August 29, 2014
Added to the Account
I am on Facebook and although
I don’t use it to communicate to others, I read some of the comments posted by
friends and family. Recently I unfriended a friend, not because of what they wrote, but because they re-posted
some unsavory comments from their friends. Unfortunately, the trash talk of their
friends is a reflection on them when they think what is said is funny enough repeat,
or in this case, to attach to our own account. Paul uses the words from a Greek
tragedy to address those who said there was no resurrection, but I think it has
a ring of truth in this situation as well. “Do not be misled: “Bad company
corrupts good character.” (1 Cor 15:33 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I am reading the auto-biography of one of my clients, who has come to be a good friend. He is mid-seventies, and he is staunchly atheistic. He bristles at the mention of God, or Christianity, or Jesus, or of anything obviously spawned from new life in Christ. Yet, his life from its beginning has been structured in realistic attitudes towards the people around him. He notes and deals with the belligerent and destructive people he’s encountered, even the ones who’ve damaged him, by discerning what they are without derogating them any further than the effects of what they’ve done derogate themselves. Nor does he hide what they’ve done to themselves. What they’ve done to him he repairs, if it can be repaired, replaces, if it can be replaced, or simply moves on with an honest good-bye to what they’ve indelibly destroyed. But of them, he speaks honestly, even if that means speaking something good about someone who has hurt him. Of course, it would be nice if he showed the same honesty towards the Lord.
-----But his life story shows both the forbearance of God (unintended by him, I assure you) and the blessings of integrity. It has been a trail of blessings, though he heaps upon the Lord all the excess disdain he does not heap upon his fellow humans (excepting politicians - what else would have made him my friend?) His life plays like the pinball that won’t go down, lighting up the scoreboard with a Beethoven like crescendo of dinging, donging, chiming points. It isn’t that he has had any better luck than anyone else. His beginnings would have destroyed many other people if it were theirs. But rather than spending his time in scorn over what some people had done to him, he spent it in determining to fashion each situation into its place within a developing picture of prosperous adventure reaped from benefiting others, that is, business the pure capitalist way. For instance, he could have grown vindictive towards his abusive mother, but at six he took to helping in his dad’s small business and thus learned business and the taste for its adventures. He could have walked the way of contempt over being inducted into the Army only months before the beginning of the Viet-Nam War. But he put down his contempt and picked up a challenge to work himself into a service position least likely to land him in the Eastern jungles of flying lead. Thus, the construction expertise he developed while working for his dad elevated him to the rank of Lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers by his simply offering those skills and doing competent work on the ever more important projects his superiors in turn entrusted to him. And this person more willing to serve than to dote upon the faults of others (except politicians) impressed his superiors, which impressions landed him in the Harvard Business School master program regardless of his having had only a couple college semesters of formal education beyond high school.
-----There is something attractive about paying attention to simple processes of constructiveness. It doesn’t matter whether those are in art or business or merely being nice to others. They build upon what they build. And if what they build is solid the structure becomes beneficial to everyone it effects. And if their foundation is the Lord, their benefits are eternal. Now, if I can by some means or process influence my friend towards acknowledging the indestructible foundation, then we can all enjoy some of his company for eternity. I think that means or process might well have to do with choosing carefully what to say or pass on about others.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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