For today’s editorial I’ve got in mind to present a few short, but I hope thoughtful, lessons for you to consider. Just a few little things that caught my attention at one time or another and caused me to think, in a parabolic way, about a spiritual application to lay alongside of them. Without further ado, we’ll get right on this.
My first "thing" stems from something a great thinker and author of our current generation, a man by the name of Thomas Sowell, recently said. Because of various national news items we’ve witnessed in the last couple of years and especially in light of our latest "trial" currently going on, I thought Thomas’s words here most appropriate.
He said: "If you believe that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a "radical" 60 years ago. A "liberal" 30 years ago and a "racist" today."
Here’s my spiritual application to those words of Mr. Sowell, who I should point out is a black-American. To me this is just another example of man’s way of operating IE: nothing stays the same. Nothing has standards that remain standard. Man has adopted the philosophy of "Situational Ethics" meaning that, depending on the situation, the "ethics" and the "standards" are changeable.
Aren’t you glad that you worship and serve a God that doesn’t operate with that philosophy? A God who’s rules and standards are the same for everyone at all ages and times. Another way of saying this is, that with God, the "situation" is constant - it doesn’t change. He doesn’t change and tells us this very thing in Malachi 3:6, "For I am the Lord, I change not..." And the same applies to our Savior Jesus Christ as we see in Heb. 13:8, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever."
I’m going to call my next little "thing" a lesson in "religious economics." It would be funny if it wasn’t quite so true. And, I think that you’ll "get" the spiritual application without me having to add my comments to it. It’s pretty much a self-contained lesson. See if you don’t agree.
A man once wrote: I heard of a minister who left the pulpit to go to medical school and become a doctor. An old friend saw him several years later and expressed surprise at his career change, but said he assumed it had been because he could care for people in a more concrete way now that he was practicing medicine.
"Not at all," the doctor responded honestly, "the reasons were purely economic. I discovered that people will pay more money to care for their bodies than for their souls."
Several years lapsed before the friend saw him again and discovered that he had left medicine for law. "What was your reason this time?" the friend asked.
"Simple economics again," replied the ex-minister, ex-doctor attorney. "I learned that people will pay more to prove they are right than to care for either body or soul."
Okay, now my last "thing" is a little story presented in sort of a fable-type parable. It begins this way: The Pencil Maker took the pencil aside, just before putting him into the box. There are five things you need to know, he told the pencil, before I send you out into the world. Always remember them, and never forget, and you will become the best pencil you can be.
(1) You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in someone’s hand.
The Word tells us: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand
of God, that He may exalt you in due time." (1Pet. 5:6)
(2) You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but you will need it to become a better pencil.
The Word tells us: "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1Pet. 1:7)
(3) You will be able to correct any mistakes you might make.
The Word tells us: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1John 1:9)
(4) The most important part of you will be what is inside.
The Word tells us: Christians have "come out" from the world and are "separate."
(2Cor. 6:17) and 2Pet. 1:4-8 shows the "inside" part of a Christian - the character.
(5) On every surface you are used, you must leave your mark. No matter what the condition, you must continue to write.
The Word tells us: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." (2Tim. 4:2)
The pencil understood, promised to remember, and went into the box with purpose in its heart.
My closing comment on this little parable: can’t all of us see ourselves as this little pencil? One that has been created by God, the Pencil Maker, and given His instructions for how to live the best Christian life we can? That, with the guidance and strength of God, we’ll be able to do many things for His glory.
Sure, there will be times when things don’t go just right for us. We’ll suffer hardships and sorrow as we live our earthly lives (occupy our "box"), but we’ll be able to handle them and come out stronger in faith. As faithful "pencils" we have forgiveness of sins, we can correct our mistakes. And our character, our "inside parts," brought into us by our "faith" sets us apart from the world and is "most important" because it’s what the world sees.
The last comment I’m going to make is about - our "mark." Seeing yourself as a "pencil," I think it’s imperative that we should be continually aware of what kind of "mark" we’re leaving behind. There’s a great old hymn whose title asks the question that is so appropriate to this last thought. That hymn is "What Will I Leave Behind" and if it’s not talking about our life’s "marks" then I’ve totally misunderstood the words of the song. It’s found on page 685 of our songbook and I encourage you to read it’s lyrics.
As we make our "marks" on all the "surfaces" we can, let’s strive to leave "marks" that bring glory to the "Pencil Maker" rather than "marks" representing the "beast" (Rev. 14:9). Instead, we start our "marking" career by bearing in our body "the marks of the Lord Jesus" (Gal. 6:17) and spread those "marks" throughout our journey as God’s "pencils."
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Covey
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