Encouragement

---

Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday November 3, 2005

In recent years there has been a concerted effort to help people find their great purpose in life. I think this is a good idea in that the core concept of the effort deals with purpose being in the realm of possibility and then reduces it to probability.

Many well meaning people, including Christians, live in a sort of vacuum while waiting for the magic moment and in this magic moment they will be the hero or heroine. You vividly imagine rushing into a burning building and rescuing a child, or it may be diving into icy water and while nearly drowning, bringing the struggling gasping person safely to shore, to the applause of the gathered throng, the throng who did not have your courage.

I have a scene in which I write the great American novel and with the proceeds, which are so enormous as to be called 'vulgar,' I help struggling individuals and congregations. We all live happily ever after.

Truth be known most of us will never have the above listed opportunities, nor anything resembling them. Some of us will be presented with opportunities to demonstrate valor, uncommon courage and we will always wonder that we failed and were like the gathered throng on the sidelines.

I read again this week the opinion of a great man on whom he thought was the greatest person in the world in his day. Here is the story:

'Someone once asked Albert Schweitzer to name the greatest person alive in the world at that moment. The good doctor, whom many would have named as deserving the honor, replied quietly: "The greatest person alive in the world at this moment is some unknown individual in some obscure place who, at this hour, has gone in love to be with another person in need."'

Unknown person? Obscure place? This is not the stuff of best sellers and movie rights, let alone international copyrights. Could this man who walked away from acclaim as the greatest organist of his time to work in an obscure jungle village have any idea of what he was talking about? Let me ask you, "What accomplished organist took his place?" I don’t know either.

For a number of years I was a founding member of our local Rotary Club in the village in which I lived at that time. The motto was simple: Service Above Self. The great souls of our world are the ones who made this simple motto their own.

Missionary/Martyr, Jim Elliot said it well:

“Letting God lead was far better than pressing for my own dreams.”

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2005 Use with credit

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE