Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday October 10, 2011

Just because people say negative things about you does not mean that you have to listen, nor does it mean that you have to act as if they know what they are talking about. Check the record and if they are wrong, which many times they are, ignore the comments. If the remarks are correct, correct your thoughts and action.

I came across a statement purportedly made by Albert Einstein.

"Everyone is a genius. (Way to go Al) But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid."

I noted on my pad that most very good tree climbers cannot hold a candle to a mediocre swimming fish. This truth is why so many people mope through life agreeing with know nothings who have told them they are stupid. Einstein had it right as far as Christians are concerned for God says concerning believers in 1 Corinthians 12:7 "But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal."

Several verses in the above chapter as well as the passage in Romans 12 expressly assert that God has given at least one genius inducing spiritual gift to every person who confesses Christ as savior.

The problem is that we spend (waste) the days of our lives trying to be like someone else, some super-duper Christian we think we know when all we really know is the public persona put forth by the person who is usually pretending to be something he/she is not.

Commenting on her father Theodore Roosevelt and his tendency to put on the dog, Alice Roosevelt Longworth said: "My father always wanted to the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening." Do you know anyone like President Roosevelt? Are you like President Roosevelt? Today we call such people Center of Attention Addicts. There is only one known cure for this affliction. Preachers become too important to speak in smaller venues, singers will insist that they in all their glory sing only on Sunday Morning and the others, the peasant singers and musicians perform at lesser times.

All of that to say this, whether others consider you Sunday Morning material or a peasant performer is immaterial; what gift has the Lord given to you, for use in advancing His work on earth? Tragically many gifted men and women tend to forget who gives the gift and thus imply or outright let others know they are lower in the chain. The truth is often much simpler, the peasants of the performing arts may be fish attempting to climb the music tree, but they are gifted in some other area.

When we learn to spend the necessary time in prayer learning what Christ has planned for us and just what gift or gifts He has sovereignly bestowed; then and only then will we enjoy and bless others in a spiritual manner because we then are geniuses.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit

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