“… give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.  For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”    Proverbs 30:7-8

Years ago after the sad and tragic death of Robin Williams I remember reflecting on the number of celebrities and millionaires who have taken their own lives or lost their lives to drugs or alcohol.  It is ironic to me that a society that elevates riches and fame to such an extraordinary level loses so many of its “success stories” to bouts of depression or self-destruction

In the verses above the writer asks  God to save him from his own dissatisfaction.  He basically says he cannot handle poverty or riches and asks God to keep him from them because of his weaknesses.  But the key to life is not to change our circumstances to fit our strength but to be strengthened to fit our circumstances.  When I first started coaching a long-time head coach told me to always win around 75% of the games each season.  He said that that was enough to keep people satisfied and not too much for them to have expectations. That would give me longevity in coaching.  What a terrible philosophy!  I see a similar philosophy in the verses above.  The attitude of “Don’t give me too little or too much because I can’t handle it” is an effort to be successful without stress.  Striving for mediocrity is not striving at all.  The apostle Paul had the exact opposite approach.

“I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot.  In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content–whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.”  Philippians 4:12

Paul was able to handle both poverty and riches, both want and plenty, both rejection and acceptance.  That is a much better way to live our lives. We cannot control our circumstances and it is a shame to let them control us.  How was Paul able to live in satisfaction in every condition?  He tells us in the next verse.

“I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”   Philippians 4:13

Circumstances change, Christ never does.  If we are going to lean on something, it should be something solid.  Jesus is the Rock, the Cornerstone, the Solid Place because He is foundational and nothing else in this world is.  There is an old hymn that says, “My Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame but holy lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand.”  Too many build their lives on the sinking sand of riches, fame, and power.  But none of those can bring contentment.  Robin Williams lived to bring happiness to the world, but the world could not bring enough happiness to Robin to make him want to live.  Only one person can do that.

“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”    John 10:9-10

To stay strong in this world we must realize that happiness and contentment are not necessarily the same thing although we use the terms causally and interchangeably.  Contentment is the ability to accept our life regardless of where we find ourselves.  It is seeing a fulness in life where others may not see it.  In Christ we can determine to be content without “having it all.”  Happiness is often based on the high points on the roller coaster of life that will be followed, inevitably, by low points.  Paul recognized that.  I am sure that he was not happy about being starved, beaten, and shipwrecked, but within himself could still find contentment in Christ.  He knew that Jesus came to give us abundant life, not by changing the conditions of world to fit our desires, but by changing us to be able to handle the conditions of the world.  As Paul told Timothy…

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”   I Timothy 6:6-7

But no matter how much we try, we will never achieve contentment on our own.  We just aren’t wired that way.

“Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.”  Ecclesiastes 1:7-8

“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!”  Haggai 1:5-7

No truer words depict the condition of the world in which we live. People are never satisfied. No matter what, we can never achieve contentment outside of God.  We will always want more, we will always want different.   We may be rich, but we want to be richer.  One of the richest men in the world was once asked how much is enough and he responded, “It’s never enough.”  That is what the world says but the Word tells us that “Christ is enough.”  Live in abundance; live in Him.

Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. ~Psalm 55:22

When I was teaching our kids (as well as a few grandkids!) to drive, I had the hardest time handing over complete control of a giant vehicle of possible mass destruction to an inexperienced 15 year old.  It was understandable that I was pressing a brake that did not exist on my side of the car or was taking gasping breaths at times on tight corners.  After all, they were rookies and I was the vet.  But what excuse do I have with God.  He is the oldest vet in the universe and I am just an inexperienced rookie.  What can I teach him?

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).

We often ignore the concept of team when thinking about the Christian life.  After all, our decision to follow Christ is an individual one; no one can make it for us.  Our growth is up to us as well, no one can make us grow.  No one can force us to pray, read the Word, or memorize scripture.  Ultimately, those actions are up to us.  Others can suggest them, even demand them, but no one can make us do them.  So everything about the Christian life is individual, right?  Wrong.  The Christian life needs teamwork, just like almost every other activity in life.  As the poem states, “No man is an island,” and that is especially true in the Christian walk.

I found out in coaching a long time ago that having good players is only part of the ingredients for a good team.  Getting them to play together was just as much of a key.  The body of Christ is, in essence, a team.  We have members who should have individual goals that will help us reach our team goals.  One of our main team goals is to further the kingdom of God.  Anything that takes us away from our main goal should be unacceptable to every individual of the team.

How then do we cooperate with others in the body so we can reach our goal? Christianity is a team sport. It is not like wrestling or boxing  where we are taking on someone by ourselves, but more like football and softball where participants are dependent on each other.   A while back we had a surprise house-warming for a couple in the church.  Elaine sent out an email  to the entire church describing the plan. Of course,  the honored couple was left out of the loop.  Amazingly, no one let the plan slip, even though everyone saw the couple at church earlier in the day. The key to the surprise was everyone working together!

We all know what kinds of things can hinder a good team.   Pride and selfishness both stand in the way of good teamwork. The Apostle Paul understood the value team, that is why we wrote to the Philippians about the need to put others before themselves.   One time I gave a talk to my football team about teamwork.  I told that to win we needed teamwork and their was no “I” in team.  Later in the week I brought the idea up again and wanted to check to see if they understood it.  I asked one of the players to summarize what I told them earlier in the week.  He proudly stood and said, “Teamwork is important, Coach, because as everyone knows, there is no “I” in Win!”  We obviously had more to worry about than winning.

Paul pointed out in our verses for today that selfishness is destructive.  If we focus on ourselves, our work as a team will be ineffective.  Selfish ambition asks, “What is in this for me?”  That attitude will derail anything positive that any team, including the body of Christ, will try to achieve.  Each of us has a special set of gifts that will help the body function better.  If we use those gifts for ourselves, the body will not function better.

At an annual picnic between two rival companies they got access to two boats from the local college that were used for intercollegiate rowing contests.  The companies arranged to have the picnic end with a big race.  One company fell behind quickly and lost by 11 lengths.  It was such a sad effort that they put together a committee to study the problem so that the following year would not be an embarrassment.  After two months the task force determined that “the other team had eight people rowing and one coxswain steering and shouting out the beat. We had one person rowing and eight coxswains.” The task force then came up with a recommendation for the rematch. “Our guy has to row faster.”

Sadly this humorous story has more truth than fiction.  In the church today there are a lot more coxswains than rowers and our solution to growing the kingdom is to have the rowers work harder. This is not what we are called to do; we are all called to do our part and if we don’t that, the kingdom of God will not grow.

Christ was the perfect model of unselfishness and that is what He calls us to be. Back in my middle school years  during the 1964 Olympics a story of unselfishness emerged in the two-man bobsled competition. The British team had just completed its first run and was in second place. Tony Nash, the team’s driver, made a disheartening discovery. They had broken a bolt on the rear axle of their sled, which would put them out of the competition.  The great Italian bobsled driver Eugenio Monti, who was in first place, heard of their plight. He removed the bolt from the rear axle of his own sled and sent it to them. The British team placed it on their sled and then raced down the mountain, winning the gold medal. Monti’s Italian team took the bronze medal for finishing in third place.

When asked about his unselfish act of sportsmanship, Eugenio Monti modestly replied, “Tony Nash did not win because I gave him a bolt. Tony Nash won because he was the best driver.”  Because of his unselfishness, Monti was given the first De Coubertin Medal for sportsmanship. The award, named after the founder of the modern Olympics, is one of the highest honors an Olympian can receive.

God too honors unselfishness. Although the coxswain may receive more accolades, the team will not win without the rowers. God is calling us to “Pull, pull, pull,” our weight in the body of Christ.  No one else can sit in our seat.  It is for us to occupy. If we do not do our part for the team, it will not get done because other rowers can only row so hard.  When we put others first on the team, we are really putting God first and there is no greater act than that.

“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!”  Luke 15:17

We have all heard the story of the Prodigal Son, but made little application to ourselves.  After all that is the story of someone involved in egregious sins that lead to the pigpen. It is obviously speaking of someone else.  It  is the story for the other guy. But really, the story of the Prodigal Son describes us all as the children of God. We are all unfaithful children of our benevolent Father and have squandered the abundant inheritance he so graciously has bequeathed to us. We have a place set for us at the banquet table, and though we may not be eating with pigs, many of us are, at the least, eating in the basement.

Let’s set all physical pleasures aside for a moment and concentrate on the spiritual blessings God has promised us. In Philippians we are told that, “God will supply every need of ours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)  This seems to be a promise, but do we live lives that reflect those blessings?  If we do not, is it because God’s promises are false, or is it because we live lives that don’t allow his promises to exist.

Sin is an insane, unreasonable, illogical, self-destructive way of life. It negates the plain hand of our heavenly Father, full of every provision we need, and follows after the hallucination of worldly pleasures and fulfillment. We look at our lives, however and think, “I have not thrown away everything; I am not running with harlots; I am not eating with the pigs; I am not the prodigal, but are we positive about that?  Has our Father set the table of spiritual blessing for us and we are satisfying ourselves with less?  Are we running with a corrupt world and eating mush instead of marvelous meals?  Are we prodigals not miles from our Father’s house, not outside the country, but close at hand, seeing the blessings, but hanging out in the courtyard, the garage, the basement, knowing the blessings are close, but not experiencing them anymore than the Prodigal.

We are the King’s children! He tells us in Isaiah 41:10 to “Fear not, for (He is) with (us); (we need not) be dismayed, for (He is our) God; (and He) strengthens (us), (He) will help (us), (and) will uphold (us) with (His) righteous right hand.” Isn’t that blessing?  Isn’t that an invitation to the table where we can receive from Him, what we cannot receive from the world. He is serving up peace for us, strength for us, help for us, and perseverance for us?  And that is just the entree’s.

No one God’s house is hungry or wanting, and yet here we stand in the fast food line of the world indulging ourselves with empty calories and wondering why we feel so weak and emaciated.  We have an open invitation to the table when we have Christ as our savior.  We walk into the banquet room and God the father looks at Christ the Son and Jesus says, “He is family,” and God says “Please grab a plate.”  On the menu are all the blessings promised in the Word.

Here is a thought.  Once we taste the blessing of God, why don’t we walk out to the courtyard and tell those who are also part of the family about the feast within. Let them know that there are no spiritual corn dogs being served in there.  Tell them about the warm welcome that awaits them and the banquet table that is set for them.  Of course, to tell them about what we have seen, we need to have seen it.  In our own way, we are all prodigals if we have not taken advantage of the spot God has set for us at His table.  No reason to wait. I am sure we are pretty hungry.

“If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” (Ecclesiastes 4:10)

This is a wonderful verse. It is a great reminder that we do not exist alone on this earth, nor should we. When God made Adam he said it wasn’t good for him to be alone. I don’t think that need for companionship was confined to marriage alone.

God gave us a need to have others in our lives. We especially need people when times are hard. The verse above begins with the word if, but it could just as well be the word when because we will all stumble at times and when we stumble we need someone to reach out to.

In Galatians Paul reminds us to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2) We are told that we need each other and also that we need to be there for each other. We sometimes think we can rely totally on ourselves, but that is seldom true. Often we need to come to the rescue of others and often, even though we don’t like to admit it, we ourselves need rescuing by others. Although our best friend and rescuer is God Himself, He gives us each other because sometimes it is good to lean on someone with skin on.

Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball, ran into some very tough situations while breaking baseball’s color barrier.  He faced jeering and antagonistic crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. He stood like that until fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.

We will all run into times when we need someone to stand with us.  When we need an arm around us.  There may be times when we need to be that pillar of strength to someone else. We should constantly work on our relationships with others to prepare for those times, especially those closest to us. Whether it’s a friend, neighbor, sibling, child, parent or spouse, investing time in these relationships will help us and them get through difficult times.  Once we have these friendships we need not be too proud to lean on each other when tough times come.

We had one of those exact situations two weeks ago. Due to a malfunction when charging a battery operated rodent alarm we had a fire in our home. It destroyed about a quarter of our mobile while smoke damaging the rest.  It was quite traumatic, especially for Elaine who discovered the fire and had to save our lab pup Cody while she was calling 911.  Since that time there has been an outpouring of support from family, friends, and even strangers.  Encouraging notes, texts, calls, and hugs have come in from all directions. Many donations been given (much of it anonymously) to help offset the unexpected costs of replacing much of our clothing and all of our food supply.

It was not necessary that such a major event needed to happen to remind me of how precious family and friends are,  But it did reinforce what I already knew…people are kind.  The comfort and support that so many have shared with us has been almost overwhelming. I will never again take a warm bed, a functioning kitchen, and beautiful friends for granted again.  I think some things that are always there can sometimes lose specialness. I won’t ever lose sight of that again.

This event was a rather large inconvenience, but not a tragedy.  We are all safe. Many are not so  fortunate and think about that when I look at so many things we did not lose to the flames. Others have lost so much more. I know God will use this for good and we will keep our eyes out for it.

The body of Christ is a family. Like our worldly family, no member of our spiritual family should ever have to bear grief, or pain, or problems alone. As the Word tells us in detail and infers from cover to cover, we should  “Love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” Through Christ’s sacrifice we are to bear one another’s burdens. We are able to encourage others through the power of Christ.  Let’s not walk this world’s rocky path alone.  A friend in need is a friend indeed.  Sometimes we meet the need for others; sometimes we have the need ourselves. 

John Wesley once said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”  Bearing each other’s burdens is part of that good.  It doesn’t take a fire to realize that.