“Let us not become weary in doing good . . .” – Galatians 6:9 

What had started out as a delightful morning suddenly came to a screeching halt, followed by several hours in the emergency room and eighteen painful stitches in her upper lip.  It happened several years ago when my wife Tee went out for her early morning jog.  Being both a nature lover and a fitness buff, she was loving the moment; that is, until she crossed a wooden footbridge that, unknown to her, had become slick from an early morning dew causing her to slip.  As accidents often do, it happened so fast that she had no time to catch herself as she landed face down on the asphalt, her upper lip receiving the brunt of the damage.  There she lay alone – traumatized, bleeding, and a mile-and-a-half from home – when out of nowhere appeared a stranger who came to her aid.  The lady helped her get back on her feet, tended to her wounds as best she could, then assisted her in getting safely back home.

Funny thing is we are on that trail several times a week and have become acquainted with most of the regular walkers and joggers, many by name.  But this was someone we had never seen before.  And being traumatized as she was Tee could not remember the name of her Good Samaritan nor how to get in touch to express her gratitude.  “Maybe I’ll see her again on the trail,” she had hoped, but that has yet to happen.

As with most good people, that lady did not do a good deed in order to receive recognition.  She did it quietly, anonymously, and selflessly because she is a caring and compassionate person, a good human being who has love and respect for her neighbors.

Having read Man’s Search for Meaning several times, Dr. Viktor Frankl’s reflections on his experiences as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, what most inspires me is how the prisoners, under the most horrendous of inhumane circumstances, cared for one another in the face of hopelessness and death.  And even as thousands of such stories have been told and recorded by survivors, I suspect they are but a fraction of those that remain anonymous or buried with its victims.  “Let us not become weary in doing good,” the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, “for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  While selfishness, greed, and evil may exist all around, it is those selfless souls quietly doing good, they keep humanity knit together.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come?”  Psalm 121 

For the most part I’m a pretty sore loser.  That’s not to say I am ungracious about it, it’s just that I don’t like losing.  So, what’s wrong with that, you ask, shouldn’t we all strive to win?  Of course we should, except in my case I dislike losing so much that sometimes I refuse to compete if it appears the odds are stacked against me.  If it doesn’t look like I’ve got a fighting chance I just don’t play.

Now, that’s probably smart when it comes to things such as investing in the stock market; after all, who in his right mind would buy a stock believing it never had a chance of going up?  No, when we invest in the stock market we do so believing the odds are that our stocks will appreciate.  But let me ask you, have you ever taken on a challenge where logic says you have no chance to win, yet even under the slimmest odds you did it anyway because it was so worthwhile, or you simply felt called to do so?  To be that undaunted in the face of probable failure requires conviction and courage, doesn’t it?

Here’s the point.  Sooner or later each of us is going to be blindsided with some sort of overwhelming challenge.  Disaster will strike, a crisis will emerge, and we will find ourselves face to face with Goliath – a giant twice our size.  So why not pick a few insurmountable challenges of our own rather than waiting for fate to choose for us – things that matter, that make a difference, that make the world a better place?  Ask yourself these three questions.  What are my dreams that seem out of reach?  What passions do I keep locked away?  What footprints do I want to leave behind from my walk on this earth?  How you answer these questions will determine which insurmountable challenges are worth taking on.

So, then the question of courage arises, from where is it to come?  The psalmist wrestled with the same question.  “I lift my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come?” he asked. Then he answered his own question, “My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”  Our courage can be found there, too.  Believe it – then get in the game!

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up . . .” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 

On one of my frequent early-morning bike rides recently I noticed up ahead a cluster of folks gathered in the middle of the path doing calisthenics.  As I approached it became obvious that these were high school age boys and girls, presumably cross-country runners from a nearby high school, warming up for their morning run.  My first impulse was to consider how to get around them since they were blocking the trail, until I heard one of them shout “biker coming!” after which each one politely stepped to one side of the trail or the other allowing me to pass through, not unlike the parting of the Red Sea.

As I rode my bike between the two lines of young runners I gave a quick wave as to say thank you, then smiled and quipped, “thanks to all of you for coming out to cheer me on!”  It was meant as a joke, except afterwards the most amazing thing happened, the whole crowd began to clap and cheer.  Was their applause just as much of a joke as mine?  Most likely.  Or could it have been a sincere gesture in appreciation that a man my age would be out on an early-morning bike ride trying to keep himself in shape?  Either way, joke or not, I could feel myself putting a little more pump into the pedals.

Encouragement is such a powerful motivator.  Just imagine, if a half-joking impromptu encounter like I experienced on the bike trail can put a little extra spring in my step, what a difference more intentional encouragement can have.  The story of Erin Gruwell is a good example, as told in the 2007 movie Freedom Writers.  In 1994 Erin was a first-year English teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, a racially mixed school plagued by gangs and violence.  Yet, Erin was able to transform her classroom and the lives of the individual students by being as much encourager as teacher, first encouraging them to write down the tragic stories of their lives (all their stories were tragic) and subsequently sharing them with each other.  Over time those diverse classmates, once bitter enemies, became intimate friends, most of them successfully completing high school, and many going on to college.

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up.”  It doesn’t take much, a kind word, a compliment . . . a cheer on the bike trail.  The opportunities to encourage others are before us every day, and what a difference it can make.  It can change a life.

“They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity – for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”  – 2 Peter 2:19 

As we Americans celebrate our beloved freedom, perhaps we should pause to consider what that means.  In the context of human rights, the American Declaration of Independence states that humans are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Or as my old-fashioned Webster’s dictionary defines it, freedom is “personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery.”  Slavery, then, can be defined as a condition of being in bondage, subjected to another – or the exact opposite of freedom.

Several years ago political columnist Peggy Noonan made an observation in one of her articles about “the American dream” that I thought worth saving.  In it she wrote, “There is pervasive confusion about what the American dream is.  We seem to have redefined it to mean the acquisition of material things – a car, a house, and a pool.  That was not the meaning of the American dream a few generations ago.  The definition then was that in this wonderful place called America, you can start out from nothing and become anything.  [In other words] It was aspirational.”

Ms. Noonan, I thought, masterfully described the distinction between slavery and freedom.  That is, if the so-called American dream can be distilled down to nothing more than materialism, that’s slavery pure and simple, a state of bondage, maybe not the kind of institutional slavery our country once shamefully allowed, but bondage nonetheless.  Instead, if we still have the opportunity to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as our Founding Fathers declared, we can continue to be aspirational toward becoming our best selves – and freedom still exists in America.

While I do agree that materialism has infiltrated our culture to an alarming degree, I have the privilege of meeting and working with aspirational people every day, folks pursuing the “American Dream” as it was intended.  May that always be the freedom we celebrate, not the slavery of our possessions.  May we learn, grow, and prosper, serving one another and God as we were created to do, and encourage our children to do the same.

“. . . you entrusted me with five talents.  See, I have gained five more.” . . . “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  – Matthew 25:20,21 

Until I read Julia Cameron’s classic book, The Artist’s Way:  A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, my long-held belief had been that creativity was limited to those we often think of as “real artists” – painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, and the like.  It never occurred to me that we are all creative.  But as Julia Cameron explains, if we are in fact created in the image of the Creator then it stands to reason that we too are creators.  In other words, we are all endowed with the gift of creativity in some form.

In the “Parable of the Talents” Jesus tells of a wealthy man who went away on a journey.  In his absence he entrusted his financial assets (talents) with three managers.  To one he entrusted five “talents”, to another two, and to the third one.  After his return he called upon his managers for an accounting.  The manager who had been entrusted with five talents as well as the manager with two had each doubled his money during his absence for which the wealthy master was extremely pleased.  But the third man had not bothered to invest the money at all with which he’d been entrusted, but instead had hidden it away.  For that the master was not only disappointed but furious.

I’ve often wondered why the master was so angry; after all he got his money back in full, which seems better than losing it.  Right?  Disappointing perhaps, but to be furious?  Then several years ago I began to study Julia Cameron’s works and that’s when the parable started to make sense to me; that is, we too have been entrusted with certain gifts, talents, or resources with which we can either choose to invest in the good work of God’s Kingdom or hide it away, the equivalent of squandering.

Sometimes we define creativity too narrowly, confining it to only that small chosen group of “real artists.”  But in reality, everything we do requires creative choices.  God has given each of us some special unique creative ability and entrusted us to invest it wisely.  As Julia Cameron says, “The Great Creator has gifted us with creativity.  Our gift back is our use of it.”  So, how are you investing what’s been entrusted to you?  It is a question I find myself wrestling with every single day.