Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday January 31, 2008

I am accused of finding witty, insightful and faith building sayings in many places and often quoting people who are simply "unacceptable" too many of my utterly wonderfully religious clientele and they are the first to let me know that is what they are and would I please write grand truth accordingly.

My problem is that while I accept the Bible as the standard by which all truth is measured, I do recognize truth in other venues as long as it is in harmony with the Benchmark. In doing this I find vivid expressions of truth in strange places, not only in To Kill a Mockingbird, but even in a few movies starring, (I can hear the gasps) Jack Nicholson.

So, as today's offering comes from a far more acceptable source, you may put the stake and matches away, Les Paul, world renowned guitarist and nice guy wrote:

"Every set back might be the very thing that makes you carry on and fight all the harder and become much better."

Sounds vaguely like Romans 8:28 and it is true. Set backs are merely lessons along the path to achievement and the sooner we grasp this truth the sooner we will stop whining and get on with life. One of the dangers business and churches face is the practice of always looking at the grand resume. Resumes have a knack of showcasing all of the glowing positives of the person sending the resume without giving knowledgeable people the information to evaluate the applicant's ability to overcome adversity. Adversity is often called final or temporary failure depending on the choice of the person involved. A few months ago I mentioned a rash of fluffed up resumes that were discovered and wrecking havoc in a large evangelical group. One of the recipients of such a resume wrote to me concerning the article and said, "Larry, in our group we are more prone to look at the ministry results of an applicant for our pulpit than we are credentials, so the puffed up resume wasn't necessary. What turned us off was the lie."

Makes sense to me. If the Holy Spirit is working in a situation what is the need for the lie? Too often we try to help God with our feeble fabrications and a mess is the end result.

So, back to Les Paul. I seriously doubt that Les ever had to lie (no one does) about his virtuosity concerning the guitar. And I am certain he suffered setbacks along the way to international fame. It would not have mattered what some professor or college said about Les, he was measured on whether or not he could play the guitar to the level expected by the group paying or listening to him. I used to take outstanding high school baseball players to the stadium in INDY for tryouts with the Cincinnati Reds. One of the men working with players on the field asked me, "Larry, what can this kid do?" I told him, "What I say he can do doesn't matter. You give him a good look today, for today's performance is what matters to you." And it is true, a truly great performance in any field can and often does erase a ton of yesterday's less than ideal exhibitions.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

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