“Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look!  This is something new?’”

• Ecclesiastes 1:10 

For many years during the first half of the twentieth century, approximately 1915-1950, my family, that is my grandfather and later my dad, were engaged in the business of operating ice plants in several small towns.  In those days ice was an essential commodity for keeping food cool in the iceboxes people kept in their homes.  Ice was delivered door-to-door out of the back of a wagon drawn by a team of mules from which the iceman would carry large blocks of ice into people’s homes every few days to replace what had slowly melted away.  By mid-century, however, iceboxes had been replaced by modern refrigerators which rendered the ice delivery business, and the iceman, obsolete.  What else became obsolete?  When did you last see a mule-drawn delivery wagon going down your street?  Can you imagine such a thing in this age of Amazon?

Times change, don’t they?  We all know that, perhaps better than any previous generation; for with the rapid advancement of technology times change in matters of weeks and months rather than years.  Consider for instance the iceman.  While his job did eventually become obsolete, his profession nevertheless had a lifespan of some thirty-five or forty years – or more – if my dates are anywhere near correct.  Nowadays?  According to one source I read recently, the average “shelf life” of a job skill in today’s marketplace is approximately eleven months, after which it becomes obsolete.

Times change, don’t they?  The writer of Ecclesiastes seems to disagree; except, I don’t think he is referring to methodologies or processes or technological advancements, rather of human nature.  Do we not face the same temptations of those who preceded us thousands of years ago – pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth, often referred to as the seven deadly sins?  Yet, don’t we still measure good character by the same virtuous behaviors the Apostle Paul called the “fruits of the spirit” – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?  Sometimes I get so distracted by these rapidly changing times that I lose sight of what – and more importantly Who – is at our very core.  Perhaps you do too.  “Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look!  This is something new?’”  questions the writer of Ecclesiastes.  “It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.”

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize . . .”  Philippians 3:14 

When I entered my freshman year of high school I had a dream.  That dream was to earn, as a freshman, a varsity letter jacket in a sport, any sport, didn’t matter which one.  For a little shrimp of guy like me with only modest athletic ability it was a tall order, or what Jim Collins refers to in his book Good to Great as a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.  To compound the challenge I didn’t play football, freshmen were relegated to the junior varsity basketball squad, and our school did not have a baseball team at the time, which left only one sport – track, and I wasn’t very fast.  I did have, though, enough endurance to run long distance races, which was my only hope.  But despite my hard work and diligent training I still fell short, never so much as even placing in a single race.  So, by the end of my freshman year my big dream became a bust, and I was heartbroken.

Then one day during summer break the doorbell rang.  I answered the door and there to my surprise stood Coach Higdon, our school’s Athletic Director, holding a package.  “What’s this?” I asked as he presented it to me.  “It’s your letter jacket,” he replied.  “But, but I didn’t . . .” I stammered.  “It’s for golf,” he smiled before I could finish my sentence.  Golf?  I had forgotten all about that, didn’t know anyone paid attention to golf or even considered it a varsity sport.  “You guys won the district championship in golf, remember?  That earned you a letter jacket.”  I was speechless!  But it was true, we were the first golf team our school ever had and by some miraculous stroke of fate, for which my golf teammates deserve most of the credit, we had won the district championship – and my dream, my BHAG, had come true after all.  After the coach left I carried my new letter jacket into my room where, all alone, I buried my face in it and wept.

Dreams and BHAGs are sometimes fulfilled in unexpected ways.  As Julia Cameron explains in her book The Artist’s Way, “We shake the apple tree, but sometimes the universe delivers oranges.”  More plain spoken about the shaking of the apple tree, the Apostle Paul simply says, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize.”  But the prize is sometimes a surprise, a bushel of oranges instead of apples, and often a more meaningful award than we ever dreamed, like my high school letter jacket.  Even more reason to keep pressing on; for God’s BHAG’s are always bigger and more expansive than our own.

“Carry each other’s burdens . . .”  – Galatians 6:2 

One of the positive things about aging – and yes there are a few – is the acceptance of and appreciation for help from others.  As one who has always been reluctant to ask for help, believing it to be a sign of weakness, this has been a huge transformation for me.  Two lessons I have learned through this process are that one, age is not the reason I need, accept, and appreciate help; rather it is that with age I finally wised up to the fact that we all need help from others regardless of our age, and that accepting help is a sign of strength and wisdom, not weakness.  And two, in my determination to do everything on my own, I felt little inclination to recognize, much less to help others in need.

There is an old Scottish tale I once read about a small girl trudging along carrying a young boy in her arms not much smaller than herself.  A passerby, noticing the girl toting such a heavy load for her size, expressed concern that it might be too much for her.  But the girl joyfully replied in her thick Scottish accent, “He’s na heavy.  He’s mi brither.” . . .   Notably, it was that same Scottish parable that would eventually inspire the familiar hit song recorded by The Hollies in 1969, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.”

“The road is long,” the lyrics say, “With many a winding turn / That leads us to who knows where? . . . But I’m strong / Strong enough to carry him / He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother / So on we go / His welfare is my concern / No burden is he to bear / We’ll get there / For I know / He would not encumber me / He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother / If I’m laden at all / I’m laden with sadness / That everyone’s heart / Isn’t filled with gladness / Of love for one another . . . And the load / Doesn’t weigh me down at all / He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

As a young man I was convinced that it was up to me to make my own way.  But as life has taught me, no one should ever think that he or she is totally independent and doesn’t need help from others.  Nor should anyone feel excused from the task of helping others.  For God has surely placed us on this earth to help each other along the way, or as the Apostle Paul puts it, to “carry each other’s [our brothers’ and sisters’] burdens.”  The Scottish girl had figured out at a young age what has taken me a lifetime to learn, “He’s na heavy.  He’s mi brither.”

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded . . .”  – Luke 12:48 

“You will be like God,” the notorious serpent assured Eve in the garden, thus enticing she and Adam to take a bite of the fruit God had clearly forbidden them to eat.  Ever since that incident that precipitated the fall of mankind almost every child starting around age two has carried on the tradition of believing they too can be like God.  Anyone who has ever been involved in raising or teaching small children knows what I’m talking about.  And one of the symptomatic behaviors of that age is the demanding phrase “I want!”  I want a cookie, I want that toy, I want ice cream, I want you to swing me.  In our household we refer to it as having a case of the “I wants.”

One of our grandchildren happened to be going through that stage of the “I wants” a few years ago when I saw an opportunity to give her a dose of her own medicine.  It happened one weekend during a sleepover at our house, when we got up early on Saturday morning and cooked up a big platter of pancakes, her favorite.  Sure enough, in the blink of an eye she grabbed the biggest one for herself and plopped it down on her plate.  That’s when I stuck out my bottom lip and cried out in a whiney voice, “But I wanted that one!!!”  My hope was that she might get a glimpse of what she sounded like when she had the “I wants,” maybe teach her a lesson.  Fast forwarding a few years, either it worked, or she eventually out-grew the “I wants” because now that whiney voiced “I wanted that one!” has become a joke between us, a trick she plays on me as much as I do her.

Now I am no child psychologist, but it seems to me that the “I want” phase can be healthy in a child’s development, that is if it is channeled properly to develop ambition and work ethic instead of becoming a spoiled brat by being given everything they want.  Likewise, ambition too can be healthy if it is channeled in such a way that leads the child to success (however that is measured).  Success, however, must not be the ultimate outcome, for success is healthy only when it is channeled toward responsibility, meaning responsibility for others – our families, neighbors, communities, for those less fortunate – that is, loving our neighbors as ourselves.  Success thrives only when it is shared, just as surely as it will die when squandered on self-gratification.  Jesus made that point crystal clear, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

• Ecclesiastes 3:1 

Whew!  What a relief getting a reprieve from the scorching temperatures of the Texas summer, that relentless perpetual heat wave that seems to have no end in sight.  Not that hot summers are unusual in Texas; they are simply part of where we live.  In my lifetime, rarely have there been summers of mild temperatures and higher than normal rainfall.

If I appear to be whining about the summer heat it is because I am.  Just wait a couple of months, though, and you’ll catch me whining about having to rake the fall leaves in my yard week after week.  And by February I will be sick to death of cold weather.  Then around mid-May I’ll be complaining about my spring allergies.  Whine!  Whine!  Whine!

But here is the flip side.  I love beautiful fall days, crisp mornings, autumn colors, pumpkin flavored coffee, and football games.  It is one of my favorite seasons.  I also love cold winter days sitting by the fire reading a book, watching sports on TV, preparing for the Christmas holidays.  And I love springtime when the weather begins to warm, the days grow longer, and the outdoors begins to green up and blossom.  Then, amazingly, I even look forward to summertime once again, long days to spend outdoors, knocking around in Bermuda shorts and my favorite Keen’s sandals, cooking on the grill, eating on the patio, having picnics, or attending outdoor concerts.

Interesting, isn’t it, the push and pull of seasonal changes, how we soon grow weary and bored from day-after-day long hot days?  That’s the push.  But the anticipation of fall, crisp mornings, milder days, and early sunsets, that’s the pull.  Sometimes I think God must have created the annual seasons – winter, spring, summer, and fall – to prepare us for the seasonal changes of life – childhood to adolescence to young adulthood to middle, then old age.  There, too, we experience the push and pull of transitioning from one season to the next. . . Except, it has been the last one that has surprised me the most, even though at the top of my game having grown weary of those hard-charging middle years – the push – yet anticipating new work to do, a higher calling, accepting a more humble position within my family and community – that is the pull.  It is so true, isn’t it?  “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”