Did I Do My Best? Part One

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might….” Ecclesiastes 9:10  

God does not expect you to be the best at anything. He does expect you to be your best at everything.                    

When the young Naval Academy graduate Jimmy Carter was leaving an interview with Admiral Rickover the Admiral asked him, “While at the Naval Academy did you do your best?” When I preached his Inaugural Sermon one hour before he took the oath of office as President I reminded him of that. We all need to remind ourselves of that question. Did I do my best?

Consider these questions and ask them of yourself daily.

        Did I do my best to please the Lord?

        Did I do my best at showing interest in the welfare of others?

        Did I do my best to be content and fulfilled?

        Did I do my best to show appreciation?

        Did I do my best to find solutions to the problems I faced?

        Did I do my best to set clear goals and strive to meet them?

        Did I do my best to gain the Lord’s “Well done”?

        Did I do my best to do unto others as I would have them do unto me?

As you seek answers to those questions remember… 

What got you here won’t get you there. Things have changed and that energy has been spent. That being true, what will get you there?

The good thing about beginning these questions with “Did I do my best to…” is that it is almost impossible to blame someone else for my failure.  No one can be responsible for “Did I do my best to…” but me!

“…let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.” (Galatians 6:4)

In doing so you will have doubts. Elizabeth Elliot said, “Faith does not eliminate doubts, it just knows where to take them.”

You will encounter hellish obstacles. Sir Winston Churchill said, “If you are going through hell, keep going.” Good council. Expect problems and you won’t be caught off guard. 

At the end of the day you will leave footprints. Make sure they will be where they should have been. At the end of the day, remind yourself that you did the best you could, and that is good enough.

Say your prayers, do what you can, and you will have done your best.

At the end of the day just before you slip into unconsciousness your still small voice may ask, “Did you do your best?” May your answer be an emphatic yes. This way you can never feel negative about yourself.

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 2: 15

Belated Payment

There is a TV commercial that shows a young boy who has slipped away from his parents at a concert. When the curtain opens the child is sitting at the piano playing “Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star.” The parents are shocked when the concert artist walks up behind the child and reaching around to the keyboard  begins to improvise with the child all the time whispering, “Don’t stop. Don’t quit, keep playing.” Together they charm the audience. That artist was the internationally renowned Ignance Paderewski of Poland.                                                           The following is also a true story based on an incident that happened in 1892 at Stanford University. Its moral is still relevant.                                                               

A young, 18-year-old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan, and not knowing where to turn for money, he came up with a bright idea. A friend and he decided to host a musical concert on campus to raise money for their education. They reached out to the great pianist, Ignacy J. Paderewski. His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck. And the boys began to work to make the concert a success. 

The big day arrived. Paderewski performed at Stanford. Unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1600.

Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and explained their plight. They gave him the entire $1600, plus a check for the balance of $400. They promised to honor the check as soon as possible.

“No,” said Paderewski. “This is not acceptable.” He tore up the check, returned the $1600 and told the two boys “Here’s the $1600. Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees and just give me whatever is left.” The boys were surprised, and thanked him profusely.                          

It was a small act of kindness, but it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being. Why should he help two people he did not even know? We all come across situations like these in our lives. 

Paderewski later went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when World War I began, Poland was ravaged. There were over 1.5 million people starving in his country, and no money to feed them. Paderewski did not know where to turn for help. He reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help. The head there was a man called Herbert Hoover who later went on to become the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food grains to feed the starving Polish people. A calamity was averted. Paderewski was relieved. He decided to come to America to meet Hoover and personally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, “You shouldn’t be thanking me Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college in the US. I was one of them.”

What goes around comes around. It still does. Long ago instruction was given to ”Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

To Know God

Acts 22 – 30

“Philosophy” derived from “Philio” meaning love and “Sophia” meaning knowledge.

There were two primary groups that loved knowledge, but understood it differently. Acts 17: 18

Epicureans believed in luxury and indulgence in sensual pleasure.

Stoics, this Hellenistic school of thought, was started by the philosopher Zeno. They believed the path to happiness is found in basically denying our emotions and feelings. 

They believed God was in everything therefore anything could be worshiped.

Paul observed they were very religious.

In addressing them he observed their condition and began where they were, saying: “I perceive that in all things you are very religious.”

Initially they took this as a compliment, not knowing his view of religion. Religion is a system of works designed to gain the favor of a god. The biblical view of religion is that good works are not the way to God…

Religion can lead one away from God.

Sincerity in religion does not gain the favor of God. A person can be sincerely wrong.

He said he had been “considering the objects of your worship.”

They considered this also to be a compliment, praise for their art.

In reality he was speaking of their idolatry. 

In the Ten Commandments is this restriction:

“You shall have no Gods before Me. You shall not make for yourselves any graven images, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water that is under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them….” Exodus 20: 3 – 5a

I Corinthians 10: 14 instructs us to “flee from idolatry.”

Paul observed a statue intended to insure no god was left out. On it was the inscription: “agnostos theos,” (ag–no-stas, tha-os) meaning “the unknown god.”

Six hundred years before Paul, a terrible plague came to the city and a man named Epimenides had an idea. He let loose a flock of sheep through the town, and wherever they lay down, they sacrificed that sheep to the god that had the nearest shrine or temple. If a sheep lay down near no shrine or temple, they sacrificed the sheep “To the Unknown God.”

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, came to reveal the true God to us, and as the Lamb of God died for our sin and guilt. It is through Him God is made known.

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4: 12

How to Find Contentment

Contentment, who doesn’t want it. People go to great lengths to find it. Most such efforts inevitably seek it in material goods. Material goods are good, but alone are a distraction, often leading to the absence of contentment.

We live in a society where more is better, but more is never enough.

If your contentment is contingent upon things, it is inevitable you will suffer discontent because invariably there will be times you don’t have certain things. There are things that aid contentment which money can’t buy.  Money can buy – – –

        A bed but not sleep.

        Books but not brains.

        A house but not a home.

        Medicine but not health.

        Food but not an appetite.

        Amusement but not happiness.

        A crucifix but not a Saviour.

In her book entitled: “Living on Less and Enjoying It More,” Maxine Hancock said of contentment: “Similar to happiness, that greatly sought-after but always elusive goal of society.  However, it is deeper and more fulfilling than happiness.  It is a quiet plateau that can be reached internally even when there seems little external reason for it.”

That “quiet plateau” is reachable by means of “godliness with contentment.”

There were other ancient sayings circulating at the time of the writing of I Timothy which closely parallel this quote.

Democritus reputedly used the word “avarice” as a summary for improper love of money and said, “Expel avarice, the mother of all wickedness, who, always thirsty for more, opens wide her jaws of gold.”

“Always thirsty for more” describes our era. I repeat, we live in a day when more is better but more is never good enough. This “more syndrome” causes perpetual discontent.

Epicurus, building on the philosophy of Democritus said, “To whom little is not enough, nothing is enough.” 

When used in the New Testament “contentment” is used as a noun The Greek word is “autarkeia,” meaning self-sufficiency, carrying the secret of fulfillment in yourself, completely independent of outward things. 

Godliness and contentment are Siamese twins joined at the cerebral cortex. That is, they are inseparable. Yet, many people still seek contentment by ungodly means. That’s like trying to find a black palomino. 

If there is godliness there is contentment. In seeking to be more like Jesus one awakens to find self content. Now that you know where it is, go seek your objective: to be like Jesus. Therein is contentment.

A Heavenly Exchange

Read Isaiah 40: 28 – 31 First

Good news “those who wait on the Lord,” He “Shall renew their strength.”

This term “renew” means He shall exchange their weakness for His strength. This brings to mind the image of an exhausted athlete who brings his dirty, sweaty, stained uniform to the equipment manager and exchanges it for clean, fresh equipment. 

That is what the Lord wants to do for us. We bring Him our weakness and exchange it for strength.

We might well pray, “Lord, I will provide the weakness if you will provide the strength.”

One successful African distance runner who had shown great endurance was asked how he does it. He said, “I just tell the Lord that if He will pick up my feet, I will put them down.”

At this point we can enter into a cooperative agreement with God. Notice the sequence.

“They shall mount up with wings like eagles.”

The text that describes us as faint, weary, and fallen now flows into a triad of refreshing potential.

An eagle is illustrative. God created eagles with certain abilities. However, for the eagle to live up to its potential, it must develop and use that ability.

The eagle is a masterful aerodynamic specimen. Its bones have air cavities, making them light, but not weak, the muscular structure is ideal for prolonged extension of the wings, and its sleek sculptured feather-coated cylindrical body lacks no aerodynamic advantage. Its anatomy makes it virtually a balloon so that when it spreads its wings, its tendency is to go up, not down.     

The eagle is designed for flight in the upper atmosphere. They have been seen by pilots above 35,000 feet. They are fashioned to be at home in the upper atmosphere. As the air becomes more rarefied and defies most birds to enter it, the eagle becomes more at home. Turbulence causes thermal drafts that give the eagle greater lifting power. It loves turbulence; it works to the eagle’s advantage.

When God says we “soar like eagles,” He is saying He has designed us to soar above problems.  

Though an eagle is aerodynamically designed and has a powerful body and wing system, the bird never knows it has such ability until it spreads its wings in flight. As believers we have certain spiritual reserves, but they are never known to us or revealed to anyone until we have to spread our wings. Adversity enables us to show our ability, by God’s grace, to rise above adversity.