Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday November 11, 2009

When I was young I heard a manager of a sales company mention a man, calling his name and saying, "He shows well." Over the course of the next few weeks I got the drift of the manager's words. The man in question looked like a salesman, talked like one and at first glance appeared to be the guy who could/would carry the branch. Tragically he had nothing inside.

By observation I learned that the phrase "He shows well" is not a compliment but rather a descriptive phrase that merely points out the truth, results are more important than appearance. Industry, the church and many families are cursed with the decision to hire or marry on the basis of a person "showing well."

Mac Anderson deals with this expensive problem with this question:

"If your company mission is to climb a tree, which would you rather do: Hire a squirrel or train a horse?"

People who hire squirrels to plow or horses to climb trees are a great blessing to psychiatrists who reap fortunes from misplaced squirrels and horses. Have you ever thought about the financial, emotional and deep spiritual pain suffered by the horse enduring the agony of training to climb trees?

I really don't care all that much about the loss of companies or organizations due to wrongheaded hiring practices, but I do care about people who for whatever reasons get into jobs, even callings for which they are not properly fitted. I include in this the field of spiritual vocations.

In the last four months I know of three fairly successful men within the ranks of my calling who have taken it upon themselves to call an end to their life. I personally knew two and I grieve for their loved ones and congregations.

Looking like a clergyperson, an actor, a truck driver does not mean that is what you're suited for. You must take the time to discover who and what you really are and then go for it with all your heart. Most literature on the subject will help you to "show well" but then that is the problem. James Conant former president of Harvard said it well:

"Each profession, each honest calling has its own elite, based on the excellence of performance."

Paul knew the truth of this which he expressed in Philippians 3:13:

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,"

We celebrate those who learned and practiced the "one thing principle."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2009 Use with credit

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