“Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.”  – Romans 12:17 

If you have spent enough time in the corporate world as I have, it is highly likely you have observed that people tend to fall into one of four categories:  (1) those with low competence and low character, (2) those with low competence but high character, (3) those with high competence and high character, or (4) those with high competence but low character.

Those in the first category, you would probably agree, are people we simply do not want to have around, and they are usually not for very long.  The second category are those we would love to keep around if only we can help them improve their skills.  The third category, of course, is the cream-of-the-crop group, people who we can count on to do a great job, be fair and honest, and keep their word.  Then there is that fourth category, the one that presents the greatest challenge.  These are the people who are competent – sometimes extraordinarily so – but of questionable ethical or moral character.  It is my experience that this category is the one that most often gets corporate America in trouble by overlooking their poor character in favor of their performance or expertise.

My corporate experience was no different.  Once I hired a salesperson to work alongside our bond trading operation.  He was a man with a strong reputation in both competence and character.  But after he was on board, we discovered some of his top accounts were already assigned to another salesperson in another office.  That salesperson, too, was a high performer, but had always been of dubious character, a category four.  The bigger problem was that he had strong “connections” in the executive suite of our firm making the matter a political issue in which I was caught in the middle.  If I fought too hard for the man I had hired, thus against the other guy, I could lose my job, which I could not afford to do.  On the other hand, yielding to the political power would be a violation of my principles, thus compromising my character, which I refused to do.

It took many sleepless nights before I was able to negotiate my way through that predicament, which I was eventually able to do to the satisfaction of both parties – and the powers-that-be.  The solution all along, it seems, rested in the wisdom of the Apostle Paul who said: “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.”

“Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again.”                 Psalm 71:20 

The young man sat across from me, his face buried in his hands sobbing.  I had just fired him, on the grounds of poor performance, and he was understandably devastated, explaining between sobs how he had never before failed at anything in his life.  Sometime later I approached the young man with an idea, an offer to keep him on but in a lesser position at a much reduced salary.  He jumped at that second chance.  Before long he became a rising star, and eventually a successful professional.  Some years later another young man applied for a position I had available, but the interview did not go well.  Realizing he had blown the interview, the next day he called begging for a second chance.  That second interview landed him the job, and he too eventually grew to become a successful professional.

Lest my arm break from patting myself on the back for my gracious deeds, let me hasten to admit that whatever benevolence I may have offered those two young men is minuscule compared to the number of second chances I have received in my own life, few of which were the least bit deserved.  But by the grace of God and the help of many fine people I’ve been blessed with countless second chances.

In Luke chapter 15 Jesus tells a wonderful parable about a young man who after asking for and receiving his inheritance from his father ran away and squandered it all on wild living.  Finally, broke and desperate he decided to return home in the hope that his father might at the very least employ him as a lowly servant.  Instead his father ran out and threw his arms around his son welcoming him home, then had a grand party to celebrate his return – the gracious gift of a second chance.

I’m still convinced to this day that those two guys who crossed my path all those years ago deserved a second chance, as evidenced by the way their success.  (I’m less sure I’ve been equally as deserving.)  I’m also convinced that God is a God of second chances, whether we deserve it or not; for as the Psalmist says, “Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again” – to be given a second chance.

“Anyone who is among the living has hope . . .”  – Ecclesiastes 9:4 

On May 25, 1961 before a joint session of Congress, President John F. Kennedy declared a challenge to the entire nation that before the end of the decade the United States would send a man to the moon and return him safely back to earth.  At the time, the mere thought of such an endeavor seemed unfathomable.  But it was a new decade, being led by a new president, and America embraced the challenge.  Soon, however, the decade of the sixties eroded rapidly into war, civic turmoil and political unrest (not unlike the present times), and violence, including, among others, the assassination of the president himself.  As one who grew up and came of age during that tumultuous period, one thing stood out as I reflect back, and that was Kennedy’s challenge to send someone to the moon.  While it seemed unrelated in a way to all the other strife of the time, yet it provided us with a much-needed sense of hope.

A person can live up to forty days without food, so they say, up to seven days without water, and even a few minutes without air.  But a person cannot live a second without hope.  No one expressed that more eloquently than world renowned psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Dr, Viktor Frankl.  “Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man­, ­his courage and hope, or lack of them­ ­and the state of immunity of his body will understand that sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect.”  To illustrate his point Dr. Frankl detailed for us his theory on the record high death rate in Auschwitz during Christmas 1944 to New Years’ 1945: that prisoners died because they had expected to be home before Christmas. When they realized this was not to be, they completely lost hope in life beyond the concentration camp.

My grandmother, according to my aunt who was at her side when she drew her last breath, spent her last moments as she lay on her deathbed joyfully singing a hymn.  Only two months shy of her one-hundredth birthday, my grandmother’s earthly death had become inevitable.  Yet, it was hope that had sustained her life all those years, and it was hope that carried her across the threshold to the next life.  So it was that those who survived the Holocaust were people with hope, that America survived the sixties and went to the moon on hope, and we in our own time will survive this pandemic as long as we have hope.  For, “Anyone who is among the living has hope.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed . . . Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants . . .”  – Matthew 13:31-32 

Many years ago I went through a brief spell of being between jobs.  As it was the dead of winter at the time and with time on my hands I decided to use my short sabbatical to learn how to bake bread.  With roots going back to ancient times, I figured, bread must be one of the original prepared foods and therefore not to be taken for granted.  The basic recipe, so I discovered, is quite simple, requiring only a handful of commonly available ingredients, mostly flour.  Except to prepare it is not so simple, unless one learns to master the art of adding the least of its ingredients – yeast – for it is this one tiny product in small measure that creates the magic in breadmaking, causing the dough to rise over twice its size.  Leave it out, or mishandle it, and all other efforts go to waste.

“It’s the little things,” we used to say teasingly in our family.  But Jesus wasn’t teasing. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,” he explained, “which a man took and planted in his field.  Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”  Likewise, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”  In other words, in the perfect world – in the kingdom of heaven – it’s the little things. 

Recently, I was working with a client who was completely overwhelmed by her workload.  After listening for a while I finally asked her, “what little task can you give up or delegate to someone else, just one small thing, starting tomorrow?”  That is, how can she break down that overwhelming workload into bite-sized pieces, into little things?

Her issue was no different ours – yours and mine.  We all long for the big answers to the overwhelming issues we face.  We look to our big leaders to make big decisions that solve our big problems, and the brilliant scientists to develop a big vaccine to put a stop to the horrid COVID-19 virus so life will get back to normal.  And no doubt we desperately need that.  But until then, it is the little things, a tiny mustard seed we can plant, or a small measure of yeast to make the bread rise.  The vaccine may get us back to normal, but it’s the little things that move us toward what the kingdom of heaven is like.

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

My undistinguished military service was anything but influential . . . except for one obscure, humorous incident. Once while going through basic training, exhausted from a particularly grueling day we had hit the showers early before retiring to our bunks for a few precious hours of sleep. Now, I’ve never been one to sing in the shower, but for some reason that evening I was quietly entertaining myself by humming a little tune when the guy next to me overheard it and said, “Hey, man, sing that a little louder.” Next thing I knew he started singing along. Then someone else chimed in, then another. Before long there was a whole chorus of naked boot camp buddies harmonizing in the shower having the time of their lives. After that, almost every evening that same group of guys would gather around thinking up songs, snapping their fingers, laughing and singing their hearts out. Could they ever sing!

Anyone who has endured the rigors of military training will identify with the importance of developing camaraderie, of helping and encouraging each other. It’s one of the objectives, of course. And those guys who sang in the shower together became great comrades. Even though I was the instigator, I was never really part of the group after that, not because I wasn’t invited, I just didn’t have the ability to sing the way they could.

We never know when the seeds we scatter will sprout into a tree, when some kind act or encouraging word will be a spark that ignites something greater. A pleasant “thank you” to a store clerk, making room for another motorist to move into your lane, a phone call to check up on a friend, a kind word to a fellow passenger on an airplane, a warm smile, or a friendly handshake – little gestures can make a huge difference, even humming a happy tune in the shower.

Admittedly, when I was in the shower that evening I was so self-absorbed that I was oblivious to anyone who might be eavesdropping. Who would have thought that I was encouraging a whole chorus of guys to become great friends? It taught me something, though, and that is to never doubt the influence little actions can have on others, no matter how seemingly obscure. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up . . .” In these difficult times we could use that more than ever, couldn’t we?