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

For most of my adult life I have been a physical fitness person, exercising several days a week.  Some refer to folks like me as “gym rats”, except I prefer outdoors when the weather allows, using my gym membership mostly when it is cold or rainy.  My focus has mostly been on anerobic exercise like running and biking, although I finally aged out from running before my knees and hips gave completely out.  To be clear, my primary motive in exercising is an attempt to be healthy, and while I do find some pleasure and rewards in it, for me exercise is hard work.  Often times, in fact, I have to talk to myself pretty hard to (a) get up out my chair and go do it, and to (b) maintain the level of intensity required to reach the goals I set for myself; that is, it requires perseverance.

Has it been worth it after all these years you might ask?  Well, yes and no.  It is frustrating because despite all my efforts I still seem to struggle with some of the same chronic conditions as those with less healthy lifestyles.  Yet, when I complained about this to one of my doctors she set me straight right away.  “No, no,” she responded, “you’re looking at it all wrong.  Instead, think how much worse those conditions would be if you did not have such a healthy lifestyle.”  Good advice, and what a lesson in the value of perseverance.

Among the many delusions I had about life back in my younger days was that becoming wealthy and not having to work for a living seemed like a splendid idea, to be able lounge on a beach somewhere without a care in the world.  Jesus, though, in one of his well-known parables referred to a man with such delusions as a fool, and soon I came to realize he was right.  Indeed, what a fool I was to ever dream of such a thing.

Productive work, after all, is what we were created for, and it is through our work that we find fulfillment.  But like my exercise program it is not always easy, nor is all work as financially rewarding as we might wish it to be.  But as my doctor pointed out, think how much worse off we would be if we didn’t work.  I love that I have work to do, and grateful every day for the ability to do so, regardless of the amount of compensation, if any at all.  It is a gift from God.  So, may we all keep up the good work for as long as we are able, that we may “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

“I will confirm my covenant between me and you . . .”  – Genesis 17:2 

Contracts are part of our lives.  No one in this day-and-age can escape being party to a contract of some sort.  If you have a roof your head, for example, whether a house or an apartment, rented or purchased, you no doubt signed a contract.  And anyone in any kind of business is certainly familiar with the world of contracts.  Even in professions such as my own, contracts between coach and client are common practice.  Simply put, contracts are legal agreements that bind two or more parties to fulfill their part of the bargain.

Such documents, of course, would not be necessary if participating parties could be trusted to fulfill their promises.  Unfortunately, humans from the beginning of time have had a history of failing to do so.  There are exceptions, however, like Jerry who for thirty years was my closest friend in my previous profession.  He and I would talk daily during the work week sharing information and ideas.  And although we were in the same business, we were in fact competitors – at least the companies we worked for were competitors, and bitter ones at that.  Yet, over the years we partnered on hundreds of transactions that proved extremely lucrative for both parties.  But because these transactions demanded immediate decision-making, written contracts were not consummated until long after the fact, and then only to satisfy regulatory requirements for documentation.  And not once over the course of thirty years was there ever a dispute, disagreement, or misunderstanding.

The key to success, you see, had little to do with the contracts between the two firms, and everything to do with the covenant between two long-time friends.  The difference between the two according to writer, philosopher Os Guinness is that “a covenant is broader and a contract narrower, the one being emphatically moral and the other being purely legal.”

Indeed, God’s promise to Abraham was a covenant, not a contract.  “I will confirm my covenant between me and you . . .,” same for God’s covenant between Moses and the Israelite people.  Contracts are legal agreements devised for humans, but covenants include elements of the Sacred.  No one in this day-and-age can escape being party to a contract, but can you imagine a world where covenants were the rule, not the exception?

• “Showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”    –  Exodus 20:6 

Someone once said that no matter how things may appear, there is no future in evil, only in good.  Pondering that has caused me to take heart; for discouraging as it is when it seems the bad guys win, when we consider that throughout history when evil actually is defeated – and it always is eventually, though not necessarily within our lifetimes – it is because in some way good has prevailed, thus validating that there is no future in evil, only in good.

I recall sitting in the office of an executive with the Wall Street firm where I was once employed discussing the challenges of dealing with unethical or marginally ethical people within our industry.  (Every profession has them, by the way.)  The executive with whom I was meeting made a comment I will never forget.  Bad people never last, he assured me.  Eventually they go too far, step over the line, and get caught resulting in disciplinary action, firing, revoked licenses, lawsuits, or prosecution – and on rare occasions all the above.  I disagreed; for it seemed these clever shysters were ever present in my world placing an enormous burden on my staff and me to constantly monitor and police their activities – not the best use of our time and energy.  It’s just a fact of life, though, that from petty dishonesty to crime to terrorism to murderous dictatorships, evil is forever among us, and indeed has been throughout the history of mankind.

“The greatest fear a man has,” the late Oswald Chambers wrote long ago, “is not that he will be damned, but that Jesus Christ will be worsted, that the things He stood for – love and justice and forgiveness and kindness among men – will not win out in the end; the things He stands for look like will-o’-the-wisps.”  He goes on by reminding us “not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted.”  (My emphasis)

On Mount Sinai Moses received the same assurance from the Lord himself who said, “For I, the Lord you God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

“But the greatest of these is love.”  – 1 Corinthians 13:13 

On our first (blind) date Tee made a point of letting me know, with some intention I think, that she was born on Valentines Day, sort of cute I thought, except it came across more like, “Look Buster, if you have any designs on pursuing a more serious relationship, you better darn well remember that my birthday falls on the day of love!”  I’m joking, of course, although I have never forgotten it.  Looking back now over our many years of marriage and raising a family, it seems that moment may have been intended more as prophecy than humor, for everything about our life together — marriage, children, faith, friendships – has been centered on one thing, love. It’s simply in our DNA.

Several years ago I got involved with a non-profit organization that was operating a residential treatment center (RTC) for special needs children with learning differences who were placed there through state agencies like Child Protective Services; children off the street mostly, many of them homeless, abused, or abandoned.  For most of those children it was the first time in their lives they had ever experienced any sort of stability in terms of a safe and caring environment, a warm bed, hot shower and three nutritious meals a day.

Our friends Rand and Colleen Southard, founders of that organization, once told the story about a little boy who during his first meal at the facility was seen stuffing mashed potatoes in his pocket.  What they discovered was that he had been so food-insecure that it was the only way he knew for sure that he would have food to eat the next day, and that is just one of hundreds of heartbreaking stories they had witnessed over the years.  But most tragic of all, as Rand and Colleen had so keenly observed, is that none of the children had ever been loved, nor even had a concept of love.  And that is the gap Rand and Colleen filled, those children experiencing love for the first time in their lives.

Lack of food, shelter and safety I think I can understand, but the absence of love I can’t imagine, nor has there been a time in my entire life when I have not been surrounded by it.  And that was the message my then wife-to-be was prophesying on our first date regarding her Valentines Day birthday, that all these things are important – food, shelter, safety, and all the comforts of life – “But the greatest of these is love.”  And indeed it is!

“Streams of living water will flow from within him. . .”  – John 7:38 

Having worked as a leadership coach over the past twenty years I find myself almost unconsciously observing leadership qualities in other people, much like a golfer might observe others’ golf swings.  So, when we attended a dinner recently honoring the high school cheerleading squad where our granddaughter Zoey, now a senior, has participated all four years of her high school career, the last two as captain of the cheer team, it was only natural for me to pay particular attention to her leadership qualities.

Two qualities I observed from across the room at that ceremony the other night, although admittedly from a very biased perspective.  One was how engaging she was with everyone around, teachers, coaches, parents, fellow cheerleaders, and schoolmates.  That type of outgoing personality is a gift from God.  The other occurred when she sprang from her seat impromptu to offer an eloquent tribute to the cheer coach on behalf of the entire cheerleading squad, a reversal of roles in a way, cheering the cheer coach instead of the other way around.  It was an extraordinary demonstration of leadership.

But then, that is what Zoey does.  Cheerleading is sort of a metaphor for her life; for she’s not just a cheerleader for the football team on Friday night, she’s a cheerleader for people, even me, her grandpa.  Like the time I confided that I had decided to invest in hearing aids so she didn’t have to repeat herself all the time.  We were standing in line at a Starbucks and she spontaneously started cheering like I had just made a touchdown.

Everybody we meet in this world is either a fountain or a drain, someone once said.  I suppose in reality most of us are a little of both, depending on the kind of day we’re having.  But my granddaughter Zoey is a fountain – at least most days from what I have observed – a quality that comes from deep within her soul, a gift from God.

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink,” Jesus said, “[and] streams of living water will flow from within him.”  So, I have to ask myself the question every day, am I going to be a fountain or a drain?  How blessed I am to have a granddaughter who sets the example, and serves as my cheerleader!