“I will make you a community of peoples.”  – Genesis 48:4 

When I went off to college one of the first people I met was a guy named Ralph who lived in the same dorm down the hall from me.  Ralph was a graduate from one of the big city high schools in a wealthy section of Houston, the exact polar opposite of the small Texas Panhandle town where I grew up.  At first I did not think much of it.  We both, after all, had proven to have attained the grades and credentials to gain admission into the same competitive university.  But Ralph was a curious sort of guy who found my rural upbringing to be a bit of a novelty which led to a great deal of conversation about the differences.  Since small town society was all I had ever known I was at first taken aback, not that Ralph was insulting, rather I had naively assumed people, Americans in general and Texans in particular, had much more in common than differences.

Ralph and I never saw each other again after that first semester, but I will forever remain grateful for those late-night dorm room conversations that helped prepare me and my future family to become happy and prosperous urban dwellers – like Ralph’s family had been – never to return to my rural roots.  Except, as the old saying goes, “you can take the boy out of the country, but you can never take the country out of the boy.”

Fast forward many years later, I was asked to speak to a roomful of Wall Street investment bankers in New York about a rather sensitive issue pertaining to the internal culture of our investment banking firm that was having a negative impact on relationships, and consequently the growth of our business.  I felt like I had gotten the short straw on that assignment; that is until I remembered my conversations with Ralph and his curiosity about rural life, which led me to share some stories about my experience growing up in a small town and what it was like to live together in community where we all knew each other, looked out for one another, and helped each other out.

In speaking to Jacob regarding the Promise Land God made it clear, “I will make you a community of peoples.”  Community!  That was the key message that day, and perhaps what Ralph’s curious mind was fishing for.  In small towns it is sort of an organic thing, but communities exist everywhere, as I have learned, including big cities.  It’s any place where people know each other, look out for one another, and help each other out.

“They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green . . .”  – Psalm 92:14 

If you were anything like me starting off in life you probably had this wild dream in the back of your mind that “if I can ever achieve enough financial success in life to have all the things I want, plus enough set aside so that I don’t have to break my back to make ends meet, I will have achieved the American dream.”  (Thankfully, some of you pursued a higher calling than me.)  Again, if you were like me the possibility of that ever happening was so remote that it was – well, just pure fantasy.  Looking back on that now, though, I realize how foolish I was; for I did eventually wake up one day and realize that achieving financial success is not necessarily all it’s cracked up to be.

In one of his many brilliant and convicting parables, Jesus tells of a rich man whose land produces an abundant harvest, enough so that the man decides he should build bigger barns in which to store his surplus grain, after which he plans to kick back and enjoy life for many years; “eat, drink and be merry,” he says (Luke 12:13-21).  At one time I would have agreed with the man.

I’m curious how the concept of retirement became so prevalent in our society, to the extent of almost being an entitlement.  Some speculate it was the establishment of Social Security, which as the average life-expectancy continues to increase, has evolved from being a stopgap for the aged as it was first intended, to becoming a long-term pension for the masses.  Others credit the decades of post-World War II prosperity that led to the growth of corporate pension plans and the ability to accumulate wealth through 401k plans and the like.  We all expect it though, don’t we, myself included.  Plus, we fear the warnings from the financial services industry (my old stomping ground) that if we fail to save enough for the “golden years” and invest it wisely our goose will surely be cooked.

Of course it’s wise that we should strive to attain adequate financial resources in order to provide for ourselves and our families in the future in case our ability to earn diminishes.  But more importantly, it frees us to use our time, treasure and energy for the benefit of others, and for the advancement of God’s Kingdom.  And if we can possibly do so, don’t we all have this wild dream in the back of our minds to live out our days like the Psalmist says? “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.”

“. . . be generous and willing to share.”  – 1Timothy 6:18 

At the suggestion of one of our staff members our corporate team one year committed to do something we had never done before at year end, pitch in a few bucks out of our own individual pockets and help someone who was struggling.  Prior to that our tradition had always been to have a party and exchange gifts among ourselves.  Instead, we were introduced to a family who had several children, the mother was battling cancer, and the father had lost his job.  As we learned more about them we were able to determine their specific needs, proper sizes of clothes, food and other household items they needed, and toys for the children’s Christmas, to name a few.  Then on a specified day we all collectively caravaned to their modest home to deliver Christmas.  One of our team members was even dressed as Santa.  Tears flowed on both sides, the givers and the recipients.  What we didn’t expect was how our whole business operation would be transformed by what we did, as we all began to change the way we treated others, and each other, launching a steady, rapid and significant growth period in our business.

Recently someone happened to mention the classic 1942 movie Citizen Kane starring Orson Welles, and even though I had heard about it all my life I realized I had never seen it, which prompted me to search it out and rent it on Amazon.  The long and short of the story is about a man who spent his whole life pursuing wealth and self-gratification, only to find himself in his later years a lonely old man withering away alone in his giant mansion.  Contrast that with another 1940’s era movie classic, It’s a Wonderful Life in which George Bailey sacrifices his dreams of wealth and success for the good of his family and community, yet in the end is declared the “richest man in town.”

As Frederick Buechner once wrote, “Our happiness is all mixed up with each other’s happiness and our peace with each other’s peace.  Our happiness, our own peace, can never be complete until we find some way of sharing it with people who . . . have no happiness and know no peace,” which is a great description of the lesson our team learned on that winter afternoon many years ago.  As the Apostle Paul wrote to his friend Timothy, “Command those who are rich in the present world not to . . . put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain . . . [but] to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”  Doing so can be transformational – both for the givers and recipients.

“. . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . .”  – Joshua 24:15 

Even in his old age our son Marc’s family dog Porter, a ninety-pound Lab-mix, remains the hilariously funny gentle-giant he’s always been, though still full of mischief every chance he gets.  My favorite mischief story about Porter occurred several years ago when he was left alone in the house and noticed the pantry door slightly ajar enabling him to open it with his nose.  You can imagine the feast that lay before him on those pantry shelves, except Porter decided to have some fun before digging into the groceries.  Up high was a brand new bag of flour which he reached up and grabbed in his giant jaws, carrying it into the family room where he tore it open and slung flour all over the entire room.  Well, you can just imagine the reaction when the family returned home!

“Bad dog!” screamed Mom and Dad over and over as they stood there stunned by such an incredible mess, as Porter cowered in the corner, tail tucked between his legs.  Enter our granddaughter Olive, maybe four or five at the time, tugging on her mother’s skirt.  “But Mommy,” she insisted, “Porter’s not really a bad dog, he just makes bad choices.”

Olive may not realize it, but she is a true philosopher, for what is dog-nature in Porter’s case is often human-nature for many of us; that is, we may be good people at heart, but sometimes we make bad choices.  I recall back in fifth grade there was this neighbor kid a few years older than me who lived across the alley from us with whom I started hanging out some.  He taught me all kinds of bad things, like cuss words and what they meant, to name just a few.  Fortunately, my parents were paying attention and got me redirected before anything bad happened – from the bad choice of company I was keeping.

Through the granting of free will God left us with the responsibility of making choices, and like Porter being left alone in the house with the pantry door ajar, sometimes we find ourselves overcome by temptation and make bad choices.  Except, unlike animals, we were also given the gift of reasoning to help us weigh the consequences of those choices in order to determine the potential outcomes.  As God’s chosen the Israelites, like us, were not bad people, but often made bad choices.  Thus their leader Joshua issued a challenge, “choose this day whom you will serve.”  Think!  Look at the history of your ancestors.  What were the consequences?  The same choices that apply to us today.

“. . . you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”  – Matthew 11:25 

A major corporation could not figure out how one of its competitors consistently outperformed them in nearly every measurable category such as profitability, stock performance, customer satisfaction, employee retention, and safety.  Both were excellent companies and among the world’s largest. A friend of mine, a fellow executive coach, who happened to be doing some contract work with the company at the time, shared with me how the company had employed brilliant people to do exhaustive studies of their competitor’s processes and business model, yet failed to identify the secret sauce of their success. The secret it seems, that in addition to their exceptional processes and business model, was their focus on people – customers, vendors, employees – and how they were treated and cared for. It was right before their eyes yet hidden in plain sight.

You may be familiar with the story about the lesson Fred Rogers, of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fame, had learned from his mother. “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news,” he once shared with his television audience, “my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people helping.’”  A powerful message for sure, but I wonder how impactful it might have been were it not for two words, which until recently I had failed to notice – “look for.”  Amid all the scary news, Mrs. Rogers was trying to teach her young son that there are also beautiful things going on by good people. . . BUT, you have to remember to “look for” it.

Told together these two stories offer a metaphor for Jesus’ teaching, “. . . you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”  My coach friend kept encouraging the “wise and learned” corporate executives to “look for” how their competitor treated people, the true secret of their success, which though in plain sight, remained hidden; while a small child, through his mother’s encouragement, “looked for” and discovered much goodness taking place even amidst scary news.

We too are constantly subjected to scary news, yet how like the “wise and learned” we neglect to “look for” the helpers, the goodness of people – our neighbors and friends, sometimes hidden in plain sight. They are our hope and good news amidst the scary.