“Two are better than one. . . If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!  – Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 

Mike and his sidekick Kent were two high school boys I used to hire occasionally to do odd jobs on the small ranch we once owned.  Mike, a big bruiser of a guy, was definitely the alpha of the pair and always the spokesman.  I loved his attitude because every time I asked them to do something he would always answer, “Yeah, we can to that.”  I never heard him express any doubt about any task I ever asked them to do.  In his mind, I do believe, they could do anything.  Of course, most of the chores I had for them were of the manual labor variety and those guys were plenty stout.

There is sort of a legendary story about those two and their can-do spirit, as I later learned, that occurred before I had gotten to know them.  Seems that a couple of years prior when they were barely old enough to drive, someone offered them an old upright piano if they would be willing to haul it away. Those boys, hard-working entrepreneurs that they were, saw opportunity in the proposition, figuring they could spiff it up a bit and sell it for a tidy sum.  So, after heaving the piano onto the back of a flatbed trailer hitched behind a pickup truck borrowed from one of their dads, off they drove with dollar signs in their eyes and Mike at the wheel – that is until Mike rounded a curve a little too fast slinging the piano off the trailer into the middle of the highway where it smashed into a million pieces.  Poor Kent!  He just stood there in the road, distraught and shaking his head.  But not can-do Mike, who put his arm around his friend’s shoulders and in a cheerful tone said, “Don’t worry, buddy, we can fix it!”  Of course, they had about as much chance putting Humpty-Dumpty back together as that old smashed up piano.

I have long since lost touch with those two young lads, who by now are no doubt out in the adult world somewhere, probably with families of their own and established careers.  Whatever they are doing I have no doubt they are successful.  Who wouldn’t be with their work ethic, enthusiasm, and entrepreneurial spirit.  But they also had something that some never learn, they knew the value of teamwork – having buddies, partners, friends alongside.  “Two are better than one,” the wise teacher in Ecclesiastes explains, “If one falls down, his friend can help him up.”  And what an example those two guys were.  “But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up.”

“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  Genesis 1:27

We’re all capable of much more than we think we are.

When I was in high school we had a track coach who tried to convince us that there is no limit how fast a person can run.  We thought he was out of his mind.  Who, for example, could ever imagine someone running a hundred-yard dash in, say, three seconds?  Truth is, though, the coach was not out of his mind, he was simply challenging the limitations we held in our own minds.  Plus, there was validation for his theory – an event that occurred on May 6, 1954 in Oxford, England when Roger Bannister became the first runner in recorded history to run a mile in less than four minutes.  Prior to that there had been a universal belief that it was physically impossible for a human being to run a mile that fast. . . But we’re all capable of much more than we think we are.

Who will ever forget, even if only from history, President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961.  “I believe,” he said, “that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”  Was he out of his mind, many thought at the time?  No, like my old coach he was simply challenging the limitations we held in our own minds.  And we all know the rest of the story.  On July 20, 1969, before the end of the decade, Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the moon before returning safely to earth on July 24. . . We’re all capable of much more than we think we are.

What parent has not recognized more potential in their children than their children were able to see in themselves?  And if that’s true about parents and children, imagine the potential God must see in each one of us.  For, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.”  Therefore, doesn’t it stand to reason that if we are made in the image of the Omnipotent God, that we’re capable of much more than we think we are?  I think that is what the coach in his great wisdom was trying to teach us boys on the track team, if not about running then certainly about what is imbedded within the human spirit, a message I have never forgotten.  And it’s what gives me hope today in these challenging times we live in – wisdom from a small town high school track coach.

“You have stayed long enough at this mountain.”  – Deuteronomy 1:6 

Sometimes I still miss those high-level corporate meetings I used to attend several times a year at the company headquarters in New York.  I always came back full of new ideas and enthusiasm, renewed and refreshed from all I learned, and from hanging out with my colleagues.   It was like a mountaintop experience, and I could hardly wait to get back and share it all with my team.

Except inevitably my presentations would fall flat and I was quickly brought back down to earth.  To be fair, I had experienced the mountaintop and they had not, so understandably they did not share my zeal.  So, instead of buy-in their initial response was often pushback, partly from a stubborn resistance to change, but more practically from procedural details that were lacking.  And that is what always brought me back to the real world, leaving me with two major challenges.   One was trying to convince my team to embrace the new idea, the other to communicate back up the food chain those details that must be ironed out before that grand plan of theirs could be implemented..

It is an ancient leadership predicament, as Moses faced a similar issue, who following his mountaintop experience being inspired by a burning bush, descended the mountain to lead the Israelites out of bondage into the Promised Land.  But the Israelites pushed back, both from lack of faith, as well as a very practical matter of lack of food and water.  This left Moses with two difficult challenges; one, to convince and encourage the Israelites to persevere toward their destiny, and to remind God that his chosen people were hungry and thirsty.

Birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, retreats, and high-level corporate meetings, even quiet solitary times with a cup of coffee, all mountaintop moments providing much needed renewal, refreshment, and inspiration, not to mention pleasure.  Yet, as much as we sometimes wish those moments would never end, we must be careful not to linger too long.  As Moses reminds us, “You have stayed long enough at the mountain.”  We are still needed down the mountain, to convince and encourage, and to tend to those everyday practical details.  While those mountaintop corporate meetings inspired great ideas, it was back home with my team where they got executed.  That’s where life happens.

“And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”  – Luke 12:19 

Question: “What do retirement funds, college degrees, and nuclear submarines have in common?”  Answer: “They are all designed to give us a sense of security – security for our future, security in our vocation, and security for our protection.”  So, that little riddle got me thinking, do they really?  Yet security in this increasingly insecure world seems to be one of today’s most sought after – and elusive – commodities.

Several years ago I suffered a sudden and unexpected medical event that nearly took my life.  It should have actually, except for the quick action of my wife, and by the grace of God.  And it happened despite my best efforts to do the right things – exercise, regular checkups, decent diet, hard work, retirement savings, and a college education – which according to conventional wisdom should have made my life secure.  Right?

Didn’t Jesus tell a parable sort of similar?  It was about a rich man whose land produced such a good crop he decided to build bigger barns to store it in, for he was certain he had enough to be secure for years to come; that is, until he received this startling wakeup call from God: “You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.” 

For years I had mistakenly believed, like the rich man, that true accomplishment could be measured by how much we had stacked in the barn.  But if my health incident taught me anything it was to beware of such thinking; that in fact there is but one measure of true accomplishment in this life and that is to fulfill the purposes for which God uniquely created each of us.

If you’re thinking like I did that when you have enough stacked in the barn you can just take life easy, eat, drink and be merry; beware, for you never know when your life may be demanded of you.  It was precisely fifteen years ago this very day, in fact, when I was released from the hospital after my own wakeup call, and since then not a day has gone by I do not thank God for another chance to fulfill those purposes for which I was created.  “Watch out!  Be on your guard,” Jesus warned, “[for] a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  – Hebrews 12:1 

When I was a child my parents generously paid for me to have piano lessons.  I think I was in first grade when I started, and it seemed kind of fun at the beginning.  Except pretty soon my parents, in collaboration with the piano teacher, spoiled the whole thing by demanding that I practice every day.  That was the pits, interrupting playtime with my friends.  At best I practiced the minimum I could get by with to keep them off my back.  That went on for several years until my progress at learning piano ground to a halt.

After that I refused to touch the piano even to play Chopsticks, until high school when I became buddies with a guy who was an amazingly entertaining piano player.  He could play almost anything, always attracting a crowd.  Wow, I thought, if only I could do that!  So, for the first time in years I started tinkering with the piano, learning to play a handful of songs from sheet music reasonably well, yet still far from how my friend could perform, his fingers flying across the keyboard.  But it did motivate me to practice.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book Outliers he suggests there is a 10,000-hour rule, that to truly master a skill requires the dedication of practicing a minimum of 10,000 hours.  To put that in perspective, to put in 10,000 hours of practice over a period of five years would require approximately 5.5 hours per day of practice – every day!  Even if I had been obedient to my parents and music teacher I would not have even come close.

Some experts have disagreed with Gladwell’s 10,000-hour theory, and while I am not knowledgeable enough to argue either side, one thing seems obvious to me; for about the same time I became enamored with piano I was also passionate about basketball.  Yet I knew instinctively that even if I shot hoops all day, that between my five-foot-seven-inch stature and my mediocre athletic ability I would be lucky to earn the right to suit up.  And anything beyond that was simply laughable.  Same with the piano, for my friend possessed something I severely lacked just as I did with basketball – God-given talent.

Paul’s version of the 10,000-hour rule goes like this, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  For as I have learned, to live a full, productive, and abundant life, regardless of any God-given talents, demands a lifetime of hard work and practice.