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“. . . to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  – Mark 12:33 

Are you a to-do list person?  I am, and not because I am organized, but in fact because I am not.  Without my to-do lists it is too easy for me to conveniently forget all those mundane tasks I would rather not deal with such as paying bills, keeping the cars maintained and filled with gas, filing reports, or setting up appointments, all those necessary details that keep business and life from running off the rails.

While as much as I may not enjoy dealing with details, on those days when I do tackle the to-do list items it gives me a great sense of accomplishment knowing that all that mundane busy-ness has protected my business and my life from running off the rails.  Yet, there is a world of difference between activity and progress in that to-do activities are critical in supporting our missions, but they do not necessarily advance them.

It has been suggested that we must work on our business, as well as work in our business, which is to remind us not to get so bogged down in the day-to-day tasks that we lose sight of our mission and purpose.  Recently I have participated in no less than three board retreats with different organizations for the purpose of strategic planning.  The very reason such events are called “retreats,” typically at off-site locations, is to break away from the daily grind of to-do tasks in order to focus on the advancement of the mission.

In his book How the Best Get Better: The Art and Science of Entrepreneurial Success, Dan Sullivan suggests we should designate certain days as “focus days” dedicated to critical activities, that is our to-do lists.  Equally important are “buffer days” that are free from “to-do’s” dedicated instead to the progress of our mission.  When Jesus says, “. . . to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices,” he seems to be reminding us that to love God and our neighbor is our primary mission.  He does not say that offerings and sacrifices are unimportant, rather that they are not the mission.  Instead, they are the to-do’s such as regular prayer, worship, and giving, critical in supporting the mission; for without these to-do’s the mission is at risk of running off the rails.  Yet, without the mission the to-do’s don’t really matter, do they?

“You intend to harm me, but God intended it for good . . .”  – Genesis 50:20 

Those of us who remember the late Dizzy Gillespie, one of the greatest jazz musician and trumpeters of the twentieth century, also recall he had two distinctive characteristics, one being the way he puffed out his cheeks like two inflated balloons when he was playing his horn.  The other, and my favorite, was the oddly shaped trumpet he played with its 45-degree up-tilted bell.  It was not until I came across an article about him that I learned the origin of his bent trumpet.  “A bandmate fell on his horn,” according to the article, “bending it, and Gillespie found that he liked the sound projection.  From then on, each of his trumpets was custom-made with an up-tilted bell.”

When I read about that, the first thing to cross my mind was how furious I would have been with that clumsy musician, had it been me, for damaging the instrument of my livelihood, accident or not.  Apparently not so with Dizzy Gillespie, who instead discovered a whole new unique sound from the bent trumpet, which eventually became his trademark.  Then it occurred to me, isn’t that the nature of jazz as a musical artform?  For unlike rote musical scores intended to be performed exactly as written, jazz is improvisational, being modified, or even made up as it is played.  So, where a wrong note or missed beat in a written score is considered a blunder in traditional music, a jazz musician might turn it into a whole new sound – exactly the way Dizzy Gillespie reacted to his bent horn.

So, from that perspective it made me think about God, imagining how He must be the consummate jazz musician, improvising as we humans clumsily blunder through life, bending creation and one another into all sorts of misshaped forms, sometimes accidentally and other times intentionally.  Yet, regardless how bad we bend things out of shape, God finds ways to improvise and redeem our blunders, to transform wrong notes and missed beats into new sounds, damaged instruments into distinctive trademarks.  Look, for example, at the redemptive work of Alcoholics Anonymous, based on the concept of one addict helping another addict find sobriety.  Such are the “grace notes” God includes in the music of life.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”  – Proverbs 27:17 

During my investment banking days, I once got into a heated debate with my boss about the performance of a certain individual in our firm, who my boss considered invaluable because of his genius bond trading ability.  While I could not disagree about his superior skills, the problem was he made enemies with almost everyone with whom he came in contact, which I argued was costing the firm more than his genius produced

The problem with genius, Liz Wiseman explains in her brilliant book, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, is that some seem “to drain intelligence and capability out of the people around them.  Their focus on their own intelligence and their resolve to be the smartest person in the room has a diminishing effect on everyone else’s.”  Others, however, use “their intelligence as a tool rather than a weapon.  They apply their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capability of people around them.”  Wiseman refers to the former as “diminishers” due to their tendency to be “so absorbed in their own intelligence that they stifle others and dilute the organization’s crucial intelligence and capability.”  The latter she labels as “multipliers” who bring out “the intelligence in others, creating collective, viral intelligence in their organization.  One leader is a genius.  The other is a genius maker.”

This whole concept she cleverly summarizes in the opening chapter of the book with a quote by Irish rock star Bono.  “It has been said,” Bono states, “that after meeting with the great British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, you left feeling he was the smartest person in the world, but after meeting with his rival Benjamin Disraeli, you left thinking you were the smartest person in the world.”

Gladstone and Disraeli were both indisputably genius leaders in their time.  But if one was a “diminisher” and the other a “multiplier” – that is, one purely genius versus the other a genius maker – which do you suppose had the greater and longer-lasting impact?  And that, fundamentally, was the argument I was having with my boss that day.  Certainly, the bond trader’s genius was to be applauded and rewarded, but how much more could have been produced by his genius had he been a multiplier rather than a diminisher?  For, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”  – Genesis 1:28 

Fan or not, if you are American you probably have at least a rudimentary understanding of the game of football.  Beginning around this time of year games seem to appear on practically every other TV channel.  The basics of the game are: two teams on the field, each trying to score points by penetrating the goal line of the opposing team.  Each team has an offensive squad and a defensive squad.  The purpose of the offense, which has possession of the ball, is to advance toward the opposing team’s goal.  The purpose of the defense is twofold: (1) to defend against the advancement of the opposing offense, and (2) to regain possession of the ball on behalf of their own team’s offense.

It behooves us to live our lives likewise; for we each have a purpose, something we spend our lives advancing toward.  But there are times when we are not in possession of the ball.  We encounter adversity, requiring us to play defense.  And just like football, the purpose is twofold: (1) to defend against further advancement of the crisis at hand, and (2) to regain possession of the ball on behalf of achieving our real purpose.

At age ninety, after living a remarkably active and purposeful life, my grandmother suffered a mild stroke.  While not terribly debilitating, it nonetheless impacted her health status enough that she was no longer able to live alone.  My mother and her siblings went through that painful process of moving her to a place where she would be properly cared for.  My grandmother immediately went into defensive mode, resisting the change in every way.  Soon, though, she regained possession of the ball and began moving about through the corridors of the nursing home on a mission to lift the spirits of her fellow residents with her cheerful personality and deep faith, exactly what she had been doing all her life.

After creating us in His own image, God delegated us the responsibility of caring for His Creation, and moving it forward.  “Be fruitful and increase in number,” He instructed us, “fill the earth and subdue it.”  Although adversity may sometimes force us into a defensive posture, that should not deter us from striving to regain “possession of the ball” so that we can continue to move down the field – to fulfill our God-given purpose.  Or as the Apostle Paul says, “Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  (1 Corinthians 9:24)

“. . . to each one of us grace has been given . . .” – Ephesians 4:7 

It was on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend that Tee and I first met.  That was fifty and a half years ago.  Skeptical at first, we both almost declined the invitation having had rather poor experiences in the past with such arrangements.  But, “oh well,” we each decided, why not try it one more time.  And when our eyes met for the first time there was an instant connection, like no other either of us had ever experienced.  By the end of our second date we were bonded, bonded for life as it turned out, for on September 4, 1971, fifty years ago this very weekend we were married.  Together we have raised a family, supported each other through all kinds of trials, laughed a lot, cried a little, suffered through scarce times and rejoiced in prosperous ones, tried things that didn’t work and some that did, shared meals together, traveled, read books and watched movies, worked together and played together – and most importantly, loved each other.

Sometimes I shudder to think back on the beginning of our relationship, how immature, unprepared, and ill-equipped I was for such a serious commitment.  Although freshly discharged from active duty in the military and gainfully employed, I was still sponging off my parents, not what one would consider totally self-sufficient.  Neither had I quite yet completed my college degree, nor sure what I wanted to do with my life.  With my head not screwed on exactly straight, I was hardly the model of a prince-charming fitting for such a fine young lady as Tee to present to her family.  But she did, and they could not have been more gracious, loving, and accepting into their family.

Such is God’s grace, isn’t it?  Blessings and mercy and forgiveness and love and joy and acceptance in abundant supply, freely offered – often unexpectedly – even to the immature, undeserving, ill-equipped, and ill-prepared, like me fifty years ago.  But as the Apostle Paul assures us, “to each one of us grace has been given.” 

And just as it was grace that brought us together, it is grace that has bound us together these past fifty years, that has prospered us in many ways, blessed us with two fine sons and their lovely wives, who have borne us five beautiful granddaughters.  And it is grace that will surely lead us on in the years to come as every day we love each other more and more.