. Do you know the first thing Ralph does when he drops a lead pencil? Pick it up? No. The first thing he does is look up & say, "Thank you. Sir!"
Then he tries to figure out what he's thankful for. In the case of the lead pencil, he says, "The first thing I think of is that I'm thankful for gravity. If it hadn't been for gravity, my pencil wouldn't have fallen down there where I could get it. It would have gone off up there somewhere, & I would never see it again."
Then he says, "Thank you for graphite. If it weren't for graphite, we wouldn't have lead pencils." Then he's thankful for trees from which we get the wood that makes pencils. And he's thankful for the engineering that makes pencils. And he's thankful for chemical engineering that made possible the eraser that crowns the lead pencils & takes care of the mistakes he makes.
Ralph does that for everything. If he has a flat tire he pulls off to the side of the road & after he says, "Thank you, Sir," he thinks of the things he's thankful for. Maybe it's because he found a wide place in the road where he had his flat tire & he could pull off without any threat on the highway.
Maybe he's thankful that he got only one flat tire & not 2 or 3. Maybe he's thankful that when he gets out of the car he gives his back a rest & can get a little exercise.
Whatever it is, he looks up and he says, "Thank you, Sir!" And then he thinks about all the things he's thankful for. He says, "If you can think of one or 2, you're going to feel better. If you can think of 4 or 5, you're doing well."
Now, some of you are going to dismiss Ralph Kelly as an unrealistic Pollyanna. But what is the alternative when things foul up as they sometimes do? Raise your blood pressure a few degrees as you curse your luck? Shout & scream & give everyone around you ulcers? Bottle it all up until you have a cardiac arrest? Wouldn't it be better to do as Ralph Kelly does &, as Paul suggests in I Thessalonians 5:18: "...give thanks in all things"? You & I would live longer if we did. And we would enjoy life more.
Be careful how you walk. Good advice. Use your head. Open your heart. Lift up your hands in thanksgiving & praise. In other words, walk like Christ. Follow his example. Watch how he walks. Walk the same way.
