WEALTH IS NOT MEASURED BY MONEY
WEALTH IS NOT MEASURED BY MONEY
If you know me, you know that I like cowboy shows. When a new western comes along I usually want to see it. By and large the motion picture industry considers westerns unprofitable, so when one sneaks through it’s a significant occasion. Besides that, I’m something of a Robert Duvall fan, so when you get Robert Duvall in a western, you’ve just about got to see it. Broken Trail didn’t really measure up to the standards of Lonesome Dove, but even Duvall admits that you can’t expect another Lonesome Dove for another hundred years. But it was good.
Despite the cussing, and the ethics of some of the characters, it turned out to be a morality play. I’ll resist the temptation to review it, except to say that I was impressed with a line of dialogue spoken by Print Ritter, the Duvall character. At one point he tells his nephew, “You can’t measure wealth by money.”
In a world where everything seems to have a dollar value, that’s profound. As it happened I was doing some research on India yesterday. Among other things I learned that the average annual family income in India is the equivalent of 480 American dollars.
I began reflecting on my own experiences in rubbing shoulders with people in the Third World. I remember a Honduran brother who told me, “In Honduras, we are poor country, but we are happy.” Can you say that about Americans? We’re unhappy when the color of our drapes doesn’t match the sofa. I remember that Jesus said, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).
Every morning when I walk out of my four bedroom, air conditioned house, and start the engine in my luxury automobile, I need to remember what Print Ritter said, “You can’t measure wealth by money.”
From the Sunday Night Update
GLITCHES IN PRINT
As an aspiring writer, I often pay attention to miscommunication in print. One day this week, I happened to be looking at the soup cans in the grocery store. One label read, “Vegetarian Chicken Soup.” Wouldn’t you think that’s an oxymoron? I got an e-mail message that included a request for Bibles and hymnbooks. According to the writer, “We have a lake of Bibles and hymnbooks.” What’s that about? Is that a different twist on censorship? Are they throwing Bibles and songbooks into the lake instead of burning them? Surely he meant, “lack” instead of “lake.” We see so many glitches in our local newspaper that Miz Ann is thinking about applying for a job as a proofreader.
Kevin Costner and his band put on a show here in town this week. Did you know that Kevin plays the guitar and sings? It was front-page news. In fact, the review of the show was the lead article on the front page. I can understand why Kevin did it. I doubt that a performance by his band would ever become the front-page news in the Los Angeles Times. Ann counted three or four glaring typos in that article. Kevin was probably thinking, “What do you expect from a hick town paper?” Their worst faux pas didn’t have anything to do with that. They ran a notice in a small box on the front page that said, “Because of a press breakdown, your paper may be late today.” Let me see if I got this right. They’re going to tell me that my paper may be late, but I won’t know about it until I read it in the paper. Will Rogers once said, “All I know is what I read in the paper.” It’s a good thing Will isn’t around today. He wouldn’t know very much.
The last one is not a glitch. It’s just something that happened, and I thought it was incredibly funny. At church we publish an order of worship. I didn’t see this week’s order until I got to the building this morning. I was preaching today, so the order included my sermon topic. My topic was “Rules for a Fair Fight.” Little did I know that the worship leader would have the congregation sing, “The Battle Belongs to the Lord” as soon as I finished. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. People who don’t attend church miss out on a lot of funny stuff.
Your Mentor's Beliefs and Yours
YOU MENTORS BELIEFS AND YOURS
The people God placed in our lives have influenced our behavior, our opinions, and our theology. As we move forward in life, we sometimes develop viewpoints that differ from those were taught by earlier mentors. That makes some of us uncomfortable.
If we adopt positions that conflict with what our parents believed, our Sunday School teachers believed, the pioneer preachers believed, or even something we ourselves believed as long as we can remember, we’re afraid it will discredit the contribution those people made to our lives. It’s difficult to believe that were traveled down the wrong path ourselves. We’re afraid that it demonstrates a lack of respect, or as it’s often stated, “an unwillingness to walk in the old paths.”
Many people have blessed me. If I were to make a list of all the people who’ve influenced my life it would be a long one. Trouble is. I’ve outlived most of my mentors. So now I’m in a position of not wanting to dishonor their memory. A couple of things help me in that regard. In every case I admire those people because they had a strong faith in God, because they were dedicated followers of the Lord, and because they were active participants in the fellowship of the church. They also took an interest in my life and my spiritual development. They were willing to invest their energy in my spiritual growth. All that’s good, and I wouldn’t discredit that for anything in the world. What if they were wrong about some things? Those who influence me the most were those who told me that I needed to study the Bible for myself and draw my own conclusion. I’ve tried to honor that advice. If they were wrong, I would imagine they’ve figured that out by now, and they would be happy rather than sad if I embrace a truth they I didn’t understand during their lifetimes.
Travel to Iowa
Travel was blissfully unexciting this time.
Except for the Ozarks, the road from Louisiana to Iowa falls a little short of being a scenic route.
That’s not to say we drove the entire trip in total boredom, but it was close.
You know you’re flirting with boredom when your nearly hitting a vulture feeding on road kill becomes a memorable event.
When you look forward to a sign that reads, “road work ends – resume speed,” you’d better get out the Dramamine.
Imagine seeing a sign that reads, “Click it or ticket,” and thinking of that as creative writing, despite the fact that it’s not even a complete sentence, you know you probably need to engage in some more challenging reading, like the Congressional Record.
We did play a rather exciting road game – trying to figure out the best gas prices.
It was not uncommon to shop for the best gasoline price, and then find it 20 cents a gallon cheaper about fifty miles down the road.
Fortunately we know how to cope with the mundane. We’re familiar with it, thus we did not fall asleep at the wheel, drive off bridges, or create diversions by threatening to kill each other.
Inspired
I attended the East Texas Christian Writer's Conference today. There was an interesting discussion about the term "inspired."
One of the presenters, a member of a publishing board for a major book distributor, said that he was usually turned off when a potential author says, "God inspired me to write this book." He was turned off because the potential author usually thinks that means the publisher needs to put the book in print if he doesn't want to go against God. The presenter's response was, "Oh really? Then do you mean we have, Jude, Revelation, and then your book?"
A second presenter, an editor for a different well known publishing firm, said that he once received a submission in which the potential author said, "God gave me the words and I wrote them down in this book exactly as I received them. He directed me to you as the publisher. It is God's will that you publish my book." His response was, "Until I have a direct revelation from God on that matter, I'm going to reject it."
Both presenters were willing to accept the premise that God gives us insight, understanding, and guidance in the writing of the book or in other spiritual growth activities. One suggested that we might ought to use some alternative term other than inspiration. The other conceded that a person might indeed be inspired (just as we feel inspired when God answers our prayers), but that inspiration should not be placed on the same level with the canon.
Maybe we ought to be a little more careful in claiming that God told us to say or do certain things.
