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

I have never personally had the pleasure of meeting Boots O’Neal, but I have seen him a few times, especially when I was a youngster growing up out in Northwest Texas.  Back then he was dating a girl, who he eventually married, whose family at the time lived around the corner from us.  That’s about as close as I ever got to meeting him.  Almost ninety-years-old now, Boots is one of the most renowned and respected, and certainly one of the oldest active cowboys in Texas – perhaps anywhere.  Boots still resides in the bunkhouse of the famed 6666 ranch in Guthrie, Texas where every morning he gets up, pulls on his boots, and saddles his horse for a long day’s work “punching” cattle, after which he retreats to the bunkhouse, and as he is quoted as saying in an article published last year in Texas Monthly magazine, “I’ll go to sleep lookin’ forward to doing it again tomorrow.”  (ref. https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/legend-of-boots-oneal/)

“If people see their best years behind them, they’re probably not going to finish very well, because you can’t finish well when you’re going backwards,” the late Bob Buford wrote in his book Finishing Well: What People Who REALLY Live Do Differently!   Well, one of the things Boots O’Neal has done differently is that he has refused – quite literally – to hang up his spurs, besides the fact that he loves what he does and finds purpose in it.  And that is the formula for “finishing well” for which Boots O’Neal is a role model.

The aging process seems to be teaching me the same lesson, that if you want to finish well, every morning you better get up, suit up, and be armed with a purpose.  Otherwise, if you quit, you’re done!  Few spend seventy-five years in the same physically demanding profession as Boots O’Neal who has been cowboying since he was fifteen.  In fact, many of us go through three or four careers during our lifetimes.  Benjamin Franklin, it is said, spent his first forty-two years becoming successful, and his last forty-two years giving back – always with a purpose.

And we all have a purpose, a race that has been marked out for us, but as Rick Warren pointed out in his best-selling book from several years back, The Purpose Driven Life, that purpose is never about ourselves.  So, “let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us,” like people who REALLY live do, who also seem to finish well.

“. . . unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  – John 12:24 

An artist friend once explained to me that as a rule of thumb when an artist dies his or her works almost instantly double in value.  As a businessman that makes perfect sense to me; for once the creator no longer exists his or her works become finite, thus making them increasingly more valuable.

I wonder, though, if there is not something deeper than the mere supply-demand dynamics of the marketplace.  Could it be that artists are never fully appreciated for their good works, and the perspectives they reflect on the world and on life, until after they are gone?  Perhaps that’s true for all of us, not just artists.  Consider, for example, Lincoln who was merely another president – and a controversial one at that – until after his death.  Then and only then did history consider him as having been our country’s greatest president, and a role model for his successors.

Jesus was trying to teach this to his followers in preparation for his own death.  “I tell you the truth,” he explained, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  Consider the fact that during his lifetime Jesus traveled no more than a few hundred miles mostly within the region of Galilee.  When compared to today’s mass media capabilities, he really didn’t encounter all that many people, and his most faithful followers were but a small ragtag group.  Yet the seed that fell to the ground from the cross where he died, which then sprouted in the hearts of that ragtag group of followers, transformed the world.

“In that lies the mystery of life,” adds gospel singer and songwriter Michael Card.  But first we must die, not physical death, rather die to our self-centered ways; then and only then will the purpose of our lives turn toward serving God and mankind.  And it is in that dying to self where lies the mystery of life that Michael Card is referring to; for that is where we discover not the loss of life but the abundance of it, a single seed producing many.  So, we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, His seed that keeps producing, His resurrection that keeps resurrecting.  Alleluia, He is risen!

“Love your enemies . . .”  – Matthew 5:44 

Several years ago a friend of mine was invited to speak at a conference where he unintentionally offended one of the participants in the audience who sent him a scathing text message afterwards.  How painful that must have been to receive such a message!  Yet, if he indeed felt angry and hurt, as I am sure he did, he certainly didn’t respond by lashing back at the man.  Instead, he sent a polite invitation to his persecutor to join him for coffee the next morning, which much to the man’s credit he graciously accepted.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’” Jesus said in his famous Sermon on the Mount.  “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  I have always struggled with this one.  How is it possible to love someone who my natural inclination is to hate, and with some justification, someone who is insulting, mean, and vicious, who falsely accuses me of something I said or did, is set to do me harm physically or emotionally, or take away what is rightfully mine?  To turn the other cheek, then to forgive, that’s one thing.  But to love my enemy?

My friend never disclosed what was said between he and the other gentleman, nor whether either of them was convinced to change his point of view.  What did become clear was that after sharing a cup of coffee and some civil discourse, they both walked away, maybe not as friends, but with a new-found respect for one another as human beings.  Is that what it means to love our enemies?  I’m not sure, but for me it came as close to helping me understand it as any modern day story I know.

Oh, how much easier it is to hate our enemies and persecutors than to love them!  But this is Holy Week, the holiest week of the year for Christians.  We recall the Passion story of Christ, beginning with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, only to be put on trial based on false allegations, then brutally executed before a jeering crowd.  Jesus had every right to be angry and hurt.  Yet, how did he respond?  Like my friend who, instead of lashing out, invited his persecutor to have coffee, Jesus invited the thief on the cross next to him to join him in paradise – an invitation intended not just for the repentant thief, but for everyone, even those who drove the nails into his hands and feet.  That’s what I call loving your enemies, don’t you think?

“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’m not gracious about it, it’s just that I don’t like to lose.  So, what’s wrong with that, you ask, shouldn’t we all strive to win?  Perhaps, except I hate to lose so much that too often I refuse to accept challenges at all when it appears the odds are stacked against me.  If it doesn’t look as if I’ve got a good chance of winning I just don’t play.

Now, that’s probably smart when it comes to things such as investing in the stock market.  Who, for crying out loud, would be foolish enough to buy a stock if the odds are stacked against it ever going up?  No, when we invest in the stock market we do so based on the belief that our stocks will go up.  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 so undaunted by fear of failure or losing requires conviction and courage, doesn’t it?

Here’s the point.  Sooner or later each one of us is going to be blindsided with some sort of overwhelming challenge anyway.  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 instead 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 for others as well as ourselves?  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 thing.  “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.”  You’ll find your courage there, too.  Believe it – and go for it!

“. . . bear fruit – fruit that will last.”  – John 15:16 

Have you ever known someone who was born into a life of privilege, having been offered every opportunity you can imagine on a silver platter, yet for whatever reason they blew it, never becoming the person of character or success they could have been?  I’m sure you have witnessed such tragedy.  We all have.  On the other hand, have you known someone from a disadvantaged background who, in spite of all kinds of adversities, managed to grow into a person of great character attaining extraordinary success?  Of course you have.  Perhaps you are one.

We are all born into circumstances – rich, poor, or middle-class.  But circumstances do not create character; they merely reveal it.  So, what forms character?  First we would probably all agree it is the influence of another person, a role model who has demonstrated good character and served as a teacher or mentor.  And certainly some are more fortunate than others to be exposed to such positive influencers, regardless which side of the tracks they come from.  Yet, even then some blow it while others take the right path.  What makes the difference?

Ultimately the formation of character is a matter of choice, and we all have the freedom to choose how we respond to life’s circumstances. Someone once suggested that if freedom is defined as “the opportunity to make decisions”, then character is “the ability to make right decisions”.  If that is true, then one of the quickest ways to reveal the true character of a person is to give him the freedom to choose his own path.

Character is not a one-time choice, however, but a choice we must make each and every day in each and every circumstance.  Unfortunately, some blow it, while others seem to have developed the ability to take the right path in almost every circumstance. They are people we would say have great character.

Character, though, is not just a matter of what we choose NOT to do such as lie, cheat, or steal, but more importantly what we choose TO do; that is, doing what God created each of us to do from the very beginning, to bear fruit, which Jesus later reemphasized, “I chose you,” He said, “to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.”